It has been one year since that historic World Cup journey - seven games in the summer of 2014 that brought so much happiness. It began in Salvador with a dream, and ended in Rio with that dream becoming a reality. One year after the triumph at the Maracanã, DFB.de takes a look back at Germany’s seven games at the 2014 World Cup. It was 365 days ago when Die Mannschaft hit seven goals in Belo Horizonte.
Numbers in football? Of course there are 90 minutes, two halves of 45. Penalties from twelve yards, 18-yard boxes, six-yard boxes, three points for a win, one for a draw. All these possible numbers have direct links to football, but one that doesn’t is the number seven. Associations with this number? The magnificent seven, lucky number 7, the seven deadly sins. When rolling two six-sided dice, seven has the greatest probability of being rolled. But when it comes to football, seven is a rare occurrence.
That was of course until 8th July 2014. The number seven is now inextricably linked with Belo Horizonte, Die Mannschaft and the World Cup in Brazil. Seven is the number of knock-out punches that the Seleção took, or more positively and from the German perspective, the magnificent seven also refers to the seven goals that re-wrote history for the DFB-Team in the World Cup semi-finals.
They were 90 history-making minutes in Belo Horizonte – one game which will at the very least produced a turning point for football in Brazil. A lot was written, said and analysed after the game, but nobody was capable of grasping the marvellousness. A newspaper in Germany didn’t ask you “Why”, but it wonderfully and fittingly wrote that German football now had its own moon-landing question: Where were you when Germany beat Brazil 7-1 in the semi-finals of the World Cup? 80 million Germans can answer this question with certainty on behalf of one of their fellow countrymen: Joachim Löw. He was in Belo Horizonte, in the stadium, on, near and in front of the bench. And in seventh heaven.
The seven goals from the coach’s perspective
Corner for Germany, 11th minute. Toni Kroos heads over to take it. Joachim Löw gets out of his seat. The substitute benches are low in the ground in Belo Horizonte, so Löw had to climb three steps so that he was at eye level with his players, instead of looking at their feet. Kroos delivers the ball, Löw’s eyes are wide open, his lips pressed together, his hands in his trouser pockets. The coach takes two small steps forward while the ball is in the air. Thomas Müller loses two opposition players and takes two small steps backward. The ball flies into the net, and Löw’s left arm flies into the air accompanied by a primal scream, and maybe a hunch? Löw pumps his arm once, twice... seven times – we’ve counted. He then forms a fist and gives a thumbs up. Löw’s celebration of the opening goal ended with a ritual that would be repeated later: A sip of water from a bottle.
Miroslav Klose makes it 2-0 in the 23rd minute. It was a nice goal, an important goal and a historic goal. Klose scored his 16th goal at World Cup finals and became the all-time record goalscorer at World Cups. He is also the footballer whose coach didn’t see the goal. In the build-up to the goal, Löw was deep in conversation with his assistant Hansi Flick. Löw was talking and talking before he paused. He was already in the technical area, ready to celebrate, when Kroos made the pass to Müller. Müller lays the ball off to Klose. Klose shoots… and Löw turns away when Julio Cesar saves. So Löw didn’t see that the ball came back to Klose and the striker was more successful at the second time of asking. Flick is more attentive and remains focused on the action, so he sees the ball go into the goal. Flick runs into his boss in celebration – the collision is neither heavy nor painful. Löw now understands what’s happened: It's 2-0. This time his joy is more restrained, maybe because he didn’t see the goal. His actions are withdrawn; he does a low five with team doctor Tim Meyer, then high fives with Roman Weidenfeller and Lukas Podolski. Finally he returns to his seat and takes a sip of water.
Löw managed to see the third goal with his own eyes, only two minutes later. Philipp Lahm plays the ball inside and finds Müller free in the middle. Löw stands up – Müller again? No, Müller is free but misses the ball. The corner of Löw’s mouth twitches, but this time he remains facing the action. And so he sees the ball roll across into the path of Kroos who hammers it towards goal with his left foot. Cesar gets something on the ball, but not enough to stop the shot. The scenes on the German bench repeat themselves from moments earlier: The coach celebrates, this time with both arms, another round of high fives with Weidenfeller and Podolski, and the sip of water.
Löw was no longer celebrating when it became 4-0. When Toni Kroos stole the ball in midfield in the 26th minute and played a one-two with Sami Khedira, Löw wandered into his technical area again. There were fireworks of endorphins around him as the coach was surrounded by players from the best bench in the world and they formed a celebratory huddle with the players on the pitch. Löw is not less happy than the others, he just isn’t showing it. He even forgot to take a sip of water this time, but he didn’t forget about his job. He shouts out, “Bastian,” and Schweinsteiger comes over for a talk with his coach on the touchline. Löw gave some words of advice to his emotional leader on the pitch. His gestures explain what he said: Stay calm, don’t overdo it and don’t get sloppy. Löw then went back to his seat, where Flick had counted correctly as he patted Löw four times on the shoulders.
