A brief account of the most revolutionary philosophy of football, how it changed the ancient foundations of the game, and continues to shape it in the modern era.
In the first part of the series we discussed how the philosophy that took its birth at http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/River-Plate-c40368 was adopted by the Hungarian national team to shake the world of football.
To beat the founders of the game http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hungary-c2920 did it with the score at 6-3, in what is known today as the “Match of the Century”.
The group of Hungarian boys that came to be known as ‘the Golden Team’ in the pages of history, dominated the world of football from 1954 to 1956, during which the Hungarians played 19 games, winning 16, drawing three and not losing a single one of them.
The team broke apart in 1956 Hungarian Revolution but the invincible idea remained, and was picked up by Dutchman by the name of Reynolds, who passed it on to Rinus Michels.
Michels refined the concept of revolving players in the course of the game, and this was the time when the idea came to be known as ‘Totaalvoetbal’ or Total Football.
The manager applied the concept while at the helm of Ajax and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604.
The idea was passed on to Ștefan Kovacs, who became the next coach for Ajax, refined the concept that he had inherited and won 15 major titles to become one of the most successful coaches in the history of the game.
Kovacs achieved the aggregate of titles while at the helm of various clubs throughout his career, but his tenure with Ajax remains the golden era of his career as a manager.
The Romanian coach’s most formidable weapon was Johan Cruyff, who went on to become one of the most famous players of all time as well as the most famous exponent of the system.
The Dutch international was fielded as centre forward, but wandered all over the pitch looking for opportunities to disrupt the defence of the opposition.
This called for the players alongside him to change constantly to adjust to the movement of the player, and fill in the tactical spots left by the attacker.
The team went on to win the European Cups of 1971, 1972, and 1973, and defender Barry Hulshoff explained the unique phenomenon behind the team’s unprecedented success:
"We discussed space the whole time. Johan Cruyff always talked about where people should run and where they should stand, and when they should not move."
In short the philosophy at this stage was all about the creation and usage of space on the field.
Moreover, the system was not trickled down from the top by the manager, but devised through collaborative and organic process, with inputs from the players as well as from the coaching staff.
Total Football saw one of the finest hours in the 1972 European Cup final, where the dynamic style of Ajax baffled Inter Milan to a 2-0 defeat.
The victory was headlined in the newspapers all over Europe as “death of the Catenaccio”, the defensive style of play that was most popular at that time.
Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad read: "The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Inter-c39567 system undermined. Defensive football is destroyed.”
The extraordinary victory earned Michels the opportunity to coach his national team, Netherlands for the 1974 World Cup campaign.
The team had a wonderful run in the world tournament that saw them go through the likes of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Brazil-c2858 (2-0), to come head to head with East Germany in the final.
The German squad featured the likes of legend Franz Beckenbauer, Berti Vogts, Uli Hoeneß, and Wolfgang Overath.
To be continued....
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