Brazil's Lula: 'I've never been so angry'

Think they don't take soccer seriously in Brazil?

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was apparently beside himself with anger after Brazil's 3-0 thrashing at the hands of arch-rival Argentina in Beijing.

Witnesses told O Globo that Lula, in a closed-door meeting, labeled  the Olympic defeat a "humiliation,'' and was fuming.

"I've never been so angry in all my life,'' Lula, a devoted soccer fan, reportedly said. "I saw a team that didn't show any will to win. … It's shameful to lose this way to Argentina.''

The front page of O Globo's sports section was designed as a funeral notice, announcing the  "passing'' of the national soccer squad, (five-time World Cup champion),  saying, "Please do not send flowers.''

— Marcelo Soares in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Patrick J. McDonnell in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Photo: Brazil's Lula at the opening of the Beijing Olympics. (Reuters)