Argentina on the other hand had no broken legs. Rather, no such were seen through Argentine lenses: the country was plummeting into her own political and economic nightmare, but football was… healthy? May be not, but the gauchos always consider their football great, so by default 1974 was great too – going to win the World Cup. True, every club was in fantastic debt, players were going abroad by alarming numbers, and River Plate and Boca Juniors were miserable, but – hey! Independiente ruled the world! Not Argentina, though… Newell’s Old Boys won Metropolitano.

The Argentine structure was becoming inadequate, at least linguistically: Metropolitano, technically the Buenos Aires championship, was won by the club from Rosario.

The Nacional was won by San Lorenzo.

Well, Buenos Aires lost her own championship, but won the national one.

Top, left to right: Glaria, Pris, Anhielo, Olguin, Telch.
Bottom: Cocco, Scotta, Chazarreta, Beltran, Ortiz, Villar (cut off, unfortunately).
Now, both winners are traditionally strong, but hardly among the biggest and most successful. They provided some national players, yet, the fun was mostly for their fans – neither club made big international impression at the time. More likely it was the general mess of the Argentine football, the weakness of River and Boca, the decline of Estudiantes, and the preoccupation with international competitions of Independentiente, propelling Newell’s Old Boys and San Lorenzo to their titles. Fans will disagree, of course.

Uruguay - politics messed with football too. With left wing terrorism, dire economic situation, and increasing involvement of the army, the country was hardly normal anymore. The military ruled effectively, although not formally, and their policy was simple – tacitly support Penarol, but no more. In a way football was left alone, except Penarol – the ‘people’s club’ won its 32nd title, but little can be said about this otherwise great achievement. More or less, it was the same team of the year before (so look back at the old posting for 1973, if interested). The only big news was Walter Olivera – the star defender broke his leg and was out.
Olivera with his crutches.
His injury was more of a national team problem, than Penarol’s and the media hype around his broken leg was weaved around the coming World Cup. He missed it, of course, and in a way perhaps Olivera on crutches is the best metaphor for the Uruguayan football of this year.

Chile had brand new champion – CD Huachipato (Talcahuano).

The club was founded in 1947 and normally played in First Division, but had never been a strong force. They won their only title in 1974, but… the country was in turmoil and hardly very interested in football. The club’s nickname is ‘Steelers’ – which sounds rather menacing in the context. They had a player named Francisco Pinochet – and the country was ruled by General Augusto Pinochet. To win the title Huachipato had to win their last match against Aviacion, newly promoted and too military sounding club. Huachipato won… strange co-incidents…

Top row, left to right: Luis Mendy, Hugo Riveros, Francisco Pinochet, Eddio Inostroza, Flavio Silva, Guillermo Azocar.
Bottom: Luis Caseres, Daniel Diaz, Carlos Alberto Sintas, Mario Salinas, Luis Godoy.
Top right corner, from left: Moises Silva; Miguel Neira and Pablo Astudillo. Everything is relative, though: for Huachipato fans 1974 is the year ‘never to be forgotten’. A title is a title… especially if it is only one. Politics vs football…

South America produced some new champions and some old ones, but in a situation very different from the European scene. The four South American World Cup finalists were politically… strange? Chile had military coup d’etat in 1973 and fresh dictatorship. Brazil had old military dictatorship… Argentina was going fast towards its own military dictatorship, and Uruguay? Well, it was de facto military dictatorship, with pro forma civilian President. Since football is never far from politics in South America, there were some interesting developments – coaches were fired or hired in part because of their politics. Some army men were strongly interested in football, some were not… Some thought football important safety valve; others – a dangerous channel for expressing political anger. In any case football was affected – and there were new champions. In Uruguay the junta quietly supported Penarol – the most popular and also the ‘people’s’ club in the country. Apart from this – no real interest in football. Thus, many oppositional politicians barred from political life went into football to continued it under cover. The current Uruguayan President was the President of Racing (Montevideo) in 1974. Shaky political situation in Argentina seemingly affected the big clubs – neither River Plate, nor Boca Juniors played major role in Argentine football in the early 70s. Smaller clubs ruled instead. In Chile – the clubs from the capital lost ground, particularly the most popular Colo-Colo. In 1974 the champions were provincial – Huachipato, not exactly famous club. Later clubs from mining towns got increasingly stronger. In Brazil – well, new champions in 1974, but the government involvement was tricky and shady – the most visible influence was the national team. A player was included in the national team for the World Cup 1970 because the President ‘suggested’ so – in 1973-74 the ‘suggestion’ was regarding Pele, who stated that he was no more to play for the national team. The government stated otherwise: that there is always a place for Pele in the team. If the King wants – he will be included. No matter when. No matter what form he had. No matter anything. The national coach had no problem with that at all – he said the same. Was he just bowing to power? Was he honestly inviting Pele? The truth is hidden… only tangential hints: Joao Saldanha, well known left-wing politically, was replaced by Mario Zagallo just before the World Cup 1970. Zagallo included the President’s favourite player, but did not field him at all. Zagallo included only the players he wanted in 1974 and Pele was not among them. Unlike 1970, this year Brazil lost and Zagallo was removed. How much politics and how much football?

