Despite the highly political clash of West and East Germany in which East Germany prevailed by a goal to none, it was the West Germans who went onto win the finals in the World Cup held in West Germany 1974.
Image not recoveredIn the final Holland’s Johan Neeskens converted a penalty which was the first penalty in a World Cup final but a second penalty which favoured the Germans followed after that and the match was in West Germany’s hands after Gerd Muller pushed the ball past the goalkeeper for the winner just before halftime.
The final in Argentina 1978 was between Argentina and Netherlands with Argentina playing a 4-3-3 and Netherlands playing a 3-4-3 formation. Rob Rensenbrink of Netherlands scored 5 goals in this World Cup but Mario Kempes won the golden boot for his 6 goals which won the World Cup for Argentina.
Spain 1982 was a World Cup in which West Germany deservedly got thrashed in the finals by Italy. Deservedly because the match between Austria and Germany was fixed in the group stages for both teams to go through at the cost of Algeria. And then West Germany put up a no show in the final getting beaten by 3 goals to 1.
Gopal Sea writes for FootballKerala.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Saturday 15 May 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.