Wednesday, November 16, 2022

WORLD CUP STORIES: 1974

If the 1970 World Cup finals in Mexico had seen possibly the strongest England side to compete in the tournament up to then (better balanced than Alf Ramsey's wingless winners of 1966), 1974 saw no England participation at all. 

While Colin Bell and Francis Lee had displayed their art in the searing heat of Guadalajara, there would be no games for England fans to savour in West Germany in the summer of '74. Rodney Marsh would miss out too, at perhaps the peak of his career. For City fans, however, there were still some areas to focus on. 

Instead of England, it was to be the first of two World Cups, where Scotland were Great Britain's sole participants. This would be Denis Law's swansong. After a final season (1973-74) in the sky blue of City, the ageing Law (34) was picked by Willie Ormond to travel to West Germany with the squad. With 54 caps, he was also the most-capped player in the squad, ahead of Billy Bremner (48) and the Leeds captain was also, at 31, the only other senior professional anywhere near Law's age and experience.


Law waits for a corner to be taken in the opening game of World Cup 74 for Scotland v Zaire.


Ormond chose Law, Kenny Dalglish, Joe Jordan and Peter Lorimer for the opening game v. Zaire, in the obvious hope that such exaggerated attacking firepower would lift Scotland's goal difference before the more critical ties with Brazil and Yugoslavia. Law, looking leggy and blunt, played a low-key part in a 2-0 win over the central Africans that did little to convince. Yugoslavia would beat Zaire 9-0 in their second game, while Scotland were putting up a much better performance against the Brazilians (0-0).      

By this time, Law's international stint had stalled at 55 caps. He failed to make the pitch in either of Scotland's remaining games, which were both drawn and resulted in an early flight back to Glasgow. Unbeaten, yet eliminated, with Law at the end of his international career and a few weeks away from retiring altogether, it was the beginning of a hard luck story for the Scots that would dog them in 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1998 before they disappeared completely into modern World Cup oblivion. 

City's Willie Donachie fared even worse than his teammate in West Germany, playing no part in a defence that comprised Rangers' right back Sandy Jardine and a central pairing of Manchester United's Jim Holton and John Blackley of Hibernian. with Danny McGrain of Celtic in the City man's place on the left.

Denis Law and Kaziu Deyna feature in a Barratt card collection for the 1974 World Cup

In both the 2-0 win over Zaire and the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to qualify against Yugoslavia (1-1), Ormond brought on Tommy Hutchison as a substitute. The leggy Coventry winger, who would join City under John Bond in 1980, added wide attacking options as Scotland's need for goals became more acute. It was Hutchioson in fact that provided the cross for Joe Jordan's late equaliser against the Slavs, but it proved too little too late and Scotland were out.

Elsewhere, Poland, about to embark on a surprise journey to a well-deserved third place finish, were captained by the Legia Warsaw midfielder Kazimierz Deyna, who would find his way to Maine Road after the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Deyna's casual finesse in the middle of the park belied a skillset that also involved powerful shooting from all distances, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Argentina and Italy, as they surprisingly succumbed to the Poles in a competitive Group 4. An Italian side containing many elements of the Juventus team that would knock City out of the 1976 UEFA Cup were sensationally sent packing at the group stage here thanks to the emergence of Poland and Argentina as footballing powers of the 70s.

Tommy Hutchison takes on a Zaire defender after his 75th minute introduction as substitute

Deyna was the lynchpin of a magnificent Polish side that included the skills of Robert Gadocha, the energy and organisation of Henryk Kasperczak, the goal-laden attacking of Grzegorz Lato and Andrzej Szarmach, plus the giant Jerzy Gorgon at the back and The Clown himself, Jan Tomaszewski, in goal. That Brian Clough had called the goalkeeper out thus before the fateful night when he almost single-handedly kept out England in the Wembley draw that saw Poland progress at England's expense was typical of the blustering Clough, who on this occasion could not have been more wrong. Tomazsewski's bronze medal from the tournament proved he had more to offer than oversized boots and a bright red nose.

The World Cup would be carried off by the host nation, victors over Deyna's Poland in a quasi-semi-final and over the tournament's outstanding team, Holland, in the Munich final. It would not be until after the following World Cup, in Argentina, that the flow of stars from the tournament would begin its slow trickle towards the shores of Albion. It would bring rich pickings for City in the shape of Deyna, but seeing him in his 1974 prime in a City shirt would have been a rare pleasure in those sweat-stained mid-70s days of push and shove.



 

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