Brazilian Players and Fans Evoke Neymar, but German Avalanche Silences the Fuss

07/09/2014 - 12h41

Neymar was omnipresent at Estádio Mineirão, even though he was not on the pitch: the image of his faced stamped on facemasks, in the crowd's chant and on the number 10 shirt in the players' hands.

On the stalls, hundreds of fans carried facemasks of Neymar around their necks, that had been distributed before the match by a publicity agency.

Other fans held up signs with words of support for the Barcelona player. One of them even said: Even after a slide tackle Neymar can score a goal.

Dedications kept on coming with the Brazilian squad. Players and the coaching staff all got off the bus wearing the same cap with the hashtag #ForçaNeymar (Get well soon, Neymar). The player is currently recovering from an injury to his third vertebra, sustained in the match against Colombia, for the quarter finals.

He was fouled by the Colombian winger Zúñiga at the end of the match.

During the Brazilian national anthem, the captain David Luiz and goalkeeper Júlio César held the number 10 shirt. Beforehand, in the official photo, the left-back Marcelo did the same gesture.

In the first few minutes when the scoring was still 0-0 the crowd chanted Neymar's name alongside Bernard's, the former Atlético-MG player, with the intent of filling the gap left on the pitch by the number 10's absence.

A FOOTBALL LESSON

As the German goals piled on, Neymar featured mainly in the question: would the result at this semifinal would have been different with him?

We learned a lesson today, the customs broker Mauricio Leite, 25, said, while wearing Neymar's facemask on top of his head.

With or without Neymar the result would have been the same, just like the match between Santos and Barcelona [for the final of the World Club Championship in 2011, won by the Catalan team by 4-0]. In the last two games Neymar didn't play well and Brazil got here in a vulnerable way, he concluded.

Nikhil Lalla, 23, a businessman from India said, while wearing Neymar's number 10 shirt, that with Neymar and Thiago Silva on, Brazil would have lost with more dignity. It would have been 1-0, he speculated.

The Paris Saint-Germain defender and captain of Brazil's national team stayed out of the Tuesday match due to a yellow card he was awarded in the match against Colombia.

The Brazilian Football Confederation tried to cancel the yellow card but this request was not accepted by Fifa without advanced planning.

Another fan who attended the stadium wearing Neymar's number 10 shirt was the Ecuadorian architect Luis Valero, 58, who said that even if the star had been on his presence would have been irrelevant.

Germany made history because it has a plan. Brazil did not have one. One fan that was happy with the result was the Colombian engineer Julian Franco, 30.
Like the majority of his fellow countrymen, he watched the match wearing Germany's shirt, which he put away safely after the match.

With Neymar and Thiago Silva on they might not have lost by so many goals, he speculated. Germany scored goals like they were in a training session.

On social networking websites, many fans made jokes about the team's performance without the striker. If Neymar doesn't play, we don't play, was one of the comments.

Translated by CRISTIANE COSTA LIMA

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