Sunday 28 June 2015

170 World Cup 74


First  watched  : June  1974

This  is  the  first  World  Cup  I  remember  although  I  actually  watched  very  little  of  it, perhaps  no  more  than  a  portion  of   one  match  involving  one  of  the  Germanys. It  was  too  nice  outside. My  interest  in  football  was  still  a  few  years  away  from  fully  forming.

What  I  do  recall  is  the  publicity  around  Scotland  qualifying  and  their  chart  hit  "Easy  Easy  "  which  went  "Yabba  Dabba  Doo.  We  support  the  boys  in  blue  because  it's  easy  - easy  !" I  remember  hearing  about  their  elimination  and  not  understanding  how  they  could  be  knocked  out  when  they  hadn't  lost  any  of  their  games ( a  first  for  the  Finals ). Manager  Willie  Ormond  gets  some  stick  for  giving  a  sentimental  last  cap  to  34-year  old  Denis  Law  against  whipping  boys  Zaire ( the  last  African  side  to  look  seriously  out  of  their  depth  at  the  Finals )  but  the  whole  team  took  it  too  easy  and  didn't  press  them  hard  enough. Even  so  Brazil  still  had  to  rely  on  an  awful  error  by  the  Zaire  keeper  to  go  through  at  the  Scots'  expense.

The  other  thing  I  remember  is  all  the  talk  about  the  Dutch  superstar  Johann  Cruyff  who  was  staking  a  good  claim  to  be  the  best  player  in  the  world. Unfortunately  he  was  also  petulant  and  declined  to  play  in  1978. The  Dutch  didn't  qualify  in  1982  so  he  became  a  one  tournament  wonder.


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