This is a series re-assessing famous individual or team performances in World Cup history. Some will be legendary displays by established world-class players or performances that fell short, others will be once-in-a-lifetime cameos that have nevertheless gone down in folklore.
It’s easy to look back upon historic displays with rose-tinted spectacles or to revise our memories of particular performances based upon what came afterwards. A second look at these games can be revealing.
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Even now, eight years on, there is still something surreal about the sight of all those Germany goals – seven in total, including four in the space of the most extraordinary six minutes and 40 seconds of football – being scored against the five-time winners of the World Cup on their own turf; a country that gave us Pele, Garrincha and Zico.
The result – Brazil 1-7 Germany – tells a story, of course, but not the whole story. It doesn’t explain how David Luiz kept launching balls to Manuel Neuer, why Thomas Muller was “cheating”, where Marcelo went missing, what Toni Kroos was doing when the television cameras were showing replays of his first goal and, perhaps more than anything, whether Germany were really that good or Brazil were really that bad.
Some would answer that last question by saying that the clues were there on the team sheet. Brazil’s front three – Bernard, Fred and Hulk – were a long way from Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. As for the defence, it was Dante on his own against the Germans.
Time to revisit that 2014 semi-final…
Was David Luiz as bad as we thought?
“Confused” was the word that accompanied David Luiz’s player rating (zero out of 10, as with everyone else in the Brazil team) in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo the following morning. It was certainly confusing watching him. He was everywhere – apart from where he needed to be.
The blame for two of Germany’s goals rests at David Luiz’s door, and you would also be entitled to ask what he was doing on the seventh. In the case of the fifth, you’ll struggle to find a better example of kamikaze defending at any level.
With the ball, it was a curious performance to say the least – a bit like watching Jordan Pickford playing centre-back for Brazil, as David Luiz kicked the ball as far as he possibly could over and again.
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The attempted Hollywood pass was his default setting and if Neymar had been the target, you could have forgiven him. But Neymar was 400 miles away, nursing a broken vertebra suffered in the previous round against Colombia. Instead, it was Hulk and Fred (“shambolic” and “tragic” respectively, according to O Globo’s one-word verdicts) on the receiving end of his passes. At least that was the theory. More often than not the ball ended up with Neuer, Germany’s goalkeeper. Not so much back-to-front as back-to-keeper.
In fairness, David Luiz’s first long pass of the game – a raking diagonal from right to left (pictured below) – was beautiful and picked out Hulk.
But this next one…
…ended up in Neuer’s hands.
So did this one.
And this one.
Fellow centre-back Dante, who had the misfortune of deputising for the suspended Thiago Silva, was at it too. This pass also ended up with Neuer.
And this one.
Brazil, in a word, were direct. Even when Julio Cesar had time to control the ball and pick a pass (see below), Brazil’s goalkeeper still elected to go long.
If you grew up watching Brazil in 1970, or Zico, Socrates and Falcao in the 1980s, it would have made your eyes hurt. Brazil’s midfield didn’t exist – with or without the ball.
As for David Luiz’s errors for the goals, the first is at a corner (we’ll deal with how this set piece came about later, because it is central to Brazil’s implosion and Germany’s success) after he loses Thomas Muller.
As Kroos runs up to take the corner, you can see in the picture below that Muller is on his toes and already on the move. David Luiz, in contrast, is flat-footed and on his heels.
What happens next looks like a well-rehearsed set piece as Miroslav Klose, Germany’s No 11, darts to the near post and runs into David Luiz, blocking the Brazilian.
It emerges later that block was more by luck than design. Nevertheless, David Luiz could, and should, have been tighter to Muller initially. By the time Kroos strikes the corner, the Brazilian can’t even see Muller.
A second later and Muller (No 13) has the freedom of the penalty area as David Luiz, like a commuter dashing to make the last train home, runs through the crowd in a blind panic.
The doors have already closed. By the time David Luiz gets close to Muller, the German has volleyed past Julio Cesar.
David Luiz throws his arms in the air in frustration. Marcelo, who spent more time in his own goal than he did at left-back, scratches his head. Dante, hands outstretched on the edge of the six-yard box, looks baffled by the whole episode.
The fifth German goal, which, as ridiculous as it sounds, arrived 19 minutes later and was David Luiz’s biggest faux pas, can be filed under “head loss”.
It starts with David Luiz playing one of those long balls…
… albeit this pass ends up with German defender Mats Hummels rather than Neuer. Hummels controls the ball on his chest and channels his inner Franz Beckenbauer.
He glides past Fred as if he isn’t there (was Fred there?)
