It was raining on Tuesday morning in Salvador but that did not put a ­dampener on Brazilian spirits as they anticipated their country's semifinal clash with Germany.

The local Bahians I spoke to were all anticipating a victory for the ­Selecao with expectations of a 2-0 scoreline and Oscar getting on the scoresheet being mentioned.

Whether this was an act of trying to convince themselves or genuine ­belief it is impossible to say but prior to kick off there was an air of ­genuine ­excitement, even through all the nerves that had popped up the past few days.

I spent the morning of game day wandering around Salvador's Rio Vermelho district taking in the sights of bars readying themselves for the game, street-side vendors hawking their Neymar shirts and gawking gringos wandering around trying to soak it all in.

I was in a restaurant when the national anthem rang.

The only thing was that kick off was still hours away and this was part of the TV buildup to replay the players singing along from before the Colombia game. It would have been weird even if I wasn't in an otherwise empty eatery.

By the time I left for Pelourinho in the historic Old Town everyone was making their way home or to ­wherever else they were watching the game. Bus stops close to the Dutch-built Dique do Tororo dam were packed and traffic was heavy as everyone counted down to kick off.

"Enjoy the game," bade the manager of the pousada, or guest house, that I had moved to for the night as I left for the bar he recommended over the Old Town's big screen.

The bar was quiet in number but those there were far from quiet. Things got louder when they ­clamored for the volume to be turned up ahead of the anthem and it was duly maxed out.

There was a brief scare as the feed cut out for a second while this was happening. Little did these fans know that they would soon be praying for the screen to go black.

It took 11 minutes for Mueller to put Germany ahead. It took just 18 more for Brazil to be five goals down and turfed out of the World Cup in their own backyard.

For the fans I was watching the match with, what started as dismay at giving away such a soft early goal gave way to disbelief that it all unraveled so spectacularly.

The performance from the ­players in yellow was farcical and their TV audience treated it as such. Their ­response after the second goal was to laugh. What else could they do? 

The obvious answer, looking outside onto the square, was to stop watching.

Plenty of fans started poring past the bar's windows well before half time and they continued at a steady pace throughout the 90 minutes.

Despite the tears in the stadium broadcast around the world, the ­Brazilian fans that I saw in Salvador took their team's hammering in good spirits.

The performance was so bad that couldn't even bring themselves to be angry about the result and there was still singing into the wee small hours until the rains returned to drown out their voices.

The cold light of day will bring the spotlight onto Brazilian soccer and the kind of enquiry that their opponents launched over a decade ago.

 The fruits of the changes the ­German soccer governing body DFB  implemented to transform their ­national game were clear for all to see in the semifinal. In the case of the Germans, scoring seven was certainly better than sechs.