The Netherlands and Spain are not close only in football. Through history, they have an intense relationship since when the Dutch language still had this archaic form of writing, brought up through the war song — now Dutch national anthem — “Het Wilhelmus” (The Guillaume). Guillaume I, Prince of Orange, honored Philip II, King of Spain. Josep Guardiola, Spanish — and/or Catalan — will always honor Johan Cruyff, the “Prince of Orange” football.

Illustration by Antonio Losada (@chapulana)

The “Position Game”, a football philosophy that has become a fetish, much for the symbolism of Pep’s Barcelona, as well as for the influence of the three-time champion Spanish side (2008 and 2012 UEFA Euro Cups and 2010 FIFA World Cup), has its essence in the English tradition of disciplined play, seen never as just a sport, but as a way of demonstrating physical fitness and moral virtues. But it was in the Netherlands that the style has gained the most noticeable contours in current football, especially by the famous technician Rinus Michels. Like the English, the Dutch feel football as a space dispute first — who wins the space, will gain time — unlike the Italians, the Hungarians, and the Brazilians. It’s not just about keeping position, because Dutch football is known by the swap, the “passer defender” and the “defending striker”. The central question is that in position game, the ball goes to positions, so that each field space needs to be defended not necessarily always by the same player. This logic, for those who like to relate football to culture, has a lot to do with the expressionist movement, which broke out in the Netherlands at the turn of the 19th century to the 20th, much by the hands of the architect Michel Klerk, from the famous “School of Amsterdam,” and surfaced in the 1960s under the influence of Wim Crouwel. The idea of ​​standardization of spaces and of an oriented creation, to the detriment of something free and fluid, is related to a game thought in its fullness, where there is no aristocracy of talent . The whole game is thought collectively and the individual participates in the creation of the whole; he first has a position — which is not fixed, but mutant — and then a function: it gains function — ability to act in time — after which he dominates a space. The Netherlands of 1974 will always be one of the most iconic teams of all time even without a title; by Michels revolutionary tactic but mainly by the genius of Hendrik Johannes Cruyff — probably the most important European player in history. Cruyff trained two teams (besides the Catalan team): his Ajax, and Barcelona. And there begins the connection evoked at the beginning of this article.

“Een Prince van Oranje ben ik, vrij onverveerd den Koning van Hispanje heb ik altijd geëerd.” “A prince of Orange, am I, quite fearless. The king of Spain, I have always honoured.”

Barcelona was not always the team with its current philosophy. In the 1960s, the legendary Serbian coach Ljubiša Broćić managed the squad, which by then featured incredible players such as Kubala, Kocsis, Luis Suarez, Evaristo de Macedo and Czibor among others. It was a team totally different from the English and Dutch ones that inspired Pep Guardiola. In 1970 the culés showed a certain inflection for a more positional game betting on English Vic Buckingham, which did not enchant so much, despite winning the Copa Del Rey in 1970–71. In 1971 — the first meeting of Catalunya with the Position Game — Rinus Michels landed to lead the team until 1975. Michels won only the Spanish League in1973–74 during his first tenure. After a quick hiatus, he returned in 1976 and won the Copa del Rey in 1977–78. During the 1980s, Barça had technicians with a very different philosophy, such as Helenio Herrera, César Luis Menotti and Ladislao Kubala. Johan Cruyff would only arrive in 1988 and there he would conquer an interminable list of cups: 4 Spanish Leagues, 1 Copa del Rey, 3 Super Cups and most importantly in the history of the club until then, the 1992 UEFA Champions League. That team, which would become known as “Dream Team” was spectacular with the likes of Koeman, Bakero, Stoichkov and Laudrup on its lines, but Johan’s number 10, and the leading thread of that story, was none other than Josep Guardiola. Pep wanted to be (and was accepted by) Cruyff apprentice, and Barcelona would never be the same again. It would always have in its essence a very particular philosophy, crying out for it to be implanted once and for all.

After Cruyff left in 1996, another Dutchman would come with the task of following his work. It was the young Louis van Gaal, another adept of the game of position or juego de posición, and perhaps one of the most orthodox of the idea of ​​the domain of spaces. The second European title (2005–06) of Barça, by the way, would come by the hands of a third Dutchman, Frank Rijkaard, the not-so-orthodox one but very influenced by Michels and Cruyff ideas. 2008 would mark the start of Guardiola’s era. Without experience, the young man of only 37 years-of-age arrived in a humble way, and most probably not even he imagined that he would be marked as one of the greatest coaches of all time, and his Barça one of the best teams ever.

Juego de posición is, in all its shades, a philosophy of placing the individual at the service of the whole. It’s about creating a system that privileges controlled and thought-out interactions. It’s about mastering spaces, mastering ball possession, and mastering the game mentally through it all. In an analogy, and to express this way of playing in a more poetic way, I would say that, unlike the South American style, Cruyff and Guardiola’s model is not a sensual dance, but rather a work of art meticulously done to delight. Pep’s Barcelona did not excite like the Brazil of ‘82, but it left you paralyzed, in a lethargic state, where you prefer, instead of laughing of joy, crying of emotion at the presence of such beauty and hierarchy.

To paraphrase the Dutch hymn, I say: To the kings of “Dutch Spain”, I will always honor.