West Germany lifted the FIFA World Cup™ for the third time in 1990 as they avenged their Final defeat by Argentina four years earlier, overcoming the holders 1-0 in Rome. Their victory was a real triumph for Franz Beckenbauer, who became only the second man to win the world crown as first a player and then a coach.

The 1990 finals set an unwanted record as the lowest-scoring tournament, with just 2.21 goals per game, but there was certainly no lack of colour or drama. The Opening Match alone provided one of the FIFA World Cup’s most memorable upsets, with Cameroon beating Argentina at a magnificently revamped San Siro. With Roger Milla enjoying his finest hour, Cameroon would go on and make history.

This was Italy’s second time to host the FIFA World Cup. Fifty-six years on from their 1934 triumph on home soil, they spared no expense in ensuring the competition was a success. Ten stadiums around the peninsula received a complete facelift while two vast new arenas were built in Turin and Bari. There was a stickman mascot named Ciao yet the real symbol of the tournament for Italian fans soon became Salvatore ‘Toto’ Schillaci, a striker without an international goal to his name before June 1990.

Neutrals’ favourites
The tournament’s first round went largely as expected, with the notable exception of newcomers Costa Rica beating both Scotland and Sweden to reach last 16. The Republic of Ireland, managed by former England defender Jack Charlton, added another touch of romance by advancing to the last eight on their debut appearance. Those achievements had nothing on Cameroon’s run to the quarter-finals, however. The Indomitable Lions were the neutrals’ favourites and in the 38-year-old Milla had a genuine star.

The veteran striker had to be persuaded to come out of semi-retirement on Reunion Island to play in Italy but after stepping off the bench against Romania, he scored the two goals that took Cameroon into the second round. When he then repeated the feat against Colombia – cue that famous corner-flag shuffle – Africa had its first quarter-finalists. They might have gone further too save for two Gary Lineker penalties that rescued England in a quarter-final where Cameroon led 2-1 with ten minutes to go. Still, the Lions’ roar rang around the world – and Africa would have a third team at the next finals in 1994.

For England, driven by the skills and exuberance of Paul Gascoigne, victory over Cameroon earned them a first semi-final since 1966 but their luck ran out against old rivals West Germany in a captivating contest settled by penalties – and still remembered for Gascoigne’s tears. That proved the Germans’ toughest test en route to the trophy. Spearheaded by the Inter Milan trio of captain Lothar Matthaus, Jurgen Klinsmann and Andreas Brehme, West Germany had enjoyed ‘home advantage’ at the San Siro in their first five fixtures, including an impressive 4-1 success against Yugoslavia and a second-round defeat of a disappointing Dutch side.

Toto the unlikely hero
As Italy found to their cost, however, home advantage only takes you so far. Their ride to the semi-finals included a Roberto Baggio wonder goal against Czechoslovakia and a FIFA World Cup record for goalkeeper Walter Zenga, who in keeping five clean sheets went 517 minutes unbeaten. However, their unlikely hero was the wild-eyed Schillaci, capped only once before the finals but scorer of six goals to earn himself the adidas Golden Shoe. Unfortunately for Azeglio Vicini’s side, their dreams of a home triumph died at Argentina’s hands in Naples.

This was not the Argentina of 1986 but Diego Maradona was still there, his presence dividing the Naples public who worshipped him for his heroics for local favourites Napoli, that season’s Serie A champions. Further inspiration came from fellow attacker Claudio Caniggia, scorer of a fine second-round winner against Brazil, and also goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea. A replacement for Nery Pumpido, who broke his leg in the second match, he had made vital saves against Brazil and again in the penalty shoot-out against a strong Yugoslavia side in the quarter-finals. Against Italy he did it once more, his two penalty saves sending Argentina to the Final after a 1-1 draw.

Goycochea could not repeat those heroics in Rome, though, and was beaten by Brehme’s 85th-minute penalty that decided a poor Final. Argentina, missing the suspended Canigga, became the first finalists not to score and also the first to have a player sent off when Gustavo Dezotti was dismissed. By the end another Argentinian had seen red, Pedro Monzon, but the better team had won. Sixteen years after captaining West Germany to the FIFA World Cup, coach Beckenbauer had done it again. And in winning their third title, Germany now joined Italy and Brazil as the football world’s most successful nations.

This was the tournament of Total Football, a showcase for the majestic talents of Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer, who shone in the spotlight vacated by Pele, leading their respective Dutch and West German sides through to a Final showdown in Munich on 7 July 1974. As against Ferenc Puskas’s Magnificent Magyars 20 years earlier, it was West Germany who emerged triumphant, coming from behind to claim their second world crown at the expense of the favourites.

