Totaal Voetbal

2006-07-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

Holland

We might be a small country in kilometers but we're huge in voetbal. Or should I say, soccer, the degrading way Americans

tend to call my biggest passion in life? The Dutch soccersquad has been internationally known for many years. The typical

style of playing the game brought us at the top of the world. Although we always had great players, under the lead of Johan

Cruijff we became the absolute best.

It was back in the early 1970'ies that we made our attempt to really controll the game. With Rinus Michel as coach and

ofcourse Johan Cruijf as superstar, Ajax won the former Champions League three times. An unbelievable strong perfomance. The

formation was 4-3-3 and that dinstincted style of play separated us from the rest of the teams in Europe. Especially at the

front we made a difference. Two players as winger and one central striker. It made defenders all over the world shiver on

their feet.

The biggest succes of Totaalvoetbal came in 1974. Or better said it should've came in 1974. We were at the very

top of our game. It was at the biggest sportevent in the world that The Netherlands showed their topclass voetbal. After wins

over Uruguay and Bulgaria and a draw against Sweden, Holland's team survived the group's phase. After that they crushed

Brazil, Argentina and East-Germany at the second round. At last, we had to face our biggest enemy in the final of the world

championship. To be crowned as the best of the world we had to defeat West-Germany. Holland had a great start, with a scored

penalty in the first minute. Even the most critical and the neutral fans chose the orange squad to root for.

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Sadly for them, the

Dutch actually didn't win the biggest soccer prize their is. The German team had tried to imitate our own Totaalvoetbal.

Whether they succeeded at that or not, they did win the game. So... there we were. At the top of our prime,

bearhanded.

The special thing about Totaalvoetbal is that all players in the line-up are switching positions all the time.

You could wonder what's the use of doing that and you might even think that for example a defender hasn't got anything to

look for at the opposing goal. Well first let me explain to you that the players in Totaalvoetbal are so good and allround

that they could roam all over the pitch and still play like the best. Second and most important of all, this kind of tactic

would create a lot of confusion within the defense of the opponent. Most teams have figured out some kind of man-to-man

covering system. Wouldn't you go crazy if your direct enemy would be all over the pitch?! Ofcourse the players participating

in the system had to have a lot of stamina. But that's a simple case of training hard.

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One of the most clear examples

of the advantage of our system is that Johan Neeskens, a defender/defensive midfielder, became the topscorer of the Dutch

team at the tournament of '74.

This is the starting line-up for the final back

then:

Jongbloed

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Suurbier - Haan - Rijsbergen - Krol

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Jansen - Neeskens - Van

Hanegem

Rep - Cruyff -

Rensenbrink