One of the teams contesting today’s World Cup final will play in a classic Dutch style based on one-touch passing, aggressive pressing and positional interchanging, but it won’t be the Netherlands.
Spain have become the flag-bearers for the kind of possession soccer synonymous with the Dutch approach to the game and it is largely thanks to former Netherlands great Johan Cruyff that Vicente Del Bosque’s side play the way they do.
Cruyff, star of the Netherlands team that reached the 1974 World Cup final, had two spells at Barcelona, firstly as a player and then as a coach.
It was during his spell in the Camp Nou dugout between 1988 and 1996 that he introduced the coaching principles that have since become the club’s trademark.
Drawing on home-grown talent, including current Barca coach Pep Guardiola as well as foreign stars such as Michael Laudrup and Dutch defender Ronald Koeman, Cruyff built a side known as the “Dream Team” that won four consecutive Spanish league titles and the 1992 European Cup.
The foundation for the team’s success was a 4-3-3 formation and a style of play rooted in tactical awareness, technical excellence and the rapid exchanging of short passes. Cruyff had brought “Total Football” to Catalonia.
So pervasive was his influence that every youth team at Barcelona was soon being coached to play in the same way and the production line at their La Masia academy has continued to churn out world-class talent to this day.
Barca youth team graduates Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Cesc Fabregas and Gerard Pique are products of a training system inspired by Dutch ideas.
Spain had seven Barcelona players in the starting lineup for the 1-0 semi-final defeat of Germany and it was a classic Barca performance, with Xavi and Iniesta switching positions and patiently probing the German defense, before Puyol’s 73rd-minute header supplied the killer blow.
Del Bosque’s decision to drop striker Fernando Torres for the Germany game was a strong indication of his faith in the Barca way.
He also abandoned earlier plans to accommodate Sevilla winger Jesus Navas in his lineup, meaning Spain have become wholly reliant on the stealth and craft of their Barcelona contingent to carve out chances for Barca new boy David Villa.
In stark contrast, the Netherlands have not played in a 4-3-3 for several years.
Their 4-2-3-1 formation reflects a much more pragmatic approach, with two combative central midfielders in Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong providing a platform for Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie.
They have reached the final with none of the panache of their 1974 predecessors and Cruyff, for one, is unimpressed.
“If Spain go for you, they kill you,” he told El Periodico de Catalunya. “There’s no doubt that Germany knew what they were going to go through, just like Holland are probably thinking now. If you go up against a team that wants to keep the ball, you’re going to suffer. Spain, a replica of Barca, are the best publicity for football.”
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