It was a Final that began in sensational fashion. The Netherlands, who had scored 14 goals and conceded just one in six games previously, went in front before the Germans had even touched the ball. Cruyff, the waif-like wizard in the No14 shirt, set off on a dribble from the centre circle, stopped only by a foul from Uli Hoeness in the penalty box. The first spot-kick in a FIFA World Cup™ final. With little over a minute on the clock, Johan Neeskens made it 1-0.

The Dutch were toying with their rivals like a cat with a mouse but on 25 minutes the Germans, their pride piqued, regained parity as Paul Breitner converted another penalty after Bernd Hoelzenbein had gone down under Wim Jansen’s challenge. With Berti Vogts managing to contain Cruyff, Gerd Muller, Golden Shoe winner four years earlier, then ensured West Germany’s name would be the first etched on to the new FIFA World Cup Trophy when, two minutes before the break, he turned on a Rainer Bonhof cross and shot low past Jan Jongbloed.

The solid-gold statuette that West Germany captain Beckenbauer held aloft, a replacement for the Jules Rimet Cup that Brazil had retained after 1970, was not the only novelty of Germany 1974. There was a new FIFA President in the Brazilian João Havelange, who had taken the place of Englishman Sir Stanley Rous. Moreover, there was a change of format, a second stage comprising two groups of four replacing the traditional knockout route of quarter-finals and semi-finals.

East Germany upset the neighbours
England and Russia were prominent absentees – the former failing to qualify for the first time, the latter refusing to travel to a play-off in Chile on political grounds. Of the newcomers, East Germany made the biggest impact, upsetting their western neighbours 1-0 in Hamburg in the first round. Jurgen Sparwasser’s 77th-minute strike meant the East Germans advanced as group winners, above Helmut Schoen’s hosts.

Zaire – the first finalists from sub-Saharan Africa – provided the funniest moment when, in their game against Brazil, defender Ilunga Mwepu ran out of the defensive wall and booted the ball away, before an opposition player had even touched it. Meanwhile, Haiti – who had profited from hosting the final qualifying round in the North, Central American and Caribbean Zone – took a surprise lead against Italy in their opening match before succumbing 3-1, the first of three reverses for a team hampered by the subsequent loss of Ernst Jean-Joseph after a failed doping test.

West Germany made a shaky start, internal disagreements over bonuses giving way to unconvincing displays in the first round, where they earned jeers from their own supporters during a 3-0 win over Australia. Yet the defeat by East Germany did the reigning European champions a favour for they avoided facing the Netherlands, Argentina and Brazil in the second stage. Instead they overcame Yugoslavia and Sweden before winning their decisive final pool match against Poland. Muller got the only goal on a rain-drenched Frankfurt pitch though Sepp Maier’s saves at the other end proved equally decisive against the tournament’s surprise package.

Lato wins Golden Shoe
The Poles had raised eyebrows by eliminating England in qualifying but now they found a new level. With the midfield drive of Kazimierz Deyna and scoring threat of Grzegorz Lato – the seven-goal Golden Shoe winner – and Andrzej Szarmach, who hit five, they beat Argentina and Italy in the first round before then getting the better of the Swedes and Yugoslavians. They deservedly took third place at Brazil’s expense.

The Brazilians were a shadow of the side that had triumphed in Mexico. They edged past Scotland – the tournament’s only unbeaten side, ironically – on goal difference in the first round and despite defeating Argentina in the South Americans’ first-ever FIFA World Cup meeting, they were denied a final place by a 2-0 loss to the Netherlands, Neeskens and Cruyff each scoring a fine goal.

This was the first FIFA World Cup since 1938 for the Oranje but, having also swept aside Argentina 4-0, they were now favourites to go on and win it. With the brains of coach Rinus Michels and brilliance of Cruyff, who had together brought glory to Ajax before departing for Barcelona, they would have made worthy winners. Yet West Germany had their own visionary in Beckenbauer, the man who revolutionised the libero’s role, and their ability to rise to the occasion told when it mattered most.

Surpassing the shock of Uruguay’s triumph four years earlier, West Germany became world champions in Switzerland by ending the proud 31-match unbeaten record of Hungary’s ‘Magical Magyars’ in a Final forever remembered as the Miracle of Berne.

In the shadow of the Alps this was a mountain-sized upset, the Germans retrieving a two-goal deficit to record a 3-2 victory over opponents who had beaten them 8-3 just a fortnight before. Jules Rimet, the outgoing FIFA President, handed the eponymous trophy to Fritz Walter and the football world absorbed an important new lesson: never, ever, write off the Germans.

