Alright! Let's settle this one once and for all. I've seen it asserted twice today that Rongen tried to get DC United to play Total Football when he was coach. Now as I understand it Total Football is when every player on the field ('cept the goalie) can and, in fact, does play every position. So everyone can and does defend and everyone can and does attack. In effect, the 10 field players all become interchangeable, move all over the field and hence the play is incredibly fluid and dynamic, unpredictable and (if it works) exciting. Now I have no doubt that Rongen was exposed to and even steeped in Total Football while a young player in the Netherlands. But I doubt very much that he ever tried to get DC United (or any of the other clubs he coached in MLS) to play Total Football. For one thing, he never had the players capable of playing Total Football. Indeed while with Tampa Bay and DC United he had teams that played with a traditional #10. Now as I understand it having a traditional #10 that basically controls all your attacking play is not one of the primary tenets of Total Football. With Total Football you should have 10 players capable of being the #10 at any given moment. His forwards were not playing Total Football. Lassiter? Total Football? Please ... And his defenders? Pope. Llamosa. No way. So if you believe that Rongen tried to get DC United to play Total Football during his years with the team (or, indeed, if you believe that Rongen ever tried to get any of his MLS teams to play Total Football) then please tell me where I have gone wrong. For I simply do not see it. Rongen and Total Football ... Myth or Fact. I vote myth.
The fans dubbed him with the total football thing, because he's Dutch. What Rongen always claimed was that he played attacking football (I'm gonna call it soccer). I think Rongen did play attacking soccer. His teams had wonderfully flowing offenses and he tended to let his fullbacks contribute to the attack all the time ... too often in fact. At the end of Rongen's tenure Nelsen was starting to come around to the speed of MLS play, and became a pretty good central defender in tandem with Eddie Pope. Where Rongen's teams failed were the utter lack of any Dmid or wingback defense. Add Reyes at right back--who Rongen tried to get all year long--and put Kamler at left back, and all Rongen would have needed to be successful last season was a Dmid. Add a healthy Ben Olsen and wing defense becomes a strength. If Rongen could have had Hudson's acquisitions of Rimando, Prideaux and Richie Williams, he might have done very well. But he'd still suck at set pieces. -Tron
Total Football you say?? I guess you did not go to too many games when Rongen (the worst coaching mind ever to be called a coach) put AJ Wood in on defense. The guy made a total fool of himself tripping over the end line like the chalk was coming up to grab his ankle. Sorry I can't site any other examples because I was too busy reading the airplane signs flying over the stadium speaking the truth: "Its the coach stupid!!"
Crapola????????? I am with you buddy, this concept of total football probably work on some book or some evolution theory but reality is so simple LANDON DONOVAN IS AN ATTACKER, AND GOOS IS A DEFENDER THEY ARE NATURAL so do not play with nature find out some talented striker, midfilder,defender and lets play ball
I belive that he tried to use a hybrid of Total Football. Knowing that a Lassiter could not come back. He did try to instill certain parts of it itnto the team. He had Denton and Talley all messed up. The would not guard men, so as to be able to breakout on the 10 man counter attack. Talley was always guarding space and he and I had many a battle behind the nets about that very subject. So while I don't belive he could execute Toal Football I do beliveve he did try to modify it to the players he had and that is why he failed. (note the last part should be read in Yoda's voice)
actually his last year as a coach someone asked him directly if he was trying to get United to play "total football" and he just laughed and said he would love to, but he didn't have players who could play that style. while he definitely emphasized attack as the dutch classically have, he certainly did not play the kind of total football michels/cruyff employed--particularly far side runs and covers total football relied on. i think he tried to teach the players to understand space in the dutch way, but for some players it just never took.
mythmythmythmythmythmythmythmyth Thomas Rongen has one of finest soccer minds in america; probably better than Bruce Arena among others. But he wasn't trying to do the Cruyff-inspired Clockwork Orange thing. As DT said, he played a very attacking-oriented brand of soccer- to the detriment of the poor defense. But in no way was he even dreaming of using, say, Carlos Llamosa or Eddie Pope in any sort of attacking role except in the more traditional role of bringing them up on set pieces. Nor did he even dream of getting Marco Etcheverry back on defense. Citing the example of using AJ Wood on defense was more of trying to convert the guy in a Peter Vermes attempt to shore up his sieve of a defense. It didn't work and he abandoned it. One could go on citing more examples to prove that Rongen didn't use "Total football" but if someone doesn't understand that already there's no hope for them.