Hummels strides past Oscar too. At this point, a blur of yellow, blue and white appears in the far left of the screen. That blur is David Luiz. He has no chance of getting to the ball first but, inexplicably, has decided to step out of his centre-back position and charge at Hummels at break-neck speed, leaving Sami Khedira completely free.
Although Hummels overruns the ball slightly, he still gets there before David Luiz and prods it forward to Khedira (No 6).
Brazil, for the umpteenth time, are wide open. It is three Germans against Dante, with Marcelo and Maicon, the two full-backs, trying to recover.
Khedira and Mesut Ozil (No 8) exchange passes…
… and Khedira coolly slots in number five.
Dante is frozen. Marcelo is in the back of the net again, covering his face. Julio Cesar turns on his heel and looks like he is about to walk off into the night. As for David Luiz, he is nowhere to be seen.
Where, exactly, were you playing, Marcelo?
The match is seven minutes old and goalless. Germany have possession in the centre circle through Khedira, who is about to drive forward with the ball. Brazil’s left-back is… not playing left-back.
Gustavo is forced to slide across to cover for Marcelo, albeit not in the position of a typical left-back, and that leaves space for Muller to exploit in behind as well as creating a hole in midfield.
Khedira releases Muller and Dante is dragged across (Marcelo is not even in the picture) and…
…Germany have a man over if Muller can get the delivery right.
Less than three minutes later, Marcelo gets into a terrible tangle by trying to do a stepover at the same time as he receives possession.
Khedira pinches the ball…
…and Gustavo, who spent the evening trying to fight fires all over the pitch without ever managing to work out how to turn on the hose, ends up on the floor as Muller takes over the counter-attack.
Marcelo gets back to block the cross and holds up his hands to apologise. A reprieve, but only temporarily – Muller, as detailed above, scores from the corner that follows.
Attack seems to be the best form of defence in Marcelo’s eyes. It’s a strategy that is all the more risky because Muller, in football parlance, is “cheating” – staying high (see below) and not bothering to track back. Marcelo is playing with fire in that respect and it seems remarkable that Brazil head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari continues to allow it to happen, especially as his team keep turning over possession.
On the occasion highlighted here, Marcelo gets away with it and ends up breaking down the left, but if Hummels steps in and nicks the ball – and he is so close to doing that – Germany would be counter-attacking again.
Two minutes later and Marcelo breaks forward on the Brazil left. He tries to feed a ball in to the feet of Hulk, anticipating that the forward will play a one-two with him…
… but the first pass is loose and Jerome Boateng steps in. That kind of thing happens in football matches, of course, but look at Marcelo’s reaction on the transition.
He needlessly keeps running forward – the brakes don’t go on until long after Boateng has won the ball – throws his head back in frustration and…
… turns on his heel and walks (on the far right of the picture below).
All the while, Muller, who had retreated on this occasion and was initially goal-side of Marcelo, has escaped on the right. Kroos, in a rare error of judgment on a night when he was outstanding, overhits his pass to Muller and Brazil get away with it.
Again, you wonder why alarm bells were not going off in the home dugout as Germany continued to target Brazil’s left flank. Yet even afterwards, as the dust settled on Brazil’s joint-heaviest defeat, Scolari claimed that he was powerless tactically. “I couldn’t change anything; it was one goal after another,” he said. “There was nothing to be done.”
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Back came Germany three minutes later, again on Brazil’s left, only this time the tournament hosts were not so fortunate. Marcelo plays the ball around the corner to Hulk, whose pass fails to find Fred – there’s a theme developing here.
Muller is “cheating” again, aided by the fact that Philipp Lahm can deal with Marcelo because Hulk has come inside, and Germany are on their way to scoring a second goal.
Khedira slides a pass in to Muller (note how left-back Marcelo, in the top of the picture, is once again the most advanced Brazilian player at this point).
Muller’s cross is blocked, but from the throw-in that follows…
…he sees Kroos in space, 25 yards from goal.
Fernandinho, unrecognisable from the Manchester City version of him, tries and fails to cut out Muller’s pass.
Kroos has so much time that he can afford to miscontrol the ball before threading it through Dante’s legs.
The recipient of his pass is Muller, who would have run offside if Marcelo had stepped up. Instead, Marcelo is four to five yards behind the rest of the Brazil defence.
Muller lays the ball off for Klose…
…and although the striker’s first shot is weak, the ball drops invitingly for him to turn in the rebound.
Isn’t it time to talk about the team that scored seven?
From Germany’s perspective, four themes jump out while rewatching this game.
The first is their ruthlessness once they smelt blood during that remarkable opening half an hour. The second is how selfless Joachim Low’s players were in front of goal. The third is that Kroos and Khedira ran the game (and ran all over Fernandinho and Gustavo in the process). The fourth is that Muller was a brilliant outlet.
