right ... but his performance that dictated the Ballon Dor (or WPOY) votes was back when he was 19 ...(90%) as the season 1995-96 officially ended in June 1995. For example, last Ballon Dor 2013 was delayed for CR7 , and if he was borned in Jannuary month, and automatic he got 1 more year ? NO One vote >= 1 point so I tried to be safe to say 1 vote (LOL) - for example if he earns 1 vote for 3rd place - it would mean he "just EQUALS" Sammer - he needs a vote of 2nd to 1st to be sure win - Ballon Dor committee chose Dec as the month so they can celebrate the Xmas and year end - but normally it should be done right on Aug -Sept (when new season starts)
Haha, Vlaar did at least very well at the 2014WC... It is unfortunately tougher nowadays because the league has degraded in quality (like many 2nd tier leagues since about ~1995) and most of the relevant competitions, even extending to youth tournaments, are nowadays a closed shop intended for the largest consumer markets. In any case it is tougher to raise a 'super defender' in a degraded league. Although this has always been a bit of a problem: during the great successes of the 60s and 70s, the UEFA responded with reducing the number of entry tickets for the Netherlands in 1973 (no bullshit story). And at the end of 1995 the FIFA overlooked the whole Ajax team in their nominations, a 25 men shortlist (though in the international press there was a fair share of praise ofc). Still, the league and even the national youth league has become hollowed out.. ---- Anyway, I searched back for these parts: http://www.soccerreportextra.com/co...other-sports-can-learn-from-marco-van-basten/ http://soccer-europe.com/Biographies/VanBasten.html I cannot literally find that Van Basten had "discussions" with the FIFA (though I remember that reading a few times in books), but it is actually true that FIFA banned the tackle from behind as a direct result, and Sepp Blatter also said in 1994 the FIFA will actively order the referees to whistle for the penalty spot much quicker. Roberto Baggio was happy (08/06/1994) and said before the start of the World Cup: "We can expect more goals. Not only the attackers but also the supporters will be happy." Havelange said in the pre-tournament press conference: "He has had three surgeries on the same ankle and will maybe never play again. The defenders who inflicted this on him have destroyed his career. They saw apparently no other way to stop him. Undoubtedly there have been managers who instructed their players to switch off Van Basten with these methods. We can and should no longer accept that." From 1994: http://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010644724:mpeg21:a0119 http://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010628964:mpeg21:a0082 http://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010691986:mpeg21:a1407 http://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010644731:mpeg21:a0124 http://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010691916:mpeg21:a0667 In 1997 and 1998 (in English): http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...LBOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MRUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5209,2403189 http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...0dQtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7zEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5884,869640 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/e...e-pair-of-hands-with-inspiration-1287180.html I saw that mister Van Hanegem (grew up in Utrecht as well accidentally) made the observation that the age of 50 is a good moment for assessing someone's legacy and impact, if there is one. He thought that MvB his early retirement was a key piece in the process of cleaning up the game, and redressing the balance to the attackers. In his brief comment he said that this trend isn't visible after one year or five years, let alone that it is permanent, but can be more accurately seen after 10 or 20 years...
This is another great thread, just like the Cruijff's thread Almost nothing to add. I just remain silent to learn on the topic.
