Tuesday, August 03, 2021
Li-Bu-Da, Part 3
Most long-term England fans are familiar with the story of how Alf Ramsey tried out the wingers in his squad in the opening round of the 1966 World Cup - John Connelly, Terry Paine, and Ian Callaghan - but ultimately decided that his team would be better off without them. Hence the "wingless wonders", in which the nominally left-sided Martin Peters popped up here, there and everywhere, and the combative Alan Ball ran himself ragged on the other side.
What these fans may not know is that England's opponents in the final, West Germany, actually went through a similar process.
Helmut Schoen adopted what was essentially a 4-3-3 formation for most of the tournament, but alongside the iconic Uwe Seeler up front, he always made sure there was a hard-running, powerful forward as well as an out-and-out winger...and by the knockout rounds, there were no wingers, just two beefy runners flanking Seeler. Namely, the Borussia Dortmund duo of Siegfried Held and Lothar Emmerich, with whom we are already familiar.
In Germany's opening game against the Swiss, the safe choice on the right wing, where Reinhard Libuda might have been, was the Italy-based Albert Brülls. A survivor of the 1962 tournament, he was an experienced, dependable and diligent, if unspectacular, outside-right.
While Brülls had a quiet game, Schoen's young stars ran riot against their overawed opponents. Held scored the first, going on a marvellous twisting run by the left-hand by-line, worthy of the finest wingers, before cutting the ball back for Seeler and finishing smartly when the veteran striker's shot hit the post. The two impressive young midfielders Franz Beckenbauer and Wolfgang Overath dominated that sector, Beckenbauer breaking forward to score two fine goals. Seeler showed all his old class, providing a crucial assist for one of Beckenbauer's goals and winning the penalty that allowed Helmut Haller, another 1962 veteran, to score the fifth. Suddenly, Germany were World Cup favourites.
Against a tough, sly, cohesive Argentina side in the next game, however, it was a very different story. This time Held's surging, uncomplicated runs down the left came to little, and Brülls was easily snuffed out on the other flank. Seeler, not the tallest of strikers, could make nothing of the crosses that sailed into the box from distance. Even after the Argentinian stopper Jose Albrecht was sent off for a shocking foul, the Germans looked almost comically ineffectual against the resilient Albiceleste defence, in which the sweeper Roberto Perfumo and the left-back Silvio Marzolini - one of the players of the tournament - were outstanding. Would the occasional surprises offered by a player like Libuda, with his drops of the shoulder and his sudden bursts of acceleration, have provided the missing penetration? In retrospect, it seems at least likely.
A knock to Brülls late in the Argentina game allowed Schoen to quietly drop the Brescia winger, and reorganise his attack for the final game against Spain. Held now moved into the centre, and another attacker was added on the left - Emmerich, who seemed more suited to the position than his Dortmund team-mate. This time, it was Werner Krämer of Duisburg who occupied the outside-right role, but he too failed to make any real impact.
It was a tense game. Emmerich's choice was amply justified when he equalised Jose Maria Fuste's opening goal with a thunderous left-footed shot from a narrow angle; Held, appropriately, provided the assist. From then on it was an even contest, with the Spanish looking, if anything, more likely to score for much of the second half. But in the 84th minute, Germany's Mr. Reliable, Seeler, finished neatly after Held had gone on another of his bulldozer runs, leaving Manuel Sanchis in his wake and pulling the ball back adroitly. It was a close thing.
What was Schoen to do? His right-sided players had been found wanting. A young Jürgen Grabowski was in the squad as well, but Schoen ultimately decided not to entrust the role to such an tyro. Instead, he did away with wingers altogether, restored the versatile Haller to the side, and kept Held and Emmerich as Seeler's "wing-men", the former playing virtually as a second centre-forward. It was what the Brazilians later referred to, not entirely unadmiringly, at futebol forca - power football.
Although this new formation made it to the final, the Germans had a great deal of luck on the way. In the quarter-final, a forceful Uruguay side were denied a plain penalty early on, and then conceded a freakish goal to go behind. Thus incensed, they began to play rough, and two red cards early in the second half were, let us say, not undeserved. Against nine men, Germany coasted to victory.
They virtually faced nine men as well in the semi-final, with the Russian playmaker Joszef Sabo suffering a bad injury early on and hobbling along the left touchline for the remainder of the contest, and Igor Chislenko getting himself sent off for a dreadful foul on Held. This time the score was only 2-1, but Schoen's men were playing within themselves.
The final saw the two chief proponents of futebol forca produce a thrilling game, and although Germany went down in extra time, most pundits agreed that the match could have gone either way. Although Emmerich had an indifferent game, Held was superb once more, and it looked as if physicality and work-rate were to be the way of the future, in Germany as in England.
This was bad news for a delicate touch-player like Libuda. But in 1969, his time would finally come. To be continued in Part 4.
