Oranje 1974: Johan Cruyff

My friends, despite Rafael van der Vaart, Dennis Bergkamp, Royston Drenthe and Castelen…no person has been served up in blog articles in the last years as El Salvador himself: Johan “Jopie” Cruyff.

We had interviews here, his columns, funny quotes, wonderful anecdotes, clips, pics of his wife, his car, his son, his dog, you name it….

If you missed them because you’re a newbie ( I’m doing this here thang since the WC2006!!) you can search in the archives. Try to use “Johan Cruyff” as tag and see what comes up.

But, we’re doing an overview of the 1974 team and I believe he was part of that team, so here we go… I don’t think you’ll read anything here you don’t know yet. Sorry for that. I’m out of angles here.

Johan Cruyff was born in april 1947 in Amsterdam, some 100 yards from the Ajax stadium. Jopie and his bro’ Henny were football nuts and they both played in Ajax youth teams and won titles galore. Henny was less talented (duh) so Johan would move up in the world of Ajax, leaving his brother behind. Johan’s dad died when Johan was 12. His mum would accept a job as Ajax’ laundry woman and meets a new hubbie, “uncle Henk”.

Johan basically lived in the Ajax stadium. He is a sort of mascotte for the Ajax 1 team and helps with chores, like painting the dressing room walls and placing the corner flags before games. No one discovered the youngster, every one could see from that age onwards that Jopie was a tremendous talent. He’d play in the Ajax 1 team when he’s 17 years old and would be Holland’s top goalscorer when 20 years old (33 goals).

Johan winst titles and cups and plays his first Europa Cup 1 finals in 1969 against AC Milan in Madrid (and loses 1-4). But Johan plays a tremendous game, prompting Michels to renovate the team to bring higher quality players in. Under JC’s leadership, the general knows Ajax could win the cup one day. Michels brings youngsters like Ruud Krol, Johan Neeskens, Gerrie Muhren, Nico Rijnders, Arie Haan and Horst Blankenburg and gels them with the older, more experienced crew (Suurbier, Hulshoff, Vasovic, Swart, Keizer and Cruyff.

1970 would be too early for the new team and Feyenoord would become the first Dutch club to ever win the European Cup. In 1971 the Amsterdam team reaches the finals and Cruyff and Co win at Wembley against Panathinaikos (2-0). In 1972, Ajax wins again. Cruyff scores twice against Inter Milan. In 1973, Juventus is the runner up as Ajax snatches the cup again, 1-0. In the meantime, the footballing rock stars – with John Rep – also win the World Cup and the Super Cup. Ajax rules.

Ajax is unbeatable. That is, by other teams. But there’s something brewing within. Johnny Rep: “I think the success got to our heads. The eagerness to perform faded away. We were getting fed up with traveling, there were money-related issues, power-issues…” Cruyff clashes with players and when the players vote their captain, JC is shocked to learn that Piet Keizer gets the most votes. Johan decides to move on and signs a lucrative deal with fledging Barcelona (where Rinus Michels is his coach again.).

JC would be crowned El Salvador in Barcelona and he’d play there from 1973 till 1978. In those years, he demonstrates in Oranje that he’s world class, but he doesn’t perform to well in Spain. Ajax needs Cruyff and Cruyff needs Ajax, or so it seems. Despite the presence of Nees and Michels along side Cruyff, Barca only wins one title while he’s there. In Holland, Feyenoord and PSV take over the lead positions while Bayern Munich jumps in the void the Golden Ajax team leaves in Europe.

JC retires from football when he reaches the age of 31. He always predicted he would. But a year later, he appears the Los Angeles Aztecs – again under Michels – to play in the American competition. He’d even move to the Washington Diplomats for seconds. JC regrets having retired – he misses the game – but he also needs to recover from an alleged financial disaster. Pig-farms didn’t appear to be lucrative as an investment. JC will be crowned American football player of the year twice in a row. He’d return to Europe to play a few games for Levante and there’s rumors of JC signing for AC Milan. There’s rare pictures showing him in a Milan jersey, but his ankles ruin a further career in Italy and JC retires again. He’d return to Amsterdam, to support Leo Beenhakker – the Ajax coach – as technical advisor. The whole nation watches how JC would walk down from the stands – Ajax is behind at half time – to join Beenhakker in the dug out to tell Don Leo how he needs to change the team in order to win the game. Beenhakker seems to comply and Ajax does win the game. That particular event would haunt Beenhakker for a long time and the current Feyenoord man would later say: “I should have socked Jopie on the jaw then and there. Live on telly. The smug little bastard….”. Their relationship would be ruined forever.

