Spectators, TV viewers watching 'total Football'

Total Football

If 1970 was a Brazilian carnival, 1974 belonged to the Dutch who painted the tournament orange with their revolutionary "total football", thrilling millions of spectators and television viewers watching the first ever worldwide live coverage of the competition.

The Dutch team that was to cause so much carnage before being finally beaten by West Germany was built around the famous Ajax Amsterdam squad that had won the European Cup three times in a row between 1971 and 1973.

Ajax had achieved their success of the back of a move to "total football", a concept which had evolved from one in which defenders could become attackers, to one which consisted of all players being capable of both attacking and defending.

Dutch break loose

Holland dominated the first of their groups comfortably enough with easy wins against Uruguay (2-0), Bulgaria (4-1), before drawing 0-0 with Sweden.

In the second group phase, however, they were inspirational, destroying Argentina (4-0), easily beating Brazil (2-0) and imperiously shrugging off East Germany (2-0).

West Germany, on the other hand, were making much heavier weather of things, losing their "needle" match against East Germany in the first group phase by a goal to nil before shading the second group phase with a narrow victory over Poland.

Of the South American teams in contention, only Brazil and Argentina made it into the second group phase where they were confronted by the Dutch juggernaut.

Holland had made many friends in two weeks after destroying the greatest teams in the world with inspired, breathtaking football and their meeting with the hosts, Germany, in the final was eagerly awaited.

Trauma

After taking an early lead through a Neeskens penalty when the great Johann Cruyff was brought down by Honess, the Dutch allowed the Germans back into the game by toying with them instead of finishing them off.

Holland also had made the fatal error of imagining that by beating Brazil with such ease to get to the final, all they had to do to win the World Cup was to turn up.

Germany's Breitner almost inevitably made the score 1-1, again from the penalty spot, after Holzenbein was judged to have been brought down by Jansen.

The hammer blow came two minutes before half-time when Gerd Muller put the Germans in the lead. Suddenly the clockwork orange was looking distinctly rusty.

Germany kept up their stifling grip on Dutch inspiration and the match throughout the second half, and in the end were worthy and proud winners.