World Cup Stadiums: Homes of the Beautiful Game

Olympic Stadium, Munich, West Germany, 1974
Built ahead of West Germany's 1972 Summer Olympics, Munich's Olympic Stadium was a conscious rejection of the grim monumentality of Germany's other stadium — the one erected by the Nazis in Berlin for the 1936 Olympics. The most prominent feature of Munich's stadium was its sweeping, semi-transparent canopy of steel and acrylic glass, a gesture to the nearby Alps and a touch of lightness meant to celebrate an optimistic, democratic West Germany. Beneath the canopy in 1974, West Germany won the World Cup by defeating the Netherlands — then the most vaunted side in world soccer.

• A Brief History of the World Cup
• What Becomes of Olympic Stadiums?