The team's prospects improved in the early 1970s. Under Raymond Goethals, Belgium obtained their first wins at World and European Championships (in 1970 and 1972, respectively). The Euro 1972 tournament, in which they finished third, was their first appearance at the European Championships. The period was also the glory days of four-time Belgian Golden Shoe and Belgian joint-topscorer Paul Van Himst, later elected Belgium's Golden Player between 1954 and 2004. After 1972, the next three attempts to qualify for a major tournament were all in vain. In their qualifiers for the 1974 FIFA World Cup they became the only national team to miss out on the World Cup without ever conceding a goal, as they finished behind rivals Netherlands on goal difference. Since the 1970s a key strength of the Belgian team became its systematic use of the offside trap, a defensive tactic developed in the 1960s at Anderlecht under French coach Pierre Sinibaldi.