Tag: Johan Neeskens

Johan Neeskens
by Jan

Johan Neeskens, El Toro, never dies…

It was impossible not to love and admire Johan Neeskens. Yes, he was an Ajax player and as a Feyenoord fan you’re not supposed to adore Ajax players, but Neeskens was Neeskens. And I know for a fact many non-Ajax fans loved to see “Nees” do his thing. He transcended club loyalty.

Feyenoord midfielder Willem van Hanegem played many a game against Neeskens (at Ajax and also when at Barcelona) and the two would have literal fights on the pitch: elbows, studs up, black eyes, bloody noses and at one point a broken jaw. Neeskens did get his revenge, though. When Van Hanegem was hospitalised for tonsils removal, Neeskens had a plan: “I would visit Willem in hospital to apologise, and I would bring him nuts and toffees just to screw with him, as he wasn’t able to swallow those,” Nees would explain. The two became the biggest mates.

Witch arch enemy and arch friend Van Hanegem

Ajax found the young Neeskens, or Johan II as he would become, in the shadow of the other Johan (at Ajax, Oranje and Barca) at Heemstede, a small village to the west of Amsterdam. Arie van Eijden, Ajax player and later board member and director, was leaving Ajax to slowly retire at a lower level. Van Eijden trained with Heemstede and immediately tipped Ajax: there is a 18 year old guy as right back here…. you need to sign him pronto.

He made his debut at 19 and everyone could see what Van Eijden had seen: speed, guts, balls, courage, skills and the iron will to win. Nees was a right back and Heemstede, and he played on that spot in the 1971 European final with Ajax, but Michels quickly turned him into a marauding midfielder.

A young Nees

He looked like an angel, when he was young, but played like a demon. The quintessential box to box midfielder: breaking up the opponents attacks in midfield with a flying block tackle and than racing like a madman into the opponent’s box to score with a diving header (his signature move).

If Total Football can be seen as one part creativity and another part high press, than Johan I was the epitome of creavity, while Johan II was the symbol of the harrassing, the pressing, the tackling.

Oh how Johan Cruyff (and Van Hanegem) loved to play with the youngster behind them, as he played for two players.

The holy trinity

But Nees was more than an enforcer. He could play football alright.

According to the stories of the time, Johan Neeskens wasn’t very educated. Came from a poor background (Arie van Eijden bought him his first boots) and when he first came to Ajax he was a bit out of sorts. Young lad in a big city, amongst the best players of Europe.

He would stay with right winger and Mr Ajax Sjaak Swart on the weekends and was basically adopted as a new family member. They would share typical Dutch meals together ( hutspot, zuurkool) and play board games. The life Neeskens loved and would dramatically miss in his future years.

The shy and soft spoken Neeskens became a monster once on the pitch and he would ease into the role of fan favorite, not just at Ajax, but for the whole nation.

Red and orange looked good on Nees

Imagine a midfield with Wim Jansen ( the Scholes-like tactician), Willem van Hanegem ( the Zidane like playmaker) and Neeskens ( a bit like Roy Keane maybe) and Johan Cruyff in front of them.

He shone so bright at the 1974 World Cup, and he is etched into the Dutch pop culture as a result of his white jersey turning red in the semi finals versus Brazil. His epic battles with the Brazilians can be viewed on youtube and despite the knocks, kicks and blows he was still able to score an amazing goal in that match, offered to him by his “older brother” JC.

Scoring the penalty in the first minute of the 1974 finals

Funny anecdote about Neeskens and penalties. He was a true specialist and he would always pick a corner. But he knew Sepp Maier studied the penalty takers and during the run up for this pen, Neeskens decided to switch corners. Maier went for the right corner, but as Johan decided to go for the other corner, Maier would fail to stop the ball. But…. the ball never made it into the other corner, it went straight to the middle. And ever since, whenever a penalty is taken hard through the middle, commentators will call it “A penalty a la Neeskens” or “a Neeskens penalty” (like the Panenka). But Nees would chuckle and say that this was in fact the only time he ever hit the ball straight through the middle.

Michels went to Barcelona and Johan I and Johan II followed not much later. Neeskens would become hugely popular in the Camp Nou as well and was nicknamed El Toro. Not sure why ;-).