‘The Galloping Major’
Hungary went into the 1954 finals with the unofficial title of best team in the world. Olympic champions in 1952, they had recorded 23 wins and four draws during the preceding four years – their most celebrated victory a 6-3 humbling of England in November 1953 whereby they became the first foreign visitors to triumph at Wembley. The brightest star in the Hungarian firmament was Ferenc Puskas, the ‘Galloping Major’ with the fearsome left foot from the army team of Honved.

Gusztav Sebes’s side featured a rich seam of talent – notably Puskas’s fellow forwards Sandor Kocsis and Nandor Hidegkuti, and midfielder Josef Bozsik – and played a brand of fluid attacking football that was ahead of its time, Hidegkuti dropping deep behind Puskas and Kocsis in a prototype of the 4-2-4 formation. Hungary warmed up by routing England 7-1 in Budapest and they notched 17 goals in their two first-round victories, 9-0 against Korea DPR and 8-3 over West Germany. Yet this latter result proved less instructive than it may have initially appeared.

The tournament’s format was such that the two seeded teams in each group played only the two non-seeds, and vice versa. Hence Sepp Herberger, the Mannschaft coach, went into the Hungary game knowing his side could lose and still progress in second place by winning a play-off against the section’s other seeds, Turkey, whom they had already beaten 4-1. Herberger thus made seven changes, saw his charges lose heavily, yet then guided a much-strengthened lineup to a 7-2 play-off win against Turkey that took them into the quarter-finals.

Flood of goals
Given that this pool alone produced 41 goals, it is little surprise the Swiss showpiece became the highest-scoring FIFA World Cup™, with 140 goals in 26 matches at an average of over five per game. A tournament record of 12 hit the net in one match alone, the quarter-final between Switzerland and Austria where the hosts led 3-0 inside 19 minutes, conceded five during a ten-minute spell before the break and ended up losing 7-5.

Despite the goal rush, however, newcomers Korea Republic and Scotland both registered blanks as they finished bottom of their respective groups.
Scotland had lost 7-0 to Uruguay and the holders achieved a British double by eliminating England in the last eight. Both teams featured a 39-year-old – Obdulio Varela appearing for the South Americans, Stanley Matthews for England – but despite the latter’s promptings, Uruguay prevailed 4-2 with both Varela and star forward Juan Schiaffino, a scorer in the 1950 Final, featuring among the goals.

Uruguay’s next opponents would be the winners of the Hungary-Brazil quarter-final. The Brazilians were sporting their famous yellow shirts – the product of a newspaper competition to design a new kit – for the first time in Switzerland but their hopes ended in a stormy contest subsequently dubbed the ‘Battle of Berne’. Golden Shoe winner Kocsis struck two of his 11 goals in Hungary’s 4-2 win but the match was marred by red cards for Bozsik and the Brazil pair Nilton Santos and Humberto, not to mention a post-match brawl in the changing rooms.

Two extra-time headers from Kocsis then helped Hungary record an identical result against Uruguay in a classic semi-final. The Celeste, victorious at their two previous FIFA World Cups, recovered from 2-0 down through a double from Juan Holberg before finally succumbing to a first defeat on the world stage. While the Hungarians had faced two draining duels, West Germany progressed smoothly to the Final, defeating Yugoslavia 2-0 and then dismissing neighbours Austria 6-1, with Kaiserslautern-based brothers Fritz and Ottmar Walter both scoring twice.

‘Fritz Walter weather’
So to the Final at a rain-soaked Wankdorf Stadium on 4 July 1954. The weather was a positive portent for a German side whose skipper, goalscoring midfielder Walter, was known to struggle in the heat following a war-time bout of malaria. Indeed these were the precise conditions German sports fans knew as ‘Fritz Walter weather’.

By contrast Hungary had doubts over the fitness of Puskas, absent from their last two matches after a kick on the ankle by Werner Liebrich when the teams last met. Though not fully fit, Puskas opened the scoring after six minutes and within 120 seconds, the favourites led 2-0 after goalkeeper Toni Turek spilled the ball at Zoltan Czibor’s feet. Yet by the 18th minute, West Germany were level, Morlock’s far-post finish followed by Rahn turning the ball in from Fritz Walter’s corner.

The rain came down, the tension rose and only the woodwork denied Hidegkuti. But with six minutes remaining, Rahn gathered the ball on the edge of the box and drove a left-foot shot into the far corner. There remained time for Puskas’s reply to be ruled out by a linesman before the final whistle confirmed the unthinkable: Hungary were beaten and a new world power born.