Thanks for your friendly words. I decided to translate (most of) the Belgian TV report from 1987 that I mentioned earlier (the Stanley Matthews comment and reference to him as the foremost dribbling wizard). The meaningless comments by others are cut out by me. It provides insight about that period and I think it fits the best in this thread (Cruijff is talking more as MvB but the subject is really that Ajax team and Van Basten as well). http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/voetbal/champions_league/1.2125012 http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozone/retro/1.2125014 " Host: In two days Ajax and Leipzig play the European Cup II final in Athens, the trophy for cup winners. It has been 14 years ago that the club from Amsterdam played an European final. In that manner we're at the old, great, artistic Ajax of the 1970s [...] Interviewer: Make for a moment a comparison between the strong Ajax team of the early 1970s, when you played there, and the Ajax of today. Cruijff: I don't think you can compare, yet. The only comparison you can make is that at the end of the 1960s you began as well with a quite young team. And without experience you advance step by step. With the 1970s you can't compare. Even if the qualities are similar they have less lugage. The team that played back then.. you can say I was among one of the younger players around. You can consider how the older players supplemented the team and augmented you too. Nowadays the best players are often the youngest, so how are they supposed to help the older players? Thus experience is one thing, which is a major difference. Second, yourself said already, we are in practice only busy for one year, so what can you logically expect? If you receive the time it is possible to replicate the team, but who says you receive the time because the richer clubs will maybe pass by. How long can you sustain? That are all questions, and I think the comparison pretty much ends there. [...] Cruijff: It was not that difficult to teach something to the players. It was only a matter of - in my eyes at least - telling the bottleneck. Which prevented them from getting consistent results. That are roughly speaking a few things. That is; every country should play to their own mentality. A Dutchman is often improvising, and tends to prefer technical play. That are two important things. The opposite is immediately a lack of organization. What you should do is to bring in, implement, pump in - or whichever way you do - it has to come. At the players their qualities, and the football qualities, which are there on the whole and always have been there. In that way you arrive at a good average, a good balance in a club. And from this platform you can proceed further. That is actually the most important thing I've done. The next phase is immediately, if it is finally present, that you can also play results oriented football, without committing violence to your own playing style. Interviewer: When things weren't going well for a while in the previous year, you received some credit and time. Was that because people are walking around here with the same insight, or was it because your name is Cruijff. Cruijff: Uhh, I don't know. Merely, I am who I am. On the one hand you are disadvantaged, on the other hand advantages. That happens to belong to people who are known. I've also said before this time what are to my knowledge the problems in the Ajax youth and country in general, and used to be. One of those things was a piece of organization and a chunk of sharpness. Well, you can talk nicely about that, again, again and again. But it is meaningless. To my idea is discovery at hand the best learning master. That means we played to an extreme degree one-on-one at defence in the past year. In order to nurture some sharpness, playing discipline, those things. Then you know you are walking at the edge of the cliff and you know it can backfire. In that respect it wasn't naive or... It was a conscious choice. A contemplated choice. Interviewer: Was it necessary to make concessions after your first working days. Or was it possible for you to stick resolutely to your own ideas? Cruijff: That is one of the basic thing, and also reasons I came here. That I said: OK, I like to do it very much, but on my way. And if it fails I am responsible and I'll go away. [...] Cruijff: Everyone judges football in a different way. Press, public tends to rate a player based on which tricks he can do with a ball. That is not my way. I rate a footballer because you can play for 88 minutes without ball; on what he does in those 88 minutes, and not necessarily what happens in the other 2 minutes. This rating is what you press through, amended the team on that. Then you only need a result to show to everyone, let them believe, that it is the only road. Interviewer: It is commonly known, and undoubtedly also at your players, that you wasn't a fan of physical exercises in the past. But now you have to let them run. How