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The map of the soccer world changed drastically after the 1970 World Cup.

Brazil was no longer the dominant power it once was, Poland and a host of other countries were emerging as legitimate threats and England, the great inventor of the game, had lost its way.

QUICK FACTS

  • Number of participating teams: 16
  • Top scorer: Poland's Grzegorz Lato (7 goals)
  • Number of games: 38
  • Total goals scored: 97
  • Average goals per game: 2.55
  • Highest scoring game: Yugoslavia's 9-0 win over Zaire on June 18
  • Total attendance: 1,744,022
  • Average attendance: 46,685

Brazil's samba soccer and Italian catenaccio were spent forces, while "Total Football," noted for its inter-changeability and versatility, ruled the global game, as did its greatest advocates, West Germany and the Netherlands.

THE EMERGENCE OF TOTAL FOOTBALL

Featuring the likes of the incomparable Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens, the Dutch mesmerized fans and opponents alike with an attacking brand of soccer known as "Total Football." The West Germans, guided by Franz Beckenbauer, subscribed to a more conservative yet equally effective interpretation of the revolutionary scheme.

"Total Football" came to full fruition at the 1974 competition in West Germany, marking a new era in World Cup history.

With a new era came a new format. The 16-team field was still divided into four groups, but this time a second group stage replaced the knockout quarter-final round: the top two teams in each group would then be placed into two groups of four with the winners meeting in the final.

Just two years removed from the horrors of the Munich Olympics massacre in 1972 where 11 Israeli athletes were murdered, the World Cup was played against a backdrop of tension and unease. Security, reasonably so, was tighter than ever with tanks poised at the airports and armed police vigilant outside the stadiums.

MATCH OF THE TOURNAMENT: West Germany's 2-1 victory over the Netherlands in the final. No match at the 1974 tournament came close to equalling the tension of the dramatic final between these two powerhouses. It was billed as a battle between the two stylists Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer, but it was the goal-poacher Gerd Muller who made the difference with his winning strike for the Germans.

MAN OF THE TOURNAMENT: Gzregorz Lato. The ace winger was the revelation of the competition, scoring at will as he led Poland to victory over teams the calibre Italy, Argentina and Brazil. Lato finished as the competition's top scorer with seven goals and was the main reason why the Poles finished in third-place.

SPOTLIGHT: The 1974 World Cup introduced "Total Football" to the world, a free-flowing brand of soccer that was the antithesis of Italian catenaccio.

"Total Football" was a system whereby a player who moved out of his position was instantly replaced by a fellow teammate, thus retaining the team's intended organizational structure. In this fluid arrangement, no player was tied down to their assigned position; any player could be an attacker, a midfielder and a defender.

The idea was that you could switch around one player and insert him into another position and you would not be adversely affected because everybody on the team could play any position with aplomb - "Total Football."

AND ANOTHER THING: Without question, the most memorable moment of the tournament came in the first round in a game between the Dutch and Sweden. It was in that 0-0 draw that the incomparable Johan Cruyff conjured up a bit of magic after receiving the ball just outside the Swedish penalty area.

With his back towards the net, he looked as if he was about to pass Sweden's Gunnar Olsson on his left and move back towards the centre of the field. Instead, with the same right foot that appeared to knock the ball backwards, Cruyff shifted the ball in the opposite direction while simultaneously swivelling his entire body in the same direction and took off past Olsson on the right towards the Swedish goal-line.

He didn't score, but the "Cruyff Turn" became an instant part of soccer lore as children tried for decades to duplicate his ballet-like move in school playgrounds across the globe.

Playing in Group B, Brazil began defence of its title in under-whelming fashion, held to a goalless draw by Yugoslavia in the tournament opener in Berlin on June 14. Scotland played entertaining and cavalier soccer, but it was the odd man out, as Yugoslavia and Brazil advanced (all three teams were tied with four points) on goal difference. Scotland and World Cup debutants Zaire, hammered 9-0 by Yugoslavia, went home.

Poland announced its intensions early, recording three wins in Group D, winger Grzegorz Lato and forward Andrzej Szarmach combining for nine goals. Argentina finished second ahead of Italy, the Azzurri's lone victory coming against newcomer Haiti. Needing a victory in the final game of the group, the Italians lost 2-1 to Poland and went home.

West Germany beat Chile and Australia, another debutante, in its first two games, and was then set to take on East Germany in the first-ever World Cup meeting between the two nations. West Germany, having already qualified for the next round, lost 1-0, but it was a blessing in disguise: the East Germans won Group A and as a result, Beckenbauer and his teammates avoided the Netherlands and played in the easier of the two groups in the second round.

The Dutch and Sweden advanced out of Group C.

