Brazil's Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari: "This Is the Worst Day of My Life"

07/09/2014 - 10h59

Luiz Felipe Scolari has taken the blame for his side's thrashing at Estádio Mineirão.

The 2002 World champion has apologized to the Brazilian people and said that this Tuesday, July 8th, was "the worst day of his life".

"If I look back on my life as a football player, manager and physical education teacher, I think this was the worst day of my life, but I will carry on", Scolari said, after the hammering by Germany in Belo Horizonte.

He came back for a second stint as manager to take Brazil's national team to its sixth world title. Now, Scolari admits that he is going to be remembered for this defeat from this day on.

"The players might want to share the blame because we share all responsibilities. But the choices, the tactical part, it is all me I take responsibility. I will be remembered for the worst defeat, but the risk was mine to take as manager. When one takes a risk, one must understand what it entails", he concluded.

For this year's World Cup the manager bet on the winning team of the Confederations Cup in 2013 and did not test any new players.

Throughout the time at the training ground in Teresópolis the manager rehearsed few changes and kept the formation with Fred, Hulk and Daniel Alves.

The Barcelona winger was spared on the match against Colombia. The remaining two were spared in the second half of the match against Germany, when the team had already been thrashed.

On the eve of the match the manager bet on an unusual strategy. He tested six different formations and put Bernard in the first team in the last minute.

"You watch the training sessions, you pass information to newspapers and the adversary can see all this. We also wanted to confuse them."

Scolari said that the team went "blank" at Mineirão and has rated the performance as catastrophic.

"We did and we tried to do what we could. We lost to a great squad that won the match in a fantastic way."

The manager does not believe his statement before the tournament began about the expectation that Brazil had to win the World Cup at home could have put pressure on his team.

"They knew this from the beginning. Our foremost duty was to play at home and win. It wasn't unnecessary pressure on them. I don't have any regrets. There is no way I could have expected more from them."

Scolari also said that even if Neymar were on, things would not have been any different. "There is no point in fantasizing that we wouldn't have taken any goals. He is a forward, not a defender."

Translated by CRISTIANE COSTA LIMA

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	David Gray/Reuters
	Brazil's coach Luiz Felipe Scolari gestures to Bernard during their World Cup semi-finals against Germany at the Mineirao stadium