The Football Tragic

I've been busily downloading some more past World Cup games of late, and very much enjoying them. Somehow, the games of yesteryear (well, the better ones, anyway) seem to have a flow and a rhythm that is rarely produced these days, even by the finest teams...and I still maintain that the pointless, ill-considered backpass rule is responsible for that in no small part.

Herewith some thoughts on two games in particular that left an impression, and an interesting tactical novelty they both featured.

First, Holland v. Bulgaria from the 1974 World Cup. A very fine game, this. Johan Cruyff and his famous Oranje machine were in top form, and the Bulgarians were no slouches either; their star midfielder and captain, the elusive Hristo Bonev, would have graced any side of any era. Had their famous centre-forward Georgi Asparoukhov not been killed in a car crash a couple of years prior, the Bulgarians may well have reached the second round (or better) in Germany.

In this match, though, they were no match for the speed and slick interplay of the Dutch, and the prodigious acceleration and close control of Cruyff. Yet it was another aspect of the Dutch performance that interested me particularly.

There are plenty of tactical schemes around these days, but whatever the numbers (which, so often, only represent an approximation of a team's modus operandi) may be, almost all teams are sure to have a player at the apex of the attack; "at the point", as the jargon tends to be these days. This player will either flick the ball on with his head (if he's British), make the clever runs off the shoulder (if he's Italian), or receive, turn on a 50 cent piece and create chances for himself (if he's Brazilian). And, wherever he hails from, he will usually have the job of laying the ball off as well.

But need it be so?

In most accounts of the 1974 Dutchmen, Cruyff is described, for convenience, as the centre-forward. Yet this is an inadequate description of his role; most attacks did indeed go through him, but he almost invariably started from deep, much preferring to run at the defence. There were two other men in the forward line, Johnny Rep and Rob Rensenbrink, but they were playing as wingers, occasionally switching flanks but generally attempting to penetrate out wide.

In midfield it was something like this: Wim Jansen as the holding midfielder and tackler, Wim van Hanegem as the deep-lying playmaker, and Cruyff and Johan Neeskens breaking from midfield to support the two wingers, rather than playing in between them. No centre-forward.

And yes, the Dutch did indulge in plenty of positional interchange, the hallmark of their 1974 side. But there was none of the usual pivoting around a central man; the route to goal was usually either a surging run from the middle of the park, or a ball over the top to the wide men.

These are tactics that, to be honest, I haven't seen any contemporary team use. Yet there seems to be much to recommend them.

For one thing, the attacking players are, I feel, more likely to receive the ball facing the goal. Then there's the question of "availability"; one of the things that constantly frustrates me about modern football is that so often a full-back has few close options for a pass, necessitating either a long ball or a telegraphed pass to a player already tightly marked. With the forward line dropping deeper, there are consequently more chances of there being a "receiver" nearby.

Below is an example of the strategy in action, from the first half of the game in question. The Dutch win the ball in their own half, and immediately the wingers set off up the wing, drawing their men out wide. Cruyff is then cleverly released by van Hanegem, Neeskens charges up alongside him...and the break is on! It's notable that the two central men are difficult to stop, not only because they happen to be Cruyff and Neeskens, but because they are facing the goal, with ample space to run at the defence because, unlike a centre-forward, they are not tightly marked. The move deserved a goal (despite Neeskens' lucky rebound off a Bulgarian defender at the end), but you can't have everything...

Next: Argentina v. Poland 1978, and an even more striking example.