First watched : June 1974
This is the first World Cup I remember although I actually watched very little of it, perhaps no more than a portion of one match involving one of the Germanys. It was too nice outside. My interest in football was still a few years away from fully forming.
What I do recall is the publicity around Scotland qualifying and their chart hit "Easy Easy " which went "Yabba Dabba Doo. We support the boys in blue because it's easy - easy !" I remember hearing about their elimination and not understanding how they could be knocked out when they hadn't lost any of their games ( a first for the Finals ). Manager Willie Ormond gets some stick for giving a sentimental last cap to 34-year old Denis Law against whipping boys Zaire ( the last African side to look seriously out of their depth at the Finals ) but the whole team took it too easy and didn't press them hard enough. Even so Brazil still had to rely on an awful error by the Zaire keeper to go through at the Scots' expense.
The other thing I remember is all the talk about the Dutch superstar Johann Cruyff who was staking a good claim to be the best player in the world. Unfortunately he was also petulant and declined to play in 1978. The Dutch didn't qualify in 1982 so he became a one tournament wonder.
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