He spent 6 seasons at Barca, winning one title and one European Cup ( the Cupwinners Cup) before signing for star studded New York Cosmos where he’s stay for 5 seasons. There he became the team of peers like Franz Beckenbauer, Pele, Francisco Marinho and compatriate Wim Rijsbergen.

Arsenal was keen to sign the midfielder too, but didn’t want to offer more than a 3 year deal. Cosmos offered a 5 year deal and a nice sponsoring package, as the US was the marketing wonderland of football at the time.

Tackling hard for the New York Cosmos

Sadly, Neeskens lost his way in New York (or did he find it). The high life of the jet set was a bit too much for El Toro, who got hooked on cocaine, alcohol and gambling.

Despite being shy and introverted, Neeskens didn’t suffer fools gladly and would have strong clashes with his coaches. Weisweiller was the Cosmos coach and after yet another clash, the German task master penalised El Torro and told him to come to the Cosmos stadium at 6 am in the morning to run circles around the Cosmos stadium. These types of insults contributed to Neeksens’ depressions and fall into addiction.

He was close to becoming a total wash up and when the Dutch football elite heard about his issues, a rescue mission was started by Dutch National Team manager Kees Rijvers, who’d fly to New York to check in Nees. Rijvers told him the national team needed him, as we were desperately trying to qualify for major tournaments again, but were lacking in midfield class players. Rijvers took Neeskens home and installed him at his family home where Neeskens became a member of the family and worked tirelessly to quit the addictions and become fit again. He would indeed make the key match for Oranje, against Belgium. Oranje played in De Kuip and won 3-0. I was there and saw Neeskens almost score from a sensational volley. The Belgium players had respect for Neeskens and allowed him to shine. But it was to no avail as Oranje did lose the key game away versus France, due to a Platini free kick and an on-pitch confrontation between Ruud Krol and Hans van Breukelen.

Working on his come back with legendary coach Kees Rijvers

Nees would play 7 games for FC Groningen before returning to the US to play indoor football. His private life brought him to Switzerland where he lived and played at lower levels until he really quit and went into coaching.

He was relatively successful with FC Zug, the team from his home town in Der Schweiz before Hiddink lured him to the KNVB to become assistant coach with the Dutch NT. After that stint, he became the head coach at NEC Nijmegen, where he would finish the highest in the league for the ambitious club (5th) and reach European football. After NEC he would assist Hiddink with the Australian national team. When Hiddink resigned, the Australian federation wanted Nees to take the head coach role, but the former Ajax midfielder preferred the assistant role and would go to support Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, replacing Henk ten Cate.

Enjoying life in Barcelona again

Neeskens will go down in history as one of the best Dutch players of all time. Greats like Cruyff, Swart and Van Hanegem would laude him as one of the best allround players of all time and all the lads who had him as a coach praised his down to Earth, warm and simple but effective coaching.

The best compliment a player can get, however, is when parents name their kid after famous players. Yohan Cabaye was named after Cruyff, of course. There are numerous Jari’s in Holland and there are definitely a lot of Zinedines, Zico’s, Diegos and Marcos out there. Not sure which Johan’s will be named after the Nees, but it’s definitely so that Neeskens Kebano (Al-Jazira) from Congo was named after one of Holland’s most loyal and impressive football sons.

Neeskens Kebano at Fulham

Here he is in full flight. Enjoy.

by Jan

The Dutch School – the ongoing debate

A topic that has been discussed here many times. And will be discussed many times too. In essence, that is what this blog is about, isn’t it? And under Van Marwijk’s reign, we debated this, as we all felt Bert’s way of playing – no matter how successful – was not paying hommage to the Clockwork Orange of yesteryear.

Bert taught Oranje to play business like. He brought grit to the team. Or better still: he brought “Team” to the team… Suddenly, egos of the likes of Van der Vaart, Van Persie, Sneijder, Robben were able to play together. And with destroyers like De Jong and professionals like Van Bronckhorst and Van Bommel, Bert was able to bring the winning ways back to Oranje. And truth be told, in the qualification series, we played attacking football too. Only at the World Cup, we got stuck in playing “German”…

Although I will never forget the quarter finals against Brazil, for sure. In what some will call a mediocre series of games, that was a real high point.

