Word: cups
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969, half-a-billion people watched him on TV. This weekend, when 22 athletes step onto the turf of a West German soccer field in the quadrennial battle for the World Cup, an estimated 600 million people will be looking on. The difference in statistics is not altogether surprising. With the possible exception of the Olympics, there is no event that so intensely commands the attention of the world...
...winner of the Cup will hold unchallenged ranking as the planet's best soccer team. In a sport that is actively played by 16 million people on 600,000 teams in 141 countries-six more than belong to the U.N.-that is no minor claim. Indeed, a large part of the world takes time out for the Cup. Since the final rounds began in West Germany three weeks ago, Rio de Janeiro factories have shut down, and criminal activities in the city have hit an alltime low. In Rome, efforts to restore a moribund government were disrupted when three...
...words describing the action both on the field and off. A banner headline in Bild Zeitung, the nation's largest paper, reported that a German soccer star had shaved off his mustache. A nervous West German government has spent millions of marks to prevent terrorists from seizing the Cup as their latest forum for guerrilla attacks...
Despite the trappings, this year's Cup playoff has been something of a disappointment. Competition began two years ago with elimination rounds that eventually pared 90 national teams down to the 16 that reached Germany. Predictions were legion that this playoff would have exceptionally exciting, high-scoring battles reflecting a new, wide-open soccer style popularized by Holland and West Germany. That so-called "total football" involves mobilizing an entire team for rushes against an opponent's goal. But total football is apparently a forgotten strategy. Staid defense quickly took over the competition. In the opening game, defending...
...When the Miami franchise started to buckle, he negotiated a move to Philadelphia in less than an hour. In Canada he managed to stop a revolt among owners angered by his frequently abrasive negotiating style. "Gary has a great creative imagination," says an associate, "but tact is not his cup of tea." Davidson disagrees. "The Canadian owners told me I was acting like Hitler. All I said was that if they didn't like it, they could leave the league." The owners gave in, and the W.H.A. was on the ice just two years after Davidson had begun work...