Ruud Doevendans has been an official columnist for a Dutch club and owns one of the largest
collections of soccer videos containing hundreds of World Cup matches. We at PWC are proud to have him as
a columnist. He will share his views about the past, present and future of
the World Cup.
Mail Ruud
Read earlier columns
|
|
|
A post and a referee helped Total Football a lot
It could have been totally, totally different. Holland’s Total Football of
1974 could have never existed. During the qualifications, Holland were more
than once very close to elimination.
Holland, Belgium, Norway, Iceland. That was the draw for qualification group
3, European zone, for the World Cup 1974. It brought two old enemies
together, Holland and Belgium having a long and illustrious history behind
them from 1905 on, when Eddy de Neve’s four goals gave the Dutch their first
international win. For many years Holland and Belgium played two Derbies of
the Low Lands, and these were the most dramatic matches of the year for both
countries. Norway and Iceland would be nothing more than cannonfodder in
this group. Just to add to your goaldifference, but in that respect still
very important. And that’s how it happened. Although Belgium needed three
penalties to score a total four times against Norway, and the Scandinavian
amateurs could have surprised the Dutch when they nearly held on for a 1-1
draw, until a masterly backheel by Cruijff put Hulshoff free, who scored a
hardfought winner in Oslo. But all in all, it was clear that the last match
between Holland and Belgium would decide, who would go to Germany.
The first match between Belgium and Holland had taken place on november 19,
1972 in “De hel van Deurne”, the Antwerpen-stadium. It turned out not to be
a soccermatch, but a fight, a battle. When it became clear that it would be
very difficult to grab a win, Holland went for a 0-0. Both goalkeepers,
Christian Piot and Jan van Beveren, were in magnificent form that night,
although the Dutch Giant had no chance when leftback Jean Thissen beat him
with a powerful left-footed shot, that hit the post. Holland, that had
played a very physical match, escaped for the first time. Their best
teammate had been the left post next to Van Beveren.
Because Holland won 1-2 in Norway, with that late Barry Hulshoff goal I
mentioned before, Belgium had to win the last match, on november 18, 1973 in
the old Amsterdam Olympic Stadium. Holland had the far better
goaldifference, a 9-0 humiliation of Norway helped a lot. I remember the
match in Amsterdam very well, it was – after the Oslo game two months
earlier – the second game a saw live on television in my life. I remember I
had difficulties keeping Paul Van Himst and Gilbert Van Binst apart, their
names being almost the same. My father gave me my first football-lessons:
“Van Himst is the one with the armband, he plays in attack near the Dutch
goal. Van Binst is a defender, he plays just in front of the Belgian goal.”
We all expected Belgium to play “all or nothing”, but no: nothing like it.
They defended with everything they had, and Holland didn’t know what to do.
Hold on for a draw, or try to win the match and take the risk that one
Belgian counter-attack would throw everything to tatters. Holland had to
miss goalkeeper Jan van Beveren and sweeper Rinus Israël because of
injuries, but their substitutes Piet Schrijvers and Aad Mansveld were never
seriously tested. On the other end, Belgium goalie Christian Piot made some
fine saves, especially on a Johnny Rep header, that could have decided the
whole thing. But Piot managed to tip the short range effort wide.
The last 15 minutes, and still no pressure from Paul Van Himst and his men.
We couldn’t believe our eyes. Didn’t these guys want to go to the World Cup?
Were they thinking that a second spot would still give them a play-off, or
what? Then, one minute from time, Johan Neeskens fouled Van Himst like he
had done numerous times before, and the Belgian captain took the free kick
himself. Holland tried the off-side trap. Piet Schrijvers misjudged the
curling ball that landed at the far post, for Jan Verheyen to tap it in.
Bang!!! No World Cup for Holland, down and out, end of the show, eliminated
once again.
And this is were the Russian referee came in. And were Holland escaped for
the second time during this qualificationseries. Pawel Nikolaiewich Kazakow
changed the history of the game. He gave off-side. The slow-motion of the
situation let space for doubts, Verheyen seemed to be on-side when Van Himst
touched the ball, and of course that was the moment that mattered. There was
no protest whatsoever from the Belgian players, play went on immediately but
we felt we had been extremely lucky. After having missed the World Cup 1970
and Euro 1972, this would have been a disaster for Dutch football, with all
their talented players and all their European Cups under their belt. Looking
back in time, we can say that there would never have been a Cruijff or a Van
Hanegem at the World Cup.
A few years ago, a new computerprogram was introduced at Studio Sport,
Holland’s most famous sportsprogram. With this, it is possible to stop a
certain situation on the field and watch it from different angles. One of
the first situations they examined with it, was this Belgian goal from
Verheyen that was disallowed. The computer showed clearly that Verheyen had
not been off-side, not by a mile. We have to be very grateful to this
referee from Russia. Without him, without his decision, Holland wouldn’t
have made it to the World Cup 1974 at all, and their famous campaign that
brought them to the final would never have taken place. And even now, we
would have looked in a very different way to Dutch football, since this 1974
competition brought Holland worldwide fame for the first time.
Belgian coach Raymond Goethals, never a daredevil in his whole career, after
the Amsterdam-clash declared, that he praised Christian Piot for not letting
in a single goal in 6 games. He told the world that he was very satisfied
with the result. So were we.
|
[HOME]
BACKGROUND
Info on how
the World Cup was founded and about the trophy as well. |
THE
WORLD CUPS
Detailed info
on every match in every tournament. |
COLUMNISTS
Interesting columns about the past, present and future of the World Cup. |
THE
NATIONS
Every nation
with appearances in the World Cup. Detailed info on every country. |
LEGENDS
Player profiles
of many of the most influential players in history. |
A-Z STORIES
An A-Z collection
of strange and different stories in World Cup history. |
STATISTICS
A big collection
of various statistics and records. |
MASCOTS
Every mascot
since it was introduced in 1966. |
QUIZ
Test your
knowledge about the WC. Three different levels. No prizes, just for fun. |
TOP
10 RANKINGS
Rankings of
lots of stuff. For instance Best Goals, Best Players and Best Matches. |
LINKS
Our collection
of links to other soccer sites with World Cup connection. |
LINK
TO
Some banners
and buttons for you to link to us if you want. |
ABOUT
US
A little information
on who keeps this site available. |
|
