Legends of the game part 4: Johan Cruyff part 3
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Article part 3 of 10
"When you saw Cruyff off the pitch he was like a thin boy. But on the pitch he was from another planet." - Rinus Michels
Surprisingly for a player so good, he had a remarkably low number of caps, partially because he took early retirement from international duty and partly because national teams played less games back then. Either way it is a shame for world football that he got only 48 caps for Netherlands. Even more of a shame for the nation itself, as not one of his 33 goals came in a defeat for the Dutch. Though, it must be pointed out, his intransigence did result in him missing out on at least one cap, as he refused to face Poland due to a lack of insurance against injuries.
His stubbornness also led to the famous special kit Adidas produced just for Cruyff in 1974, for that year's World Cup. With Cruyff contracted to Puma and the two sportswear manufacturers involved in a bitter feud, Johan refused to wear the Holland kit provided. A compromise was finally reached when Netherlands persuaded Adidas to produce a kit especially for Cruyff with just two stripes on the sleeve instead of Adidas's trademark 3 stripes.
All of that was a way off in 1966 when, on 7th September, Johan Cruyff made his Netherlands debut in a qualifier for Euro 68 versus Hungary. Cruyff scored in a 2-2 draw. Cruyff's second cap was not as successful though, as he became Netherland's first player to ever be sent off during a friendly with Czechoslovakia in November 1967. He was punished with a ban from playing by the Dutch FA, though the ban never applied to internationals, despite his offence having ocurred in an international match.
Cruyff's international career is known for two things, the 1974 World Cup, when the 'Clockwork Orange', as the Netherlands team became known, were devastating, and his shock retirement just three years later aged just 30. It was the '74 World Cup that really brought 'Total Football' to the world and delighted the millions watching. The Dutch came into the tournament as one of the favourites, despite never having won it before.
"Surviving the first round is never my aim. Ideally I'd be in one group with Brazil, Argentina and Germany. Then I'd have lost two rivals after the first round. That's how I think. Idealistic." - Johan Cruyff
For Johan Cruyff's player profile click HERE
The above quote probably summed up the feeling of the entire Dutch squad in 1974, as they went out there with an almost strutting arrogance and took the game to opponents from the start. The group stages also saw something special from the great man himself, as he unleashed the 'Cruyff turn' for the first time on unsuspecting Sweden defender Jan Olsson. Olsson later said: "I played 18 years in top football and 17 times for Sweden but that moment against Cruyff was the proudest moment of my career. I thought I'd win the ball for sure, but he tricked me. I was not humiliated. I had no chance Cruyff was a genius." That was the most memorable moment of the group stages, as Netherlands eased through to the knockout rounds.
Two Cruyff goals helped see off Argentina 4-0 in the next round, before East Germany went home on the back of a 2-0 defeat as the Dutch went through to the semi-final to face Brazil. The reigning champions were also sent home, Cruyff scoring one of the goals as Netherlands beat them 2-1 to set up a final with the other German team, West Germany. The match kicked off with an incredible move as Cruyff took the kick off and 15 passes later had the ball returned to him. He glided past his marker Berti Vogts and into the box where Uli Hoeness took him out to give the Dutch a penalty, which Johan Neeskens duly converted. 1-0 to Netherlands and West Germany had not had a touch of the ball yet, other than to pick it out of their net!
It was this moment that arrogance spoilt all the work the Netherlands had done, as they believed they had done enough and allowed the Germans back into it. Vogts marked Cruyff out of the rest of the game and the deadly efficiency of the German footballing machine ground out a 2-1 win to leave the Dutch 1974 World Cup side as the best side never to win a World Cup. Cruyff's Golden Ball (awarded to the best player at the World Cup) was no consolation to him as their bitter rivals, Germany, had the big one he wanted.
Sad to say, but that was Cruyff's last attempt to win the World Cup, as he shocked the world with his announcement in October 1977, just after helping his nation qualify for the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, that he was to retire from international football. Officially he said that he was dropping out of the squad for the World Cup in protest at the military dictatorship in Argentina at the time. It was only revealed in 2008 that he had dropped out after an attempted kidnap attempt at the Cruyff family home in Barcelona. Cruyff told Catalunya Radio: "To play a World Cup you have to be 200% okay, there are moments when there are other values in life."
For years Cruyff had not told anyone why, at the age of just 30, fit and in form, he stopped playing for Netherlands, despite the accusations of abandoning his country. "You should know that I had problems at the end of my career as a player here," he continued. "And I don't know if you know that someone put a rifle to my head and tied me up and tied up my wife in front of the children at our flat in Barcelona. The children were going to school accompanied by the police. The police slept in our house for three or four months. I was going to matches with a bodyguard. All these things change your point of view towards many things. There are moments in life in which there are other values. We wanted to stop this and be a little more sensible. It was the moment to leave football and I couldn't play in the World Cup after this."
Written by Ed001