I remember Mark Simpson vs the Revs at forward at the end of the game. He was better than the other forwards we had out there, that's for sure...
Total, absolute, complete myth. First, the Ajax (and ultimately the Dutch) approach to developing soccer is that you put your 10 most technically gifted players on the field and then you teach them to play defense. That is why a nation the size of Holland can produce guys like Bergkamp, Davids, Rijkards, Cruyff, Haan, Neeskens, Jansen, Hovenkamp, Peters, Rep, Rensinbrink, Kluivert, Rijbergen, Koeman--geez, what a gallery of great players. Rongen himself as a player didn't play "total football." He was mostly a defender and ball winner. Second, this myth got perpetrated b/c (a) he's originally from Holland; (b) Clint Peay in the midst of a game broadcast uttered some nonsense about it; and (c) some people confused the team confusion (lack of defensive organization, lack of intelligent play in the attacking third) with a system problem. In true "total football", everyone attacks and everyone defends. It was clear from the git-go that Rongen never expected everyone to attack (Llamosa? Aunger? Williams?) and everyone to defend (Etcheverry? Moreno? Convey?). Also in total football, people don't have fixed positions. I'm not just talking about an occasional overlap. if there is space, the central defender surges forward. The striker retreats and covers. Watch the great Ajax or Dutch National teams play and you'd see times when Cruyff would be at sweeper or central defense for 15 minutes in a match, Johny Rep would be on a wing, Neeskens would be at central forward, Rijbergen would be distributing balls from the #10 spot. It is a system that involves pressure on the ball, hard work, great vision of the field and how play is developing by all 10 field players, and lots of unselfishness. Not only did DC United never have 10 field players with those attributes but Rongen never insisted he was going to try to implement this approach. What Rongen did (as a system) was to encourage attacking football by all players, encourage possession, encourage players to take risks (and did not dictate particular runs they needed to make), and encourage players to play passing lanes (rather than pressure the ball). Thus, some of his tactics were consistent with total football, but most were not. If you're going to play this style of ball, it requires at least 8-9 field players who really are multiple position players--they're just soccer players, not "strikers" or outside mids or whatever. Kovalenko and Nelsen probably fall into this category (if their thinking and read of the game is quick enough). Pope at times showed this. So technical ability is a must but it also requires a quick mind and an aggressive attitude to play (not physical play but an attitude that allows you to force play on the opposition and exploit opportunities). Finally, it requires very sharp players (otherwise you lose your shape on defense or concede numbers on counters) with great wisdom.
Rongen may have wanted to implement Total Football at DC, but the result was -- as someone on BS noted a few years ago -- closer to "Fotal Tootball."
My god, I thought the first poster was joking. This kinda thing has more to do with the limitations of MLS than Rongen. As for total football - or at least the dutch style - I heard that was Rongen's dream for Tampa Bay, and that dream was quickly, cruelly and (it must be said) comically dashed by the allocation of El Pibe to what was at the time the only Florida team. Rongen's too smart to event attempt "total football" with players like Etch or El Pibe. He might've believed that two centerbacks could handle two attackers without cover, but those centerbacks weren't up to it anymore.
And, better still, Tommie once suited up for a Florida pre-season match (though he did not appear) when we were short of defenders. The myth that Rongen was trying to instill Total Football was also bolstered by his attempt at using the 4-3-3 formation. I think this has been used by Ajax over the years. Alas, Thomas Rongen is not Rinus Michaels. If you watch Ajax play, when they lose possession, there are suddenly 10-11 guys behind the ball, and that's something United never did much of. Eventually, the midfielders would track back, but by then the opponents were in the final third. United's conditioning then was pretty poor, too, as evidenced by how many late game goals they conceded. There were so many things Rongen, I could go on and on...