It has been one year since that historic World Cup journey - seven games in the summer of 2014 that brought so much happiness. It began in Salvador with a dream, and ended in Rio with that dream becoming a reality. One year after the triumph at the Maracanã, DFB.de takes a look back at Germany’s seven games at the 2014 World Cup. It was 365 days ago when Die Mannschaft hit seven goals in Belo Horizonte.
Numbers in football? Of course there are 90 minutes, two halves of 45. Penalties from twelve yards, 18-yard boxes, six-yard boxes, three points for a win, one for a draw. All these possible numbers have direct links to football, but one that doesn’t is the number seven. Associations with this number? The magnificent seven, lucky number 7, the seven deadly sins. When rolling two six-sided dice, seven has the greatest probability of being rolled. But when it comes to football, seven is a rare occurrence.
That was of course until 8th July 2014. The number seven is now inextricably linked with Belo Horizonte, Die Mannschaft and the World Cup in Brazil. Seven is the number of knock-out punches that the Seleção took, or more positively and from the German perspective, the magnificent seven also refers to the seven goals that re-wrote history for the DFB-Team in the World Cup semi-finals.
They were 90 history-making minutes in Belo Horizonte – one game which will at the very least produced a turning point for football in Brazil. A lot was written, said and analysed after the game, but nobody was capable of grasping the marvellousness. A newspaper in Germany didn’t ask you “Why”, but it wonderfully and fittingly wrote that German football now had its own moon-landing question: Where were you when Germany beat Brazil 7-1 in the semi-finals of the World Cup? 80 million Germans can answer this question with certainty on behalf of one of their fellow countrymen: Joachim Löw. He was in Belo Horizonte, in the stadium, on, near and in front of the bench. And in seventh heaven.
The seven goals from the coach’s perspective
Corner for Germany, 11th minute. Toni Kroos heads over to take it. Joachim Löw gets out of his seat. The substitute benches are low in the ground in Belo Horizonte, so Löw had to climb three steps so that he was at eye level with his players, instead of looking at their feet. Kroos delivers the ball, Löw’s eyes are wide open, his lips pressed together, his hands in his trouser pockets. The coach takes two small steps forward while the ball is in the air. Thomas Müller loses two opposition players and takes two small steps backward. The ball flies into the net, and Löw’s left arm flies into the air accompanied by a primal scream, and maybe a hunch? Löw pumps his arm once, twice... seven times – we’ve counted. He then forms a fist and gives a thumbs up. Löw’s celebration of the opening goal ended with a ritual that would be repeated later: A sip of water from a bottle.
Miroslav Klose makes it 2-0 in the 23rd minute. It was a nice goal, an important goal and a historic goal. Klose scored his 16th goal at World Cup finals and became the all-time record goalscorer at World Cups. He is also the footballer whose coach didn’t see the goal. In the build-up to the goal, Löw was deep in conversation with his assistant Hansi Flick. Löw was talking and talking before he paused. He was already in the technical area, ready to celebrate, when Kroos made the pass to Müller. Müller lays the ball off to Klose. Klose shoots… and Löw turns away when Julio Cesar saves. So Löw didn’t see that the ball came back to Klose and the striker was more successful at the second time of asking. Flick is more attentive and remains focused on the action, so he sees the ball go into the goal. Flick runs into his boss in celebration – the collision is neither heavy nor painful. Löw now understands what’s happened: It's 2-0. This time his joy is more restrained, maybe because he didn’t see the goal. His actions are withdrawn; he does a low five with team doctor Tim Meyer, then high fives with Roman Weidenfeller and Lukas Podolski. Finally he returns to his seat and takes a sip of water.
Löw managed to see the third goal with his own eyes, only two minutes later. Philipp Lahm plays the ball inside and finds Müller free in the middle. Löw stands up – Müller again? No, Müller is free but misses the ball. The corner of Löw’s mouth twitches, but this time he remains facing the action. And so he sees the ball roll across into the path of Kroos who hammers it towards goal with his left foot. Cesar gets something on the ball, but not enough to stop the shot. The scenes on the German bench repeat themselves from moments earlier: The coach celebrates, this time with both arms, another round of high fives with Weidenfeller and Podolski, and the sip of water.
