Brazil in mourning after 7-1 thrashing at the hands of Germany

Even for an 84-year-old tournament drenched in history, Germany 7 Brazil 1 - you read that right - will be remembered as one of the craziest World Cup matches ever. Because of the humiliation it inflicted on a great footballing nation, as one of the most painful to watch, too.

Brazil, the once mighty Brazil, the Brazil that gave the world Pele, so many other great players and yellow-shirted delight, throwing themselves like a herd of lemmings off a cliff. Not just a team self-destructing, but an entire nation's hopes and World Cup joy turning to vinegar and flushing down the drain on live TV before millions of disbelieving eyes around the globe.

"We realised that they were cracking up and took advantage of it," said Germany coach Joachim Loew.

Even the half-time score - Brazil 0 Germany 5 - was something no sportswriter ever expects to have to record for posterity. No nation has ever done anything like this to Brazil, not once in all the decades that Brazilians have played and refined football, making it futebol and making it better.

Germany's goals rained in so thick and fast it became a struggle to keep up. The second and then, a minute later, the third goal had the effect of a stun gun on Brazil. Their players were labouring under such pressure to win their home World Cup. And when it became clear in that minute that they would fail, that pressure became like poison on their brains and legs. They became like ghosts. In the next five minutes, they let in two more.

For Germany, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. No shot could miss. Everything worked. With Brazil gone AWOL, they had the place to themselves. In the crowd, fans' tears cut streaks through their yellow and green face paint. An elderly man clutched a plastic imitation World Cup trophy as though it was a life preserver, as close as Brazil will come to the real thing this time.