Tag: Haan

March 22, 2020 by Jan

Oranje matches for your Lockdown! Pt. 1

I think Andrew from California made the comment about classic matches?

I am happy he did. It was on my mind too (and to be honest: I already watched Spain – Holland 1-5 from 2014 again, last night)… What to do in a world without football? Revisit classic matches.

I will list some classic matches below. I don’t have the links to these games, but I do believe YouTube will have them. Also this site here has some incredible info!

From my memory, the following matches are worth it.

1970s Club football

Feyenoord vs AC Milan and Feyenoord vs Celtic, when the Rotterdam club became the first to win the Europa Cup for The Netherlands!

Ajax won it three time in a row, after Feyenoord, with finals vs Panathinaikos, Inter Milan and Juve.

I don’t remember much of the games leading up to the finals for Ajax, but YouTube is your friend…

1970s Oranje at the World Cup

I am assuming we all know and have seen the Great Games Oranje played in 1974 and 1978. For students and scholars, it’s cool to watch all the matches of course and I know there are DVDs for sale and YouTube offers a lot too.

The three games to watch of the WC1974 are Oranje’s first match vs Uruguay. This is interesting, as this was the first time Oranje demonstrated their Total Football and even the Dutch fans and media were flabbergasted! We never saw Oranje play this well.

Don’t forget: The Netherlands shouldn’t have been there!! We played a qualifier to Belgium and we only qualified for the World Cup 1974 because of a real goal by Belgium was disqualified for off side.

The match vs Argentina is really good too, with Van Hanegem and Cruyff in superb form.

Lastly, the semi finals vs Brazil is an absolute cracker! Top goals, wonderful performances and gladiator style battles in midfield (Neeskens!!).

In 1977, Oranje played a famous match vs England at Wembley! The English loved to see Johan Cruyff, who was facing off with Kevin Keegan and Trevor Brooking. The Dutch had indeed Cruyff, Rep, Neeskens, Rensenbrink and Krol but it was young upstart from NEC Nijmegen Jan Peters (playing in the playmaker role deserted by an injured Van Hanegem) and Peters got the English all ecstatic with his perfect game and two goals (0-2). Peters would move to AZ Alkmaar and won the title there and reached the finals in the European Cup. He would later make a big move to Italy.

In 1978, without Cruyff and Van Hanegem, the Dutch started slowly but got to the finals anyway. With some outrageous long distance goals by Arie Haan and Ernie Brandts. Totally worth checking all these games, as it shows Oranje’s progress in the tournament.

Other Oranje Games from the 1980s

In the early 80s, we didn’t really play for the trophies! We had a dreadful 1980s Euros, we didn’t get to the Spain 1982 WC, or the 1986 WC in Mexico. We also missed the 1984 France Euros (both the 1982 and 1984 tournaments do stand out in my memory as top notch tournaments!).

In 1983, Holland played a famous qualification game vs Ireland (mentioned in the comments) in Dublin for the 1984 Euros. We didn’t end up going, but we had a massive break through in that match. We were 0-2 down. By then coach Rijvers was begged by fans to give the young guns of Ajax and Feyenoord a shot! There were the likes of Vanenburg, Rijkaard, Koeman and most particularly: Gullit and Van Basten. Rijkaard didn’t play this game, and Ruud Gullit played central defender! A role he played at PSV as well, later on, and he did so ever so well. Great strength, incredible long range passing and big runs over the axis of the field. This game was the rise of the youngsters! And finally Rijvers was confident enough to drop the like of Wijnstekers, Hovenkamp and Cees van Kooten for the young upstarts. The 2-0 half time score became a 2-3 win on a terrible pitch in Dublin.

In November of 1983, Holland played Spain at home and thanks to a Gullit winner, Holland had 1 leg into the 1984 Euros! Spain had one more home game vs Malta and needed to win 11-0 to qualify at the expense of Holland! That would never happen, right?

Holland won 5-0 vs Malta themselves and expected Spain to win with a similar score.

Only Cruyff and Van Hanegem, interviewed together, claimed that it wasn’t over yet and Spain would be able to score 11 goals vs Malta…

Infamously, the game was won (by Spain): 12-1!! And Malta had the first goal even! At half time, I think it was 1-1. Later on, it seemed Malta’s goalie was bribed and if you can stomach watching that game, you can tell why that story developed… Oranje was out!

