Summary

First Round
Attendances were rather low[citation needed]. The tournament was held mostly in bad weather, and the stadia had few protected places. Few western European nations had qualified, of which most were eliminated early. Fans from the Eastern neighbor states were hindered by political circumstances, or by lack of funds.
Carlos Caszely of Chile became the first player to be sent off with a red card in a World Cup match, during their match against West Germany. Red cards were formally introduced in World Cup play in 1970, but no players were sent off in that tournament. The format of the competition changed from 1970: 16 teams qualified, divided into four groups of four. The top two teams in each group advanced to the second round, where they split into two groups of four. The winners of each group played each other in the final, and the second place finishers in the third place match.
Two teams made a particularly powerful impact on the first round. The Netherlands demonstrated the Total football techniques pioneered by the top Dutch club Ajax, in which specialised positions were virtually abolished for the outfield players, and individual players became defenders, midfielders or strikers as the situation required. The Dutch marked their first World Cup finals since 1938 by topping their first-round group, with wins over Uruguay and Bulgaria and a draw with Sweden. Sweden joined the Dutch in the second group round after beating Uruguay 3-0.
Poland, meanwhile, took maximum points from a group containing two of the favourites for the tournament. They beat Argentina 3-2, trounced Haiti 7-0, then beat Italy 2-1 - a result that knocked the Italians out of the Cup and resulted in Argentina sneaking to the second group round on goal average. While Haiti didn't do particularly well in their first World Cup finals (losing all three of their games) they did have one moment of glory. In their opening game against Italy, they managed to take the lead with a goal from Emmanuel Sanon, before eventually losing 3-1 (Italy had not conceded a goal in 12 international matches). That goal proved to be a significant goal as it ended Dino Zoff's run of 1142 minutes without conceding a goal.
Group 2 was a particularly close group. The group was decided by how many goals could Brazil, Yugoslavia and Scotland score to defeat Zaire. Every other game played in the group was drawn. So the three top teams all finished with four points. Yugoslavia hammered them 9-0. Brazil beat them 3-0. Scotland could only manage a 2-0 margin, and so were edged out of the tournament on goal difference. After holding the mighty Brazil to a goalless draw, and going through the group unbeaten, the Scots were entitled to feel very unlucky to be eliminated.
Group 1 contained both East Germany and the host West Germany, and they both progressed at the expense of Chile and Australia. But the big clash was between the two German teams. In one of the most politically charged matches of all time, it was the East that won, thanks to a late Jürgen Sparwasser goal. Despite the fact that they were safely through to the second group round, the embarrassing result caused a realignment of the West German team that helped them win the Cup.