Cruyff Soccer Match: Barcelona, Ajax and Man Metropolis amongst main golf equipment represented at first youth match

A brand new youth soccer match was launched on the weekend. The Cruyff Soccer Match featured over 90 groups and 1600 younger gamers from world wide. It’s the brainchild of Jordi Cruyff, who needs to make sure his father Johan’s spirit lives on.

Jordi was overseeing occasions within the Catalonian coastal resort of Salou, joined by former Barcelona and Ajax gamers Roger Garcia and Isaac Cuenca. Naturally, the 2 golf equipment have been represented on the match. It was not possible to think about it with out them.

“If the name of Johan Cruyff is on the tournament, we could not do it without Barcelona and Ajax. Both said yes immediately,” Albert Capellas, normal supervisor of Cruyff Soccer, tells Sky Sports activities. There was a 3rd crew that needed to be there too.

“Pep Guardiola is the coach most representative of Cruyff so the next team had to be Manchester City.” It’s a reminder that Cruyff’s concepts concerning the sport, place and possession, proceed to resonate in the present day. “It is his indirect influence,” says Capellas.

“His former gamers recognise him as the very best mentor they ever had. Nonetheless, he impacts the way in which the sport is performed. Now, in the event you watch English soccer, each time you see an English crew making an attempt to play from the sport, that is the influence of Guardiola and of Cruyff.

“It’s the identical with Spain. The nationwide crew was all about combating, about duels [in the early 1980s]. La Furia Espanola. After Johan, the whole lot modified. We began to offer worth to the technical gamers, those that might assume shortly and transfer the ball quick.

“That had a big impact on the national team. Now, Spain try to build the game, try to play in the opposite half, when they lose the ball they press high, all these concepts were from the Johan Cruyff era. He did not only change football in Catalonia.”

Even so, it was that area of Iberia that was the pure dwelling for the primary Cruyff Soccer Match. It’s there, virtually as a lot as his native Netherlands, the house of Whole Soccer, that Cruyff’s ideas are most keenly felt. He remodeled Barcelona.

Initially, throughout his time as a participant. Extra considerably, as a coach. “He was at Barcelona for eight years and all the academy teams trained and played in exactly the same way. But he was not going to those teams and telling them how to play. It was the opposite.

“All of the coaches thought he was so superb, they wished to do it. Typically he would watch Barcelona’s B crew. He would go to the coach of the U17s or the U10s and inform them they have been doing a unbelievable job. Barcelona tried to comply with his concepts.

“I was with Hristo Stoichkov two weeks ago. He was saying there is no money in the world that would be able to replace what he learned from Johan Cruyff. He said he impacted him from day one and he never could have won the Ballon d’Or without him.

“I believe it was on the final Ballon d’Or ceremony, they made an announcement saying that Johan Cruyff was the inventor of recent soccer. I actually assume he was the person who confirmed us the way in which fashionable soccer must be performed. He was doing it a few years in the past.”

With that in thoughts, it was a dialog with Jordi that sparked this. “He had this vision that through Cruyff Football we could write down all this knowledge, explain it to the football community. Jordi said to me, ‘Please, Albert, we have to do this.'”

By way of Cruyff Soccer, Capellas, a former academy director at Barcelona, leads the teaching certificates and has helped create an app in order that coaches can put together their periods aligned with these concepts that have been espoused by Cruyff himself.

“We want to ensure that this knowledge of Johan Cruyff stays around forever. We cannot lose this. The way he trained, the positional games, the small-sided games, his whole way of thinking about football. Every one of us has the responsibility to share this.”

All of which raises an apparent query. If Cruyff’s concepts are so pervasive, if the tentacles of his affect dwell on within the Premier League champions and the winners of final summer time’s European Championship, why fear about his legacy being misplaced?

Capellas, a former academy director at Barcelona, watched “hundreds and hundreds” of Cruyff’s periods. “They would last under an hour but were high intensity. Just by listening to the sound of the ball, you would know if the positional game was working.”

For him, somebody who grew up as a coach watching Cruyff work with Stoichkov, Romario and Michael Laudrup, there’s a willpower that Cruyff’s concepts about soccer will not be solely remembered and studied – however not misunderstood by critics both.

“You see a lot of coaches saying you cannot limit the touches, you have to give players freedom otherwise you lose the creativity. Johan was saying the absolute opposite. If you need three touches, that is bad. Two touches is good. One touch is fantastic.

“The idea is that the ball by no means will get drained. Transfer it quick to frustrate the opponent, drive them to run and ultimately they may lose focus and the hole will seem. Prime gamers recognise when to vary the rhythm, when to make use of their talent.

“But Johan Cruyff was not a coach who limited the touches in the last third because this is when the creativity comes, when the real player expresses themselves, whether that is Romario or Stoichkov. It was about teaching players when you can take a risk.

“He was not saying you can’t dribble. Once you see Michael Laudrup on the correct wing, within the No 7 place, in a scenario the place he’s one-against-one, go away. Give him as a lot house as doable. Let him wait in that place. The ball will come.

“Before people criticise one and two touch, they should know that there was a lot of room for players to show their creativity within his idea of football. It was not a system that cut out that creativity. Johan always really loved players with top quality.”

The hope is that he would have loved this match, one which featured a number of the extra well-known names in European soccer, Atletico Madrid and Inter included, but additionally showcased a number of the finest younger expertise from the area of Catalonia as nicely.

“We wanted local teams. A chance to prove themselves, show their skills against the future stars of world football. The players go to the resort, they share knowledge, friendship and football. It is not just about the games, it is about the experience.”

All of the matches have been recorded in order that particular person evaluation of the gamers cannot solely be completed however accessed by them free of charge within the app. “They can see their statistics, a chance to be scouted.” That is for enjoyable however additionally it is a match with massive ambitions.

The intention is for it to turn out to be “a reference point” for different youth tournaments world wide sooner or later. Growth plans are already afoot with the idea of feeder tournaments in Eire, Sweden and China – the winners competing in Catalonia.

“It is the best way to honour Johan Cruyff. He looked for perfection. We must do the same. This is just the beginning. Football brings religions and societies together. There is nothing more powerful. And yes, I expect Barcelona and Ajax will always be there.”