The Best Teams Never to Win the World Cup: Holland 74′
“In the tunnel we planned to look them in the eye, to show we were as big as they were. They had the feeling they were invincible – you could see it in their eyes…While we waited I tried but I couldn’t do it. They made us feel small.” –Bernd Holzenbein, West Germany.
It is surprising to think that any member of the German team would articulate such inferiority against an opposition who had a relatively non-existent history in the competition – until the 70s Holland had failed to even qualify for a World Cup since 1938. The Dutch did however boast a talent pool of near dream like capacity. They had also dominated European club competitions in the early 70s (Feyenoord won the 1970 European Cup and the 1974 UEFA Cup and Ajax, of course, were triple European Champions between 1971-1973) meaning their talented stars were proven, winning professionals. And in Johan Cruyff they had a footballing avatar of the Dutch zeitgeist of the time.
Going into the final they were feared. But they would not have even made it to the World Cup had it not been for a wrongly disallowed goal in the deciding qualification game against Belgium. Rinus Michels, former Ajax coach, was appointed as head of the national team after qualification. His desire was to instil the principles of total football, principles that had guided his former club to unprecedented European domination, into all the Dutch players. Two friendlies within a month of the opening group game charted their rapid progression. The first was a 2-0 loss to a German second division team. The second was a 4-1 victory against Argentina. Michels’ only focus was the opening group game and, crucially, after beating Argentina in Amsterdam, his team had belief.
The Dutch footballers arrived last in Germany for the World Cup. In interviews Cruyff had always been articulate, intelligent and calm. There was an understated but palpable confidence in his demeanour that extended onto the pitch (the latter probably shaped the former). He encapsulated much of the rapidly transformed post-war Dutch culture. And like the country’s swift progression on the social front, the Dutch players mirrored it on the pitch with a dominating 2-0 opening game victory against an utterly bemused Uruguay. The game could easily have seen six or seven goals but Johnny Rep’s header and short range finish sufficed. Uruguay looked genuinely baffled and helpless every time the Dutch launched into their intense, high pressing defensive game.
An anticlimactic 0-0 draw with Sweden followed, its defining moment being the debut of the ‘Cruyff turn’; Jan Olsson remains proud to be the first man so completely duped by the movement. Holland’s 4-1 defeat of Bulgaria set the nation alight and caused a usually indifferent population to become encumbered with the need to passionately support their team.
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Football loves the ‘glorious loser’. It allows those who achieved less to still hold their heads up high and blame ill fortune for their fate.
The best of the ‘glorious losers’ in my opinion is the ‘Magical Magyars’ – the Hungarian side of 1954, who absolutely battered every team in the tournament until the final – against Germany, who seem to have a habit of capitalising on nations who fail to play to their potential.
From thereon you have Brazil in 1966 (Pele got injured), England in 1970 (‘keeper Peter Bonetti’s mistakes), the Dutch in 74 and 78, Brazil in 1982 (who blamed their commitment to attacking football for their 3-2 loss to Italy), England in 1990 (penalties), Brazil in 1998 (Ronaldo’s pre-game fit) and France in 2006 (Materazzi), as sides that have legitimate claims to say they were the best in that particular world cup without winning it.
I love these articles
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to J Gill: Thanks. I’ll be taking a look at Hungary in 54 next week. Also debating Eusebio’s Portugal and maybe the France team of 82. Maybe. But everything Platini is now makes me think I’d just end up ripping on him.
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Holland 74 always seems to find it’s way to the top of these sort of lists. But there was another team in 74 that was just as good that never gets mentioned: Poland.
Before everyone freaks out just look at the facts. Poland went through the two groups they were in like a buzz saw (beating Italy and Argentina in the process) only to loose to West Germany on a field that was so soggy that it was unplayable. They had two of the top goal scorers in the tournament (Lato with 7, and Szarmach with 6). Add to that the superb creativity of Deyna and you have a team to be feared (as Brazil found out in the 3rd place game).
All of this would be purely theoretical except for that fact that these two teams met in a pre-world cup friendly and in the euro cup qualifiers. The euro cup games (1975, with Cruyf on the Dutch team) were spectacular with Poland winning 4:1 in Poland and Holland winning 3:1 on their home turf. The pre-world cup friendly ended in a 1:1 draw after an amazing goal by Kazi Deyna (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNugkJztQEU&feature=related go to 2:20 for the goal, the commentary is in Polish).
If you compare the two sides, player for player, then the top three would be 1)Cruyf, 2) Deyna, 3)Lato.
I’m not saying that Poland were better, but I am saying that they should be in the discussion. Possibly the most underrated team of all time.
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