World Cup: 1974
The four years between 1970 and
1974 were a time of great change in international football.
England did not qualify for the 1974 World Cup, and manager
Alf Ramsey lost his job. Pele had retired from
international football, and the new Brazil team had only
three players from World Cup winning team in Mexico.
Holland and West Germany were now the strongest teams in
world football
Despite dominating
European club football, Holland were a little
fortunate to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, which was
held in West Germany. In their group they were level
on points with Belgium and only qualified on goal
difference. Belgium were also unlucky to have a 'good'
goal disallowed for offside in their final game
against the Dutch qualifiers.
New format
The format for the competition changed. Instead of
qualifying rounds there were two group phases and then a
final. In the first group phase, Holland beat Uruguay and
Bulgaria. They then drew against Sweden
In the second phase they began to play the superb football.
Cruyff's performed brilliantly in the 4-0
vi
ctory over Argentina. He
scored the first goal with a piece of superb skill.
In the other half of the draw, West Germany lost to East
Germany in a first round group game. They still qualified
for the second phase, where they beat Yugoslavia and
Sweden. Their final group game was against Poland. Needing
a draw to qualify for the final, they won with a late Gerd
Müller goal.
