Total Football - DPRK Inspired?

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candylandriots

unkempt
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Mar 30, 2004
12,327
Berlin
I came across an article today that most of you probably would not have seen. It discussed North Korea's improbable performance in the 1966 World Cup and suggested that Cruyff was inspired by their play in a way that helped him develop Total Football.
 
The article doesn't give a whole lot of support for the thesis, but thought it might be interesting to some here.
 
Also, has anyone seen the movie, The Game of Their Lives about North Korea's win over Italy in the 1966 World Cup (not to be confused with a later movie about the US in 1950)? I'm going to try and track it down.
 

Nick Kaufman

protector of human kind from spoilers
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A Lost Time
But the thing is cruyff didn't come up with total football, he was just a player. His coach Rinus Michels did.
 

Spacemans Bong

chapeau rose
SoSH Member
Rinus Michels didn't come up with Total Football, Vic Buckingham had already started playing an early version of it at Ajax in the early 60s. And Vic Buckingham didn't invent Total Football out of whole cloth, he was in part inspired by the Hungarian team of the early 50s that deployed Nandor Hidegkuti as a deep lying centre forward and the philosophy of Guztav Sebes, who believed players needed to have the skills to play all outfield positions. Their tactics look primitive today but their mild shifting of positions (Hidegkuti aside, who really did just wander about almost anywhere - oh, and Puskas too also had a pretty free role) was revolutionary.
 
And THAT was inspired by Matthias Sindelar, who was arguably the very first withdrawn centre forward for the Austrian Wunderteam of the 30s - a team Sebes would have known about.
 
Oh, and Ajax had their first major success already under their belts - knocking Liverpool out of the 1965 European Cup with a 5-1 win in a foggy Amsterdam.
 
So yeah, this was all evolving and sorry North Korea but their brave performance in '66 didn't have much to do with it. Great performance knocking out the Italians, though, and their really good physical preparation was probably noticed by some people (possibly even the 1970 Brazilian team, which took physical prep more seriously than they had in 12 years).
 
But what made Total Football so awesome was that Michels took it to the nth degree, maybe because he realized what a bunch of talent he had, because he was a famous player and could back himself, or maybe because he just felt like it. Teams still overlap obviously but the early 70s Ajax and Holland teams really went everywhere - the 1st goal of the 1974 final being a great example. It's a penalty drawn by Cruyff after a mazy run in which he picks up the ball being the furthest Dutch player on the pitch from the German goal. I mean, when have you ever seen Messi - who wanders around a lot - pick up a ball with that many people in front of him? Never?
 
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