Die Traits » it wouldnt stand down over its position because of adv

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil -- With Neymar out injured, just about everyone in Brazil knew it would be tough against Germany. Nobody ever expected this. The Germans tore apart Brazils porous defence time and time again Tuesday, routing the hosts 7-1 in the World Cup semifinals, the largest margin of defeat at this stage in the history of the tournament. "We wanted to make the people happy ... unfortunately we couldnt," said Brazil defender David Luiz, who had scored in each of the last two matches. "We apologize to all Brazilians." The astounding scoreline is sure to overshadow Miroslav Kloses record-setting 16th career World Cup goal. The strike pushed Klose past Brazil great Ronaldo, who was at the Mineirao Stadium on Tuesday as the Germans advanced to their eighth World Cup final. Germany will face either Argentina or the Netherlands on Sunday at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro with a chance to win for the fourth time. Brazil was playing without Neymar, the teams key player and the poster boy for the World Cup. He scored four goals in the group stage, but Brazils attack seemed to get weaker and weaker as the tournament progressed. The Barcelona striker was ruled out of the tournament with a broken vertebra after getting kneed in the back in the quarterfinal win over Colombia, weakening the sputtering attack even more. With Neymar sidelined and captain Thiago Silva suspended, the collective hopes of a nation remained high even if expectations were lowered. The atmosphere at the start of the match was spine-tingling, but the euphoria of the yellow-shirted thousands soon turned to tears as the Germans scored five goals in the first 30 minutes -- four of them in a seven-minute span. "It was very important to stay calm, cool and courageous in facing Brazilian passion," Germany coach Joachim Loew said. The loss matched Brazils most-lopsided defeat ever, and its the first time the team has lost in an official competitive match on home soil since 1975, when Peru won 3-1 at the very same stadium in the Copa America. Its last loss at home came in a friendly with Paraguay in 2002. Previously, Brazils biggest World Cup loss was 3-0 to France in the 1998 final. In the 1920 the South American championship, the predecessor of the Copa America, Brazil lost 6-0 to Uruguay. "The responsibility for this catastrophic result is mine," Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said. "I was in charge." It was Germanys biggest World Cup win since routing Saudi Arabia 8-0 in a group match in 2002. On Tuesday, with Bernard playing as the third striker in the place of Neymar, Brazil attacked from the start. But they failed to get any solid chances, and it wasnt long before the Germans opened up the defence and started the rout. Toni Kroos and Andre Schuerrle scored two goals each, while Thomas Mueller and Sami Khedira added the others. Oscar pulled a late goal back for Brazil. "Brazil was shocked after the goals, they did not expect that. They did not know what to do," Loew said. "Their defence was not organized. A little humbleness would not hurt now." Klose scored his record goal in the 23rd minute to make it 2-0. The German had his original shot saved, but he followed up as Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar spilled the ball, easily scoring from the rebound. Kroos scored his first goal in the 25th minute, knocking in a cross from Philipp Lahm that bypassed Mueller in the middle. He made it 4-0 a minute later, beating Cesar after a defensive mistake from Fernandinho left the ball on the feet of Khedira. Mueller scored the first goal, one-timing a corner from Kroos past Cesar in the 11th minute. Khedira made it 5-0 in the 29th, taking a pass from Mesut Ozil and again beating Cesar. "Today 10 minutes went wrong in the game and Germany did really well," Scolari said. "Its a chaotic and terrible defeat ... but we have to learn from it." Schuerrle, who came on for Klose in the 58th minute, scored from a cross by Lahm in the 69th, and then knocked a shot off the underside of the crossbar and into the net in the 79th. Its the first time Brazil had allowed five goals in a World Cup match since the 1938 tournament in France, when the team beat Poland 6-5 in extra time. In previous World Cup semifinal matches, the largest margin of defeat was five goals, occurring on three occasions. "The German quality is very, very high," Scolari said. "This is not normal." ------ Lineups: Brazil: Julio Cesar; Maicon, Dante, David Luiz, Marcelo; Luiz Gustavo, Fernandinho (Paulinho, 46), Oscar; Bernard, Fred (Willian, 69), Hulk (Ramires, 46). Germany: Manuel Neuer; Philipp Lahm, Mats Hummels (Per Mertesacker, 46), Jerome Boateng, Benedikt Hoewedes; Sami Khedira (Julian Draxler, 76), Bastian Schweinsteiger, Toni Kroos, Mesut Ozil, Thomas Mueller; Miroslav Klose (Andre Schuerrle, 58). Jonathon Simmons Jersey . Wade is posting a short film on his website next week, with a sneak preview scheduled to come out Wednesday. Jason Williams Jersey . The Missouri Tigers Defensive End and SEC Defensive player of the year is eligible for the upcoming NFL draft in May. http://www.magicauthentic.com/kids-arron-afflalo-magic-jersey/ . Jamies number grades given are out of five, with five being the best mark. Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles Kings (3) - Early goal against was on the power play. Evan Fournier Jersey . The struggling New Orleans Pelicans were simply overmatched. Crawford hit seven 3s on his way to 24 points, and the Clippers beat the Pelicans 123-110 on Monday night. "We understand what we do well. 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Aaron Gordon Jersey .C. - Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says Danny Granger, Chris Andersen and Udonis Haslem are still not ready to play and will miss Wednesday nights game against the Charlotte Hornets.Morocco was thrown out of the 2015 African Cup of Nations and dumped as the host Tuesday after refusing to commit to the scheduled dates early next year because of fears over Ebola.The tournament in January and February will now have a new host country only two months before kickoff, the Confederation of African Football said after an emergency meeting at its Cairo headquarters.CAF didnt announce the replacement host, but said it had received some applications.These applications are currently under review, and the executive committee will finalize the selection of the successful national association shortly, the African football body said in a statement.It didnt name any of the candidates.South Africa, Egypt, Sudan and Ghana have all already indicated they are unwilling to replace Morocco, partly because of Ebola. Nigeria, Angola and Gabon have also been mentioned as possible stand-in hosts.The decisions by CAF were taken at a meeting that was forced by Moroccos refusal to hold the tournament on the planned dates of Jan. 17-Feb. 8 because of the threat of the spread of Ebola. The disease has killed about 5,000 people in West Africa, and Morocco wanted the 16-team soccer event postponed until 2016 because of fears the deadly virus would arrive with supporters and other travellers.CAF repeatedly refused Moroccos request to postpone the African Cup, the bodys main money-earning tournament, and gave the country until Saturday to commit to the planned dates. Morocco declined again.The Royal Moroccan Football Federation reiterated its refusal to hold the competition on the dates indicated, CAF said Tuesday. Therefore having firmly and unanimously notified ... its decision to keep the competition on the dates indicated, the executive committee confirmed that the Africa Cup of Nations 2015 will not take place in Morocco.CAFs executive committee also decided that the national team of Morocco is automatically disqualified because of its refusal to host. CAF will decide on further punishments for Morocco for breaching its contract as host, it said.CAF must now decide on a new host nation, one which will have little time to prepare. The decision on the new host would be made shorrtly, CAF said, but it didnt give a solid timeframe.ddddddddddddIt also will have to re-schedule the final draw for the tournament, and the ongoing qualifying competition might be affected if a country currently playing in the qualifiers is given an automatic place in the final tournament as the new host.After Morocco indicated last month that it wanted a postponement, CAF approached seven countries to act as possible short-notice hosts, according to South Africa, one of the nations on the list.No country has publicly said yet that it wants to host the tournament in Moroccos place.Although Guinea is the only one of the three West African countries worst-affected by Ebola to still have a good chance of qualifying for the final tournament, there was nothing stopping fans from the other Ebola countries from travelling, Moroccan authorities said. They warned of the dangers of supporters from football-mad West Africa mixing with large groups of other fans at stadiums.Morocco said it wouldnt stand down over its position because of advice from its health authorities, which took precedence over sports.Moroccan authorities were criticized by some sections of their own media over their decision, which could result in a ban from future editions of the African Cup.While harping on the risk of Ebola, Moroccos position is strongly contradicted by Royal Air Marocs 15 flights a week to countries affected by Ebola, an editorial in the French-language Moroccan daily Les Echos said. There are not less than 1,500 people transported from these countries to Morocco every week, without a single case detected.The paper predicted severe penalties and a negative political impact for Morocco.Morocco is also scheduled to host FIFAs Club World Cup next month, featuring Champions League winner Real Madrid. The country said it was willing to continue with its hosting duties for that tournament because it didnt expect many supporters to travel to it from Ebola-affected regions.The two African teams playing in the Club World Cup are from Morocco and Algeria.___Associated Press writer Paul Schemm contributed to this report.___Gerald Imray is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP ' ' '