McFarland had been deemed responsible for putting Włodzimierz Lubański, Poland's best striker at the time, out of football for two years after an apparent poor tackle damaged Lubański's cruciate ligament during a World Cup qualifying match in June 1973. Lubanski missed the 1974 FIFA World Cup where Poland captured third place, but recently Lubanski himself wrote in his memoirs published in Poland that his leg was injured without McFarland's involvement as a result of an earlier injury and resultant insufficient preparation for the big game.