Brasil in that year has the biggest chance to win the world cup if they played with everything instead of dancing.....and it cost them badly. Neymar prime was simply unstopable.
Believe it or not, I felt like 2014 was really Brazil's best chance during Neymar's generation. But Colombia put a stop to Neymar before Germany made sure no one would ever fear Brazil again.
In many ways, that 7-1 massacre took not just something from Brazil, but from Germany too. It's like the Germans collectively knew there was nothing they could do in sports to top that, and they were never scary either since. Literally the Germans finished worse than Brazil in 2018, 2022, and even 2026.
Brazil's failure in 2018 and 2022 had many reasons, but the biggest one of them is Tite never being able to utilize prime Firmino well imo.
People gave Neymar shit in 2018 despite the fact he carried Brazil, while no one gave Gabriel Jesus any shit for treating the whole group stage like a vacation and scored zero goal. I was actually surprised Tite didn't drop him in the knockouts and didn't even sub him for Firmino until halfway into the second half against Belgium, and we know how it ended.
And 2022 was even worse since Tite didn't even bother taking prime Firmino and instead opted for washed up Gabriel Jesus, who hurt himself during the training in the group stage, and thus leaving Brazil with no dependable striker. We again know how it ended.
At least 2026 is genuinely a mid Brazil team that would never go that far in this tournament, but 2018 & 2022 were unfortunately the result of one big, crucial decision by Tite.