FIFA World Cup 2010: Dutch Legend Says Spain Are Favorites
Perhaps the most important player in Dutch football history and by far the most talented one, Johan Cruyff revealed on Thursday that he thinks Spain are going to win the World Cup final against his home team Netherlands.
Cruyff led Holland to their first ever World Cup final appearance in 1974, when the World Cup was taking place in Germany. His total football side was unfortunate in the final match of the tournament as they played the hosts, West Germany. The match ended in despair for the Dutch as they lost by two goals to one.
Cruyff is widely known by many as the best Dutch footballer in history. He perfected the total football system and even created new football dribbling styles. The Dutch legend also played for the Spanish club, Barcelona, where he wore the number 14 shirt.
As Cruyff’s home side look to perform better than the 1974 World Cup team, and win the trophy on Sunday in soccer city, Cruyff has declared that Spain are the favorites to win the World Cup. He said that Spain’s style of play is the same style of play that Barcelona have employed successfully over the past decade.
Cruyff’s previous remarks came ahead of the Brazil versus Netherlands quarterfinal tie. In those comments who criticized the Brazilian manager Dunga for playing pragmatic football, which was based on counter attack rather than possession of the ball.
Cruyff told the media that Germany played very well in their semi-final match against Spain. He said that they played simple attacking football which would have been good enough to beat any team in the world bar Spain.
He went on to explain that, if Spain are in the mood and want to control the match they can virtually kill other teams off because of their superior attacking play. He added that Germany were thinking before their tie against Spain that they will progress to the final match of the tournament, just like Holland are thinking right now that they will win the match and become World Champions.
Cruyff lavished Spain’s style of play with praise by stating that if a team comes up against opponents like Spain who want to control the ball and control possession, they are always going to suffer. Cruyff played a total number of 48 matches for Holland and scored 33 goals during those appearances for his national team. He also played in 143 matches for Barcelona but only scored 48 goals.
Cruyff has also featured regularly in Barcelona’s sporting affairs after his retirement from football in 1984. He became the manager of F.C Barcelona in 1988 and combined players such as Joseph Guardiola, Koeman, Romario, Laudrup and Hagi into a well known team. Cruyff is Barcelona’s most successful manager with eleven trophies; he also is their longest serving manager in history till date.
Cruyff has been known to give controversial remarks before big games, although he is respected widely in Barcelona because of his contributions to the club, very few people would have been expecting that the Dutch national hero will come out and support Spain in public.
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