This affected the qualification matches for the World Cup 1986 as well, with two early losses in qualification vs Hungary and Austria. Say what?

In November 1985, we played Belgium at home in Rotterdam. We would go to Mexico if we won 2-0 or more. I was there and remember the match also because my dad did his knee at walking to the stadium, which would be an injury right up to his death… We scored first, we scored the second… Houtman and Robbie de Wit. But only 5 mins left to go and right before us, Belgium defender George Grun slipped away from his marker and headed in the 2-1, meaning Belgium went to Mexico.

The next big memory re: Oranje would be the 1988 Euros. I’m sure you’ve seen the games?

All matches are worthwhile. The first match, Oranje lost vs the USSR but we played our best football of the whole tournament. But we lost. Coach Michels went from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 and took Bosman and Van’t Schip off, for Van Basten and Erwin Koeman. The rest is history. Memorable games: the 2-3 vs England. The 2-1 versus West Germany and the finals of course. The 1-0 win over Ireland is also special due to Kieft’s freak goal and the tremendous fortune of not conceding a penalty for a blocked header by Ireland, with a hand. We rode our luck that tournament, as Van Basten scored an off side goal vs England and England was denied a 100% penalty.

June 19, 2018 by Jan

1974: Cruyff unique, but no cigar…

Although West Germany got the title in 1974, that World Cup was Johan Cruyff’s and Oranje’s tournament. And based on the historic numbers below, we can see why. In this tournament, Cruyff has had the most successful dribbles, he creates the most chances and he is playing all over the pitch. Something that was totally unique in those days and simply copied later by Barcelona and Messi (and others since).

Lots of players have their signature moves. But the first one to claim that at the world stage was Cruyff. He led Oranje to the finals and eventually lost against West Germany, but he dazzled the world with the so-called Cruyff Turn. Another iconic Cruyff move was the dribble in the finals. In the first minute, without any of the Germans touching the ball, JC found his way into the box, until he got fouled and Neeskens was able to score from the spot. The 1974 World Cup star was and always will be, Johan Cruyff.

So lets start with the second match Oranje played. After beating Uruguay with 2-0, Oranje faces Sweden. And Cruyff will have 12 successful dribbles in that match. Only eight (8) player managed to do this in one match, in the last 50 years.

Date	Match	Team	Player	No. success dribbels
12/07/1966	Portugal – Hungary	Portugal	Eusébio	12
07/06/1970	West-Germany – Bulgaria	West-Germany	Reinhard Libuda	12
17/06/1970	Brazil – Uruguay	Brazil	Jairzinho	13
19/06/1974	Netherlands – Sweden	Netherlands	Johan Cruijff	12
23/06/1974	Poland – Italy	Italy	Sandro Mazzola	12
22/06/1986	Argentina – England	Argentina	Diego Maradona	12
01/07/1990	England – Cameroon	England	Paul Gascoigne	13
05/07/1994	Nigeria – Italy	Nigeria	Jay Jay Okocha	15

It’s not just the number of dribbles that determined the domination of the Dutch #14. He is at the heart of everything. As the striker of the team, he’s also the dreh-und-angel-punkt. Or the pivot. He drops deep into midfield to start the move, or he moves to the left flank to start his dribble. Other players take the oppportunity to move into the striker position and to “arrive” in the hot spot as opposed to “being there” already. As a result, Johan only scored 3 goals at the World Cup, with Rensenbrink and Rep scoring more (wingers, both) but the former Ajax man was involved in eight of the 14 Oranje goals!

His assists against Argentina (the 3-0) and against Brazil (the 1-0) are typical for his tournament. Against Argentina, he moves into the left flank role and offers a great cross with his left for John Rep to finish. As JC left the central striker position, Rep moved into that role and is on hand at the far post to head the ball home. Against Brazil, Cruyff is on the right flank and he crosses the ball with his right this time, for Johan Neeskens to burst into the box and score.

In terms of dribbles and creativity, Cruyff is boss at the World Cup 1974, with one hand tied behind his back even. Cruyff has 54 touches in the opponent’s box for instance, a number only bettered by West Germany striker Gerd Muller. Cruyff was for Oranje what Messi is now for Barca: playmaker and finisher at the same time.

