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Sunshine, Shadows, Post-90s (European) Football: 1995 Ajax, Into the History Books
Sunshine, Shadows, Post 90 (European) Football: Ajax vs Goliath
Sunshine, Shadows, Post 90 (European) Football: Van Gaal, the coolest team in the world?
Sunshine, Shadows, Post-90s (European) Football: Van Gaal's Philosophy and Ajax Youth Training
Sunshine, Shadows, Post 90 (European) Soccer: Cruyff's Art Versus Van Gaal's Science
Sunshine, Shadows, Post 90 (European) Football: Van Gaal, Ajax
Johan Cruyff was a master of the midfield, but his thoughts and influence on the position of goalkeeper have a place in the history of Dutch soccer. In fact, Cruyff actually worked as a goalkeeper in his youth, and when he started to play for Ajax's first team in 1964, he occasionally doubled up as a goalkeeper for Ajax's third team, pouncing on, catching, and dropping the ball was not a difficult task for him, after all, he was said to be a pretty good baseball pitcher before playing soccer. Before soccer, he was said to be a pretty good baseball pitcher! For Cruyff, he believes that the focus of a goalkeeper is not only on the use of his hands on the soccer field, but also on his vision. He believes that the goalkeeper should be seen as the 11th player on the field in Total Football, and that the offense can definitely start with the goalkeeper.
When all-purpose soccer swept the world before the 1974 World Cup, Holland
the national team
Goalkeeper No.1 was PSV's Jan van Beveren, a traditional goalkeeper who made good saves in front of the goal. By his own admission, Jan van Beveren couldn't kick a ball, but he was born to be a goalkeeper, with good size, reflexes and jumping ability. But he wasn't the best fit in Cruyff's mind for the Holland team.
the national team
Cruyff's preference for a goalkeeper with speed and the ability to control/pass the ball with his feet led him to convince head coach Rinus Michels to drop Jan van Beveren and Pieter Schrijves, who was also rated well overall, in favor of a goalkeeper who hadn't played for one of the Netherlands' most prestigious soccer clubs and had only played for
the national team
Jan Jongbloed, a goalkeeper who played once, was fast and very good with his feet (if you compare it to goalkeepers), because this was Johan Cruyff's "ideal" goalkeeper, and of course, as we all know from history, the all-rounded soccer that Cruyff believed in swept through the soccer world, and the typical Dutch goalkeeper was established from that point onwards.
Ajax's starting goalkeeper in 1992 was Stanley Menzo, who, like many of Ajax's youth teams, came from the former Dutch colony of Suriname, and was a product of the team's youth system, as well as a product of the 'tradition' of Dutch goalkeepers, which he had nurtured from the Johan Cruyff years (1985) to the Louis van Gaal years (1994). He played from Johan Cruyff's time (1985) to Louis van Gaal's (1994), winning several domestic and European transnational league titles, and both coaches liked his ability with the ball, which was not particularly surprising, given that Menzo had played center back prior to playing in goal. Stanle Menzo was relatively forward, and also possessed a good passing ability, and Cruyff even openly praised Menzo for being a key player in the team's winning of the 1987 European Cup Winners' Cup. Cruyff even openly praised Menzo as the biggest contributor to the team's 1987 European Cup Winners' Cup victory! However, some commentators pointed out that Menzo's skills in traditional goalkeeping skills (such as pouncing, catching and dropping the ball) were not very stable, but Cruyff, who was obsessed with the dream of all-round soccer, completely ignored these shortcomings and believed that Menzo's shortcomings could not be overshadowed by his shortcomings, while Louis van Gaal was a bit more pragmatic, and he made a few cheap mistakes after a series of Stanley Menzo's mistakes. After Stanley Menzo made a series of cheap mistakes in the game, he called up an unknown young goalkeeper from the bench to replace Menzo, and this tall, thin young man named Edwin van der Sar, who was lined up by van Gaal, would later leave an impressive figure on the soccer field, and would become the ultimate representative of the Dutch goalkeepers... ...
Generally speaking, a footballer's career is on the decline after the age of 30, but goalkeepers are an exception. They are like red wine, defying the logic of age, and are more likely to shine as they get older, as was the case with famous Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, and as is the case with our protagonist, Edwin van der Sar. He joined his hometown club Foreholte at the age of 10 for five years, then moved to another small club, VV Noordwijk, for another five years until he was 20. It is said that his youth coach at the time, Ruud Broring, was a close friend of Ajax's assistant coach Louis van Gaal, and that van Gaal was a good friend of his when he played for Ajax. When van Gaal mentioned to Broring that Ajax needed a goalkeeper, Broring recommended van der Sar, and van Gaal's interest was immediately ignited! But even then, Edwin van der Sar didn't think he was good enough to play professionally, but how do you turn down an offer from Ajax in Holland?
