Total Dutch football and the practical rational of the Germans!

Whoever you ask from football enthusiasts, the history of this sport knows its new wind in the distant May of 1974 and in West Germany. The first glimmers of this golden age coincide with Ajax in 1969 and the lost final with Milan, continue with Feyenoord in 1970 and Ajax again three years in a row in 1971, 1972 and 1973.

The Champions Cup remains for the fourth year in Holland. Holland has become the school of the famous “Total Football”! The West Germany of 1974 proved the economic superiority of the West over the East. The West German World Cup was expected to be a competition that could not be imagined before…

The Germans themselves took care to easily perceive the difference between the two systems, the capitalist and the communist, the difference between the two continents, the American and the European! Before the final, all the representative teams participating in the World Cup appeared to symbolically parade on the field of the Olympic Stadium in Munich… through buses of the latest model of “Mercedes Benz”!

Basically, it was more of an exhibition of the products of the famous German company! The teams themselves were not inside them except for their name and flags stamped on the outside of the buses. German stadiums were something… completely different! Such levels of luxury and technology had never been seen in the past and no matter where a team played, everything inside a stadium was super modern! It is worth mentioning the Olympic stadium in Munich, where the final took place.

It looked more like a work of art, something fabulous than a sports object! From the air you had to rub your eyes well to be convinced that what you saw was real and not some false sense that coincided with a world of wonders!Munich’s Olympic Stadium and one wonders…

Is it a real sight or just a fairy tale?! It was a world parade of the “adidas” brand! Never before has that company had a representation of such proportions in an international competition! Everywhere you saw uniforms and football boots of the said brand. Only a few teams such as Italy, East Germany, Uruguay, Brazil and Scotland used other sportswear brands. However, in complexity, almost all football players used “adidas” shoes! From a company, “adidas” had just turned into an economic empire in one of its best moments! An empire that would be challenged by a sportsman who was none other than the biggest star in the world and the absolute protagonist of the tournament, Johan Cruyff!

All of these connected with the protagonist, Holland with uniforms in a strange orange color but also the technological quality of the “Technicolor” film, gave the competition a super shine in the eyes of the whole planet and West Germany became synonymous with the highest world level. economic or organizational and quite naturally, the whole world erased from memory even the few stains that it kept from the Olympic Games of two years ago in West Germany! West Germany was the reigning European Champion two years ago and from the final won 3-0 in “Heysel” against the Soviet Union. In the last World Cup, it was one of the two protagonists of the “Battle of the Century” in the semi-finals in “Azteca” against Italy (3-4). Since then, it had improved as a team and with the presence of Gerd Myler in its ranks, it claimed the right to won the highest international title in football! It played in front of its own spectators and was a world football superpower! On the bench was the same trainer since 1966, the great Helmut Shën!

The Netherlands was also at the same levels but in the club ranks. Once Feynord and three times Ajax, four years in a row were European Champions and using only Dutch players! On the bench they had the “maestro” of Total Football, the extraordinary Rinus Michels, who after having created the great Ajax and won the Cup with him The champions, together with Johan Cruyff, have been in Barcelona since 1971. The star of the Germans was undoubtedly the “Kaiser” – Franc Beckenbauer, Holland had their star “The Flying Dutchman” – Johan Cruyff… At the end of it all, the Germans seemed to be the favorites because they had almost the same central column of the team since 1966, were experienced and reigning European Champions, while Holland, on the other hand, had the advantage of being an unknown team!

Its last international representation was in 1938! Even the goal difference at first sight did not show any concrete difference. The Germans had the best in the world, Sep Mayer, but the Dutch, who had the unknown Jan Jongblod, conceded only one goal until the final! Simply, the difference between the two teams was that Holland played a football …from another planet! Nothing seemed to go in West Germany’s favor until the grand final! Holland, after the victory with Uruguay 2-0, leaves a white draw with Sweden 0-0 and then explodes, 4-1 with Bulgaria, 4-0 with Argentina, 2-0 West Germany and 2-0 Brazil! It was clear that before the final he was the big favorite! Germany with …”heavy t-shirt names” did not fare so well. In the group, they win with difficulty 1-0 with Chile with Breitner’s goal from about 30 meters, beat the Australian debutants 3-0 and lose to the East Germans 0-1 (Shparvaser `78) in a match that went down in history because there was no more never another collision between them. Perhaps this defeat served the West Germans well because then, after a drama in a time made worse by the rain, they beat Sweden 4-2 putting their hearts on the pitch!

Then two wins, 2-0 against Yugoslavia and 1-0 in a premature final against Poland, both because of the ground and the opponent of a high-level game. They were not favorites in the finals like the Dutch were, but always in history, this has served to charge the Germans more, it was even the second time they collided in a final as outsiders in front of a team that has written history! Just like Hungary in 1954, Holland was also a representative of a school that changed football and did not seem to have opponents, everything brought to mind the unforgettable final in Bern in 1954. Even then, Germany faced the representatives of football history!