Player	Successful dribbles
Johan Cruijff	34
Uli Hoeness	23
Sandro Mazzola	22
Jairzinho	19
Robert Gadocha	19
Francisco Marinho	19

Player	chances created
Johan Cruijff	36
Kazimierz Deyna	29
Jairzinho	19
Robert Gadocha	19
Wolfgang Overath	18
Gerd Müller	18

La Naranja Mécanica (Clockwork Orange) as Rinus Michels’ team would be called, combines towards the finals, against host nation West Germany. The 2-1 defeat causes a national football trauma. Cruyff plays his weakest match, and according to myth, the so-called Bild Swimming Pool incident is at fault. The Bild magazine organised for some naked girls to dive into the pool where the Oranje players were relaxing in their hotel. Bild took the photos and published them a day before the finals. The phone calls from the players’ wives would be the cause for the lack of concentration in the finals. But what do the stats tell us?

West Germany sacrifices Berti Vogts and has him man mark Cruyff across the pitch. The touch map above shows that JC starts to wander around to get rid of Vogts. He is less dominant than usual and West Germany is able to destabilize his threat. Cruyff has zero attempts on goal and only has two would be assists on a team mate.

Johan Cruijff tijdens het WK 1974

Opponent	Goals	Assists	Penalties	Ball touches	Goal attempts	Key passes
Uruguay	0	0	0	107	4	5
Zweden	0	0	0	96	4	6
Bulgarije	0	1	1	91	3	11
Argentinië	2	1	0	86		4
Oost-Duitsland	0	0	0	63	1	6
Brazilië	1	1	0	73	2	2
West-Duitsland	0	0	1	66	0	2

In fact, without a dominant role for the #14, Oranje is still quite threatening. Holland has more attempts on goal than West Germany (14 v 11) and the same number of shots on target (5 v 5 ). Of those 14 attempts, 11 are from within the box, which shows that JC’s wandering about allowed other team mates to find threatening positions.

Stats Nederland
Goals	Shots	on target	Possession
2	25	8	60,0%
0	30	7	62,6%
4	25	12	48,4%
4	17	9	57,2%
2	14	5	62,1%
2	12	6	51,9%
1	14	5	57,8%

Stats opponent
	Goals	Shots	On target
Uruguay	0	1	0
Sweden	0	8	3
Bulgaria	1	11	3
Argentina	0	2	1
East-Germany	0	9	1
Brazil	0	14	1
West-Duitsland	2	11	5

The main difference with previous matches at the tournament, based on the stats – is the defence. West Germany is the only team to reach 10 goal attempts against Holland. West Germany has six attempts from within the box, of which four on target. This is an aspect that hasn’t been discussed too often: the key difference between this game and earlier matches was not so much Cruyff’s performance, but the performance of Oranje defensively.

Opponent	Attempts from outside the box	Attempts from within the box
Uruguay	1	0
Sweden	5	2
Bulgaria	4	4
Argentina	0	0
East-Germany	2	0
Brazil	3	0
West-Germany	6	4

Johan Cruyff in his autobiography “My side of the Story” about the 2-1 defeat. “I think we were actually too arrogant. I think we felt we could and would beat them. We were 1-o up in the first minute and wanted to play with them. And once you are at that point, it’s hard to turn it around. We had so many opportunities, but it felt like, whatever we tried, the ball didn’t wanna go in. We simply weren’t 100%. Both offensively and defensively. Look at the goals we conceded. We never conceded goals like that second by Gerd Muller. We were constantly a step too late. It was a mental thing.”

Cruyff did see the benefits of losing the finals. “Somehow, the story became better. The best team to never win it, and all that. And our style of play became famous. No one talks about the 1974 West Germany team, do they? And with our philosophy, we showed players who aren’t strong and tall can be stars. Rep, Rensenbrink, Jansen, myself… All over the world, football changed because of us.”

Today, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Manchester City, they all seem to play fluid, without a fixed central striker, with lots of movement… the seed of this was sown by Cruyff, Van Hanegem and Neeskens and co in 1974….

March 25, 2014 by Jan

Memories of 1978 – only 78 days to go to Brazil….

In the run up to the WC1978, most people thought Oranje would never ever be able to reprise their Germany 74 performance. When it became clear that JC wouldn’t go, the odds became even worse.

And why exactly didn’t JC come? Some thought he was injured and didn’t want to fail. Others said Danny didn’t want him to go due to that swimming pool incident in 1974. Who knows?

