On paper, Holland’s centreforward Johan Cruyff was not restricted in any way on the pitch, his roaming complemented by the movement of the players around him, nearly all of them his teammates at Ajax.
Total Football’s blinding success, exemplified by the allconquering Ajax team that won three European Cups in succession from 1971 to 1973, tends somehow to get overshadowed by its one heartbreaking defeat — Holland’s at the final of the 1974 World Cup.
The overbearing effect of the World Cup defeat is understandable, given the reach and undeniable romance of the competition, especially in the less globalised world of the early 1970s. The dominant images of Total Football we carry in our heads, therefore, are those of floppyhaired players in orange, and not the white and red of Ajax. At the centre of it all is Johan Cruyff.
This story is from the June 2, 2018 edition of Sportstar.
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This story is from the June 2, 2018 edition of Sportstar.
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