MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's KO becomes open question for Dilma's re-election and social unrest

TV commentators talked of the “Mineirazo,” after the Mineirao Stadium, with the sports website globoesporte.com calling the defeat the “Shame of Shames.”

Brazilians cried, cursed their president and covered their faces in shame after their beloved football team's humiliating 7-1 thrashing by Germany in the World Cup semi-finals Tuesday. President Dilma Rousseff twitted how sad she was with defeat but called on Brazilians “we won't let ourselves stay down”.

 After the fifth goal, well before half-time, hundreds of people left their expensive seats at the stadium in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte.

A section of the crowd chanted obscenities against the players and President Dilma Rousseff, who during the cup had mostly enjoyed a reprieve from protests over the record 11 billion dollars spent to host the tournament.

The tears began well before the final whistle, with the third German goal in the first half causing children and adults to start bawling in the stadium and in public screenings across the continent-sized nation.

As people streamed out, police reinforced security inside and around the stadium, but no incidents were reported.

Others around the country shouted at their televisions and abandoned public screenings as the Selecao suffered the biggest defeat of its 100-year history.

Amid the deluge of goals, a downpour only added to the already gloomy mood of thousands of fans in Brazil's canary-yellow jersey at the official “Fan Fest” on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach.

Brazilians were already concerned about the team's chances after their superstar forward Neymar broke a vertebra in the quarter-final victory over Colombia. But they never thought it would be this bad.

Brazil had hoped to exorcise the ghost of its defeat to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro, a national trauma dubbed the “Maracanazo” because it was played in the Maracana Stadium.

This time, TV commentators were talking of the “Mineirazo,” after the Mineirao Stadium, with the sports website globoesporte.com calling the defeat the “Shame of Shames.”

“The Maracanazo becomes nothing and literally a thing of the past,” the sports daily Lance said on its website.

The insults against Rousseff, who is seeking re-election in October, showed that tensions remain following massive demonstrations that rocked the country last year when Brazilians demanded better health care and education.

Some Brazilians have voiced concerns that Brazil's failure to win the World Cup could spark more protests and clashes.

President Dilma Rousseff said she was sad and sorry about Brazil's humiliating 7-1 defeat to Germany in the World Cup semi-finals. “Like every Brazilian, I am very, very sad about this defeat. I am immensely sorry for all of us. Fans and our players,” she wrote on Twitter.

“But we won't let ourselves stay down,” she said, before quoting a Brazilian song: “Brazil, get up, dust yourself off and move forward.”

During the match at the stadium in Belo Horizonte, sections of the crowd chanted obscenities against Rousseff, who did not attend the game.

Rousseff has seen her popularity drop over the past year amid protests against the record 11 billion dollars spent on the tournament, but she still has a wide lead in opinion polls ahead of October elections in which she is seeking a second four-year term.