1974 FIFA World Cup Highlights Part 2

them goalies were tough guys... no gloves!

Interesting how little time in this subjective documentary was dedicated to Poland. In 1974 they beat Argentina, Italy and Brazil securing they 3rd place in the tournament. Grzegorz Lato received the crone for most scoring player of the competition. They were said to play the most beautiful and offensive football of all the teams in the championship.

I like Johan Cruijff´s playing style nice!

so why Holland have been beat in Poland in eME '76 in 1974 4:1 when you, tyzhen, wrote that Poland was only good and Holland was better? 4:1 is "disclassing" score...

Poland were clearly a very good team at the 1974 World Cup and were unlucky that Holland and West Germany were at the peak as well. That is not good of the highlights show to omit Poland like that. They managed to defeat England at the qualifiers, then at the World Cup they beat Argentina, Italy and Brazil.

And Breitner said he was more afraid of Poland than Holland though this perhaps meant he was worried losing to Poland would have been seen as a greater failure... who knows. But Holland and Germany were slightly better. Then again Poland were without Lubanski, their best player of the early 70s. And of course this was before Boniek's time...

It was a world cup with only two serious teams -West Germany and Holland. Poland was good but not enough for a final.The rest was mediocrity. The whole world cup was focussed in one game only - the final. Because everything before the final was just an overture for the expected game between the two best teams.

I reckon that your pretty much spot on there. Italy were absolute shite in that world cup, much like in 1966, and they almost got embarrassed by Haiti. England in the 70s had some amazing players, but their national time was incoherent, badly managed, so we missed out on some major clashes in '74 and '78.

yeah sure - there were at least 2 better teams in the final...

Poland was the best in the world that time