July 11, 2010
MY TWO CENTS
A new definition of Total Football?
Octavio Zambrano has some interesting thoughts on the new Total Football.
Kansas City Wizards assistant coach Octavio Zambrano, who directed the MetroStars to their best season (2000) during a three-year tenure, wrote about the new Total Football of Spain. Between coaching the Los Angeles Galaxy and MetroStars in 1999, Zambrano spend some time in the Netherlands, the birthplace of Total Football, learning more about the game.
"I wanted to see with my own eyes the way the Dutch approached the whole matter of player development," said Zambrano, who added he spent 2 1/2 months between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, but mostly with Feyenoord in Rotterdam.
"It was real research and made copious notes and interviewed quite a few people, amongst them Leo Beenhakker, then the coach of Feyenoord who was gracious enough to grant me full access. I would spend the morning and early afternoon with the first team, then the mid-afternoon with the third team (combination of reserves, foreign trialists and Academy graduates) and the late afternoon and evenings with the different teams from the Academy. It was fascinating."
By Octavio Zambrano
Special to be BigAppleSoccer.com
On the eve of the 2010 World Cup final, two teams (nations) that have been for years expected to win a World Cup, will finally have the opportunity to fulfill the dreams of many football fans and the predictions of experts in the football intelligentsia.
It couldn't be more appropriate given the fact that these two nations have had much to do with setting trends on how football ought to be played and coached. This final in Johannesburg may represent the transition from a system of play that has dominated the last four decades in favor of a new brand of football.
Holland, whose 1970's teams revolutionized football and gave generations of coaches and players a road map to follow, a guide to achieve "Total Football."
Total Football implements an attacking style that emphasizes technique as well as physical prowess, immediate transition from defense to offense, movement of the ball quickly through the midfield and executing combinations to finish in the opponent's penalty box, utilizing the full width of the pitch and using as few touches as possible.
Defenders, midfielders and forwards are devoted to defending as well as attacking and interchanging positions when necessary. Not flair, but speed, technique and an unquenchable determination to score, have been the core principles of this system.
The teachings of coach Rinus Michels and his Ajax team of the early seventies took the football world by storm. Ajax won everything a team could win in the early part of that decade and became unbeatable. Ajax's emphasis on player development and Michels' ideas of adapting players to play different roles within a system, propelled the Dutch coaching methodology as the most entertaining, innovative and efficient.
Spain, though, is making a case for redefining "Total Football," utilizing a different set of values. The Spaniards have revolutionized the game in their own way, to the extent that the very Dutch team they are facing in the World Cup final, is trying to emulate their style of play, or at least incorporate some ideas of the Spanish brand of football and see how they fit within their "Total Football" system. So far it seems, the Dutch have done it with success.
The emphasis on the Spanish side is on possession and constant movement off the ball and with the ball, not always necessarily going forward. Sometimes it is playing laterally all for the sake of possession. But this possession has a purpose, to unbalance and frustrate the adversaries by making them feel as if they are not playing as a contender but rather just as a willing partner in a training environment.
Forcing the teams to commit and then move the ball around them -- the speed of play is not as important as the speed of thought -- this style allows players to display more creativity, not only because the players possess the ball, but because, as they feel pressure, they need to come up with solutions on how to prevent being stripped of the ball by using creative methods to beat an opponent that often resigns itself to play for a draw.
More than half of the starting players on the Spanish side come from Barcelona of Spain. Just as the Ajax of the seventies this Barcelona of the 2000s has won every title. Their commitment to player development is second to none. Just like Ajax, most of their players come from within the youth ranks.
It should be noted that Johan Cruyff's tenure in Barcelona of Spain had a lot to do with their commitment to developing the "Total Player," so it could be argued that the Spanish version of "Total Football" may have it's roots in the Dutch system and Cruyff being just the perfect conduit.
Are we about to enjoy and experience a new/better version of "Total Football?"
Is this final going to be the one that defines the standard of football for decades to come?
Will the Spanish way of playing be the one to emulate for the foreseeable future and coaches and players will be told to possess the ball, rather than transition quickly?
Will the dribbling skills and versatility of players like Andres Iniesta and Xavi be the standard in the midfield as it was at one time the speed and physical prowess of players like Edgar Davids and Clarence Seedorf?
Regardless, for many of these players, the World Cup is the only piece of silverware missing and this final could be a defining moment for football and player development in the years to come.
"The opinions reflected in the My Two Cents columns do not express the views of the editors or management of BigAppleSoccer. com" If you want to respond to this story or have an opinion of your own, send it to email.
