The Godfather of Football

In 2013, many fans would think of the Dream Team and Cruyff when they mentioned Barcelona.

History is sometimes really extreme.

In 2013, fans would naturally worship the Dream Team I because of the Dream Team II and Dream Team III. Many people even looked at the Barcelona Dream Team I led by Cruyff in a nearly deified way. But is it really so?

In the early 1990s, La Liga was inferior to Serie A and was on par with the Bundesliga. At that time, Real Madrid and Barcelona dominated the country, almost taking turns to be the banker. First, Real Madrid won five consecutive championships, and then Barcelona won four consecutive championships. The two teams completely dominated La Liga.

It is undeniable that Barcelona in Cruyff's era was indeed very competitive in La Liga, but in Europe, except for winning the championship in the 1991/92 season, in the next three years, in the 1992/93 season, Barcelona lost to CSKA Moscow of the Russian Premier League in the first round of the qualifying round. In the 1993/94 season, although they stepped on the bodies of Galatasaray, Porto and other teams along the way to the final, they were slaughtered 4:0 by Capello's AC Milan.

The situation in the 1994/95 season was slightly better, but they also lost to Paris Saint-Germain of Ligue 1 in the quarter-finals.

If we count the European results, the Dream Team I is much worse than Guardiola's Dream Team III, and even Rijkaard's Dream Team II may not be able to beat it.

Speaking of the league, except for the first year, in the second and third years, a very important reason why Barcelona was able to win the championship was to thank Tenerife coached by Valdano, who defeated Real Madrid in the last round of two consecutive seasons, which finally led to Barcelona's reversal and winning the championship.

In the fourth year, Real Madrid performed poorly and was slaughtered 5-0 by Barcelona at Camp Nou, but in the competition for the league championship, Barcelona narrowly defeated Deportivo La Coruna in the last round.

In other words, the so-called Dream Team of Barcelona only had its peak in the 1990/91 season, and at best, it barely counted as winning the Champions League in the second season, but before and after that, Barcelona did not have very convincing results in terms of results or playing style.

Of course, Cruyff's excellence is worthy of recognition, but it is definitely not his coaching and tactical application, but his understanding of football and his tactical insights. This is where he is truly outstanding and the fundamental reason for the ups and downs of Barcelona under his leadership.

Barcelona during Cruyff's period did not adopt the ball control style of Guardiola's period in terms of tactics. In fact, Barcelona at that time played a complex style that was very similar to the combination of traditional English long passes and Spanish short passes.

In the 1990s, European football was dominated by No. 10. Whoever controls the midfield controls the world. This was deeply confirmed at the time. The midfield was highly valued at the time, but the attention paid to the flanks of the forward and defensive lines was far from enough. This can be fully seen from the three-back configuration that was very popular at the time.

In this situation, Cruyff clearly realized the disadvantages of the three-back configuration and realized that the midfield was overcrowded and he had to find a way to withdraw from the quagmire of the midfield. So he adopted the winger strategy and arranged two wingers with excellent attacking and personal abilities in the frontcourt to tear open the flank channels in the frontcourt.

The midfield is more of a traditional Dutch midfielder, because their midfield is not responsible for organization. Cruyff's team retreated the organization to the back waist or even the central defender position, so in Cruyff's team, the central defender Coman took on a very large task of organization and passing.

The routine that Barcelona often saw at the time was that the midfielder would find Coman after stealing the ball, and Coman would directly make a long pass over the top to find the winger, and then tear open the defense through the flank to create a killing opportunity in the middle.

Following Cruyff's set of ideas, Louis van Gaal, who was in Ajax, continued to adjust and added more of his own understanding of football after basically inheriting this set of ideas. But to some extent, Van Gaal still adopted the wingers' breakthrough tactics, so the personal abilities of Ajax's wingers at that time were very good.

However, there is a fatal flaw in the 433 winger tactics. Even in the heyday of Barcelona, ​​Cruyff could not change the problem, that is, on the offensive end, in order to ensure that the wingers can play the greatest threat, they must move close to the full-backs of the defense line, which will cause the distance between the wingers and the full-backs to lengthen.

Fans often talk about loopholes. What are loopholes?

The area that players cannot cover is a loophole!

In other words, the distance between the two players is too long, resulting in the opponent's players getting the ball in this area, and both players cannot give the first time to press, which means that there is a loophole between them.

The loophole caused by the long distance between the winger and the full-back is the fatal flaw in Ajax's 433 tactics!

Ye Qiu read Cruyff's views on the 433 formation and Beckenbauer's understanding of troop deployment and offense and defense on the football field. He admired the understanding and knowledge of football of these two predecessors very much. He also understood that the strongest part of the 433 tactics that Cruyff was famous for was the wingers, but the biggest weakness was also precisely the wingers.

Ajax's decline over the past two or three years actually started with the departure of a group of outstanding wingers such as Davis, Overmars, and Litmanen. If you don't have strong wing offense and defense with outstanding personal abilities, continuing to use 433 will only magnify the loopholes infinitely in the end.

