If you are going to plant your country as squarely and deliberately under the international spotlight as Brazil's leaders did by offering to host the world's two greatest sporting festivals in rapid succession, you had better be sure your country is ready.

The most perplexing thing about Tuesday's debacle in Belo Horizonte when, in case you are just back from Saturn, Germany eviscerated Luiz Felipe Scolari's team 7-1, is that it showed that not even the one thing you would have expected Brazil to have sorted was remotely of the necessary standard.

The race against time to get infrastructure ready: that was only to be expected.

The street protests by people of the opinion that the Government's money would be better invested elsewhere: you could explain that away to some extent as the manifestation of a vigorous democracy.

But for the team that for more than 50 years has been the reference-point for swagger in the great global game to be caned 7-1 in front of their own fans by a Germany that scarcely broke sweat, that really does take the breath away.

Under normal circumstances, the black comedy of the third-place play-off could be enacted and the country then left to crown the new world champions and crawl off to heal in its own time.

Brazil's 7-1 humiliation in their semi-final against Germany was a stunningly unexpected result ©FIFA via Getty Images

But, of course, no sooner will the World Cup have finished than the focus will revert to the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, when the same old questions about infrastructure readiness have already been raised repeatedly and with increasing urgency.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach will be able to make his own assessment of the likely fall-out from Brazil's footballing humiliation during a visit to the country this week, when he will hope to see his German countrymen lift their fourth World Cup in the iconic Maracanã.

If he detects resignation, despondency, a mounting sense that Brazil has gone from international poster boy to whipping boy without anyone really understanding why or being able to do much about it, that will be the moment to set alarm bells ringing.

But if, on the contrary, he sees determination, a reinforcement of the innate self-confidence exuded by so many Brazilians with a new realism and a willingness to follow Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's Tweeted advice to "get up, shake the dust off and get over it", that would provide grounds for hoping that the shock may yet have a positive legacy in terms of preparations for the Olympics.

Some of the early signs are quite good: many international commentators seemed surprised and impressed by the way Brazilians turned to applauding the Germans, once their initial horror had subsided and all hope of a comeback evaporated.

Everyone without exception I have interacted with who has attended the tournament has been complimentary about the organisation and the atmosphere.

IOC President Thomas Bach arrived in Brazil today and immediately met with FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who no doubt gave him a view on how successful this World Cup has been
©FIFA via Getty Images

There may also be a better chance of October's Presidential election giving rise to a relatively enlightening debate about the country's situation and prospects now that the candidates will be unable to make much political capital out of the nationalism that a winning World Cup campaign would have stirred up.

And, of course, just before Brazil's nervy quarter-final victory over Colombia, it was announced that construction work had finally started at the Deodoro Olympic Park, the second-largest cluster of venues for Rio 2016.

If the humiliation heaped this week on the sports team that has been quite possibly the most successful institution of any kind ever created in Brazil leads not to supine despair, but a greater willingness to listen to advice and consider new approaches when time-honoured ways start to appear defective, then it might yet be turned to the IOC's advantage and Brazil's ultimate benefit.

Get up and shake the dust off is good advice, but also take the opportunity to consider if there is something to be gained by doing things a new way.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.