World Cup '74 Portrait Collection: Squad #11 (Poland)

all drawings graphite & putty eraser, some with watercolour pencil, each 30x21cm

World Cup '74 Portrait #256 (Agustin Balbuena: Argentina)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Number 256, & the last of the portraits in the World Cup ’74 drawing project, which has taken just 3 weeks shy of a year to complete, the final randomly-chosen subject, the last one out of the hat, being another of the great majority of those represented to be unheard of/unremembered from my football novice’s experience of the televised coverage of the tournament.

For the record, a little light research has unearthed the facts that Agustin Balbuena, who was represented in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ sticker album (which of course provides the original source object/image from which the drawing is processed), was selected as a member of the official Argentina squad for the tournament & went to play in four matches for his country over its course, the opening 2 – 3 defeat to Poland, as a 52^nd-minute substitute in the victory over Haiti that secured qualification for the Second Phase & then in the first two matches there, the defeats to Holland &, confirming the Argentinians’ elimination, Brazil.

It’s a curious & interesting coincidence that the last subject in the Project should be a representative of Argentina, when that very country would be hosting the following football World Cup, in 1978, one in which I took a great deal more informed interest & that I remember in much more vivid detail, the players, matches, incidents, etc, & on the subject of which I happen to have acquired & possess a pair of sticker albums, published by FKS & Panini again. Surely not another Project beckoning…? Perhaps - but perhaps not straight away…

World Cup '74 Portrait #255 (Antoni Szymanowski: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser/30x21cm

World Cup '74 Portrait #245 (Zbigniew Gut: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser/30x21cm

World Cup '74 Portrait #243 (Grzegorz Lato: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser/30x21cm

World Cup '74 Portrait #237 (Jan Domarski: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

World Cup '74 Portrait #223 (Jurica Jerkovic: Yugoslavia)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

The latest drawing in the project features a particularly ghostly representation of Jurica Jerkovic, who was pictured in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ sticker album & subsequently included in the Yugoslavia squad for the tournament, at which he appeared in each of the Yugoslav’s 3 Second Phase matches, as a late substitute against West Germany (too late to effect the course of events after his team had just gone 0 – 2 down), as an early replacement for Brane 'Branko' Oblak against Poland, & then retaining his place from the start in the final defeat to Sweden, none of which registered upon my consciousness at the time.

World Cup '74 Portrait #216 (Fabio Capello: Italy)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Kicking-off the new year (& wishing a happy one to all) with a continuation of the current drawing project & in this particular instance a re-mediation of an image of Fabio Capello, who was featured in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 commemorative sticker albums, & included in the Italy squad for the Finals themselves, where he went on to play in each of the Italians’ 3 ultimately unsuccessful First Round group matches, scoring the late merely consolatory goal in the 1 – 2 defeat to Poland that sealed the Azzurri’s early elimination from the tournament.

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 #197 (Andrzej Szarmach: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Today we (re)present, randomly-chosen as usual, what constitutes the fourth of the Project’s subjects & drawings processed from a constructed ‘sticker’ image, of one of the vividly-remembered names from my experience of the televised coverage of the 1974 World Cup who previously had appeared in neither the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ or Panini ’München 74’ commemorative albums which have inspired & provide the original source material for the Project.

This, then, is a re-mediated image, of a 1974ish vintage, of Andrzej Szarmach, who came to be selected as a member of the Poland squad for the Finals, subsequently starting in six of the Poles’ matches (being substituted in five), scoring 5 goals, all in the First Round & including a hat-trick in the 7 – 0 thrashing of Haiti, missing the only game the Poles lost, crucially, to West Germany in the countries’ effective semi-final: given this transpiration of events, he might reasonably be regarded as being the tournament’s surprise packages’ surprise package, but instantly memorable for his exploits, & subsequently achieving some form of legendary status by playing at both the 1978 & 1982 World Cups & scoring a goal at each.

World Cup '74 Portrait #175 (Ramon Heredia: Argentina)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Today’s subject is an image of Ramon Heredia, ‘re-mediated’ from the original source sticker as featured in the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ album, & who was selected as a member of the official Argentina squad for the Finals, where he played in each of his country’s six matches, scoring a goal in the first, a 2 – 3 defeat to Poland.

By another of those curious, random coincidences, shortly prior to the World Cup, Heredia had played in the European Cup Final of 1974, & its unique replay, for his club, Atlético Madrid, as had our immediately previous subject, Conny Torstensson, for their opponents.

A drawing processed from the same source image-object featured in an earlier incarnation of the 1974 World Cup project, here.