Just like Westhoff's B1 team now, the two wingers are not fast, and the speed of the full-back is also average, which makes the original coverage area between them small, and they rely more on the connection between the midfielders. But even so, the wingers and full-backs are still frequently out of touch.

This situation was not very obvious at the beginning when B1 team took the initiative to attack and suppress B2 team, but as the game continued, especially in the 45 minutes of the first half, when Westhoff's team could not break the goal of B2 team, it became more obvious in the second half.

The winger wanted to continue to strengthen the attack, but the full-back ran back and forth throughout the first half, and his physical energy was too much. In the second half, he could not keep up, and the loopholes between the two were bound to be further magnified.

In this situation, the opportunity Ye Qiu has been waiting for finally came!

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Sneijder looked a little depressed, because from the beginning to now, his B2 team has been suppressed by the opponent for a long time.

He was originally given more organizational and offensive tasks, but as the situation became passive, he had to retreat more to support the midfield and take on more defensive tasks.

However, in his heart, he still had a glimmer of hope.

This glimmer of hope came from a sentence said by head coach Ye Qiu during the halftime break.

"They will definitely show flaws, they will definitely relax, that's our chance!"

Ye Qiu encouraged them during the halftime break, not much, just a few words, but this sentence was the most important, because this sentence made all the players of the B2 team see hope.

No one wants to be a loser by nature. Who doesn't want their team to win? Who doesn't take pride in defeating a strong enemy?

In this case, there is actually no need for too much incitement and encouragement. The key is to see hope!

So, when Sneijder saw Ye Qiu coming out of his seat on the sidelines and waving at them, he was refreshed. He looked at De Jong, Maduro, Rui and others, and found that each of them had excitement and hunger on their faces.

It was a desire similar to that of a starving person who had been starving for a long time when he saw food!

Team B1 still wanted to pass the ball to Van der Vaart. Although the same thing had been missed countless times in this game, they still did it again and again, because they had no other way.

However, De Jong successfully intercepted the ball!

The ball passed to Van der Vaart again and again seemed to help De Jong brush up the game data!

After the interception, De Jong kicked the ball to the sideline as soon as possible.

I saw that the right back of Team B2, who had been retreating on the defense line, suddenly moved forward, received De Jong's pass, and kicked forward. At this time, the winger of Team B1 wanted to take a break and breathe, and the full-back was too far away to press in the first time.

The right back of Team B2 quickly brought the ball into Team B1's half, and the left back of Team B1 had to rush to the ball immediately, but the right back of Team B2 quickly passed the ball to Sneijder who was advancing.

Sneijder got the ball and quickly passed it to the right side and passed it to the right winger.

The right winger was lying in ambush behind the left back of Team B1. As soon as he got the ball, he quickly broke through along the right side, and before the opponent's central defender Heitinga could block it, he passed the ball into the penalty area with a cross.

Rui is a typical Dutch center forward, tall and strong, not fast, but with good awareness and solid basic skills.

When he saw Sneijder pass the ball, he already knew what to do and rushed forward immediately.

When Rui reached the right post of the small penalty area, the cross from the side had passed Heitinga's defense, a low ball, very fast, and came directly to the front point, and Rui also entered the attacking state just in time.

Almost at the same time, Westhoff in the coaching booth had already seen that things were not going well. He rushed out of his seat and shouted loudly to the court, "Front point, pay attention to the front point!"

In the stands, Leo Benhakker, who had previously thought that Ye Qiu's team had little chance of turning the situation around, stood up in amazement at this time, watching the tall forward wearing the B2 team jersey on the court, swinging his right foot, facing the low ball, and kicking it out.

This shot was not difficult. Although the ball was fast, the attack angle was large and the distance to the goal was close. As long as the basic skills were solid, it would be difficult to miss the ball, and Rui's basic skills were absolutely solid.

The right foot touched Rui's right foot, without making an obvious sound, turned in another direction, and before Stekelenburg came to save with all his strength, it went into the goal of the B1 team.

At this moment, everyone in the entire second team stadium was stunned, looking at the ball in the B1 team's goal in disbelief, and then looked at the forward who lost his balance and fell to the ground due to the shot, jumped up, turned around and rushed out of the penalty area.

Beside him, there was a group of dumbfounded B1 players. They all looked at the group of B2 players celebrating the goal in disbelief. They found it hard to understand. Didn't they have a huge advantage just now? How could the opponent score in the blink of an eye?

Perhaps, it was difficult for them to understand, but Leo Benhakker knew that this was a tactic!

Rui rushed to the sidelines, clenched his fists, and waved them vigorously. Behind him, Sneijder, De Jong, Maduro and others also rushed out one by one, rushed to Rui's side, surrounded him in the middle, and celebrated the team's first goal and took the lead.

This goal came too suddenly, catching them all off guard and full of surprise.

In the stands, although there were not many spectators, only a few hundred people, there was a sparse applause. Obviously, they were all surprised by this goal and also affirmed it.

