Johan Cruyff disappointed by Netherlands display in the World Cup Final
Netherlands are known as the pioneers of “Total Football” to the world, but sadly they have lost 3 times now in the final of the World Cup. Johan Cruyff the man part of the team in 74 that started Total Football and made its way to the final is very upset with the approach of Netherlands, in the final and said that it was anti football.
Netherlands played a physical game and got 9 yellow cards and one red card losing the final 1-0 in extra time to Spain. Cruyff said it was not what he expected from the team, he said they played the physical game and did not focus on the beautiful side of it. The Dutch legend said that if they would have stuck to their game and played with some sense. There is no doubt in his mind that Netherlands would have been easy winners.
He was very frustrated and furious about the team’s display and termed it as vulgar, ugly, hermetic and hardly eye catching. In fact he said it was barely football. He said that if that brand of football satisfied them then what can one say, but the fact is that they lost. The Dutch team coach Bert Van Marwijk insisted that he had told his team to go out and play beautiful football. Nevertheless, critics say it was anything but that and there was a feeling that Marwijk decided to forget style and instead opted for pragmatism but it did not do them any good.
Netherlands had showed throughout the World Cup that they do have the ability to adapt to any style of football. The Dutch in group stages came across a resolute Japan side, worked extremely hard to break them down in the final group game and got the job done. Netherlands were not fancied against the 5 time World Champions, Brazil in the knock out round; after going down by a goal in the first half Netherlands adapted to their style of play and won the game 2-1.
However, the final still has left many wondering what went wrong for Netherlands to play the way they did. The aggressive approach was never the answer especially against a team like Spain who play one touch football. Just keeping the ball against them would have been good enough. Cruyff like many other former players thought that 2 Dutch players Van Bommel and Nigel de Jong should have been sent off for their rash tackles. He said that maybe the english referee was under pressure after giving out too many yellows’ too early, that is why he did not send them off.
Cruyff added that Netherlands should have been down to 9 players and it would have been justice served. Cruyff said they should have been penalised for the rash tackles and lost the game in normal time. He went on to say that being a former player it really does hurt him to see Holland play the way that they did. He said there is no doubt they are capable of much better but he cannot understand why Marwijk chose that approach.
Cruyff was in charge of Barcelona for 8 years and introduced the one touch play that Barcelona has become so famous for and the same team also made the backbone of the Spanish team. However, in Champions League it was Jose Mourinho who found a solution to that style of play, as Inter Milan beat Barcelona in the semi final over 2 legs. Cruyff said Marwijk could have learned something from that instead of trying the physical game.
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