Sport - Football

Great Matches: 1974 Final - West Germany 2 Holland 1

In the 580 World Cup matches played to date, the 1974 final holds a unique place in the history of the tournament for two reasons: one for the similarity in style that West Germany and Holland adopted and secondly because this tie marked a direct confrontation between two of the game's all-time greats -- Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff.

Both the Dutch and the Germans, through the preceding years and their progress into the final, had perfected a style labelled ``Total Football''. All players were equipped to be forwards whenever the team went into the attack and defend whenever such a situation arose.

For the home crowd, the start itself was, however, an anti- climax. The Dutch kicked-off and played a sequence of fifteen unbroken passes, some of them in their own half which was mistaken initially as negative possession football, before the ball was suddenly passed deep into the German territory and across the rival goalmouth. In a flash came Cruyff from nowhere to take control and as he darted his way past Berti Vogts, the Dutch skipper was brought crashing down by a chasing Uli Hoeness prompting the English referee Jack Taylor to point immediately to the spot.

Johan Neeskens calmly steered the fastest penalty award in the history of the World Cup beyond the reach of the German custodian, Sepp Maier. The clock showed just 90 seconds; the crowd was stunned. But not Beckenbauer and his men who maintained their composure even as the Dutch continued to hold the initiative through the next 25 minutes before the Germans found the equaliser, which again came from a penalty.

Having gradually got into attacking mode, mostly to counter the Dutch progress, Germany attacked down the left before Bernd Holzenbein, running in to take a beautifully placed pass by Wolfgang Overath, was tripped by Wim Jansen well within the rival penalty area. Paul Breitner scored from it without any fuss and suddenly it was the Dutch who were on the receiving end.

The Dutch goal, as the match progressed, had a series of narrow escapes and Hoeness and Beckenbauer teamed up to dictate the pace of the game and put their teammates through upfront. Even as they continued with their good work, Holland got a lucky break when Cruyff set up a chance for Johnny Rep that could have restored the Dutch morale. However, Rep, quite uncharacteristic of him, hesitated to complete what looked a simple task before Maier came up with a heroic diving save.

With two minutes for the break, Germany, relieved by this let-off, scored what proved to be the match-winner as Jurgen Grabowski combined with Rainer Bonhof and provided Gerd Muller (see picture, heading) with a chance. The ball bounced awkwardly as it came the way of `Der Bomber' but the master craftsman dragged it back with his left foot and then hooked it unerringly beyond the reach of Jan Jongbloed with his right, escaping in the process a wild tackle by Arie Haan.

Holland dominated the second session. And Breitner and Bonhof had to clear off the German goal line before Maier himself came up with a stunning save when Neeskens rifled in a shot against his body. It was simply glorious stuff all the way as Holland desperately looked for an equaliser and the Germans brilliantly fought back to safeguard their slender lead. And when the final whistle came, the home team, like against Hungary in 1954, had disposed of a side with greater skills to record its second title triumph. — A. Vinod

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