The forgotten story of ... how Cruyff and co almost missed out
on the 1974 World Cup  Holland's summer of love so nearly didn't
happen and Total Football was almost totalled before the world
had seen it Johan Cruyff Holland 1974 Johan Cruyff and Holland
dazzled at the World Cup finals in 1974. But they nearly didn't
make it to West Germany at all. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty
The sliding tackle will probably be extinct in 30 years' time,
but sliding doors will always be a part of football's landscape.
"If" was one of the most important words in football's lexicon
long before Des Lynam started to believe his own hype. Should
you think really hard about the extent to which butterfly
effects have shaped the game, it hurts your head more than a
night on the pop.  In World Cups alone there have been fives of
examples of ultimately successful sides who came within a
whisker of not even qualifying: France in 1982, England in 1990,
Bulgaria in 1994, Brazil in 2002 - and Holland in 1974.
Football's summer of love so