Tom Lappin: From Johan to Johannesburg, Total Football travels true course, but this time Dutch are artisans not artistes

Published on Friday 9 July 2010 22:06

IT ALL started with a self-important Serbian centre-back. Velibor Vasovic, his own biggest fan, joined Ajax Amsterdam in 1966. The way he told it, it was his character and experience that allowed the development of total football.

More than four decades after the inception of the Ajax philosophy, under Rinus Michels and his presiding genius Johan Cruyff, the Amsterdam schools descendants comprise both finalists at the pinnacle of the world game. From Johan to Johannesburg is a straight line.

The principles of Europe's most inventive football style are still taught at Jong Ajax, the academy that has some of the most illustrious alumni in world football. The Dutch team features six graduates: Wesley Sneijder, John Heitinga, Rafael van Der Vaart, Nigel De Jong, Maarten Stekelenburg and Gregory Van Der Wiel. Its indicative of the academy's standards of excellence that this generation is regarded as ordinary, uninspired even. By the standards of Cruyff, Holland 2010 is a team of artisans rather than artistes.

Nostalgia is always kind to past heroes, but comparisons with the stars of 1974 are invidious. Is Sneijder better than Johan Neeskens, Arjen Robben a match for Johnny Rep, De Jong the new Arie Haan, Robin Van Persie fit to wear Cruyff's mantle? Observers of a certain age will be shaking their heads, but it wont matter if the 2010 Dutch manage what their predecessors in 1974 and 1978 couldn't, and lift the World Cup. It wont be the poetic victory they craved 36 years ago, but Holland would be world champions.

Two years ago, it seemed that Holland had found a team worthy of the 70s stars. In the European Championships they destroyed France and Italy with counter-attacking performances of a verve and ruthlessness not seen until Germany pulled off similar feats against England and Argentina in South Africa. For ten days Holland were the greatest team in Europe, then they succumbed to Russia in the quarter-final.

Bert Van Marwijk has retained the basis of that side, with Van Persie replacing Ruud Van Nistelrooy in attack, and Sneijder given a more central role. Otherwise the coach's most obvious change has been to instil a characteristic alien to Dutch World Cup teams; a sense of unity. Given that Van Marwijk has a personal history of antipathy for Van Persie, that Sneijder and Van Persie have a long-standing mutual loathing, this is a considerable achievement.

In the 1974 final the Dutch team was split between those who wanted to build on their early lead, and those who wanted to make a point about West Germany's technical inferiority. There will be no debate this time. Earnest workhorses like Dirk Kuyt, Heitinga and the destroyer Mark Van Bommel wont be fooling themselves that they are more skilful players than their opponents.

It is the Spanish who are the more purely Dutch team in this final, a side that personifies Cruyff's philosophy of a game of pure possession, mesmerising movement, the occasionally self-defeating distaste for directness. Cruyff says a Spanish victory would bring him intense joy.

When you look at Spain, you see Barcelona, Cruyff asserts. Six of Spain's starting line-up are Barcelona players, seven if you count their latest acquisition David Villa. Barcelona remains moulded by the Cruyff principles, perhaps to a greater extent than Ajax. Pep Guardiola was hardly likely to swerve from those precepts.

In 1990 Cruyff saw something in a skinny right-winger to persuade him that Guardiola would be better running the show from central midfield. He became the engine-room of the 1992 dream team, the role model for Xavi Hernandez, who fulfils the same function for Barcelona and Spain now. This Spanish teams style was conceived on the Barcelona training ground 20 years ago. This Spain is nothing if not patient.

Vincent Del Bosque, a Real Madrid servant for 39 years, is hardly likely to fetishise Bara, but he is wily enough to recognise a winning formula. He has tweaked the side he inherited from Luis Aragones. Marcos Senna has been replaced by the less visionary but pragmatic Sergi Busquets. David Silva has been excluded to allow Del Bosque to field his favoured quartet of midfield ball-hoarders Xavi, Busquets, Xabi Alonso and Andres Iniesta. Iniesta is now the prompter of most attacking initiatives, Xavi the supply line and base-camp.

There are question-marks. Does Sergio Ramos's penchant for surging forward leave avenues that Robben, say, might exploit? Or will Robben prefer to attack Joan Capdevila, regarded as the weak link in defence, but impressive so far. Will Van Bommel suppress Iniesta? Will Del Bosque trust the out-of-sorts Fernando Torres or start with the inexperienced Pedro?

These are minor details. Spain's performance against Germany suggested that this side isn't troubled by self-doubt, isn't prey to anxiety when goals are not immediately forthcoming. They are gloriously relaxed. Carles Puyol insouciantly greeted the Queen of Spain on Wednesday night wearing just a towel.

Spain's biggest problem might be the one faced by Cruyff's Holland back in 1974. They are so sure that they play football on a different level from the rest of the world, that they may neglect to score the goals required to register their superiority in the record books. That is an irony that this resolute Holland team would embrace with relish.z