The Football Tragic

Not much went right for the West German national side in the years immediately following the 1966 World Cup. In their qualifying group for the 1968 Nations Cup, they were eliminated after failing to win an away match against Albania. Their road to the World Cup in Mexico was a distinctly rocky one: they began well enough with a 2-0 away win against neighbours Austria, but received a dreadful scare in tiny Cyprus, whose team they had thumped 6-0 away in a qualifier three years earlier. This time, it took until the second minute of injury time for Helmut Schoen's men to find the net; the scorer was the new German talisman Gerd Muller, pivoting to score one of the classic opportunist's goals for which he was to become so famous.

Three weeks later, on the same ground, the Cypriots were brushed aside 5-0 by the team who were shaping up as Germany's chief rivals in the qualifying series: Scotland. The joint group leaders faced off in Glasgow in April 1969, and the Germans were lucky to come away with a 1-1 draw. 

The nadir of Germany's qualifying series came in their next match, a home tie against Austria. This time, against a fairly modest team who had clearly come to defend, the Germans were found horribly short of ideas and penetration. Muller was having a miserable game up front, and the absence of the experienced Uwe Seeler was felt keenly. But once again, two minutes from the end this time, it was Muller who broke the deadlock with a moment of genius, brilliantly flicking the ball up to secure himself a free header, which crept in. The words of the laconic German commentator said everything that needed to be said about Muller's modus operandi: "Muller...chance...and goal!".

Meanwhile, "Stan" Libuda had returned from Borussia Dortmund to his beloved Schalke 04, and was in tremendous form in the Bundesliga. Schoen's choice for the outside-right role for the past few years had been the Hamburg winger Bernd Dörfel, who had formed a good attacking partnership with the veteran Seeler at club level. But Dörfel had moved to Eintracht Braunschweig and lost his form; in the match against Austria, he was anonymous. And so it was that Libuda returned to a rejuvenated Mannschaft which put a cricket score past Cyprus in the return fixture. It was a perfect stage for the shy, diffident Schalke idol to regain his confidence with the national team: a match against weak opposition, held in Essen, just next door to his home club, and with Muller there to take full advantage of his pull-backs and crosses, as he did on the occasion of the afternoon's first goal.

Schoen kept faith with Libuda for the crucial home qualifier against Scotland, held in Hamburg five months later. The Germans were now in a commanding position in the group, and the Scots needed at least a draw to retain any hope of a ticket to Mexico. Schoen shrewdly restored Seeler, Hamburg's perennial hero, to the side, and was rewarded with passionate support from the crowd.

It was a rugged and bad-tempered but thrilling match, and the Scots gave their all; but for the magnificent goalkeeping of Sepp Maier, having one of his finest games for his country, they would certainly not have lost. The Germans had the better of the refereeing decisions, too: Horst-Dieter Höttges should definitely have been sent off for kicking Colin Stein to the ground in retaliation, and Muller too was lucky to escape with only a caution after a dreadful studs-up foul on Peter Cormack. 

Scotland went ahead soon after the kick-off, but Germany equalised from a corner shortly before half-time. Another of Muller's trademark half-chance goals gave them the lead on the hour, but a surprisingly easy headed goal by the veteran Alan Gilzean, having a splendid game, levelled the scores straight afterwards.

And Libuda? In the relatively serene first half, he saw comparatively little of the ball, but beat his man consistently when he did so (as well as sending in the corner which led to the first German goal). Scotland's experienced left-back, Tommy Gemmell of Celtic, made the mistake of letting Libuda come at him, and he was simply unable to cope with the predictable but irresistible shoulder drop and acceleration. Amidst the cries of "U-WE! U-WE!" from the Hamburg crowd, occasionally another now familiar chant would break out: "Li-bu-DA! Li-bu-DA!".

The second half was a different story: now the game was becoming harsher and more bogged down in the centre, while Libuda, typically, rarely strayed from the right touchline. Gemmell now surged forward to intercept whenever the often telegraphed pass went out to the right, and Libuda barely had a single touch for the first thirty minutes of the half. His opposite number Jimmy Johnstone, similarly tightly policed, was willing to drift infield at times and join in the scrapping. But this was not Libuda's style.

Yet, as in the Cup-Winners' Cup final three years earlier, Libuda would come fruitfully to life after a period of anonymity. On a German breakaway, the alert Helmut Haller played him through on the right: this time, Gemmell was well beaten, and Libuda took a deft touch with his right foot before beating the Scottish goalkeeper James Herriot with his left. The match was won, Germany were in the World Cup, Libuda was the hero of the hour, and there remained only the infamous moment when a chagrined Gemmell made his notorious assault on Haller.

Were it not for that goal, if the match had ended 2-2 and had Schoen been left only with the image of a forlorn figure hugging the right touchline and hoping for a good through-ball while the real business of the match took place elsewhere, Germany may still have qualified for Mexico, but I doubt whether Libuda would have been on the plane. But now, he could hardly be left behind. And his greatest moment with the national team was still ahead of him.

Continued in Part 5.

# posted by Mike Salter @ 5:19 PM