GERMANY PRODUCED ONE of the greatest World Cup semi-final displays in the history of the long-running tournament and earned 60 seconds’ worth of praise from the RTÉ panel.
Jogi Löw’s side flaked Brazil 7-1 to reach the World Cup final. They scored five goals in the space of 18 jaw-dropping minutes in the first-half and never let up thereafter. The RTÉ pundits of Johnny Giles, Liam Brady and Eamon Dunphy credited Germany for their victory. Giles praised them for having the courage to take Brazil on and ‘expose their weaknesses’.
Talk quickly turned, however, to the vanquished hosts and tournament favourites. Having labelled Brazil ‘hopeless’ at half-time, Dunphy was positively fuming after 90 minutes. Addressing Brazil’s failings and negative tactics, he declared to presenter Bill O’Herlihy:
A great nation dead and buried, and they ain’t coming back Bill.”
With captain Thiago Silva suspended for the semi-final, Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari handed the arm-band to a clearly emotional David Luiz. The €62m PSG signing was at fault for three of the seven goals Brazil conceded.
Dunphy declared, “We have a headbanger, David Luiz, who is being talked up as the player of the tournament… Of all the players in a yellow jersey, he was the most culpable.”
Dunphy stated his belief that the host nation’s failures reflect a general malaise in world football, where skillful players are being rail-roaded into systems and rigid formations. England, he lamented, would never again produce a player like Stanley Matthews and Wales would never sees the likes of inside forward Ivor Allchurch again.
