Brazil vs Netherlands World Cup 2014: Luiz Felipe Scolari urges Brazil to 'move on' from shocking 7-1 defeat and restore their pride with third place

Scolari's future will come under scrutiny after Saturday's match but he refuses to resign until the third-place play-off is out of the way

Agency
Thursday 10 July 2014 08:28 BST
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Brazil's head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari leads player Oscar off the pitch after the FIFA World Cup 2014 semi final match between Brazil and Germany at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Brazil's head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari leads player Oscar off the pitch after the FIFA World Cup 2014 semi final match between Brazil and Germany at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has urged his players and his country to move on from their devastating World Cup semi-final defeat to Germany.

The recriminations of the 7-1 thrashing are still being debated but Scolari insists they have to focus on what is to come - starting with Saturday's third place play-off against Holland.

His own future is even less uncertain as it seems likely the 65-year-old coach who oversaw his country's biggest defeat since their 1920 6-0 loss to Uruguay will lose his job after the tournament.

"I know my career will be marked by this defeat but we have an obligation to move on, thinking about the next goal, which in this case is the match for third place in Brasilia," he told a press conference.

"I know it's a much smaller dream than we all wanted but we have to honour the shirt of the national team.

"The tournament was not all bad. We had a bad defeat."

On his own future Scolari added: "We (coaching staff) have a deal with the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) until the game on Saturday and after that, probably, we will have a conversation to sort some things out.

"After the World Cup we will submit a report to the board of the CBF where you will see the good and the bad that we did and then it depends on the direction.

"There is nothing going through my head right now.

"I will continue with my life, the players will also continue to be winners and we must continue - you cannot end the life of the players for it.

"History will have to record that Brazil, for the first time since 2002, reached the semi-finals."

Scolari's assistant Carlos Alberto Parreira said this was now a time to re-examine Brazilian football after admitting Germany were far more advanced in all aspects of the game.

"They have numerous training centres for athletes, for coaches too, and the result was seen here," said the former national team boss.

"German football is the perfect base and we now have a chance to rethink, revise and invest in better training of athletes.

"We need to improve and focus on training athletes from the clubs and give full attention to it, provide good structure and train good professionals."

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