No, it's not the fault of the players. Who picked them in the first place? Scolari!
As mucha as americans don't admit it, there's a lot of strategy and planning in football (ermm.. soccer). And Brazil is stuck in the 50s, with the "brute force, brute talent" mentality. No, it takes A LOT more than individual skill these days to win a World Cup, specially one where *Costa Rica* is going as far as they went.
Germany is more than an adversary, they should be an example. But, knowing how brazilians think, they'll put the blame on an individual (or two), and keep doing things the usual way. They'll find the next "saviour" (coach, highly skilled player, etc.), until we find ourselves lucky again and win another WC again (like we did in 2002).
Now, go Holland!
alexandre
Alexandre
I tend to agree with you. After the loss to France I thought that Brazil would have a hard look and change their strategy. The seemingly infinte pool of superlative talents had them (and us the fans) forget about that. Most of the past Brazilian team who won the Cup were immensely talented. The cohesion the German (or the Ditch) display has never been seen in any Brazilian team since the 70's when one pauses and thinks of it. When one looks at Scolari his philosophy is never clearly expressed or explained ... He seems to get by criticism by winning with teams so rich in talent they didn't even need a coach. he has parlayed himself to remain there .. the soccer equivalent of Jason Kidd if you will , although he won, something that can't be said about Jason as a coach ... Yesterday Brazil was exposed. The mind numbing talent of Neymar who occupies the thought of every player from the opposite team and the defensive genius of Tiago weren't present to blunt the sharpness of the German team. They got humiliated without these guys they would have merelylost with them. I fear for Argentina as they don't have a team either, although they still have Messi and an apparently healthy Messi at that. Interesting game later. I like the german team and I can see a Holland - Germany and would like the Orange crush to drink some orange juice from the cup