World Cup '74 Portrait #215 (Johan Cruyff: Holland)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

And so the year draws to a close with not just an appalling pun but also a re-mediation of an image of Johan Cruyff, who was represented in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 sticker albums, & is one of the few names remembered from my experience of the television coverage of the 1974 World Cup, enhancing his star status as he led Holland all the way to the final of the tournament (repetition obvious aids memory): the goal he scored, that airborne sidefoot volley, to conclude the Dutch team’s 2 – 0 victory over Brazil in their effective semi-final, has become one of those iconic ones, but I also recall his argument with the referee Jack Taylor, & consequent booking for doing so, as the teams left the pitch at half-time in the final.

World Cup '74 Portrait #214 (Alfonso Lara: Chile)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Continuing the Project with a re-mediation of an image of Alfonso Lara, who was represented in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 sticker albums (the latter providing our original source for this drawing), & then selected for inclusion in the Chile squad for the tournament, during which he made but one brief playing appearance, for all of 7 minutes as a late substitute in the Chileans’ opening match defeat to West Germany.

Alfonso Lara has passed away since the beginning of this project, having done so on August 13^th, the day I was processing the drawing of Attila Abonyi, who coincidentally played for Australia against Chile (though not Lara directly, of course) during the 1974 World Cup.

World Cup '74 Portrait #213 (Mayanga Maku: Zaire)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Another drawing in the project, the portrait subject of this one being Mayanga Maku, who was one of the elite selection to be featured representing Zaire in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 sticker albums (the latter being of only 6 players), subsequently being chosen for his nation’s official squad for the Finals, where he appeared in all 3 of the Zairean’s matches, substituted against Scotland, as a half-time replacement in the 0 – 9 defeat to Yugoslavia, & finally for the whole game against Brazil.

World Cup '74 Portrait #212 (John Watkiss: Australia)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Post-Christmas Day & back on the drawing horse with a re-mediation of an image of John Watkiss, who was featured in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ sticker album, amongst the number of the 16-strong Australia selection (which thus provides the original source material for the drawing), but not the reduced 6-player representation pictured in Panini’s ’München 74’ publication (as mentioned previously, the FKS album affords equal weight to each of the featured nations, whereas Panini adopted a more ‘hierarchical’ approach from major to minor in terms of World Cup football history).

Watkiss was subsequently included in the official Australian squad for the Finals but was not picked to appear in any of their matches, & further research reveals he was another of the majority of the Socceroos’ squad to be non-native to Australia, in his case English-born.

To accompany the drawing process it was decided to give an LP a spin, &, with the subject being an Australian player, it seem most appropriate to plump for an analogue listen to the Triffids' 'Born Sandy Devotional', still mighty & magnificent after all these years (the disc was invested-in early in 1987, after being intrigued by the album's featuring in the Albums of the Year for 1986 in the festive edition of the NME, always an essential acquisition for such features. And what a year '86 was for fine albums, just looking at that list alone: 'The Queen is Dead', 'Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express', the 2 Costellos', the 2 Bad Seeds', & more besides, both within & outside of the NME's selection).

World Cup '74 Portrait #211 (Roland Sandberg: Sweden)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Continuing the Project’s progress with this drawing featuring as its portrait subject Roland Sandberg, who was represented in sticker form in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 albums (the former, as is most often the case, providing the original source material for the subsequent process of re-mediation) & also chosen as a member of the official Sweden squad for the Finals, where he was selected to play in all 6 of the Swedes’ matches at the tournament, scoring twice, against Uruguay in a 3 – 0 victory in the concluding First Round group match (the first goals Sweden had scored following two goalless draws), & then West Germany in the thrilling, rain-drenched 2 – 4 second phase defeat to the host nation that I can recall witnessing live on television one Sunday evening.

World Cup '74 Portrait #210 (Ally Hunter: Scotland)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

This most recent drawing to be completed in the Project features a re-mediation of an image of Ally Hunter, who was represented in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 commemorative sticker albums (the former providing our original source material in this instance) yet not subsequently selected for the official Scotland squad for the tournament.

Although not featuring at the World Cup, Ally Hunter’s is a name with which I became familiar soon after, as I recall him being a Scottish football columnist in ‘Shoot!’, which I began reading on a weekly basis soon into the following 1974-75 season (alternating with John Greig, who was his ‘Old Firm’ counterpart).

Research reveals that Hunter played only four matches for Scotland, all prior to 1974, & also that, in common with the Holland squad, as remarked upon previously, the Scottish World Cup selection’s 3 goalkeepers were quite astonishingly inexperienced at international level, having gained only 9 caps between them, & David Harvey, the number one, had earned 7 of those.

World Cup '74 Portrait #209 (Hector Santos: Uruguay)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Experiencing what might well be a bit of a seasonal slowdown on the old drawing front, but here the Project continues with the latest re-mediation, of an image of Hector Santos, who was represented in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 sticker albums & included in the official Uruguay squad for the Finals, where, as understudy to first-choice goalkeeper Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, he was at no stage required to take the field of play, as, doubly unfortunately for him, had also been the case at the 1970 World Cup.

