Mexico 70

MÜNCHEN 74

After the sunshine of Mexico, the World Cup came back to Europe in 1974. West Germany had to find an answer to the ‘Total Football’ of the Dutch, while Panini also left their rivals stuck for a response.

Panini may be synonymous with stickers, but their first World Cup album – Mexico 70 – had been predominantly made up of cards. However, München 74 went down as a landmark album for the company as it was their first allsticker World Cup album.

Compared to Mexico 70, the follow-up was very text-heavy, with painstaking translations of the entire album into six different languages – international sales of their first World Cup album had given Panini the confidence to dip their toes into more regions. The album increased in scope from 288 cards and stickers to 400 stickers.

As an officially licensed product, all the tournament branding was on show, including mascots Tip and Tap – a pair of smiling youths – who had a further nine stickers later in the album in various action poses.

An eight-sticker puzzle of the Jules Rimet Trophy followed, along with a similar montage of its replacement for the 1974 tournament a few pages on. The new trophy stood 36.8cm high, weighed 6.1kg and depicted two humans holding up the Earth.

An historical section consisted of four stickers for each of the previous World Cup finals – made up of the official poster, winning team shot and significant action or players.

Each stadium was depicted with a single photograph along with a map indicating its location (one of which was in West Berlin, a political enclave during the Cold War).

Then came the national team pages – West Germany had 25 stickers while Australia and Zaire had only nine. Each team had three staple stickers – a (nonshiny) badge of their football federation, a team group and a caricature depicting a cartoon figure engaging with a national stereotype, such as a kangaroo for Australia, maracas for Brazil and bagpipes for Scotland.

West Germany, Brazil and Italy really had the boat pushed out

MÜNCHEN 74 ALBUM FACTS

PAGES: 48 ALBUM PRICE: 12P NUMBER OF STICKERS: 400

for them as both the football federation president and ‘trainer’ appeared in their bumper 25-sticker sections, which spanned three pages each.

Scotland – the UK’s only qualifier – had to settle for 17 stickers, including prominent names such as Danny McGrain, Billy Bremner, Denis Law and – appearing on his firstever Panini sticker – ‘Ken’ (not Kenny) Dalglish.

On the pitch, the Netherlands brought their brand of ‘Total Football’ to West Germany, orchestrated by Johan Cruyff. As the Dutch failed to qualify for the 1970 World Cup and Cruyff opted to retire from international football the year before the 1978 event, this was his only World Cup finals participation. The Barcelona playmaker had a stellar supporting cast, including Rob Rensenbrink, Johnny Rep, Johan Neeskens and Ruud Krol, and they finished top of their first group – Rep leading the way with three goals.

Group 1 pitted East and West Germany against each other with the latter qualifying for the next phase with a game to spare. East Germany’s prospects of making the second group stage hung in the balance going into their final match against the leaders in Hamburg. Jürgen Sparwasser – seen wearing a blue DDR tracksuit in München 74 – kept his cool to chip West Germany keeper Sepp Maier for the only goal of the game with 13 minutes left, a stunning victory for the amateurs of the East against their professional counterparts.

By coming second, West Germany managed to avoid the Netherlands and Brazil in the second round. The South Americans had disappointed in Group 2, finishing runners-up to Yugoslavia after failing to score in their opening two matches. With debutants Zaire losing all three games, the final group match between Yugoslavia and Scotland decided which of the two went through. Yugoslavia held the upper hand going into the game in Frankfurt as they had defeated Zaire 9–0, Dušan Bajevic (minus the accents in München 74) scoring a hat-trick.

As would become a familiar tale of final group-match woe for the Scots in years to come, Stanislav Karasi’s 81st-minute goal all but ended their hopes with a late Joe Jordan equaliser too little, too late.

Poland showed their elimination of England in qualifying was no flash in the pan as they finished top of Group 4, knocking Italy out of the tournament with a 2–1 victory in the third of their five straight wins in the 1974 World Cup finals. Grzegorz Lato scored three goals in the group stage, while the heavily-sideburned Kazimierz Deyna scored the second in the win over Italy.

Moving to the second round, Poland and West Germany went into their final Group B meeting with two wins each, to set up a decider for a place in the World Cup final. Gerd Müller came up with a goal when it mattered in a 1–0 win.

There was another effective semi-final in Group A following back-to-back wins for the Netherlands and Brazil. A draw would have been enough for the Dutch, but they completed the job in their customary swaggering manner thanks to second-half goals from Neeskens and Cruyff.

The 1974 World Cup final began in dramatic fashion when Cruyff was brought down by Uli Hoeness – pictured in München 74 with a vast mane of hair. Neeskens converted from the spot, but the home nation fought back strongly as Paul Breitner equalised following another penalty award.

Müller then engineered space for himself in the Dutch area to put West Germany ahead just before the break. The Netherlands could not wear down their opponents in the second half, when they needed it most, but their legacy endures as one of the greatest teams ever to take part in a World Cup.

1974 WORLD CUP

Winners:

WEST GERMANY

Runners-up:

NETHERLANDS

Third:

POLAND

Fourth:

BRAZIL

Golden Boot:

GRZEGORZ LATO (7)