We continue our journey towards Qatar 2022. Today we will study one of the most famous World Cups in history in which the Germans, hosts, beat the Dutch, neighbors of the hosts.
The form of organization of this World Cup was quite different from the previous ones. For the first time in history the round of 16 was eliminated. The World Cup was made up of 16 participating teams. Of those 16, eight advanced to the next round in the group stage. This round would consist of another phase made up of two groups of four teams each. The two national teams that managed to win their branches would meet in the final.
Volksparkstadion (Hamburg), Munich Olympic (Munich), Berlin Olympic (Berlin), Rheinstadion (Dusseldorf), Westfalenstadion (Dortmund), Parkstadion (Gelsenkirchen), Niedersachsenstadion (Hanover), Waldstadion (Frankfurt) and Neckarstadion (Stuttgart).
From the beginning of the tournament, there were two big leading names: the Dutch team and the German team. This championship was the moment in which the “Clockwork Orange” became known to the world. This is the first World Cup held in Germany, a circumstance that at the time was a surprise to many sectors of society. The recent world war that had ended around three decades earlier was still very much on the minds of Europeans, but at the 35th FIFA Congress the Germans were given the chance to celebrate.
Democratic Germany, West Germany, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Scotland, Haiti, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Uruguay, Yugoslavia, and Zaire.
In the first group, the confrontation between democratic Germany and Federal Germany stood out, which ended with the victory of the democratic ones, despite the fact that later it would be the federal one that would take the world cup. Both were the teams that qualified for the next round.
In the second group Yugoslavia and Brazil tied on points with Scotland, but the convincing victories of the Yugoslavs and the Brazilians against Haiti allowed them to considerably exceed the Scots on goal difference. The Netherlands, Sweden, Poland and Argentina were the other four qualified for the second group stage.
In this second round made up of only two groups, both the Netherlands and West Germany won all the matches and met in the grand final of the tournament.
West Germany 2-1 Netherlands
Champion: West Germany
It is a fair champion for what was shown throughout the tournament, although it cannot be said that they were superior to the Dutch at a football level. In this World Cup they hid behind Gerd Muller and Paul Breitner.
Runner-up: Netherlands
The “Clockwork Orange” became known throughout the world thanks to the sublime championship they completed at the hands of Johan Neeskens and Johan Cruyff, who taught the planet another way of playing this sport.
Gregorz Lato (Poland) – 7 goals
Andrzej Szarmach (Poland) – 5 goals
Johan Neeskens (Netherlands) – 5 goals
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