HOST TEAM MOVES AHEAD
Colombia’s Pablo Armero and Brazil’s Oscar go for a header during their World Cup quarter-final on Friday at the Arena Castelao in Fortaleza, Brazil. With its 2-1 win, the host country will next face Germany in the semifinals on Tuesday — but without two of its top players.
The car horns blared, as if already cued up and no way to stop them. Those astonishingly annoying yellow and green noisemakers that pedlars hawk on the curbs of sun-splashed streets still rattled the eardrums. Bouquets of fireworks lit up the night sky. Yellow-clad Selecao addicts pounded each other on the backs at the final whistle.
Yet the cheers were muted; the celebrations compromised; the partying strangely subdued on Friday night.
Victory has a habit of arriving at terrible cost.
The sight of wonder boy Neymar carted off the pitch in Fortaleza in one of those unsafelooking orange-bucket FIFA contraptions before being whisked to a local hospital took the edge off what should’ve been a night of unbridled joy for Brazilians everywhere.
As the precocious idol of a nation lay face down on the pitch, in tears, following a heavy but innocuous-looking challenge from behind by Colombia’s Juan Zuniga, more than 60,000 people fell silent around Estadio Castelao stadium. Nearly 200 million others across this vast, complicated, beautiful country joined in the vigil, swallowed hard and held their breath in unison.
Brazil is through to the World Cup semifinals, 2-1 conquerors of primary threat Colombia. But the thought of facing the powerful German machine on Tuesday in Belo Horizonte minus both Neymar and highly influential central defender Thiago Silva — automatically suspended through an accumulation of yellow cards — is now a huge challenge.
“We lost Neymar,’’ said Brazilian boss Luiz Felipe Scolari with appropriate gravity after the match. “Based on what I’m seeing, he won’t be able to play. We knew he would be hunted so we are in a difficult situation, but we have good players who can come in.’’
Team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar told Brazilian TV that Neymar broke the third vertebra in the lumbar region of his back.
“It’s a benign fracture,’’ Lasmar said. “This news is not easy but he will not be available at this World Cup.
“The fracture does not require surgery. There will be a conservative treatment. He needs comfort to ease the pain.’’
There will be no easing Brazil’s pain.
In what should’ve been a tasty all- South American matchup, the Brazilians stormed out and seized control. This at last, you thought through those opening 20 minutes or so, was the real Brazil. The one we’d all been waiting to emerge and set this tournament alight.
Almost before the Colombians had time to draw breath, Silva had bundled in a goal off his thigh/shin/groin area in the first half and then David Luiz added to the misery in the second, launching a free kick that seemed to stop curling and float, bubblelike, high and past ’keeper David Ospina’s slow-to-react lunge.
The match itself deteriorated into an incredibly mean-spirited and scrappy charade with Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo quickly losing control. A whopping 54 fouls were actually whistled down, 31 against the home side, a slew more missed.
And the play-acting was becoming shameful. Yes, even by football standards.
“We aspired to do the same in every play — there was a lot of intensity. That interrupted the game. We lost the fluidity of the game because of this.’’
Referee Carballo missed a lot and certainly could have shown Silva a red card for knocking into Ospina as he prepared to launch the ball downfield. He certainly should’ve red-carded Brazilian ’keeper Julio Cesar for clipping down Carlos Bacca at the knees in the 80th minute as the Colombian was just about to sail past him and score.
James Rodriguez did manage to convert the ensuing penalty (at least Velasquez got that right), but the Selecao used the benefit of the non-red-card call to hold out the rest of the way.
From Rio to Recife, Cuiaba to Sao Paulo, Brazilians were ready to party hardy as only they know how Friday night.
They wanted nothing less than victory, and that they got. But the euphoria was blunted; the Carnavale atmosphere tempered.
Victory, as it often does, has come at a terrible cost.