The World Cup Series: 1970 and 1974
Join host Jim Hart and World Cup experts Gary Thacker and Steven Scragg as they…
Tag: cruyff
MTV, Oscar Wilde and the implosion of Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team
I’VE HEARD IT SAID that non-football fans are – to paraphrase Bart Simpson – the…
The decline of Dutch ball-playing centre-backs
BARRY HULSHOFF – beard unkempt, socks rolled down and a mullet with a life of…
How Amsterdam changed the world of football forever
ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CITY, where Stadionweg meets Amstelveenseweg, and new apartment complexes are thrown up to…
Johan Cruyff: talent spotter, manager, orchestrator and genius
Illustration by Federico Manasse The multifarious sphere of footballing history encompasses many greats. Some prove…
Johan Cruyff: the American diaries
JOHAN CRUYFF’S impact on football was far-reaching to say the least. His influence on the…
Jordi Cruyff and a career unfairly spent in the shadows
NATURE OR NURTURE? It’s a question psychologists have debated for centuries. In the context of…
Netherlands
No country has given more to the modern game than the Netherlands and no single…
The renaissance of Ajax, a superclub back on the map
Pareidolia – the perceiving of familiarity where none exists – is a more common psychological…
Where do you draw the line between progression and success?
After Luis Enrique announced his seemingly inevitable resignation as Barcelona coach, he made a poignant…
How society and politics gave us Catenaccio and Total Football
BENEDIKT TASCHEN’S BOOK ON 1970s FOOTBALL PHOTOGRAPHY is titled The Age of Innocence. An apt title,…
The colossal legacy of Ajax mentor Jany van der Veen
*Main photo: Jany van der Veen is standing in the back row, fifth from the…
The in-depth history of Ajax and Barcelona’s unique relationship
TO A CHILD falling in love with football right now, there’s a world of difference…
‘That was Cruyff’: how one man changed football
‘That was Cruyff’. So many things in football are indeed Johan Cruyff. Senior TFT writer Jon Townsend, a man heavily influenced by Cruyff as a player and now coach, looks back in celebratory fashion at the beautiful gifts the Dutch legend left behind.
Can a Dutch club win the Champions League again?
The goal was scrappy. Patrick Kluivert, on as a late substitute, slipped and stumbled through the…
Holland 1974: the greatest failures in history
When Holland lost the 1974 World Cup final they become perhaps the greatest side to never lift the trophy. We look back at a style-defining Totaalvoetbal masterclass from the Dutch.
When Ajax didn’t want Johan Cruyff he left for Feyenoord … and won the double
As featured on Guardian Sport IT WAS WITH A FIT OF PIQUE, REVENGE IN MIND…
The allure of the rondo
Call is Piggy in the Middle, 3v1, 5v2, 5v5+2 or any variation where a numerically superior…