Going down – FC Paris. The strange and administrative nightmare concocted in 1971 to give Paris a big club finally distilled into two separate clubs – Paris Saint Germain was to be a French power… FC Paris sunk.
Back, left to right: Gallina, Kula, Djorkaeff, Rostagni, Zorzetto, Horlaville.
Bottom: Floch, Guignedoux, Felix, Spiegler, Cohuet.
Not long ago Djorkaeff and Rostagni were national players and now they were going to play in the Second Division… such misfortune. The rest of the squad is not so bad either – and Zorzetto, Cohuet, Floch, some others will return to the top of French football pyramid. Alas, not the club – FC Paris departed to oblivion. The club does exist today – but it is small and lowly.
Actually, the photo is from before the sinking season, but interesting one: see Mordechai Spiegler. The Israeli national player moved to Paris SG in the summer of 1973. In the summer of 1974 he joined Cosmos (New York), where he played until 1977 – long enough to be teammate with Pele. Not bad for a guy born in Sochi (USSR).

Going up in Europe? Eintracht (Braunschweig). They were relegated just a year ago, but returned quickly in the last year there were no Second Division and regional champions competed for two spots in the Bundesliga.

Celebrating left to right: Weber, Franke (standing), Deppe, Erler, Grzyb, and Habermann. Looks like very plain celebration? No balloons, no naked girls, no outrage? Well, those were the early 70s… professional players were supposed to have fun only on the pitch. And they smile a little, shout a little, have some Coca-Cola, and go home. At least that was what the public and the media expected from them. Was it true or not – who cares? The boys went up – now, that mattered. At least in Braunschweig. Unlucky Franke… celebrating return to first division when his former teammates in the West German national team were celebrating World Cup title.

Italians were sick, but West Germany had clean bill of health. The Bundesliga was getting better by the year, although it was not yet considered the best in Europe, and the place to be, to play, and to make money. This will come in the second half of the 70s, for now it was just financially stable and very well organized championship. Satisfied with the state of their football, West German Federation took the next careful, sound, and orderly step – in the summer of 1974 professional second division was organized for the first time. It was divided into 2 groups – South and North – of 18 teams each. The only trouble was the summer of 1973, when predatory Spanish clubs were finally allowed to hunt foreign markets. Netzer went to Real (Madrid) without much fuss, but Barcelona wanted Gerd Muller. It was strange appetite, to say the least – Barca already acquired Sotil and completed satisfactory the long soap-opera with Cruiff. Why they needed third foreign player since it was impossible to field everybody under the Spanish rules? And why Muller of all people? The possible mixture of Cruiff and Muller was more than suspect: Muller was mostly a consumer, but Cruiff was not strictly provider. Both were centre-forwards, but of very different kinds – Muller was rather static, occupying the penalty area and waiting the ball to come. Cruiff needed space – empty space – in which to arrive suddenly from behind or from the flanks. He provided great passes, but to make him just Muller’s supplier was more than unlikely – it was lethal, given Cruiff’s stubborn and outspoken character. Anyway, Barca pursued Muller in a way quickly becoming another soap opera. Muller got troubled and publicly complained that he is psychologically exhausted and deeply troubled by the whole thing. Then the German Federation stepped in and introduced a ban on sales of German players to foreign clubs until the end of the World Cup 1974. The ban attracted little interest at the time – it was common practice of many countries back then, familiar to everyone. Many countries even went a step further in protecting talent by declaring stars a ‘national treasure’, therefore, entirely outside the market (Pele in Brasil; Antoniadis in Greece – to give you examples from different sides of football). But the German ban need a word: although expressed in general terms, it was imposed only on national players. Minor players were free to go abroad. In reality it was ban preventing only Spanish clubs (no other foreign market at the time was interested or able to afford German stars) from muddling German heads with no-playing matters. It was time, in German opinion, to concentrate on football and get ready for winning the World Cup. The ban worked – at least for Muller, who apparently recovered from his psychological trauma and started scoring goals.
Bayern won the championship – again. And again – after close fight with Borussia (Moenchengladbach), who finished only 2 points behind. Bayern still played attacking and high scoring brand of football – they scored 95 goals this season. Outscoring the opposition was evidently the idea, not defense, judging by the fact of the goals received – 52. Now, to have Maier between the posts and Hansen – Beckenbauer – Schwarzenbeck – Breitner in front of him and to allow almost 2 goals per match? Other clubs had better defensive records, but it was not a bad season for the formidable defensive line – it was just the concept of attacking and outscoring. Muller ended once again top scorer of the season with 30 goals, but this year had to share the first place with Jupp Heynckes from the rivals Borussia. ‘Der Kaiser’ Franz was voted player of the season – for third time so far, but it was his first since 1968.