do you sell this to your players? Cruijff: Simple; If I was the biggest thief with running then they cannot rob me. Interviewer: In an interview with a Dutch magazine you said that you "love" your players. Cruijff: Yes... That are always words difficult to translate. I have respect for the players, I will always help them. I think I am as a character and way of thinking still more of a player than a manager. So you feel their problems; you naturally sense that because you're still more on that side. That doesn't prevent though, when you have to exercise your job and make decisions, that you are on the other side. Concerning the question: do you love your players; I never want to send someone to the bottom, or those type of things. I go along with my players well, although there is a form of respect. Interviewer: Peculiar is that players who are moved out from your squad, like for example Walter Meeuws at the beginning, do not say a bad word about you so far. Which used to be different with other managers. Cruijff: I want to be honest. Explain things in the way one sees it. They see automatically too, especially in that period of time, that you are constantly explaining the same thing. Constantly dot your i's and cross your t's on the places where they must be. Thus you aren't saying: today we do it in this way and tomorrow in that way. And the day after tomorrow again a different story, when we adapt to that one. No: we play this football; that is the way we do it; this are the qualities you need. And I think if you play it fair, despite that footballers are all whimsical, and also individualists - which I was once too, that is not very difficult and I'm full of understanding for that. I also know that if you say it honest and fair, and tell always the same story, that you don't receive the vicious opposition from that side. Look, you maintain differences of opinion... Interviewer intervenes: Van Basten for example about eight months ago. Cruijff: Yes, for example. Interviewer: Who expressed a difference of opinion but is now play-backing Cruijff, the story goes. Cruijff: Well, right. That are someone his thought patterns. And not because it are my own ideas, but those boys have grown up in a certain canvas, and that is to my idea not the looping for achieving results. That is what you try to put into someone's head, that for achieving results... Being a good footballer is one thing, to consistently perform is something else. Sometimes you have to concede something of your private life in order to perform. You need to work for another player as well, by which the other is maybe good on that day and the player for the headlines. And whether you perform twice a backheel trick, or not, I find that not important at all. Because a rainbow flick bears no relationship to whether you play good or bad. Interviewer: At the beginning you hadn't always the same vision as Johan Cruijff. Van Basten: Now, I don't have yet the same insight as him, you know. That is what I like to have. But it is true I made at the start of the season a few remarks about transfer policy. At hindsight it turns out to be sufficient, but yes, the squad is not broad and deep enough, I think, for contending at all trophies until the very end of the season. But we'll see. Interviewer: You just said that you didn't see it in the way Cruijff sees it. On which aspects do you disagree? Van Basten: We don't have separating opinions. I mean: Cruijff his insight is so enormous, I'm yet not anywhere near that. Interviewer: Where is it impossible to follow him? On which points.. Van Basten:.. On the moment we play I do not see everything that he sees. I mean: if we arrive at half-time he has the capability to show so many different angles and layers. In a tactical sense. Yes, there are a few things I'm unable to grasp on the cuff. That is what you want, obviously. And not only myself but I think most players that are playing. Interviewer: Has Cruijff enriched you as a footballer? Van Basten: You can say that. His approach to football is, I believe, unique. He has also experienced and seen so many things, so many different things. That is already something you don't have to doubt. And on a tactical level I think he makes every player a fair bit stronger and cleverer. I think I've also fully developed, for a part thanks to the years I know him. Interviewer: Was you as a boy also a supporter of the great 1970s Ajax? Van Basten: Yes, but I was very young it must be said. I was seven or eight years old, something like that. My memory is failing, but I know I was always located in front of the television we had. When Ajax played European Cup games. I know. Interviewer: How high do you rate Van Basten on the international ladder? Cruijff: That is what you have to wait for, the confirmation. In terms of individual qualities, if you talk about that, like vision, insight, technique and all those things.. All essential abilities. On those abilities I think he is located at a very high level. On the