in the 1978 fifa world cup tournament in argentina, the netherlands again reached the final, but this time without cruijff (who decided to retire from international football) and under the guidance of ernst happel rather than michels. out of the shadow of cruijff, rensenbrink found more room to showcase his own considerable talent, playing on the left-hand side of a front three alongside johnny rep and rené van de kerkhof. he scored a hat-trick in the opening game against iran, another goal against scotland which was goal number 1000 in world cup history and a penalty in the 5–1 win over austria. in the final against argentina, the netherlands yet again met the hosts. in an intense match, the netherlands fell behind to a first-half mario kempes strike. after dick nanninga's equalizer 9 minutes from time, a long pass from the dutch captain ruud krol in the last 30 seconds of normal time gave rensenbrink a half-chance to score but his shot from a very narrow angle was deflected on to the post and bounced clear. had he scored, it is almost certain that holland would have won the world cup with rensenbrink being top goal scorer. argentina scored twice in extra-time for a 3–1 victory and the netherlands again had to settle for the runners-up spot.