Despite a stressful buildup, Brazil put on an $11 billion show to remember though the initial signs in Brazil were not promising
Football fans were treated to a month long diet of mainly breathless, intoxicating action but their team collapsed in the final stages
This year's World Cup was supposed to mark the moment Brazilian football emerged from the shadow of the 1950 Maracanazo and stamped its authority on the sport by winning a sixth world title on home soil.
Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari told his team they had an ‘obligation’ to win the tournament and any player who could not handle the pressure should go and work in a bank or ‘sit in an office and do nothing’.
Scolari, however, failed to prepare his players psychologically for the challenge and the result was that he oversaw the most astonishing collapse the sport has ever witnessed in a the final stages of a major competition.
Brazil resembled a team playing a kick about in the park as their defence imploded and conceded four goals in six minutes during the first half of their World Cup semi-final against Germany, leaving them 5-0 behind after half an hour.
It was arguably the most ridiculous display by any team at the tournament since Zaire were thrashed 9-0 by Yugoslavia in a 1974 group match.
Germany went on to beat Brazil 7-1 but it would have been more if their players, who appeared almost embarrassed to celebrate their goals, had not taken their foot off the pedal.
The picture of a young boy crying copiously as the goals rained in summed up an extraordinary afternoon at the Mineirao and will remain etched in the memory for years to come.
Critics agreed that no team had ever had to live with similar levels of pressure and expectation since another Brazil side, also playing at home, tried to win the World Cup 64 years ago.
On that occasion, a vastly superior Brazil needed only a draw against Uruguay in the tournament's decisive match to win the tournament for the first time.
An estimated 200,000 crowd packed into the new Maracana stadium, built as a symbol of ‘the land of the future’, only to see Brazil lose 2-1 to their tiny neighbours, a result that left an indelible mark on the national psyche.
"Brazilians suffered an inferiority complex and when we lost that match against Uruguay, it reinforced that," said Brazil's deputy sports minister Luis Fernandes before the World Cup.
"We were the stray dogs and the others were the pedigrees," he said, referring to the term famously used by writer Nelson Rodrigues.
Brazil won five world titles after that but the Maracanazo was ingrained into Brazilian football folklore and no sooner had the country been awarded the tournament hosting rights in 2007, that talk began of a chance to exorcise the ghosts of 1950.
Scolari, who led Brazil to their fifth world title in 2002, was considered the ideal coach for the task, yet Big Phil seemed to have lost his magic touch.
His discourse, based on creating a family atmosphere in the squad and rousing national fervour, was as outdated as his tactics, which made liberal use of tactical fouling and used an old-fashioned "number nine" at centre forward.
Over-reliant on Neymar, Brazil bullied their way to the semi-finals but, with the inspirational forward injured and key defender Thiago Silva suspended, it all fell apart against the Germans.
Scolari's idea of preparation seemed to be getting the players to sing as loudly as possible but they needed more than patriotic spirit and ‘malandragem’ -- a local term for cunning mixed with naughtiness -- against the sophisticated Germans.
“We weren’t prepared for things going wrong, and that was down to the pressure,” central defender Dante said.
“Our preparations were focused on us becoming the champions but not on how to handle things if they went wrong.
"There are times when having a ‘We have to win’ mentality can work in your favour, but in a psychological sense you need to have more vision than that.”