So, the Dutch school suffered under Van Marwijk. Left footed right wingers? Slow build up from the back? Limited Boulahrouz playing right back? Two holding mids?

But with good old LVG on deck, people could be fooled into thinking that Louis would bring the Dutch School back.


The players enjoyed putting a hungry mouse into Van Gaal’s underpants

But has he? Will he?

Profile descriptions? Robin van Persie can only play deep central striker? Nigel de Jong centrally against Andorra? Four defenders against Andorra?

Louis van Gaal, by the way, claims to be told by the Federation to play with one holding mid. “But, if we don’t get the results, I am supposed to adapt. And if you look at the Belgium game… We lost because we made too many personal mistakes. No system can prevent that.”

Van Gaal doesn’t forget the personal elements in this whole discussion. “I was able to play dominant football with Ajax in 1995, because my wingers (Overmars and Finidi) were able to play like midfielders if we lost possession, and like wingers if we had possession. If players lack that fitness, you can’t play like this.”

This was also the reason why Nigel de Jong, Rafa van der Vaart, Greg van der Wiel and Ibi Afellay were left out of the squad for Belgium. Van Gaal deemed them not fit enough.


Frank de Boer

Let’s see what Frank de Boer (Ajax), Ronald Koeman (Feyenoord), Gertjan Verbeek (AZ) and Rene Meulensteen (Manchester United) have to say about it.

Does Dutch Football still have a unique position in the world?

Koeman: “The Dutch school is very much alive. Dutch players are being developed really well and scouts from all over the world are scavenging on Dutch youth parks. Our way of thinking about football is pretty specific. We are pro-active, we don’t play what I call response-football. Look at Borussia Dortmund-Ajax for the CL recently. They have more quality on every position and probably twice the money Ajax has, but they allow Ajax the ball. At their own turf!”

De Boer: I was a typical example of a Dutch School defender. I was a left winger in the youth system and being transformed to defender. In our case, we have 60% ball possession per game, so defenders need to know what to do when they have the ball.Typical Dutch beliefs. Defenders need to be able to do more than defending.”

Gertjan Verbeek: “It’s genetics too. We are an adventurous and entrepreneurial people. It’s how we are. Loud mouths too. Have an opinion about everything. The only concern I have is the age at which top talents leave the country. Their development stops too early. Adam Maher is a top talent. But he still have years of learning to do. If he’d now decide to make a big money movie to – say – Benfica, he’d suddenly lose his development. Parents are being worked on by agents… It’s not a good development. Altidore told me. He left for Europe at a young age. Started in Spain. Couldn’t impress. Was loaned out to Turkey, to England. Didn’t work. When he doesn’t score, they sell him. They don’t analyse it, work with him… He told me that AZ is the first club that focuses on his strong points, his weak points… And then I hear from Bas Dost what he is going through at Wolfsburg. The first weeks he was sick every day from all the running and working. If Magath would work in Holland, at least five players would put their hands up and say: Coach! Why the hell are we doing this??? And then you better have a good story to tell…”


Always happy go lucky Gertjan Verbeek

Meulensteen: “As I’m working abroad, I have a different view. If you want to be unique, you need to be able to see it in the results too. Otherwise you can be unique by dressing up as clowns too. And the results of Dutch clubs in Europe are…non existent. The last success was 10 years ago. The results of the Dutch national team have shielded that a bit. We do have our own identity. We do develop lots of very creative players. Unique players. Robben, Van Persie, Sneijder, Van der Vaart and coming up a couple of wonderful youngsters too. But Holland now only develops great attacking players, while in the past Holland also delivered superb defenders: Krol, Suurbier, Israel, Hulshof, Mansveld, Spelbos, Jaap Stam, Rijkaard, De Boer, Koeman, Blind… Where are these guys??”

Is playing with one holding mid and a left footed left winger and a right footed right winger, is that the Dutch School?

