WEST GERMANY BESTS TOTAL FOOTBALL
This was the nation’s second world title, 20 years after its first victory in Switzerland in 1954.
The World Cup in West Germany in 1974 — the Weltmeisterschaft 74 — featured two major changes. The first was a change in the tournament rules. The first round group system followed by knock-out in the second round was replaced by a group system in both rounds. The second change was the replacing of the Jules Rimet Trophy — won outright by Brazil four years earlier after winning the World Cup three times (195■, 1962, 1970) — by a new solid gold statuette known as the “FIFA World Cup.”
Like its predecessor, the new trophy, sculpted by Silvio Gazzaniga, was coveted by many, and 9■ nations took part in the qualifiers. Notable first-time qualifiers for the finals were East Germany, Haiti, Australia and Zaire, the first sub-saharan African nation to reach the World Cup proper. But Hungary, Spain, France and most surprisingly England, all failed to make it through.
As a prologue to its vanguard tournament, FIFA appointed itself a new President, the first non-european, when the Brazilian Joao Havelange replaced Englishman Sir Stanley Rous, who had held the post since 1961. On the field, favourite West Germany, qualified for the second round, if rather unconvincingly. And following a defeat at the hands of East Germany in the first round, there was even a minor revolution: Franz Beckenbauer, the team captain, was begged by his Bayem Munich team-mates, unhappy with the general performance, to urge coach Helmut Schoen to make changes in the team’s line-up and tactics.
For the team from the Netherlands, however, which included in its ranks Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Johnny Rep and Rob Renesenbrink, it was all plain sailing as the team qualified from both the first and second rounds, beating Argentina (4-0),
East Germany (2-0) and Brazil (2-0) by playing the brand of Total Football made famous by the Dutch club side, Ajax. The revelation of the tournament proved to be the multitalented Polish team which finished third, with its ace marksman Gzregorz Lato crowned as the competition’s top goalscorer (7 goals).
The Poles, however, couldn’t stop the Germans from reaching the final everyone had hoped for, against the Netherlands. The final, which unlike the earlier games in the tournament, was played under blue skies, began dramatically as Cruyff was brought down in the German penalty area following a solo run. The Dutch took the lead from the ensuing Neeskens penalty before the Germans had even touched the ball and with just a minute gone on the clock. The German pride was stung. Sepp Maier, Beckenbauer, Berti Vogts — who thereafter stifled Cruyff’s influence — Uli Hoeness and Wolfgang Overath soon fought their way back into the game and finally triumphed 2-1 with goals from Paul Breitner and Gerd Muller. This was West Germany’s second world title, 20 years after its first victory in Switzerland in 1954.