World Cup '74 Portrait #170 (Carlos Babington: Argentina)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

The latest subject in the Project is a depiction of Carlos Babington of Argentina, the second of what should eventually be four ‘cheats’ over the course of the project – essentially names particularly remembered from experience of the televised coverage of the 1974 World Cup but who appeared in neither the FKS or Panini sticker albums previewing/commemorating the event, in which context they become, in fact, the most ‘ghostly’ of all, having no physical presence in the form of image or text, leaving (or being afforded, through omission) no trace of their participation via such enduring artefacts of memorabilia.

This being the case, an original image must be sourced from elsewhere in order to construct a ‘sticker’ from which to work, with the internet providing as usual in such times of need – something of a slightly unsatisfactory fudge, given the physical nature of all the other original source material, the hauntological objects of the stickers, but in such an instance it seems more important to leave a drawn trace of a remembered name than include an ‘unknown’ in its stead.

The name of Carlos Babington might well have proved memorable particularly for its invertedly-exotic Englishness in an Argentinian context, but the records show he enjoyed something of a profile during the World Cup, playing in 5 of Argentina’s 6 matches (missing only the first of their second phase fixtures, the 0 – 4 hammering by Holland), scoring in the first, the 2 – 3 defeat to Poland, & being booked in this & the subsequent two games.

World Cup '74 Portrait #166 (Arsene Auguste: Haiti)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Today’s subject is Arsene Auguste, who was featured in both the FKS ‘Wonderful World of Soccer Stars World Cup 1974’ & Panini ’München 74’, sticker albums, honoured amongst a most select mere 6-player ‘squad’ representing minnows (Panini were brutal about this fact) Haiti in the latter.

On a point of visual interest, FKS & Panini featured the same photographic image upon their respective stickers, but reversed: the original source for this drawing was the FKS sticker, which might picture Arsene Auguste as he was or otherwise the mirror image of.

Included in the official Haitian squad for the Finals, Auguste went on to play twice in the tournament, in Haiti’s matches against Italy (1 – 3) & Poland (0 – 7) before missing their third & last defeat, to Argentina (1 – 4). He died in 1993, aged 42.

World Cup '74 Portrait #160 (Leslaw Cmikiewicz: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser/30x21cm

Post number 900 here on TOoT, & this latest subject features the re-mediated features of Leslaw Cmikiewicz, who was represented in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 sticker albums that provide & subsequently selected for inclusion in the official Poland squad for the tournament, during which he entered the fray as a second-half substitute in 6 of the Poles’ 7 matches, missing only a run-out against Sweden in the first of the Second Round group fixtures.

In contemporary footballing developments, congratulations this weekend are in order to US Hostert on the occasion of their first win of the season back in the top flight in Luxembourg, 2- 1 over FC Wiltz, the only team at the time below Hostert in the division, but those are the must-win matches.

We’re also celebrating another first league win of the season in Luxembourg, down the divisions, for our very favourites Kischpelt Welwerwolz or Wilwerwitz, a thumping 4 – 0 triumph against US Rambrouch, a most edifying result.

World Cup '74 Portrait #155 (Wlodzimierz Lubanski: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

Continuing the project in the form of Wlodzimierz Lubanski, who, as a star of the Poland team, was represented in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 sticker albums in anticipation of the role he might play in the tournament (already, he had applied a significant blow to England’s qualification prospects with the second goal in the Poles’ 2 – 0 win in a match between the two).

Alas, injury prevented Lubanski from being available for selection for the Poland squad for the World Cup, thus his relationship to the competition is as another of those ghosts absent from proceedings themselves but still haunting the memorabilia associated with, his name presenting itself at a later date.

World Cup '74 Portrait #136 (Robert Gadocha: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser/30x21cm

World Cup '74 Portrait #123 (Kazimierz Deyna: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser/30x21cm

World Cup '74 Portrait #113 (Zdzislaw Kapka: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser/30x21cm

Other News

Back in the present, what a dreadful start to the new European football season it's proving to be, with TOoT's huge favourites Ferencvaros tonight being eliminated from the infant stages of the Europa League, following on from the mighty Stromsgodset's premature departure last night from the Champions' League: in an ideal world, these two clubs should be the finalists in either of those competitions, preferably the latter - if only...

World Cup '74 Portrait #111 (Jerzy Gorgon: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

World Cup '74 Portrait #89 (Wolfgang Kleff: West Germany)

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour pencil/30x21cm

By a curious coincidence indeed, following on from the previous portrait, the next & this latest subject to be randomly chosen depicts another of what proved to be the 1974 World Cup’s reserve goalkeepers in the form of Wolfgang Kleff, of West Germany, who, like Poland’s Zygmunt Kalinowski, failed to get any minutes of tournament action, although was included for selection in both the FKS & Panini sticker albums, the latter of these providing the source image from which the drawing has come to be processed: just admire that hairstyle, & the iconic sky blue button-up adidas tracksuit top sported by the West Germans at the World Cup, having been premiered (or so photographic history seems to suggest) at the 1972 European Nations’ Cup finals.