FIFA World Cup

Season Description
The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the current trophy, the FIFA World Cup Trophy, created by the Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, was awarded. The previous trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, had been won for the third time by Brazil in 1970 and awarded permanently to the Brazilians. West Germany won the title, beating the Netherlands 2–1 in the final at the Olympiastadion in Munich. This was the second victory for West Germany, who had also won in 1954. The teams of Australia, East Germany, Haiti and Zaire made their first appearances at the final stage, with the latter two also making their only appearance (although Haiti will make their second appearance in the 2026 World Cup), and East Germany making their only appearance before Germany was reunified in 1990. Brazil, the defending champions, were eliminated in the second round by the Netherlands, and lost the match for third place to Poland. Poland's Grzegorz Lato led the tournament in scoring seven goals. Müller's goal in the final was the 14th in his career of two World Cups, beating Just Fontaine's record of 13, in his single World Cup in 1958. Müller's record was only surpassed 32 years later, in 2006 by Ronaldo's 15 from three World Cups and then eight years after, in 2014 by German striker Miroslav Klose's 16 goals from four World Cups. Günter Netzer, who came on as a substitute for West Germany during the defeat by the East Germans, was playing for Real Madrid at the time; this was the first time that a World Cup winner had played for a club outside his home country. This is the most recent of four World Cup tournaments to date with no matches needing extra time. The others are the 1930, 1950, and 1962 tournaments.

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