Much later, the real reason was finally published. For those who don’t know: sometime before the WC, some Dutch idiot traveled to Barcelona and broke into the Cruyff house, with Danny Cruyff at gunpoint. Any Dutch person traveling to Barcelona only had to ask where JC lived and any taxi driver would take him there. This bloke pretended to be a journalist and when Danny answered the door, he drew a gun (not loaded, it appeared later) and gagged her. Johan was told to go to the bank to get some cash. I can’t remember what actually happened… Either the neighbours spotted the arse or Danny freed herself, but someone called the police. When they appeared, the guy broke down and surrendered. He was disturbed and a sad case and all that. I’m not sure if he went to jail or not, but since that moment – close before the WC – Danny was scared to remain at home alone and JC promised her not to go to the WC in Argentina. There you have it.

Ernst Happel, the maverick mastermind who coached Feyenoord and HSV Hamburg to the EC1 cup, was selected to coach Oranje to the world title.

Willem van Hanegem wasn’t in his best form. Injured and somewhat disenchanted with Feyenoord. Happel couldn’t promise his former protege a starting position and decided with Willem, that De Kromme shouldn’t come. A bit like Seedorf and Oranje: Seedorf is too good (and too dominant) to bench. Same with Willem. If he can’t play, you shouldn’t take him.

So, Johan didn’t come, Willem didn’t come… The Dutch fans were in shock. Without them, what could we achieve…?

On top of that, a number of Dutch media people and entertainers, followed by leftish politicians thought Oranje shouldn’t even go at all. The Argentina junta wasn’t too serious about human rights and stories about the atrocities committed in Argentina found their way to the Dutch media.

A whole media-circus was started, Holland needed to boycott the tournament.

The Dutch fans seemed to lose interest. We wouldn’t be able to get results anyway. It was a long way from home. The political situation… How on Earth could we expect to do as well as in Germany four years before?

Ernst Happel took the following players to Argentina (still not a bad group):

Jan Poortvliet * Ruud Krol * Wim Jansen * Jan Jongbloed * Arie Haan * René van de Kerkhof * Willy van de Kerkhof * Rob Rensenbrink * Johan Neeskens * Johnny Rep * Ernie Brandts * Piet Schrijvers * Dick Schoenaker * Adri van Kraaij * Piet Wildschut * Wim Suurbier * Dick Nanninga * Jan Boskamp * Hugo Hovenkamp * Wim Rijsbergen * Pim Doesburg * Harrie Lubse

Lots of PSV players. Youngsters like Poortvliet, Brandts, van Kraaij, Wildschut and Lubse weren’t your regular football heroes, but Happel saw their potential for the WC. Part of the Dutch games had to be played a high altitude and good lungs were essential. Happel had a good eye for these sort of things.

What I remember from the first round is the late time the games were boradcast.

Holland didn’t start well at this WC. We beat Iran 3-0 in the first game, with three goals by Rensenbrink (two penalties). The match against Peru ended in 0-0. Peru would win the group by the way. The last group match was against the Scots, with one Kenny Dalglish and Archie Gemmill. Rensenbrink scored the 1-0 (again a penalty) but the Scots came back into the game thanks to the aforementioned players. John Rep scored the essential goal, allowing Oranje to go through. It was a tight one. And the fans back home really didn’t believe in any good things anymore.

In the second round, Oranje drew Italy, Germany and Austria. Not an easy task. The first game was against Austria. Coach Ernst Happel, from Austria, had mixed the Oranje team up severely. The youngsters were given a chance and Happel picked Piet Wildschut and Ernie Brandts. And Piet Schrijvers replaced goalie Jan Jongbloed. The Austria of 1978 was a tough oppnent, with Prohaska and Hans Krankl in their midst. Ernie Brandts, however, made an end of the Austrian hopes after six minutes. At half time, Oranje led 3-0, with another Rensenbrink penalty goal. We won 5-1 and Oranje fever started again, back in Holland.

