I Remember When the Beautiful Game was Indeed Beautiful

Having just watched the boring and irritating garbage that has been presented to all of us at this year’s World Cup in South Africa, I was miraculously taken back to an era and region in football history where the game used to be played with all the greatest of positive intentions.

I remember a time when the game was less cynical and less corrupted by greed, politics and big money. I was reminded of a time when the game was all about entertainment and above all, outscoring the opposition.

The place and time is 1970’s West Germany. The Deutsche Bundesliga during the “Total Football” revolution that had been started in the early part of that decade by the Dutch and then further utilized by their not so friendly neighbors the West Germans. An attacking free flowing style of play that included player interchangeability. A system that promoted goals and attacking ambition from any player on the pitch. Known as the “Dutch Whirl”, Anybody could move up into attack at a given opportune time, and somebody would replace him in regards to their defensive duties. A defender like Beckenbauer could make a long rush up field with the ball and a central midfielder would drop back and cover for him. “Total Football” really opened up the game and allowed more gambling and ambition. It also demanded that players be comfortable playing more than one position. It was a visual masterpiece to watch. Holland and West Germany displayed this style throughout the seventies and it thrilled and introduced the game to millions like myself as something truly artistic and beautiful.

I thought I had been transported back in time by a Tardis and smack into the seventies … watching an old school Bundesliga match

The other night I witnessed a game I had recorded on my PVR that although lacking some of the tactics and principles of “Total Football”, did offer moments of it and it also offered 90 minutes of attacking ambition and excitement from both sides. I thought I had been transported back in time by a Tardis and smack into the seventies where I was watching an old school Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Moenchengladbach. It was truly fun to watch a game where players and coaches suspended negativity and cynicism and decided that attacking and entertaining would serve the game better on the evening.

On so many occasions in the past two years I have received criticism from fellow members of the Manchester United blog I am a member of that I was being to negative and depressing. I have even gone further to play down this reputation of mine by even referring to myself as the “Prince of Fucking Darkness”. Somehow it sounds better coming from me than from someone else who doesn’t quite understand what it is that always makes me so negative. So why am I such a cantankerous old SOB? Simply put, I was lucky enough to be introduced to the beautiful game back when it was truly a beautiful game. Because frankly, unlike many of them, I know better.

The first game I ever witnessed live on television was the famous 1970 World Cup Final where Brazil hammered the pathetically negative and evil Italians 4-1. My father was a football fanatic having had a short stint playing for the Panathinaikos reserve squad just before World War 2 in Greece. He was a big fan of Brazilian football and music and he just loved talking about Pele and Garrincha from 1958. Although I liked what I saw from the Samba side of 1970, I was only eleven at the time and my maturity in understanding the complexities of the game were very minimal to say the least. Perhaps that was a blessing though. Rather than watch and allow for tactical setups and technical decisions to cloud my enjoyment, I was just watching Brazil play the ball around like they were toying with the Italians. A grand scale game of keep away. At eleven years old the game looked simple and poetic. Samba was to rule my love for the game for the next two years until I saw the side that would from that day forward always be my favorite team.

If Brazil’s dismantling of Italy in 1970 was impressive, the 1972 West German destruction of bitter rival Russia in the European Nations Final was absolute domination and humiliation similar to the early days of 1941 when Germany blitzkrieged its way into Russia. What I saw on that day from the Heysel Stadium in Brussels was the Germans lay an absolute butt kicking and lesson of total football on a bewildered and shocked Russian side. Displays of incredible passing and positional play like I have never seen before or since.

When people ask me what I consider to be the greatest team to ever play the game, I shock them when I don’t pick either of the two Brazilian sides of either 1958 or 1970. What about the unlucky Dutch side led by Cruyff in 1974 or the England side that won the 1966 World Cup? Nope, for me the greatest team I have ever seen was the 1972 West German side that first humbled England 3-1 at Wembley and then went on to thrash a technically strong Soviet club in the final by 3-0. The score was actually humbling. The Germans destroyed their opponents. They quite easily could have doubled the score line.

So why am I going on about the past and what does it have to do with the present World Cup? I suppose it may have to do with the fact the game back then reminded me of a better time in the game’s history. As well, perhaps it’s because I feel so starved for that kind of football again that reminds me of my youth and that quenches my thirst for entertainment and artistry and above all, lots more goals. I am still waiting for the game in this World Cup, which will remind me why I love the game so much and why I should forget the past and accept the present. And perhaps, just perhaps it would turn this disappointed depressed and negative cynic known as Grognard or the PFD into the Prince of Positive Vibes. Somehow between the cynical coaching, the bad attitudes and fatigue of players and the noise of those awful Vuvuzela’s, I somehow rather doubt it.