The fear finally comes true. Brazil lost their prodigal son Neymar de Silva Santos Junior for the rest of the World Cup. Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo might have thought Neymar was over-reacting to a foul committed against him and decided to play on to Brazil's advantage. After being pinned down by a full-forced right-knee from Juan Camilo Zuniga on his back, Neymar was still grimacing in pain, forcing the nonchalant ref to stop the game and have a look at the fallen Brazil nucleus. He waved to the medical staff to rush onto the ground. But unfortunately, Neymar did not get up on his feet, and was stretchered off to a Sao Paulo hospital from where it was confirmed that Neymar will be out of the tournament with a broken vertebrae. It's the biggest price Brazil had to pay in their 2-1 quarterfinal win against Colombia. Nay, it's perhaps the biggest price any team has paid for a win so far in this World Cup. But the question is was that injury inevitable? It was inevitable in the context of the game where both teams committed so may fouls while the Spanish referee chose to keep cards close to his chest until the fall of one of two brightest stars of the tournament. During the match, Brazil committed 31 fouls against Colombia's 23. The figure speaks of how obdurate the referee was to show cards and eventually invited a disaster that certainly has rocked the global audience, which will be deprived of the magic of an individual so important to the beautiful game in general. After the game, Zuniga, who had committed that dreadful foul on Neymar, said that his act was unintentional. But with two minutes to go in a tough-tackling game, was that torpedo-like high-knee tackle absolutely necessary when he could have easily pulled Neymar down with so many options in hand. Actually the tackle was the final act of a devil that the Spanish referee allowed to creep into the tackle-happy players' mind. With Neymar out, the question is who is next? It might easily be Leonal Messi. And this World Cup can ill afford the fall of another star in such a fashion.
For Brazil, the win cost more than Neymar. They will be also without their inspirational captain and centre-back Thiago Silva in the semifinal clash against Germany on Tuesday. Silva picked up a yellow card, his second, from doing something that he could have easily avoided.
Over the years Brazil have been termed as one of the beneficiaries of refereeing decisions. This time, though, at least their critics will try to find other advantages (if there is any) of the five-time champions now nursing their biggest wound.
The colossal injury apart, the Brazil-Colombia game produced many positive things for the hosts, who for the first time played like a unit. Silva took the leaf out of Germany defender Matts Hummel's winning header against France to give the Selecao an early lead with a scrambled finish off a Neymar corner. But Brazil's insurance to the semifinal was a beauty from David Luiz. With a misfiring Neymar deliberately deciding to stay away from taking a free-kick from about 30 yards, on strode Luiz. And the impact was devastating -- the ball flew over the Colombia wall and took enough bend to elude the outstretched hands of David Ospina and crashed into the upper right-hand corner. Colombia's 22-year-old prodigy James Rodriguez was understandably heavily marked. Still, he struck his sixth goal, a strong case for winning the golden boot, before bowing out of the ultimate stage with his head held high.
The immediate concern for Brazil is who will replace Neymar and Silva against Germany. At the moment, Dante is the preferred choice in place of Silva while it could be anybody in place of the irrepressible Naymar. Brazil had never been in such a dire situation before. But it also provides the ideal stage for others to play for Neymar against Germany and beyond.