7 July
Final: West Germany 2 Holland 1, Munich
The 1974 World Cup final was effectively the third to be refereed by an Englishman - and, if Graham Poll's performance in 2006 was anything to go by, it will remain the last such final for a while longer.
In 1950, there had been no final as such, just a final pool - but George Reader officiated in the decisive match, between Brazil and Uruguay, won by the latter. In 1954, Bill Ling was the man in the middle of West Germany's dramatic 3-2 win against Hungary. Now Jack Taylor, a butcher from Wolverhampton, was handed the job.
He had earlier taken charge of the Bulgaria 1 Uruguay 1 game in Group Three and the dead match in Group A between Argentina and East Germany, also a 1-1 draw. Two fairly low-key games, but he had done enough - and famously left his mark on this match even before it started, forcing a delay of several minutes when he noticed that they'd forgotten to put the corner flags out at the Olympiastadion. His second decision, equally correct, was somewhat more sensational.
Holland kicked off, passed the ball around in the middle of the field till Johan Cruyff picked it up and embarked on a run that was only ended inside the penalty area by a foul challenge from Uli Hoeness after Cruyff had beaten his marker, Berti Vogts. Taylor pointed to the spot. The West Germans had not touched the ball; 17 passes had been played.
It was the first penalty in any World Cup final and Johan Neeskens made no mistake in dispatching it past Sepp Maier's left.
But the Dutch camp was not a happy one going into the game. Victims of a sting by the notorious tabloid Bild, the players had spent much of the preceding day dealing with their wives and girlfriends. Bild said four players had had a party with a couple of German girls, all winding up naked round the hotel swimming pool the night before the game with Brazil. The paper said they had pictures, too. But they didn't publish the pictures or name names, leaving every player the subject of innuendo and on the receiving end of plaintive calls from home.
That fuelled the anger, but it was already there for the Dutch, carrying around national resentment that wouldn't go away. Franz Beckenbauer reacted to Taylor's penalty by saying: "You are an Englishman, of course." But for real hatred of the Germans you had to look at the countries occupied in World War Two, especially in western Europe and especially the Dutch, who suffered mass starvation in the last, pointless winter of the war. Wim van Hanegem lost three siblings and his father. The Dutch weren't here to play a football match but to gain some form of revenge.
Of course none of the German team had played any part in the war but the Dutch wanted to humiliate them; instead, by forgetting the football, they left themselves open to letting the opposition back into the game. The best team in the competition wound up losing the World Cup final despite their brilliant start.
The German equaliser came after a penalty awarded for a debatable "foul" on Bernd Holzenbein, a notorious diver in the Bundesliga. After Hoeness' miss against Poland, another penalty won by Holzenbein, it was Paul Breitner who stepped up and this time he made no mistake.
Nor did Taylor endear himself to the Dutch, Cruyff especially, as the German close marking took its toll. West Germany, a goal down in a minute, were 2-1 up by half-time and try as they might the Dutch could not find a way through. Maier denied Neeskens, most notably, but though his goal was under siege it rarely looked like being breached.
Total football, as wonderful in its way as the methods of the Brazilians four years earlier, was defeated. A travesty.
And yet - the fact that Holland were the better side has tended to obscure just how good these Germans were. Gerd Muller's winner was his 68th goal in his 62nd and final international, catching Jan Jongbloed in the Dutch goal immobile two minutes before half-time. Beckenbauer is one of the all-time greats and the Bayern Munich side he was a part of would win the next two European Cups to complete a hat-trick. West Germany were European champions, too - this was no flash in the pan.
It was hard for everyone to take - Cruyff talked himself into the book as the players left the pitch at half-time - but the crucial spell of the match was the 23 minutes in which Holland were ahead, the West Germans were struggling and yet the men in orange were intent on passing their opponents to oblivion rather than putting the ball in the net.
Philip Cornwall
