Where to start?
It was another epic thriller and the thought does occur that the Brazilians are in danger of wearing us all out if they continue scraping at everyone’s nerves this way.
It is both enthralling and exhausting, and now they must clear their heads and prepare to do it all over again. They are, to borrow the line from Luiz Felipe Scolari, “two steps from heaven” and absolutely refuse to do it the straightforward way.
They had to survive some dreadfully fraught moments between James Rodriguez’s 80th-minute penalty and the final explosion of joy that told them they had reached the last four.
Brazil had played in the first half in the way the world wants Brazil to play. It had to find other qualities in that tense, choppy finale and its methods will not appeal to everyone, after a match that brought a tournament high of 54 fouls.
Yet, there was a lot more good than bad in a thrilling contest and, ultimately it was David Luiz’s victory run after the immense free-kick that proved to be the decisive goal. What a moment as well for Thiago Silva, scoring the opening goal after all the scrutiny surrounding his captaincy.
Bittersweet end It ended bittersweet for him, though, suspension from Tuesday’s semifinal against Germany after a silly booking in the second half.
The match was bizarre in the extreme that Fernandinho managed to evade a booking all night, and even more so that the Spanish referee Carlos Carballo did not produce a yellow card until the 64th minute.
Colombia had flown into a few tackles of its own and after one of them, in which the defender Juan Zuniga leapt knee-first into Neymar’s back with three minutes of normal time remaining, the Brazil forward was taken off on a stretcher. He has a broken vertebra and will play no further part in the tournament; Zuniga went unpunished.
So, Brazil will go to Belo Horizonte on Tuesday with its captain suspended and its best player injured. What it does have is momentum and incredible will. Luiz, the footballer Gary Neville once described as being operated by a kid’s remote control, setting off on a 60-yard run, slaloming and kicking his way past opponents, and very nearly beating every single player who had the temerity to get in his way.
Silva’s goal arrived after only seven minutes and demonstrated to Colombia that, however refined it might be, any team that defends this generously at a World Cup cannot expect to get away with it.
Neymar swung over a corner from the left and the first group of players leaping for the ball were all a few inches too short. Silva had anticipated what might happen and was making his way to the far post.
Carlos Sanchez, the nearest opponent, did not react and Silva jutted out his knee to score. Then, Hulk had two decent chances in quick succession.
Scolari would later complain that, at 2-0, his team went looking for more goals rather than slowing down the game.
“An avalanche on our team,” was his take on that period after Rodriguez’s sixth goal of the tournament following Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar’s challenge on substitute Carlos Bacca.
He was relieved, too, that an off-side flag ruled out a goal for the Colombian captain Mario Yepes in those moments just after the hour when Brazil started showing the first signs of vulnerability.
But then came Luiz again. Rodriguez had fouled Hulk and Luiz struck the free-kick like someone kicking an inflatable on a windy beach.
The ball lurched and swerved through the air and then suddenly dipped beneath the crossbar and the most expensive defender on the planet was off, sprinting to the corner flag, veins bulging, after the most important goal of his life. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2014
