Neymar angrily defends Brazil against 'whole lot of people talking (expletive)'
Brazil was knocked out of Copa America Centenario in the most brutal way Sunday night, thanks to a controversial goal courtesy of Peru's Raul Ruidiaz that didn't just appear to go off Ruidiaz's hand, but blatantly did. Brazil needed a draw or win to advance to the knockout round of Copa, but with the 1-0 loss they're officially headed home.
The loss not only shook up the tournament but the entire soccer world as we know it, with people from all over the globe reacting to what FS1's Rob Stone called "The Hand of God II" in Sunday's post-match recap show.
A look at Raul Ruidiaz's goal that has Brazil on the brink of crashing out of #CopaAmerica. #BRAvPER #MyCopaColors https://t.co/dlcsDhiq7c
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 13, 2016
That included Brazilian star Neymar. Neymar elected to sit out Copa America in favor of this summer's Olympics, but that didn't stop him from standing by his countrymen following their loss Sunday.
Here was Neymar's reaction on Instagram, with the translation courtesy of ESPN:
Clearly the Brazilian forward is frustrated, and with good reason: Simply put, it was the wrong call.
At the same time, Fox's Ryan Rosenblatt brought up another, equally important point Sunday night: Independent of how awful this call was, Brazil did little to earn a spot in the knockout round. In addition to the lackluster performance Sunday, they should have lost to Ecuador in their Copa opener, but were handed a gift call which allowed for a draw, in what should have been a loss. Even though Sunday night's call was in fact the wrong one, it appears as though the soccer Gods evened things out in the end.
We'll see if Brazil --- with Neymar --- can bounce back when they host the Olympics in Rio later this summer.