De Boer: “No, for me it’s wanting the ball, wanting to dominate, wanting to attack. Whether you play 4-2-4 or 4-4-2 or 4-3-3… That depends on the players at hand. AC Milan played Dutch style football with 4-4-2. Wasn’t bad to look at. And Dutch teams and players have this naturally. We played AA Gent once, with Ajax and it’s was in Belgium. We were 0-1 up and they didn’t attack us. They didn’t press. Blind and I could pass the ball hundreds of times to each other, they simply didn’t put pressure on us at all. It’s culture, isn’t it? We had a Brazilian national team striker at Ajax once. Marcio Santos. Great player. Lovely bloke. But whenever we lost the ball, he’d track back. Without thinking. It took a long time to explain to him, that he needed to commence the forward pressure, immediately.”


Ronald Koeman couldn’t find another employer and had to settle for Feyenoord…

Koeman: “That is a system question and that depends totally on the material at hand. If you don’t have great wingers, but you have great midfielders, you adjust to these players at hand. They key objective is winning. The strategy then is: have the ball, dominate, attack. The tactics are depending on the players.”

Verbeek: “I think you need to find the right system allowing you to use your best quality players. I think it’s a disgrace that Huntelaar can’t play if Van Persie plays. No one in his right mind would put Huntelaar on the bench. It is ridiculous. It’s all about improvising and using what is at hand. Look at Michels in 1974, using Haan as defender. And knowing that his team would push up, wanting a goalie with great footballing skills. That is Dutch School. Or take Johan Cruyff, with this tactical prowess. Using Stanley Brard as left winger at Feyenoord instead of Vermeulen.Cruyff played central striker, but dropped to midfield to distribute the play and allow midfielders like Neeskens or a winger like Rep to penetrate that space… That is the Dutch school. Tactical smarts supported by technical brilliance.”

Meulensteen: “I think those “system debates” are utter bollocks. I heard that Van Persie can only play as the central striker? What an insult! It’s bullshit, and Van Persie proves that every week in Man United, creating as much as scoring. He can play everywhere! That is how we use him. He drifts to the wing, to midfield… That is not Dutch school but it’s being rigid. The system is supposed to serve your best players. If this system in Oranje doesn’t allow Huntelaar and Van Persie together in one team, than the system sucks.”

What is the future of the Dutch School?

De Boer: “We will never lose this mentality. The Dutch supporters simply won’t allow it. Do you think we get applause if we win a game after scoring 1-0 and then playing the game out? They’d throw chairs at us…”


Rene Meulensteen and his boss Sir Alex

Koeman: “I think it will only go better in the future. The financial limitations make that clubs will become more creative. The 1987 revolution Johan Cruyff started at Ajax, which resulted in Van Gaal’s success team in the early 90s was the result of financial stress. And at Feyenoord, great prospects come through, because there is no money to buy. Somehow, this is a wonderful stimulator.”

Verbeek: “Funny that Koeman should say this. They sell Vlaar and El Ahmadi and suddenly Feyenoord signs Pelle and Verhoek and some other mediocre midfielders while they could have allowed the youth to play more…. Hmmmm…. Funnily enough, some clubs make totally wrong decisions like this. I heard some clubs have scrapped the youth prospect team to save money. Wrong!! Now there is no platform for the ones close to the big team. Would I sign for such a club, as a talent? Of course not! Clubs need a long term strategy.”

Meulensteen: “The thing is, Holland has a lot of benefits over other countries. We have a flat country, so pretty good amateur fields for the youth. And the clubs are relatively close so the best talents will play each other often. This is different in for instance, France. The best talents of Marseille hardly ever play the top talents of Paris or Strassbourg. On the other hand, amateur clubs in Holland are folding. And the focus should change too… the youth, they dribble a lot while in the seniors, it is all pass and move. At Barcelona, Messi gets to dribble. Whenever. While Xavi, Iniesta and Pique are the only other ones who can dribble with the ball. The rest needs to pass constantly. This is law. We have the know-how in Holland to develop like this. We need to use the Wiel Coerver method in the youth and deploy the Johan Cruyff philosophy when they get older. Those are the two key visionaries Holland brought forth. Coerver and Cruyff. And both have been systematically ignored by the Dutch Football Federation.”


Willem van Hanegem, Wiel Coerver and Johan Cruyff