It was at this point that the proverbial wheat was separated from the chaff: the Netherlands, less than impressive in the first round, romped to victories over Argentina (4-0), East Germany (2-0) and Brazil (2-0) to win their group and advance to the final.

Likewise, West Germany, rejuvenated after drafting rampaging midfielder Rainer Bonhof into the starting lineup, made short work of Yugoslavia and Sweden, setting up a winner-take-all finale with Poland in the last game of the group.

West Germany-Poland should have been a sporting spectacle, but torrential rainstorms in Frankfurt rendered the field a quagmire. The match was delayed and the local fire department was called in to soak up the water - to no avail.

The water-logged pitch denied soccer fans the chance to see a classic encounter between two attacking teams. Instead, the Germans prevailed in a timid and lifeless match, the indomitable Gerd Muller scoring the winner on a deflected shot in the 76th minute.

The result was harsh - Poland had won many admirers with its spirit and attacking panache - but a West Germany-Netherlands final was in the cards from the beginning.

After a dull third-place game won 1-0 by Poland, the stage was set for the dramatic final on July 7 in Munich.

THE FINAL

West Germany vs. the Netherlands was the match that everybody wanted to see, the two celebrated practitioners of "Total Football" going head-to-head.

This was to be, the pundits predicted, a cat-and-mouse game where the result would be long and drawn out, victory only secured in the waning moments of the tightly-contested affair. How wrong they were.

The Netherlands had Germany running ragged from the opening kickoff. After an amazing first minute where the Germans didn't even touch the ball, Cruyff began a purposeful and ambitious run deep inside Germany's end.

Cruyff left Berti Vogts for dead and the German defender brought the Dutch stylist down inside the penalty area. Johan Neeskens converted the ensuing penalty kick and the Netherlands were up 1-0 after only two minutes.

For the next 20 minutes, the Dutch toyed with their opponents, mocking the Germans with their slick passes and insolent possession, making them chase the ball in vain. The message was clear from Cruyff and his cohorts: merely beating the Germans wasn't enough, they wanted to humiliate them.

Germany, to its credit, did not lose faith, and marshalled by Beckenbauer they fought back and made the Netherlands pay for their indulgence. Bernd Holzenbein breezed down the left wing and glided into the penalty area where he was tripped by Wim Jansen.

English referee Jack Taylor pointed to the penalty spot, but the Dutch accused the German winger of diving. No matter, though, as Paul Breitner drilled the ball past Jan Jongbloed in the 25th minute. The tide had turned.

Two minutes before halftime Germany's Rainer Bonhof sped down the right side before delivering a cross into the box. Always in the right place at the right time, Gerd Muller dragged the ball back into his path and swept it past the Dutch goalkeeper.

It was the 68th and final goal of Muller's international career. As it turned out, it was also the most important.

Their pride stung, the Netherlands came out firing in the second half, but as time passed, Cruyff became less and less of a factor, his influence stifled by Vogts, and the Dutch had no more answers for the steely German defence.

Germany eventually won and Beckenbauer, who had lost the 1966 final and a heartbreaking semifinal four years earlier against the Italians, lifted the new World Cup trophy.

Twenty years after the "Miracle of Bern," the Germans were again champions of the world.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

  • Franz Beckenbauer would guide West Germany to another World Cup title in 1990 as a manager, becoming the only man in history to coach and captain a World Cup winning team.
  • Gerd Muller retired from the national team after the final. With a remarkable 68 goals in 62 appearances, Muller is still Germany's all-time leading scorer in international competition.
  • Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff's incredible streak of 1,142 minutes without conceding a goal in international play came to an end when Haiti's Emmanuel Sanon scored against the Azzurri in the opening round.
  • Days before the finals, Brazilian Joao Havelange was elected the new president of FIFA, replacing Englishman Sir Stanley Rous, who held the post since 1961. Havelange was the first non-European to hold the position since FIFA was founded in 1904.
  • Haiti's Ernst Jean-Joseph became the subject of the first doping scandal in World Cup history when he tested positive for an illegal substance after the Italy game. He was suspended from the rest of the tournament.
  • Scotland didn't lose a game in the preliminary stage - one win and two draws - but that still wasn't enough to see them progress to the next round. Ironically, Scotland finished as the only undefeated team of the competition.
  • The 1974 World Cup was the first that England failed to qualify for since it began participating in 1950.
  • Australia was the first nation from Oceania to qualify for the World Cup finals.
  • Chile's Carlos Caszely became the first man in World Cup history to be sent off under the red card system for a foul in a game against West Germany.
  • Zaire was the first sub-Saharan team to ever appear at the World Cup finals.