Needless to say, & in common with even those Uruguayans who did feature in their 3 First Round group matches, he remained to me one of the ‘unheard-ofs’ until acquiring copies of the sticker albums the greater part of 40 years after the event.

World Cup '74 Portrait #208 (Roberto Telch: Argentina)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

The latest drawing in the Project is a graphite re-mediation of an image of Roberto Telch, who was represented in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 commemorative sticker albums (our original source material being provided by the former in this instance), & was chosen as a member of the Argentina squad for the Finals, where, after appearing as a 67^th-minute substitute for his country in their opening match, the 2 – 3 defeat to Poland, he played in all but one of the Argentinians’ five subsequent fixtures, missing only another loss, against Brazil.

Telch was previously featured as the subject of a drawing in an earlier incarnation of the 1974 World Cup project, which can be found here, &, sadly, passed away very recently, in October of this year.

World Cup '74 Portrait #207 (Col Curran: Australia)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Continuing the Project’s proceedings with a re-mediation of an image, as-ever randomly-chosen, of Colin Curran, who was represented amongst the 16-man Australia selection in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ sticker album & subsequently included in his country’s official squad for the Finals (Curran was very much in the minority to actually be Australian by birth), where he went on to play in each of Australia’s three matches.

Curran also holds the distinction of being the first Australian to score at a World Cup Finals, & indeed the only one at the 1974 event, although unfortunately it was an own-goal, to East Germany’s benefit in the teams’ opening fixture, which subsequently ended 2 – 0 to the East Germans.

World Cup '74 Portrait #206 (Julio Cesar Gimenez: Uruguay)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

This, the Project’s most recent drawing features a re-mediation of one Julio César Jiménez, who was represented upon a sticker – erroneously as ‘Gimenez’ - in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ commemorative album & then was chosen as a member of the official Uruguay squad for the Finals where, alas, he was not selected to make an appearance on the field of play in any of the Uruguayans’ three First Round matches, after which, bottom of their group with but a single point, they departed the tournament, without making the slightest impression upon my consciousness at the time.

World Cup '74 Portrait #205 (Pierre Bayonne: Haiti)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

The latest randomly-chosen subject/image to be re-mediated through the drawing process is (one of) Pierre Bayonne, who was represented in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ sticker album, amongst the 16-strong Haiti selection, but not the reduced 6-man group that had to suffice for the ‘minnow’ nations (also including both Australia & Zaire) in the Panini ’München 74’ collection.

Subsequently, Bayonne was chosen as a member of the official Haitian squad for the Finals, where he went on to play in all 3 of his country’s matches in the tournament, then the first & still the only World Cup for which Haiti have qualified.

World Cup '74 Portrait #204 (Gerrie Muhren: Holland)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

The latest drawing in the Project is a representation of an image of Gerrie Muhren, who was selected for inclusion in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 collections, but not the official Holland squad for the Finals, thus being another of the particular ‘ghosts’ of the project, present, & hauntologically preserved to memory, via such items of memorabilia as the sticker albums.

World Cup '74 Portrait #203 (Georg Schwarzenbeck: West Germany)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Continuing the Project & featuring as our re-mediated subject (Hans-)Georg Schwarzenbeck, who was represented on a sticker in  the Panini ’München 74’  album & subsequently selected as a member of the West Germany squad for the World Cup Finals, at which he was appeared in all 7 of the hosts’ matches as they went on to win the tournament, although, unlike some of his teammates, his name did not register with me at the time of my experience of the television coverage of the event.

World Cup '74 Portrait #202 (Wolfram Lowe: East Germany)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

The Project’s latest randomly-chosen re-mediation is of an image of Wolfram Löwe, who was represented in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 commemorative sticker albums (the former providing the original source object from which the drawing came to be processed) & selected for inclusion in the official East Germany squad for the Finals, where he went on to play in four of the East Germans’ 6 matches, substituted in 3 of them & himself a replacement in the other. 

Proper Football

Hartlepool United v Blyth Spartans tonight, live on BBC TV, a match to savour between two proper football clubs, great names of  the glorious game, &, coincidentally, two of the top-level teams in our alternative footy universe, which enjoys a level playing field & where the good guys do win.
Enjoy, football people, enjoy, & may the best team emerge victorious after a classic Cup encounter in the grand old style.

World Cup '74 Portrait #201 (Walter Corbo: Uruguay)

graphite &putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

The image subject of the latest drawing in the Project features Walter Corbo, who was represented in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ sticker album but ultimately not selected in the official Uruguay squad for the Finals, despite, research reveals, having been a reserve goalkeeper at the World Cup in Mexico in 1970, although Walter’s brother Ruben was chosen in 1974 & went on to play twice during the tournament.

As with a number of other subjects, Walter Corbo is thus one of those particular ‘ghosts’ of the Project, absent from the events of the World Cup itself but hauntologicallly present via the medium of such an item of memorabilia as the FKS preview/commemorative album.