World Championship 1974 in Germany: legend Cruijff, bronze for Poland, Müller takes gold for Germany

The tenth World Cup in football history was hosted by West Germany, and again the tournament was influenced by various political aspects. Czechoslovakia did not participate in the 1974 World Cup at all, while the Poles recorded a very solid bronze medal success. The Dutch also shone, led by the legendary Johan Cruijff, with Gerd Müller leading Germany to the title.

The 1974 World Championships, hosted by West Germany, unfortunately had to do without Czechoslovak participation. It should be noted that 99 countries took part in the qualification, with 16 teams advancing to the final tournament.

It was a great surprise that the Soviet Union did not take part in the tenth World Championship. In fact, it refused to play in the final qualifying round in Chile, which in those days was the scene of a military coup, with thousands of supporters of Marxist President Salvador Allende being executed in the football stadium.

In any case, you can find out more on this very subject in our World Cup special attached above.

This world championship was held in 9 cities – West Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Hannover, Düsseldorf, Munich and Stuttgart. And as we have already written above, the tournament was attended by 16 teams (9 European, 5 American, 1 African and one representative of Oceania).

The European teams were the Netherlands, Bulgaria, GDR, Poland, Scotland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Sweden and the German Democratic Republic.

Haiti, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina were the representatives of the American continent. The other two units were Australia and the African country of Zaire, which again you can find out more about in the podcast above.

New tournament format

At the 1974 World Cup in Germany, a completely new system of play emerged. Four groups of four participants in a four-player group with matches against each other were already established practice, but instead of a knockout phase, there were additional groups, namely two semi-final groups.

The winners of these two groups then competed in the finals, while the second-placed teams had to fight for the bronze medals.

Winners Germany, four-goal Gerd Müller

The 1974 World Championship in Germany was dominated by the German team, which incidentally finished second behind the GDR in the preliminary group. Needless to say, the German footballers took the then defeat by the GDR (0:1) in the group stage as a great shame, but in the end they did not have to regret it in the final.

The Germans had already dominated the semi-final Group B with full points and a score of 7:2 (2:0 against Yugoslavia, 4:2 against Sweden and 1:0 against Poland). In the final, the Germans were trailing against the Dutch, but Paul Breitner started the turnaround in the 25th minute, which was completed by Gerd Müller in the 43rd minute.

The legendary striker scored four goals at this championship, but did not win the top scorer crown and did not win the award for the best player of the tournament. However, he was one of the cornerstones of the line-up that allowed the Germans to celebrate their gold medal at the end of the tournament. Just as in the case of Franz Beckenbauer.

The Dutch, led by Johan Cruijff, only took silver

The Netherlands had a really strong team at the 1974 World Championship in Germany, but they failed in the final against Germany. In any case, they got through the main group without much trouble, gaining five points and advancing to the next stage of the tournament from first place. They left Sweden, Bulgaria and Uruguay behind.

The Dutch also won their semi-final, picking up full points (they blasted Argentina 4-0, beat the GDR 2-0 and also beat Brazil 2-0). The final score of 8::0 thus obviously speaks for itself.

However, the star and now legendary Cruijff was named the best player of the tournament and was a testament to how strong the Dutch team was at the time. Johannes Neeskens scored five goals in the championship and then scored in the final. Cruijff scored three times, Johnny Rep four times.

Poland bronze, Brazil fourth, Italy disappointing

The Poles had a truly historic success at the 1974 World Championship in Germany, winning bronze medals. They have only managed a similar feat once in the entire history of World Championships, in 1982.

Poland made it through the preliminary group without a single problem. They won all three group matches and advanced to the semi-final stage from first place, leaving Argentina, Italy and Haiti behind. It must be added, it was a very bitter championship for the Italians and a big disappointment as they didn’t even advance out of the group.

Haiti, with all due respect to that country, was really only in numbers at the 1974 World Cup in Germany. They finished the main group in last place, without gaining a single point and with a final score of 2::14. However, just like the Italians and the whole championship, we will look at this team in more detail in our special feature.

There are other topics related to Haiti and the political aspects of this World Cup.

However, back to the Poles, who in the subsequent semi-final group did not keep up with Germany and from the second place “advanced” to the fight for bronze. And it was there, after a goal by Grzegorz Lat in the 76th minute, who was the tournament’s top scorer with seven goals, that they beat Brazil 1-0 to take bronze.

A great championship that offered a lot

The tenth World Cup in history offered football fans a lot to enjoy, but you will agree with us after watching our special feature. Because right there we also mentioned many other issues that are very hard to keep track of.

In terms of numbers, the 1974 World Cup in Germany was attended by a total of 1,774,022 spectators, an average of 46,685 fans per match. In total, 38 matches were played and 97 goals were scored in this championship. On average, 2.55 goals were scored per match.

One final interesting fact – Carlos Caszely of Chile became the first player to receive a red card in a World Cup match.

1. episode: 1930 World Cup in Uruguay

2. episode: 1934 World Cup in Italy

3. episode:: WSC 1938 in France

4. episode:: World Cup 1950 in Brazil

5. episode:: 1954 World Cup in Switzerland

6. episode:: WSC 1958 in Sweden

7. episode:: WSC 1962 in Chile

8. episode:: World Cup 1966 in England

9. episode:: 1970 World Cup in Mexico

Sources: FIFA, ESPN