Franz Beckenbauer spent the final looking over his shoulder, but Johan Cruyff finished behind him. PHOTO: STAR ARCHIVE

WORLD CUP 1974 CONTINUED
If you believe Van Hanegem, Holland lost the match there and then. Half the team wanted to push on and look for a second goal, the rest to play keep-ball and humiliate the Germans.
More to the point perhaps, Vogts' marking of Cruyff began to bite. Virtually all of Holland's fifteen goals in the tournament started or finished with their captain, who protested about Vogts' treatment at half-time and was booked. By then Taylor had made a bigger den in Holland's chances.
As against Poland, Holzenbein ran into the penalty area from the left and went over an outstretched foot, this time Jansen's. There was something oddly inevitable about it, as if Taylor was always likely to give a second penalty the other way.
But this one was far more controversial. On the screen, Holzenbein dives after the event -- but Jansen does seem to catch him, so a penalty wasn't unjustified.
After Hoeness' miss against Poland, Breitner took the kick and beat a stationary Jongbloed.
The turning point, if there was one, came when Cruyff broke away, drew Beckenbauer, and gave the ball to Rep on his left. Maier saved the rather unimaginative shot. Almost on half-time, Bonhof's running made its biggest impact, taking him past Haan to the right-hand goal line. When he pulled the ball back, Muller stopped it with an exaggerated action that looked like a miskick, then shot low across Jongbloed (immobile again) as Krol made a desperate attempt to block. It was Muller's 68th goal in 62 matches for West Germany, an astounding average in such a defensive era. Like Schiavio in 1934, he retired from international football after scoring the winner in the final for the host country.
Maier, vastly improved since 1970, made another of his marvellous saves from Neeskens' close-range volley, and Holland pressed throughout the second half -- but Beckenbauer and Overath kept the play away from them and Cruyff couldn't escape Vogts, who had his most famous match. General disappointment at Holland's defeat, especially as West Germany had no Netzer to compensate -- but the hosts had shown there was more than one way to win a football match, and it was only right that Beckenbauer, Overath, Grabowski and Muller should have World Cup winners' medals, hard though it was on Krol, Neeskens, Van Hanegem and the inimitable Cruyff, who was cut down on the one day Holland, and the football world, wanted to see him blossom.