The fireworks began at dawn. All around this city, loud pops and bangs rang out as men and women and children dressed in yellow set off flares and beeped car horns. It was supposed to be a magical day. The Brazilian national soccer team, playing at home, was one game away from a World Cup final.

No one could have guessed the tears would come before halftime. No one could have imagined there would be flags burning in the streets before dinner. Certainly no one could have envisioned that Brazilian fans, watching their team play in a semifinal, would ever consider leaving the stadium long before the end of the game.

It all happened. The 2014 World Cup, first plagued by questions about financing and protests and infrastructure and construction, then buoyed by scads of goals and dramatic finishes and a contagious spirit of exuberance and joy from the locals, will ultimately be remembered for this: the home team, on the precipice of glory, being throttled like an overmatched junior varsity squad that somehow stumbled into the wrong game.

The final score was Germany 7, Brazil 1. It felt like Germany 70, Brazil 1. By the end, the Germans were barely celebrating their goals, and the Brazilians, starting with their coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, could manage little more than blank stares. In the stands, the Brazilian fans — the ones who stayed around, at least — passed the time by cycling through obscene chants about each player as well as the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff.

“It was the biggest embarrassment of all World Cups,” said one fan, Marcel Guimarães, 38, who came from Brasília. “7–1 in a semifinal playing at home — not even in a video game.”

Josiane Artis, 27, who was working as a paramedic in the stadium, said: “This was terrible. An embarrassment. It was painful. Painful.”

The displeasure was hardly surprising. Sports are often a haven of hyperbole, but there was little risk of that here. Given the circumstances and the stakes, this result — a soccer massacre of the highest order — may well be remembered as the most surprising in World Cup history.

“What we saw here today was history,” said Luter Ludmer, 42, from Argentina.

At the very minimum, it will go down as Brazil’s worst loss, the margin matching a 6-0 loss to Uruguay in 1920. It was also Brazil’s first loss in a competitive game at home since 1975, a stretch of more than 14,000 days, and will surely be remembered as even more embarrassing than the 1950 defeat in the World Cup — also against Uruguay — that denied the Brazilians a championship the last time they hosted the sport’s biggest tournament.

The record will show that Brazil played this match without its top scorer, Neymar, who was injured in the quarterfinals, as well as without its top defender, the captain Thiago Silva, who was suspended. As important as both players were to Brazil, however, it is difficult to imagine either one having made much of a difference.

The Germans were merciless, playing with grace and unity and a raw power that saw them rip open the Brazilian defense as if it were a can of soup. Thomas Müller opened the scoring in the 11th minute, blasting home a corner kick from just six yards out. Miroslav Klose followed about 12 minutes later, knocking in a rebound to record his 16th career World Cup goal and become the tournament’s all-time leading scorer.

Brazil was way over rated- as in struggling past most teams to get there- but I must say I didn’t expect this devastation. Very sad to see…

After seeing them foul their way into the semi-finals, knowing they were without their biggest players because of the decision to play…

I am Brazilian. We lost. Congratulations to Germany, they played very well. But I’m proud to be Brazilian. I do not mind losing a game. What…

By then, the mood at the Estádio Mineirão had deflated, but the fans had no idea what was yet to come. In the next six minutes, Germany scored three more goals — a stretch roughly equivalent to a boxer landing three uppercuts in a row in the first round — which ended the match before a half-hour had even been played.

The second half — yes, they played the second half — was more of the same. André Schürrle scored two more goals for Germany. Brazil kicked the ball around as if in a stupor. Fans poured out of the stadium in agony. Reports soon came from São Paulo of residents burning Brazilian flags in the street.

Oscar, a Brazilian midfielder, did manage to score for the home team in the final minutes, but there was little excitement. By then, reality had set in: Brazil will leave this tournament having never played a game at the famed Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro.

When Brasil scored its honor goal, fans sang in jest. “I still believe it! Let’s turn this game around, Brasil!” shouted Milton Teixeira Jr., 35, from rural São Paulo. Then he laughed.

The final is in Rio on Sunday, but it will be Germany facing the Netherlands or Argentina, not the home team.

Brazil will play in Brasília on Saturday instead, facing the loser of the other semifinal in the third-place match. It is hard to imagine that there will be fireworks going off for that one.