other hand he's only 22 years old, so how strong is he? Nobody knows. That's what we have to wait for. Mentality, resilience. He will face over there in Italy enormous amounts of pressures. His individual abilities won't be a problem at all, to my knowledge. But he's only 22 years old at this transfer. [..] [On whether he wants to save his legs.] Van Basten: That isn't an idea that lives inside me, in all honesty. I still find it very exciting at Ajax, and in my heart I would like it to achieve more successes with Ajax. By which you also arrive at Milan in a more mature way. I mean: if you move over there with already an European cup to show, that makes a better impression as when you don't have it. In that sense it is not true. Interviewer: In the final you want to set your mark Van Basten: Yeah, that is the plan. Interviewer: There will be a lot of demand from richer foreign clubs for Johan Cruijff. I can imagine Barcelona wants Cruijff back. How do you see that? How do you see your future at Ajax? Cruijff: I stay at least for one more year. That is already certain. Second, I'm not a career manager or how you like to call it. My foremost base for work is enjoyment. There doing the things I think can be improved by me. With respect to the Dutch game and youth I think there's still room for improvement. Therefore I stay for at least one more year if it is up to me. And how the rest unfolds is uncertain, I'm not looking for something. " It's something I did in stages over the past couple of weeks actually but I thought it provides an interesting insight about the club of that time and the player. I made also recently a list that I posted in another thread, of the scoring ratio in European club competitions by players born between 1960 and 1971 (only players with 20 or more European goals are included by RSSF). Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler 0.666 Van Basten [30/45] 0.661 Papin [39/59] 0.555 Romario [20/36] 0.538 Pacult [21/39] 0.534 Weah [34/63] 0.533 Kirsten [40/75] 0.532 Yuran [25/47] 0.523 Rufer [23/44] 0.511 Hugo Sanchez [23/45] 0.508 Baggio [31/61] 0.500 Rush [21/42] 0.493 Simone [34/69] 0.486 Stoichkov [34/70] 0.467 Vialli [35/75] 0.465 Klinsmann [27/58] 0.463 Saravakos [25/54] 0.460 Brylle-Larsen [23/50] 0.453 Ravanelli [24/53] 0.453 KH Riedle [24/53] 0.446 Nilis [37/83] 0.444 Völler [20/45] 0.438 Zamorano [21/48] 0.407 Rodionov [22/54] 0.404 Sukur [38/94] 0.400 Warzycha [26/65] 0.397 Chapuisat [25/63] 0.388 Bosman [26/67] 0.375 McCoist [21/56] 0.370 Casiraghi [20/54] 0.360 Butragueno [27/75] 0.333 Hagi [32/95] 0.323 Mostovoi [20/62] 0.319 Bergkamp [30/94] 0.316 Pettersson [25/79] 0.289 R. Koeman [24/84] 0.284 Möller [21/74] 0.267 M. Laudrup [20/75] 0.237 Michel [21/88] 0.231 Verheyen [24/104] http://www.rsssf.com/players/players-in-ec.html [if I forget a player you can give a shout but I don't think I forgot someone] http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/messi-v-ronaldo-at-23.1635923/page-41#post-31519953
I made one for the euro92 game against USSR/CIS recently, which was sort of a revenge match for the euro88 final (already exists). I'm not totally happy yet and I'll make one for the total euro92 tournament in due time.
Bergkamp was such an amazing technical player. He had an excellent Euro in 92. Do you have videos of him?
OK, here's my euro 92 compilation. A longer version (38 minutes) is on the channel too, but that hasn't all touches either. I condensed it back to 24 minutes afterwards, but the original 38 minutes version is on the channel too (I decided to not delete the earlier draft version). After advise/suggestion of PDG1978 I made one for euro88 as well (within 24 minutes), although the compilations for individual games (e.g. Ireland, USSR etc.) already existed. EDIT: as with YouTube too, it works the best when viewing it on the YT/Dailymotion website itself.
Oh, good work - hopefully I didn't pressure you into the Euro 88 one! (Only said by PM that such a video would obviously be great, and there'd be more material than for the Euro 92 one even though he still played well and contributed for the Dutch in that tournament too - his form/fitness/relaxed mental state was optimal in 88 though, coming in after recovering from injury, while not so much in 92 on each count I think even though he started 92-93 so well and prolifically after the summer). I'm going to watch the 88 one now anyway, even though as you say the excellent individual videos are already on your account and I've watched them all.
No you didn't. I had already made the individual videos ofc although it is not easy to make a good one of 20-25 minutes for 5 games. It's harder as I thought and I'm more satisfied with the euro92 result as the euro88 one. That made me to appreciate efforts like the one below more, where the qualities/abilities/style of a player is captured in 3-4 minutes.
I made a compilation highlighting Van Basten in the 1989 European Cup final. All touches and some scenes that show the position/movement.