.
Of course van Gaal was only continuing the life’s work of his soulmate-cum-enemy, Johan Cruyff. The two men despise each other, but have almost identical football ideologies. Both grew up playing for their local club, Ajax, fetishising the pass.
Never pass into a teammate’s feet, lectured Cruyff, but always a metre ahead of him to keep the ball moving. When the first man passes to the second man, the third man must already be moving into space ready for the second man’s pass.
Cruyff became manager of Ajax in 1985 and moved to Barcelona in 1988. He transformed both clubs’ academies into universities of the pass. Later Van Gaal succeeded him, first at Ajax then at Barcelona. In Catalonia, Van Gaal promoted great passers such as Xavi and Andres Iniesta, who today run Spain’s midfield.
No wonder half the Dutch team here was raised at Ajax, or that seven Spanish players who finished Saturday’s quarter-final against Paraguay learned their football at Barca’s academy. Whether it is Xavi or Holland’s Wesley Sneijder, these players spent their youth absorbing Cruyffian ideology: football is about making passing “triangles”. Boys at Barca are forever playing four against four, with two touches allowed. It is a game you win through passing and positioning. Football as chess, not football as wrestling.
Germans had always treated football as a kind of chess in which wrestling was permitted. They delegated passing to a few specialists. But in 2000, when the Germans hit rock-bottom, they peered across the Dutch frontier. They began fetishising the pass. At Euro 2008 Germany reached the final, where Spain passed them off the park. Joachim Löw, Germany’s coach, thought: “I want a team like that.”
A year later, Van Gaal popped up as Bayern Munich’s manager, and fetishised the pass. The club that never cared how it won began playing Dutch-Spanish football. Van Gaal turned Bayern’s Bastian Schweinsteiger into a defensive midfielder, and stuck Thomas Müller in the first 11. Here in South Africa, “Schweini” and Müller are starring for Germany. Their teammates in Munich, Arjen Robben and Mark van Bommel, are starring for Holland.
German, Dutch and Spanish football have crossbred to become almost indistinguishable. The Germans pass like Holland in disguise. The Dutch defend and counterattack like Germans used to. Spain play like Holland circa 2000.
Other countries might note the things this trio does not worry about. The English media are calling for more spirit. Diego Maradona, Argentina’s manager, kept talking about passion. All that Van Gaalians ask is: “Can you pass at speed?” If you can, you are selected. That is why Germany can field their youngest team since 1934. Experience and physique are secondary. Sneijder, Xavi, Iniesta and Germany’s captain Philip Lahm are all 5’8” or smaller. But they understand passing.
Individual genius is strictly optional, too. The Brazilian and Argentinian geniuses are now on holiday. Most previews of this tournament focused on stars. Instead they should have focused on passing cultures. Every team touched by two ageing Amsterdammers stuck in a mutual loathing society is still here.
[Culled from the Financial Times]
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