\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
After two close calls, West Germany finally had the opportunity to win the World Cup, even if there was a new trophy. With the Jules Rimet Trophy retired, a new trophy was unveiled\u2014the FIFA World Cup for the 1974 competition.<\/p>\n
By Michael Lewis<\/p>\n
FrontRowSoccer.com Editor<\/p>\n
After two close calls, West Germany finally had the opportunity to win the World Cup, even if there was a new trophy. With the Jules Rimet Trophy retired, a new trophy was unveiled\u2014the FIFA World Cup for the 1974 competition.<\/p>\n
There were only a handful of players left over from the 1966 and 1970 teams\u2014Franz Beckenbauer, goalkeeper Sepp Maier, Gerd Mueller, and Juergen Grabowski. But the Germans would be a tough side to beat.<\/p>\n
They started out slowly, showing very little in a 1\u20130 victory over Chile as defender Paul Breitner scored. They improved with a 3\u20130 triumph over Australia behind goals by Wolfgang Overath, Bernhard Cullman and Mueller. But in the most political of battles on the field, the West Germans could not overcome their Eastern counterparts, dropping a 1\u20130 decision in the first meeting between those two rivals, in Hamburg. Not surprisingly, tight security surrounded the match and only 3,000 East German fans were allowed to cross the border because officials feared few fans would return to their Communist homeland. The West Germans already were assured of a spot in the quarterfinals, but the East Germans needed a point \u2013 a draw \u2013 to advance. They got more than they bargained for, a 1\u20130 victory, as Juergen Sparwasser scored the lone goal in the 80th minute.<\/p>\n
Defending champion Brazil could never find the magic of its triumph four years earlier. Perhaps it was because the great P\u00e9l\u00e9 had retired from international soccer. Perhaps it was because a talented generation of players, including Tostao and Gerson, could not be replaced so quickly. Or perhaps it was because they played a more defensive instead of creative style. In the opening match of the World Cup, the Brazilians wound up with a scoreless draw with Yugoslavia. They added yet another 0\u20130 tie against Scotland \u2014 which had never qualified for the second round of a World Cup in seven tries \u2014 before securing a place in the quarterfinals with a 3\u20130 win over Zaire. Brazil, which finished in a second-place tie with Scotland, advanced because it had a better goal differential (3 to 2).<\/p>\n
\u00a0While two stalwarts struggled early on, there was a new light\u2014 the extremely talented Netherlands. Led by Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Rudi Krol, Wim Rijsbergen, and Robbie Rensenbrink, the Dutch, who were participating in their first Cup since 1934, played a style called Total Football, or Total Soccer. That meant any player could become an attacker or a defender. En route to the Group 3 crown, the Dutch showed the world what the style was all about. They stopped a vicious Uruguayan side, 2\u20130, as Johnny Rep scored a goal in each half. They were held to a scoreless tie by a defensive-minded Swedish team that also would qualify for the quarterfinals And they took Bulgaria apart, 4\u20131, as Cruyff dominated the match. Neeskens converted two penalty kicks and Rep and Theodorus de Jong added goals.<\/p>\n
In Group 4, Poland and Argentina qualified, leaving Italy out in the cold after reaching the finals in 1970. The Poles, in the midst of Olympic domination behind the likes of Grzegorz Lato, Kaz Deyna, and Robert Gadocha, won the group, edging Argentina, 3\u20132, as Lato struck twice, routing Haiti, 7\u20130, as Andrezej Szarmach netted a hat trick and Lato added two more, and getting past Italy, 2\u20131, behind Andrezej Szarmach and Deyna. The Italians had their problems. In their first match, Haitian forward Manny Sanon, who went to play for the San Diego Sockers (North American Soccer League), predicted he would score two goals against the slow Italian defense. He connected a minute into the second half to break goalkeeper Dino Zoff \u2019s international goalless streak at 1,142 minutes. Sanon was only half right, not scoring again in a 3\u20131 Italian victory. Italy, however, could never get it together, playing Argentina to a 1\u20131 draw and losing to Poland. The Haitians, playing in their first Cup, also had their problems. Defender Ernst Jean-Joseph was discovered to have taken illegal drugs and was thrown out of the Cup. He returned home in disgrace, although he went on to play for the Chicago Sting (NASL).<\/p>\n
Instead of a single elimination in the quarterfinals, the eight remaining countries were placed in two groups of four teams apiece. The winners of each group would advance to the final, changing the strategy of teams from winning outright to accruing points. It all but killed the drama of the knockout rounds. The Netherlands dominated Group A, winning its three matches. Cruyff masterminded the 4\u20130 demolition of Argentina with two goals, with Krol and Rep adding one apiece. Cruyff was marked out of the East German encounter by Konrad Weise, as the scoring responsibilities fell to Neeskens and Rensenbrink in a 2\u20130 triumph. Needing but a tie against Brazil, the Dutch recorded a 2\u20130 victory as Neeskens and Cruyff scored.<\/p>\n
West Germany, whose second-place finish to the East Germans, meant an easier group, also won their three matches. The Germans shut down Yugoslavia, 2\u20130, behind Breitner and Mueller. They rallied from a 1\u20130 deficit against Sweden and registered a 4\u20132 win as Overath, Reiner Bonhof, Grabowski, and Uli Hoeness shared the scoring load. And they stopped the Poles, 1\u20130, on a muddy field as Mueller tallied, to set up a classic confrontation between two European sides in the final.<\/p>\n
The game did not get off to a promising start as the game officials noticed that the corner flags were missing so the opening kickoff was delayed until the flags were placed at their proper spots. With the match barely a minute old, referee Jack Taylor of England awarded the Dutch a penalty kick when Cruyff had been brought down in the penalty area after the Dutch has strung together nearly a dozen passes. Neeskens converted for a 1\u20130 lead. The Germans equalized on a penalty of their own in the 25th minute. Bernd Holzenbein was fouled by Wim Jansen, and Breitner converted. Mueller scored the game-winner with two minutes remaining in the first half, putting in a Bonhof pass. It was Mueller\u2019s fourth goal of the Cup and 14th of his World Cup career, surpassing the total of 13 held by Frenchman Just Fontaine.<\/p>\n
It also was the last goal of the match. In the second half, the Germans managed to shut down the great Cruyff, who was given a yellow card in his frustration to the close marking. And thanks to injuries to Rensenbrink and Rijsbergen, the Germans held on for their second title. The championship completed a unique hat-trick for Overath. He was on the squad that finished second in 1966 and third in 1970.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview: After two close calls, West Germany finally had the opportunity to win the World Cup, even if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11522,11523,515,3854,11524,5,11525,153,11526,7388,11527,11528],"class_list":{"0":"post-11777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-1974-world-cup","9":"tag-dutch","10":"tag-east-germany","11":"tag-franz-beckenbauer","12":"tag-gerd-mueller","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-johan-cruyff","15":"tag-netherlands","16":"tag-sepp-maier","17":"tag-west-germany","18":"tag-world-cuip","19":"tag-world-cup-history"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}