Löw was no longer celebrating when it became 4-0. When Toni Kroos stole the ball in midfield in the 26th minute and played a one-two with Sami Khedira, Löw wandered into his technical area again. There were fireworks of endorphins around him as the coach was surrounded by players from the best bench in the world and they formed a celebratory huddle with the players on the pitch. Löw is not less happy than the others, he just isn’t showing it. He even forgot to take a sip of water this time, but he didn’t forget about his job. He shouts out, “Bastian,” and Schweinsteiger comes over for a talk with his coach on the touchline. Löw gave some words of advice to his emotional leader on the pitch. His gestures explain what he said: Stay calm, don’t overdo it and don’t get sloppy. Löw then went back to his seat, where Flick had counted correctly as he patted Löw four times on the shoulders.
29th minute, another one-two, but different protagonists. This time Özil feeds Khedira, but the result is the same: A goal for Germany and 5-0. Welcome to deliriousness. And on the bench? Löw shows a new variant of his celebration, this time with both arms shaking in the air. This was followed by repeating his fist gesture with his left hand. Löw is now back in the groove and remembers his sip of water to complete the ritual. He takes his place on the bench again, ready for the next celebration.
Half time
It’s the second half and Brazil are again running around desperately, making chances but failing to test Manuel Neuer, the best goalkeeper in the world. It wasn’t until the 69th minute that the spotlight went back on Löw. Philipp Lahm feeds the ball to substitute André Schürrle to make it half a dozen: 6-0. For the first time, a grin flashed across the face of the Germany coach. Löw once again made the three steps onto the pitch, a half turn and then a drawn-out “Yessssss”, before the high five with Flick. Löw now appeared a little absent, hardly resisting the embrace from Andi Köpke. Much about him says that he is struggling to process what his eyes were seeing.
The 79th minute, the stadium has long since risen and the Brazilians have long since started cheering the beautiful play of the Germans. The Seleção are in pieces, Die Mannschaft are celebrating. The ball comes to Schürrle via Müller, it's hard to control but Schürrle runs full speed into the penalty area and shoots from an acute angle. The ball goes over the head of Cesar and into the far corner of the goal. The coach’s reaction? Löw doesn’t get up this time, but he can’t stop smiling. In fact, the coach laughs, relaxed, freed, but still disbelieving. Eventually he stands up and whispers something in his goalkeeping coach’s ear. Köpke points him in the direction of the scoreboard. There it was - it was real: Germany 7-0 Brazil.
Die Mannschaft had seen heaven in Belo Horizonte. Rarely had superlatives been so justified. Even the most well-spoken of people struggled to find the words. DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach was overwhelmed after the game against Brazil. For his customary announcement on the flight back from Belo Horizonte to Campo Bahia, he admitted that he had no words to represent what had happened. “The German language has many words, but none are sufficient to describe that. I can, however, simply say on behalf of the DFB and the delegation, a massive THANK YOU,” said Niersbach.
But the DFB president didn’t finish there; he garnished the thanks with an historic statement. “The game is now four hours behind us. I’d like to say to everyone involved: Close your eyes, let it sink in – and then you will slowly comprehend what happened today. It’s an historic result, that’s no exaggeration. You will be able to tell your kids and grandkids in years to come that you were there in Belo Horizonte on 8th July 2014: 7-1 against Brazil. Decades into the future, people will still ask: How was it possible?” Niersbach didn’t have the answer to the question, and he told the team: “You can all be so proud that you put in such an amazing performance. You beat Brazil in Brazil, something no other German team has ever done. You did it against an entire country, against 70,000 Brazilians in the stadium. The entire world will be reporting tomorrow and the day after tomorrow on this inconceivable 7-1 win.”
And so the entire world reported. In France, Le Monde wrote: “Suddenly, just before the end, the remaining Brazilian fans began to applaud. It was a surreal scene in a game that will stay in the memory for a long time.” Marca of Spain said: “German ecstasy. Five goals in 18 minutes. What happened between the 11th and 28th minute will go down in World Cup history.” NRC Handelsblad from the Netherlands wrote: “Punishment in Belo Horizonte. Brazil 1-7 Germany. It really happened. In years to come, two Brazilians will ask each other: Where were you when our football went to pieces? Brazil blubbers, Germany into the final after a 7-1 win, this isn’t a joke.”
This game will be remembered forever, also by the coach. When Joachim Löw gets asked about his best memories of the World Cup in Brazil, he still speaks of the journey back from the semi-final. How the Brazilians stood on the beach that night and cheered the Germans, how he recognised the respect in their eyes, how the adulation for the opposition's performance was greater than the disappointment towards the Seleção. And that’s how it was in the stadium. Four goals in six minutes, an historic 7-1 win at the end, a yellow wall that rose, as fans of football, not to support their own team, but to celebrate a work of art by the guests. Löw will never forget those images, like he will never forget the journey back from Porto Seguro to Campo Bahia. “A highpoint in my career came after the Brazil game,” says Löw about those moments. “There were thousands of Brazilians lining the streets and they applauded our team. That was spellbinding.” Germany broke the hearts of Brazilians, but yet they won their hearts as well.
