Step back in time to the 1974 Football World Cup which was held in West Germany. The mid-seventies was the era of 'Total Football' and European club-scene dominance by Ajax Amsterdam and Bayern Munich.

While Holland, who featured the likes of Cruyff, Neeskens, Krol and Van Hanegem, played a more attractive and cavalier form of Total Football, the West Germans had won the European Nations Cup in 1972, playing a devastatingly effective brand of it.

Brazil was struggling with Pele now gone and Gerson and Tostao also out of the picture, they were fortunate not to lose to the ever unlucky Scotland in the group stages and only just sneaked into the newly-added second group stage. Elsewhere, Holland qualified from their group with ease. The West Germans didn't find it quite so easy and suffered an embarassing loss to their East German brothers and struggled to beat Chile and Australia, making their first and so far only appearance in the finals.

The final was won by the host nation, who beat the Netherlands in the final, 2:1. West Germany was lead by Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller, who scored the game winner in the final. Although the Dutch finished second, their star Johan Cruyff and their Total Football system dazzled the competition.