Even when the game started 0-2 for the Germans in the first eight minutes, in the final in Munich, the Netherlands, in a display of its superiority, after fifteen passes, scores with Neskens from the penalty spot and the first German to touch the ball for the first time in the final, it is the goalkeeper Sep Majer who takes it out of the net and the first minute has just been completed…!

And yet, West Germany won! After the goal, the Dutch thought they won the match and somewhere in there the silent battle between Total Sacrifice and Total Football began! Cruyff later admitted that “we never expected to control the game so early! It caused us to lose our balance and make mistakes after mistakes! Deep down, the truth is that West Germany didn’t win the cup. We lost it.” !

The Dutch play with 3-4-3 and the Germans with 4-2-4. After a bad start, Berti Vogst scores a one-on-one for Cruyff, Braitner moves further forward into the center and Beckenbauer is not…a centre-back! It never was! It organizes the game from behind and Bonhof and Overat, also strengthened by Braitner and the ascents of Schwarzenbek, give West Germany superiority in the offensive. They have won the battle for the center of the field! On the other hand, Syrbir and van Hanegem do not help the attack from the defensive wings and this means that Holland is under pressure. Perhaps the first to break under the German pressure was referee Jack Taylor who awarded a dubious penalty to the Germans in the ’25 when Holzenbain was brought down by Wim Jansen’s leg. Braitner executes correctly and equalizes 1-1 but nothing changes in the game.

The Dutch still do not venture forward and Cruyff does not find space due to individual marking by Vogst. The Germans are not putting a lot of pressure on, but they are stable. At the end of the first half, Bonhof passes to Gerd Myler inside the Dutch area. He, despite being surrounded by several defenders, controls enough to set the ball up and unleashes a killer short shot after a roundabout on the spot. It’s 2-1 for West Germany!

It will also be the final result! The continuation was an endless monologue of the Dutch attack, but Sep (Jozep) Majer keeps the Germans alive with his interventions. Jack Taylor, in one case he makes a mistake with that of the first half, he does not give a penalty for the second time for the Germans, thus adding to the doubts whether or not it was the penalty of the Germans with which they equalized the result! We will also have a canceled goal by Muller but no one remembers all this!

The Germans in the squares have started celebrating by drinking beer and jumping in the fountains! Inside the Olympic stadium, their team has started the triumphal lap! West Germany is the World Champion for the second time! The one who suffered the most from the Dutch was Wim van Hanegem. During the second world war he lost his father and two brothers and as he himself said “I don’t like the Germans! I have problems every time I play against them, since the war” In Holland and for Holland they are looking to find the causes of the loss. Of course, they showed a kind of arrogance and lack of sensitivity on the field and everywhere, even during the national anthem. It was the time of the Rolling Stones, the Vietnam war, the Beatles and HiPi and the Dutch looked more like “rock stars” at Woodstock than like football players…

The day before the match, there was also a “pool party” at the hotel pool where there was the Dutch national team. Some girls broke the security cord and ended up in the pool with the players! Johan Cruyff was not there but…spent the whole night trying to explain to his wife on the phone what was written in all the West German newspapers! It was also a reason why the leader of the oranges was overshadowed in the final, despite the penalty he won at the start. On the other hand, the whole world realized that the Germans never give up and that’s exactly what they have and others don’t have in football! Holland was remembered as the Moral Winner! It took football to levels not reached before, its strange jersey became synonymous with beautiful football! Just as Johan Cruyff’s strange shirt with number 14 and two of the three significant stripes of “adidas” remained forever in the memory.

Here is the moment to break the silence about this mystery, about the full “adidas” uniform, shorts and shirt but with two and not three Croyff stripes. Johan Cruyff, the absolute star of his time, the elegant and charming guy who looked more like a music star, the footballer who first broke the million dollar limit in acquisitions, had a special symbol with a “cougar”. He himself was the best advertisement of the company and especially for the “puma king” football boots.

Thus, forced to use the adidas uniform with the national team, he thought of removing one of the stripes from his shirt and shorts, and since he did not participate in the Argentina World Cup that followed, he remained legendary for his adidas T-shirt. ” two-striped and it’s also one of the most sought-after for sale on e-bay today! Anyway, four years later, the van der Kerkhof twins would also appear with the same jersey “model”, but this was not noticed at all.

They could not have the radiant power of a star like Johan Cruyff! Rinus Mikhels, would not be found in Argentina either! He would return to restore his honor fourteen years later. Exactly where he lost the final of the World Cup, in West Germany and in the Olympic Stadium of Munich, he would win the final for the title of European Champion, giving Holland the only trophy to date but, as he himself admits…” we all know that the main game for us was the one against West Germany in the semi-final…” The Dutch won 2-1, avenging the 1974 defeat at least a little!