"Haha, I told you, Ye Qiu must have a trick up his sleeve. This guy doesn't look like he wants a draw!" Van Praag laughed, feeling proud of his previous wisdom.

The chairman's expression was naturally seen by Waters, which made his eyes even gloomier.

Ye Qiu waited for the goal for nearly an hour.

In the past hour, he was frightened, and his heart had to endure more shocks than he had ever endured in his life. This made him feel exhausted all over, but at the same time, it also brought him a kind of excitement from the bottom of his heart, as if his whole body was burning with excitement.

He suddenly felt that this adventure into the unknown really brought him a thrilling excitement, which was too exciting!

Looking at Westhoff again, the latter's face suddenly looked like he had eaten bitter gourd, and there was no longer the high spirits before the game. Now he had walked back to the coach's seat in a dejected manner, and people couldn't see his face clearly, but it must be very interesting.

"Goal! We really scored! We actually scored!"

Beside Ye Qiu, Roland Shepas was already dancing with excitement, hugging Ye Qiu excitedly, obviously still immersed in the surprise brought by the goal, unable to extricate himself.

He was the one who knew Ye Qiu's arrangement best, but he was also the most worried, because he was very worried whether Ye Qiu's wishful thinking would work in front of the old man Westhoff. He was also worried that if Ye Qiu lost, he would be expelled from De Tokmost along with Ye Qiu.

However, all these worries disappeared with this goal.

Yes, it was just a goal, but in Ye Qiu's arrangement and plan, this goal was enough to kill Westhoff's team.

"Don't be too excited, Roland, it's just a goal!" Ye Qiu shouted with a smile, looking unsatisfied.

Roland grabbed his shoulder and shouted: "Yes, don't get too excited, it's just a goal!" However, his action of pulling Ye Qiu's shoulder hard made it difficult for people to doubt that he could calm down.

Westerhoff is indeed famous in the Netherlands, but that is only in the Netherlands. However, some of the tactical analysis and tactical explanations that Ye Qiu has seen in the Godfather system are all from Michels, Cruyff and Beckenbauer, a group of famous talents in football history.

In the eyes of this group of historical masters, let alone Westerhoff, Leo Benhakker would be ashamed!

However, although he took the lead, Ye Qiu was not proud of it at all. He was not Waters. He clearly remembered that he had heard a sentence in his previous life that 1:0 was the most insecure score in the world, so he was not only unwilling to draw, but also unwilling to 1:0. He wanted to win more.

Didn't Westhoff boast that he would use a game to resolve the battle and completely destroy Ye Qiu's fighting spirit and morale?

Ye Qiu wanted to do the same thing to him now!

So, Ye Qiu walked out of the coaching area, walked to the sidelines, raised his right hand high, and this was the first time he walked to the sidelines and shouted in this game.

"Boys, they are obviously no longer good, don't be polite to them, kill them, come on!!"

All those who heard Ye Qiu's shouting suddenly collapsed. Isn't this too disrespectful to the opponent?

Westerhoff had lost interest, but when he heard Ye Qiu's words, he rushed out of his seat and yelled at the players of Team B1 on the court, "You damn bastards, is this how you play the ball? What do I tell you? Don't mess around, what are you messing around for? If they dare to attack, suppress them and push them back completely!"

"Rafael, you have to hold the ball more and don't pass the ball all the time. You are the core. The core is to hold the ball more, pass the ball more, and create more threats. Do you understand? If you don't do this, what kind of core are you?"

"And you, John, you have to know how to come back after taking the ball. Don't be so reckless. Do you really think you are Coman?"

Westerhoff also looked very angry. He couldn't imagine what he would become if he accidentally lost to Ye Qiu in the game after making so many boasts before the game.

It goes without saying that he will definitely become a laughing stock for everyone in Ajax, and he will definitely leave Ajax in disgrace. What's more serious is that he will definitely become a big joke in the entire Dutch coaching community. It will definitely be like this.

"That damn Chinese..." Turning his head to the side, Westhoff glanced at Ye Qiu, and the more he looked at him, the more irritating it became.

But that damn guy seemed to sense his gaze and looked over, showing his white teeth and grinning, which made Westhoff so angry that he went crazy.

But just when Westhoff was about to go berserk, the situation on the court suddenly changed. Team B2 once again used Team B1 to pass the ball to Van der Vaart, and when the latter stuck to the ball, De Jong and Maduro teamed up to intercept the ball and passed it to the full-back to advance with the ball. After reaching the front court, he passed it to Rui, who knocked it back.

Sneijder received Rui's knocked-back ball in the front of the penalty area. Without any hesitation, he opened his posture and shot hard!

This shot was powerful, as if Sneijder wanted to vent all the depression and frustration he had suffered in the first hour of the game.

The ball was also very fast, passing Stekelenburg's hand and going straight into the dead corner of the goal, 2:0!

Suddenly, the whole stadium was boiling again, and even Van Praag couldn't help cheering for Ye Qiu's B2 team!