Holland – Germany was the next match, and a sort of revenge opportunity for the lost finals in 1974. Sepp Maier was still their goalie and Cruyff’s marker Berti Vogts was still one of the defenders. The inventor of the schwalbe, Bernd Holzenbein, was also present. Beckenbauer was replaced by young Kalle Rummenigge and Gerd Muller was replaced by one Dieter Muller. No relation. Germany took the lead twice, and Holland equalized twice. The rocket of Arie Haan will still be remembered by Sepp whenever he ate fish that’s a bit off. The 2-2 meant Germany could forget the finals. If Holland and Italy would draw, Germany would have a chance, but our Eastern neighbors forgot to win against Austria. Hans Krankl scored two to send the Germans back to the Heimat. The winner of Holland – Italy would move on to the finals, to meet Brazil. Or so it seemed…

In 1978, not conceding goals was as important for the Italians as it is today. Dino Zoff was synonymous to keeping a clean sheet. Roberto Bettega impressed with his hairdo and the young Paolo Rossi was too light and young to make a difference. Rossi’s time would come, although he did score twice in the first round. Italy took the lead, thanks to an Ernie Brandts own goal. A sliding/back pass while Schrijvers had left his goal to block the ball. Not only did Brandts score, he also injured his goalie. Schrijvers wasn’t able to play the finals. On the second half, the same Ernie Brandts took revenge, by copying Haan’s goal against Germany: a thundering shot from outside the box, passed Zoff. Arie Haan couldn’t accept this stealing of thunder and decided to give Brandts, and Zoff, their comeuppance by hitting the ball even harder from 30 meters. The 2-1 was enough to reach the finals, and Haan’s two goals would make him world famous.

Argentina would do the impossible in the other group: beating the strong Peru by 6-0, there with ousting Brazil from the finals. Holland had to face the host nation, again.

I remember the stadium being filled with an enormous amount of paper snippets and the hurricane like sound coming from the stands. It was clear that the organizers and fans wanted Argentina to win. With that support, they already were half a goal up. It was clear in the second round that Argentina got some help. They needed to beat Peru with a lot of goals, which seemed impossible with Peru’s form and quality in those days. The 6-0 win meant Brazil went home (arch-nemesis Brazil was definitely not supposed to play for the title in Argentina) and it also meant someone or some team received a nice Christmas bonus that year… The psychological warfare started at the toss. Rene van der Kerkhof had broken his hand and was playing with a manchette. The ref in the game against Italy was fine with it, but Daniel Passarella, the Argentine skipper, objected to the plaster hand of the quick right winger and the ref was cajoled into forcing the Dutchman to take the plaster off. Ernst Happel had seen worse storms in his life and knew how to play the game. Without help from grandmaster Johan C. (who was with Danny in Spain) the stoic Austrian told all Dutch players to grab their stuff and leave the pitch. Happel knew he was playing with fire, but the ref didn’t have the cojones to allow this happen and decided to allow Rene van der K. to play with his plaster. A psychological win for Ernst “Kein Geloel” Happel.

Ernie Brandts, scoring twice in this match. Once for Italy, once against them…

But there was more. After every match, the players needed to pee in some cup for doping control. Only the urine of the Argentine players was taken to a remote lab via a helicopter. Some time after the match, it became clear that one of the Argentines was actually pregnant… Yeah right….

Anyway, the game… Argentina scored the first goal – Mario Kempes scoring – in the first half. In the second half, Holland never looked like scoring and Happel did something that most fans couldn’t understand. Golden Goose John Rep, the guy with luck in his shoes and scoring many an important goal for Oranje, was taken off for Dick Nanninga, the 1978 version of Vennegoor of Hesselink.

In the 82nd minute, Happel was proven right.

René van de Kerkhof crossed the ball in to the penalty spot, where Dick Nanninga came gliding in for a typical Nanninga header: 1-1. A couple of minutes later, Oranje deserved a penalty when Johan Neeskens was clearly fouled in the box. A couple of 100 million viewers in the world saw this, except for the referee. But in the dying seconds, Ruud Krol gets to take a free kick. The ball is sent to Rob Rensenbrink who seems out of balance, but is capable of caressing the ball past goalie Fillol. The ball rolls tauntingly slow towards the goal but hits the bar. No goal. No victory for Oranje. No World Cup.

The extra time (2 x 15 minutes) was too much for Oranje. Kempes scored his second and Bertoni even scored the 3-1. Holland lost again to a WC host.

After the World Cup lots of conspiracy theories came to the fore. With Argentina’s semi finals game against Peru being the one that raised some brows.

Very recently more information came out on that topic but the Dutch internationals felt it was of no use to challenge the end result of the World Cup 1978. If Peru sold the semis to Argentina, Holland would be the rightful title holder for the record, but that’s clearly not how we want to win it (Bert and his merry troupe experienced this Dutch purity when they almost won Gold in South Africa with “shameful un-Dutch football….).

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Thanks to Lucas Bezembinder

Here are the high lights of the games:

Holland vs Iran