Ajax finish what Avellaneda started

The Intercontinental Cup was meant to settle who was the best club side in the world. Not every European champion thought it was worth the trouble. Ajax had declined to take part in 1971. In 1972 they went, and the first leg in Avellaneda showed them what they had been avoiding.

Avellaneda

The trouble began before the game. Johan Cruyff received threats, and when the local police showed little interest, Ajax's coach, Ștefan Kovács, hired private security to protect him. Independiente supporters gathered outside the team hotel at night to keep the players awake.

On the pitch, Cruyff scored after five minutes. It was his only appearance in Argentina, and it was brief. After a brutal challenge from Dante Mírcoli he was taken off, and the tackling carried on around him. At half-time the Ajax players did not want to go back out. Kovács had to talk them into it.

Francisco Sá equalised for Independiente with nine minutes left, and the game finished 1–1 in front of 45,000 people. Kovács's verdict was short: "This was not football but war." Sjaak Swart called the Independiente defender Ricardo Pavoni "a gangster".

Amsterdam

The second leg, on 28 September at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, was a different kind of game. There were 46,511 inside, and Ajax played the football that had made them European champions.

Johan Neeskens scored after 11 minutes. Cruyff, back from injury, provided the pass for Johnny Rep's first goal. Rep scored again in the last minutes to make it 3–0 on the night and 4–1 on aggregate.

It was Ajax's first world club title.

The team around Cruyff

Ajax in 1972 are often reduced to one man, and it is easy to see why. But the goals in Amsterdam came from Neeskens and Rep, and the decisive contribution from Cruyff was a pass. On the night that settled the title, the team mattered more than the star.

The first leg is the one people remember, because of what it said about the competition in those years. The second leg is the one that shows what Ajax were.