More and more familiar champion faces…
Top, left to right: Beckenbauer, Kapellmann, Torstensson, Schwarzenbeck, Durnberger, Roth, Muller, Breitner, Hoeness, and half-cut coach Udo Lattek, who was by no means half a coach.
Bottom: Zobel, Hadewicz, Jensen, Robl, Maier, Hansen.

Essentially the same team of the year before and earlier, only slightly refined by the inclusion of Kapellmann and Torstensson. The number of foreigners was unusually high – three Danes – Johnny Hansen, Viggo Jensen, and Torben Hansen; a Swede – Conny Torstensson; and an Yugoslav – Dusan Jovanovic – but with the exception of Johnny Hansen and Torstensson, the rest almost never played. Season over, domestic and European trophies collected, 7 players went to try to win the World Cup and one went to try to prevent his teammates from winning the World Cup. Torstensson joined the Swedish national team; Beckenbauer, Kapellmann, Schwarzenbeck, Muller, Breitner, Hoeness, and Maier donned the white jerseys of West Germany. Everything was going great in Bavaria.

On the surface, West Germany appeared to be establishing duopoly – since 1969 Bayern and Borussia fought for and alternatively won the national championship. But they were not alone and other clubs also were improving rapidly. True, Schalke 04 were cut-off in mid-flight by the bribing scandal in 1971, but there were other candidates for possible greatness. By 1974 Hamburger SV showed signs of recovery; Fortuna (Dusseldorf) was quietly getting stronger - and finished third this season; and finally - Eintracht (Frankfurt). Eintracht played consistently strong football since the end of the 60s and built fine squad. It looked like they were to become a third great German team, thus making the championship even more interesting and, in general, to contribute to the constant improvement of German football with new crops of talented players.

Eintracht (Frankfurt) won the Cup.

Left to right: Thomas Rohrbach, Bernd Nickel, Bernd Holzenbein, Peter Reichel, Jurgen Kalb, Roland Weidle, Klaus Beverungen, Charly Korbel, Gerd Trinklein, Dr. Peter Kunter, Jurgen Grabowski – captain.

Unlike Bayern and Borussia, Eintracht depended mostly in German players at that time – they had only one foreigner, the Austrian midfielder Thomas Parits. The core of team was German and good mixture of experience, younger talent, and ambition. Grabowski and Holzenbein were in the World Cup German squad – and on the road to become world famous. Rohrbach, Nickel, Korbel, and Trinklein were knocking at the door of the national team and were considered very promising players for the future (none of them established himself in the national team, although all played for it eventually). Reichel, Kalb – players, providing solidity. And the class – Doctor Peter Kunter. Always ‘Doctor’, for those were still old-fashioned years and to be Dr. was something – certainly more than to be football player, even of world star caliber. Dr. Kunter was experienced and well respected goalkeeper. Very good team really and finally mature, and ready to win. And win they did! Yes, German football was in great health and the future was bright… just wait a year, two the most.