Germany’s third goal feels like a microcosm of the game.
It starts with David Luiz launching a ball upfield that finishes its journey in the arms of Neuer.
What follows is a superbly choreographed move, beginning with Muller receiving a long pass on his chest and dropping the ball off to Khedira.
Germany’s movement is simple but clever. Ozil darts infield from the left, prompting Fernandinho to initially track him. In the process of doing so, however, he gets dragged away from Kroos.
Gustavo (pictured below) is throwing his arms in the air, exasperated that Germany have passed the ball around Brazil so easily and have a free man – again. Marcelo is the wrong side of Muller – again. Fernandinho, who has stopped pursuing Ozil and is now looking at Kroos without any hope of putting him under pressure, is in no man’s land – again.
Lahm receives the ball from Ozil, who has continued his run and found a pocket of space in the right channel to thread a left-footed pass inside Hulk, who is defending for once, albeit not doing it very well.
Marcelo moves to block Lahm’s cross, but Germany’s captain cleverly cuts the ball back behind him (yes, boys and girls, it’s another goal scored via Brazil’s left flank).
Muller either dummies the ball or plays and misses (take your pick) and it runs through to Kroos, who is as free as a bird on the edge of the penalty area. One swing of his left boot later and Germany are in dreamland.
Kroos, to be clear, has no knowledge of a place called dreamland.
As The Athletic’s Raphael Honigstein writes in Das Reboot, the book which charts the story of how German football reinvented itself to win that 2014 World Cup, Kroos is “a player so cool that could you never guess the scoreline from his behaviour and movement on the pitch”.
The fourth goal is a case in point. While the television directors were busy showing replays of Germany’s third, Kroos was already thinking about scoring their fourth. The camera pans to him just in time.
Watching Kroos at that moment, you would never believe he has just scored or that Germany are leading 3-0 in a World Cup semi-final. His actions are as cold and clinical as his demeanour. “He’s only got one facial expression for the whole gamut of human emotions,” wrote Suddeutsche, the German broadsheet newspaper, in the wake of this victory.
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Dante’s short ball to Fernandinho (below) was the sort of pass that Brazil had avoided making up until now – and maybe this is why. Either Dante fails to tell Fernandinho that Kroos is charging up behind him – “ladrao”, which translates as “thief”, is the word they use instead of “man on” in Brazil – or he fails to scan.
Kroos is all over Fernandinho in seconds, picking his pocket. It feels almost cruel to watch, knowing what has gone before and what is still to come. At the same time, you can’t help but admire Kroos’ hunger and desire.
In the blink of an eye, it’s two against one, Kroos and Khedira against Dante – always Dante.
Two midfielders at the peak of their powers, but two footballers playing for the team rather than themselves. Kroos passes to Khedira when he could easily go it alone, and Khedira returns the favour when he could easily shoot.
Poor Dante is going one way…
…and then the other. As for Julio Cesar, he is not even facing the right way.
The ball is only going in one place: the back of the Brazil net.
Two goals in 70 seconds, three in less than three minutes. Cue tears in the stands…
…and haunted expressions on the pitch.
Soon it will be five after David Luiz goes walkabout, prompting a half-time team talk unlike any other at a World Cup semi-final.
“We promised ourselves that we would, under no circumstances, take the piss out of them,” Benedikt Howedes, Germany’s right-back, said.
That meant no showboating, rather than bringing an end to the scoring, which Andre Schurrle had no intention of doing.
The first of the substitute’s two goals came from a predictable source: Brazil’s left flank.
By running out to engage Lahm, Marcelo commits himself and leaves Khedira free on the right.
Lahm plays a one-two with Khedira…
…Marcelo is out of the game and Lahm finds himself in the penalty area without a Brazilian close to him.
Schurrle steps back a couple of yards to receive…
…and shoots past Julio Cesar.
The seventh goal is the best of the bunch.
David Luiz is out of position (assuming, of course, his given position was centre-back) following a quick throw-in and Dante is dragged over to the far side of the pitch by Muller, leaving Schurrle with a clear path to goal.
Quite brilliantly, Muller finds Schurrle with a reverse pass…
…and the finish – a rising shot inside the near post – is sublime.
The angle as acute as Brazil’s pain.
If anything is forgotten about this game, it is that it should have finished 8-0.
In the 90th minute, Ozil is put clean through but, with only Julio Cesar to beat, he drags his shot wide of the far post and spares Brazil further ignominy.
To describe Oscar’s goal moments later as a consolation would be misleading.
Almost as misleading as Scolari’s claim that “there was nothing to be done”.
(Main graphic — photos: Getty Images/design: Sam Richardson)
