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1974 FIFA World Cup
|
Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft 1974 |
1974 FIFA World Cup official logo |
| Tournament
details |
| Host country |
 West Germany |
| Dates |
13 June – 7 July |
| Teams |
16 (from 5
confederations) |
| Venue(s) |
9 (in 9 host cities) |
| Final
positions |
| Champions |
West Germany (2nd title) |
| Runner-up |
 Netherlands |
| Third place |
 Poland |
| Fourth place |
 Brazil |
| Tournament
statistics |
| Matches played |
38 |
| Goals scored |
97 (2.55 per match) |
| Attendance |
1,774,022 (46,685 per
match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Grzegorz Lato (7
goals) |
The 1974 FIFA World Cup, the tenth staging of
the World Cup, was held in West Germany from 13 June to 7 July. West
Germany had been chosen in July 1966 as hosts
by FIFA. The tournament marked the
first time that the current trophy, the FIFA
World Cup Trophy, created by the Italian sculptor Silvio
Gazzaniga, was awarded. The previous trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, was won for the third
time by Brazil in 1970
and awarded permanently to the Brazilians. The host nation won the
title beating the Netherlands in the
final, 2–1. The victory was the second for West Germany, who had
won in 1954.
Qualification
Ninety-eight countries took part in the qualifying tournament,
and as usual there were some high-profile failures on the road to
the finals. France was among them, having lost out to USSR in their
qualifying group. Spain, England and Hungary also failed to reach
the finals. First-time qualifiers included East Germany, Haiti,
Australia and Zaire, the first team from sub-Saharan Africa to
reach the World Cup finals.
Summary
First
round
The tournament was held mostly in bad weather, and the stadia
had few protected places. Few western European nations had
qualified, of which most were eliminated early. Fans from the
Eastern neighbor states were hindered by political
circumstances.
Carlos
Caszely of Chile became the first
player to be sent off with a red card in a
World Cup match, during their match against West Germany. Red cards were formally
introduced in World Cup play in 1970, but no players were sent off
in that tournament. The format of the competition changed from 1970:
16 teams qualified, divided into four groups of four. The top two
teams in each group advanced to the second round, where they split
into two groups of four. The winners of each group played each
other in the final, and the second place finishers in the third
place match.
Two teams made a particularly powerful impact on the first
round. The Netherlands
demonstrated the Total
football techniques pioneered by the top Dutch club Ajax, in which specialised
positions were virtually abolished for the outfield players, and
individual players became defenders, midfielders or strikers as the
situation required. The Dutch marked their first World Cup finals
since 1938 by topping their first-round group, with wins over Uruguay and Bulgaria and a draw
with Sweden. Sweden joined the
Dutch in the second group round after beating Uruguay 3–0.
Poland, meanwhile, took
maximum points from a group containing two of the favourites for
the tournament. They beat Argentina 3–2,
trounced Haiti 7–0, then beat Italy 2–1 - a result that
knocked the Italians out of the Cup and resulted in Argentina
sneaking to the second group round on goal average. While Haiti
didn't do particularly well in their first World Cup finals (losing
all three of their games) they did have one moment of glory. In
their opening game against Italy, they managed to take the lead
with a goal from Emmanuel Sanon, before eventually losing
3–1 (Italy had not conceded a goal in 12 international matches).
That goal proved to be a significant goal as it ended Dino Zoff's run of 1142
minutes without conceding a goal.
Group 2 was a particularly close group. The group was decided by
how many goals could Brazil, Yugoslavia and Scotland score to
defeat Zaire. Every other game played in the group was drawn so the
three top teams finished with four points each. Yugoslavia hammered
Zaire 9–0. Brazil beat them 3–0. Scotland could only manage a 2–0
margin, and so were edged out of the tournament on goal difference.
After holding the mighty Brazil to a goalless draw, and going
through the group unbeaten, the Scots were entitled to feel very
unlucky to be eliminated.
Group 1 contained both East Germany and
the host West Germany, and they both progressed at
the expense of Chile and Australia. But the big clash was between
the two German teams. In one of the most politically charged
matches of all time, it was the East that won, thanks to a late Jürgen
Sparwasser goal. Despite the fact that they were safely through
to the second group round, the embarrassing result caused a
realignment of the West German team that helped them win the
Cup.
Second Group
Round
Ironically, the two second-round groups both produced matches
that were, in effect, semi-finals. In Group A, the Netherlands and
Brazil met after each had taken maximum points from their previous
two matches. In Group B, the same was true of West Germany and
Poland - so the winners of these two games would contest the
final.
In Group A, two goals from the inspirational Johan Cruyff helped
the Dutch side thrash Argentina 4–0. At the same time, Brazil
defeated East Germany 1–0. The Dutch triumphed over East Germany
2–0 while in the "Battle of the South Americans", Brazil managed to
defeat Argentina 2–1 in a scrappy match. Argentina and East Germany
drew 1-1 and were on their way home while the crucial match between
the Netherlands and Brazil turned into another triumph for 'total
football', as second-half goals from Johan Neeskens and Cruyff put the
Netherlands in the final. However the match would also be
remembered for harsh defending on both sides.
Meanwhile, in Group B, West Germany and Poland both managed to
beat Yugoslavia and Sweden. The crucial game between the Germans
and the Poles was goalless until the 76th minute, when Gerd Muller
scored to send the hosts through 1–0. The Poles took third place
after defeating Brazil 1–0.
The Final
West Germany was led by Franz Beckenbauer, while the Dutch
had their star Johan Cruijff, and their Total Football
system which had dazzled the competition. With just a minute gone
on the clock, following a solo run, Cruijff was brought down by Uli Hoeneß close to
the German penalty area, and the Dutch took the lead from the
ensuing penalty by Johan Neeskens before any German player
had even touched the ball. West Germany struggled to recover, and
the 26th minute was soon awarded a penalty after Bernd
Hölzenbein fell within the Dutch area, causing British referee
to award another controversial penalty. Paul Breitner spontaneously decided to
kick, and scored. These two penalties were the first in a World Cup
final. West Germany now pushed, but could not score, until when in
the 43rd, in his typical style, Gerd Müller scored what turned out to be
the winning goal, and the last of his career as he retired from the
national team. The second half saw chances for both sides, with
Müller putting the ball in the net for a goal that was disallowed
as offside. In the 85th, Hölzenbein was fouled again, but no
penalty this time. Eventually, West Germany, European Champions of
1972, also won the 1974 World Cup. This is the only case of the
reigning European champions winning the World Cup, although France
have also held both trophies at the same time by winning the 1998
World Cup followed by Euro 2000.
Joao Havelange (former FIFA President from
1974 to 1998) claimed that the 1966 and 1974 World Cups were fixed
so that England and Germany would win respectively[1],
however this would be strange considering Germany had a penalty
awarded against them so early in the final and Havelange's comments
were littered with references to how his home nation of Brazil
should have won, hinting that the comments are biased.
Poland's Grzegorz
Lato led the tournament in scoring seven goals. Gerd Müller's goal
in the final was the 14th in his career of two World Cups, beating
Just Fontaine's
record of 13, in his single World Cup. Müller's record was only
surpassed in 2006 by Ronaldo's 15 goals from three World Cups.
Mascot
The official
mascots of this World Cup were Tip and Tap,
two boys wearing outfit similar to West Germany's, with the
letters WM (Weltmeisterschaft, World Cup) and number
74.
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