In November 1981, Beenhakker is removed and Aad de Mos is the new coach, Cruyff decides to play for Ajax again. Cruyff makes his debut in De Meer against Gullit’s Haarlem and scores a phenomenal goal. Cruyff is still The Man and is impresses every week. By that time, Ajax had a great squad again, with players like Lerby, Jesper Olsen, Jan Molby, Tcheu La Ling, Rijkaard, Vanenburg and Kieft. In May 1982, against NEC, Johan Cruyff is replaced in the second half by another youngster, Marco van Basten. Cruyff had scored already, Van Basten would score a goal as well.

In 1982, Ajax wins the title and JC wants to impress Europe again in the Europa Cup tournament. In the first round, Ajax meets Celtic. Cruyff plays a tremendous game in Glasgow and Ajax takes the lead twice. The end result: 2-2. In the home game, JC faces one of the biggest disappointments of his career. Ajax squanders chance after chance and with merely minutes to go the score is 1-1. Ajax is virtually through. But then Cruyff is brutally kicked out of the game and Piet Schrijvers has a howler. Celtic scores and progresses. Ajax is down and out.

Cruyff wants to play another season, but Ajax chairman Ton Harmsen doesn’t trust JC’s physical condition and refuses to extend him another deal. Cruyff is insulted and humiliated and wants revenge.

In that summer, Willem van Hanegem retires from Feyenoord and De Kromme invites JC to play at his farewell game. There’s been talk about Johan moving to Feyenoord – an idea tossed up by Van Hanegem – but Cruyff fears the hostility of the fans. During the Van Hanegem testimonial, however, Van Hanegem courts Cruyff and instructs his team mates not to present him – Van Hanegem – with the chances to score, but his Oranje buddy Cruyff. When the through-and-through Ajax man Cruyff scores a header in De Kuip for Van Hanegem’s team, the crowd erupts. Cruyff knows there’s fertile ground for him in Rotterdam and he replaces veteran Van Hanegem in Feyenoord’s new squad, alongside fan faves Peter Houtman, Ruud Gullit, Mario Been and Andrej Jeliazkov.

In one of Feyenoord’s first matches in the new season, the young Ajax destroys Feyenoord in the home game in Amsterdam: 8-2. With a Van Basten on fire. Cruyff flees the stadium and Ajax management, media and neutral football fans chuckle. Cruyff then instructs Feyenoord coach Libregts to drop the creative Pierre Vermeulen from the squad in favor of workshorse Brard. The fans hate it, but Feyenoord starts to win games and with Cruyff as their leader would win the double.

Cruyff plays his last ever official game against PEC Zwolle and he’d score a goal, of course. When the fans storm the pitch after the last whistle, JC can been seen sprinting like a 17 year old towards the dressing room.

Cruyf is 19 years old when he makes his debut against Hungary. Score: 2-2. One goal JC. Among his team mates: goalie Pieters Graafland, Rinus Israel, Bennie Muller, Sjaak Swart and Piet Keizer. He is red carded in his second game for Oranje and suspended for a year (!). But Oranje wasn’t important for the players in those days, and certainly not for Cruyff. It was Ajax first, JC second and then a long time nothing. He’d go to Italy to buy shoes for his wife shoeshop and miss Oranje training sessions, prompting coach Kessler to suspend him again. Kessler would later say that if the players were more motivated, Oranje could have qualified for the WC Mexico in 1970 and could have won it too.

Cruyff would later admit Kessler saw it right and he was wrong. A rare event. In those days, Feyenoord and Ajax were the strongest teams in the world. It’s like Spain not interested in going to the WC2010.

Oranje’s potential line-up in 1970:

Van Beveren (Sparta)
Suurbier (Ajax) Israel (Fey) Laseroms (Fey) Krol (Ajax)
Jansen (Fey) Van der Kuijlen (PSV) Van Hanegem (Fey)
Mulder (Anderlecht) Cruijff (Ajax) Keizer (Ajax)

Bench: Swart (Ajax), Rensenbrink (Club Brugge), Gerry Muhren (Ajax), Reinders (Ajax), Drost (FC Twente), Hulshoff (Ajax), Schrijvers (FC Twente).

In 1972, Ajax ruled but Oranje couldn’t qualify for the EC in Belgium. In 1974, Oranje was so close to not qualifying… It took a referee mistake to make sure the WC Germany was reached. And in that finals…well….we know….

Oranje plays England out of Wembley (0-2) in 1977 and Cruyff plays fantastic football. After beating Belgium, Oranje qualifies for the WC1978. Johan Cruyff decides not to go. The stories around that decision are famous. Danny was jealous due to that Bild-swimming pool incident. But later, Johan would share the burglar story with the world and explain that his family didn’t want to be alone while JC would spend weeks in Argentina. Rep: “I didn’t ask him why and the players never tried to talk him into going. Johan was clear. He simply didn’t want to do it, so debating is futile with him then.”

Johan’s goal when he returns to Ajax…

Famous JC goal against Belgium, 1976…