The Football Tragic

November 18, 1973. The crucial clash between the Dutch and the Belgians for a place at the upcoming World Cup. When the Dutch team is announced, there are a couple of small surprises. One is the presence of the obscure veteran sweeper Aad Mansveld in the side; the other is the absence of the player who had been, aside from Johan Cruyff, Holland's most prolific and effective player during the qualifying series: Willy Brokamp.

Coach Frantisek Fadrhonc had in fact been chopping and changing throughout the series; Cruyff later lamented that until the arrival of Rinus Michels, "we didn't have a (set) team". There may have been many reasons for the Czech coach to omit Brokamp for such a crucial game. His less-than-serious attitude? The excellent recent form of his replacement, Rob Rensenbrink of Anderlecht? Or the fact that Rensenbrink, due to his club affiliation, would have been very familiar with his opponents? It still seemed a harsh decision. But as subsequent events showed, Brokamp was unlikely to have taken the snub too much to heart.

It was psychologically a difficult game for the Dutch. If you only need a draw in such a crunch match, in front of your home crowd, how do you approach it? The fans would have been looking forward to their Ajax heroes putting the old enemy to the sword. But the Belgians were acknowledged masters at soaking up pressure and hitting the opposition on the break. And their team, far more settled than that of the Dutch, had its share of quality as well, particularly in the shape of the Anderlecht legend Paul van Himst and the prolific Bruges forward Raoul Lambert.

As it happened, the Dutch were almost forced into an aggressive posture by the paradoxically negative tactics of the sly Belgian coach Raymond Goethals. In a game the Belgians had to win, they committed few men to attack and fell back in numbers whenever the Dutch regained possession. The idea was clearly to entice Cruyff and co. too far forward...and it very nearly worked. 

Faced by a resilient Belgian defence, the Dutch crafted few chances. Johnny Rep nearly scored with a downward header from Cruyff's left-wing cross, but the fine Belgian keeper Christian Piot made a superb save. Later, from another left-wing centre, Rep missed an absolute sitter. In between, van Himst broke smoothly clear with the Dutch stranded upfield, in exactly the manner planned by Goethals, only for Johan Neeskens to bring him down with an appallingly cynical foul. 

There was to be no glorious finale, but as the minutes ticked down it looked as if the Dutch had at least accomplished their objective. Then, suddenly, pandemonium. In the very last minute, van Himst's deftly-taken free kick produced confusion in the Dutch defence, and Jan Verheyen - miles onside - volleyed the ball home crisply at the far post. 

Unbelievably, the Russian referee, Pavel Kazakov, disallowed the goal for offside. 

To this day, it remains one of the World Cup's great sliding-doors moments. Belgium could hardly have made as dazzling a contribution to the 1974 tournament as Cruyff's men. But an injustice had clearly been done. And the legend of Dutch football, and the subsequent achievements of the many distinguished Oranje teams that followed, owed an enormous amount (if only psychologically) to the heroes of 1974. What if...?

And so to the preparations for the tournament in Germany. The newly-installed Rinus Michels picked an initial squad of 24, including Willy Brokamp. The Maastricht hero even played in Holland's final warm-up match, a 2-1 win against German club side Hamburg, and nearly scored with a thunderous volley which was saved magnificently by Hamburg goalie Rudi Kargus.

But 24 had to become 22, and Michels, more of a disciplinarian than Fadrhonc, saw Brokamp's happy-go-lucky attitude as a potential liability. To his credit, Michels did not shirk the duty of breaking the bad news personally to Brokamp and the other unlucky man, the distinguished but injury-prone striker Jan Mulder. "What I have to say now will ruin my whole day," began Michels after summoning the pair. They both knew what was coming.

Their reactions could not have been more different. Mulder, in an episode which has become legendary in Holland, reacted by going straight to his father-in-law's house and smashing up a chicken coop. And Brokamp? His reaction was De Witte all over.

"Thanks, Mr. Michels. I'll have a nice holiday then!"

In Part 4: finally a move away from Maastricht for Willy Brokamp, and then a gradual move into a new and even more congenial career.

# posted by Mike Salter @ 5:20 PM