Relativity of Time and Space in Johan Cruyff Football

young Johan Cruyff (ibtimes.co.uk)

I'm not sure how many digit IQ of Johan Cryuff, but I suspect that the IQ of the player who never get an international title as a player all his lifetime is not much different from an Albert Einstein. Especially when talking about the issue of space and time.

The issue of space and time is one of the interesting discussion. Not only because this discussion makes you look cool when discussing it, but also because of all the problems in this world is about two things. Moreover, if we talk about football.

FourFourTwo've made a list of the best clubs ever existed on the earth. There is Real Madrid in Alfredo De Stefano-Ferenc Puskas era with a five Champions Cup title in a row in the third place. In second place is AC Milan with Dutch trio blended by cold hands Arrigo Sacchi, and the first -Well, you can guess - are Ajax Amsterdam in Rinus Michels era with  Cruyff as pole "pillars" in there.

Then where FC Barcelona Josep Guardiola era ever cruelly ravaged Europe? Unfortunately, the club with one alien was only ranked fourth.

If you must argue about the position of Michels team in the first position, then it 's obvious it was there for the first time to understand football as a game with the approach of space and time. Do not worry; I will not give you a variety of theoretical physics was unfocused to understand it.

What three of the four best club ever existed on earth is a club that uses a similar approach in his playing schemes. If then Madrid in Puskas-Stefano era is in the top four, just because they are the truth embryo of "Los Galacticos".

Embryos which in a club is no longer concerned about players nationality to collect super players in one team. If you are still unsure of my claim, let alone check, that Madrid era had sent a formal proposal to Santos to recruit Pele. Either unlucky or lucky for football fans of the time, Pele is firmly rejected.

Okay, back to the issue.

Ajax era of Rinus Michels was a team that uses the most sophisticated scientific approach if thinks and at once the simplest if applicable. The understanding of time and space of this kind is easy if football is a game of individuals. The problem of football is a team game, meaning that this scheme has been running if your team can move as one body.

There should be a single authority if you move a limb. You need a brain to move the two hands, and if you have two brains, then moving a finger it would be tough for their more than a whim.

That is why many who agree that the "Total Football" is not a personal contribution of Michels. Michels was laid the first stone od the foundation, but it was Cruyff who became the architect and occupant temple called "Total Football".

Cruyff probably never learn physics or geometry to understand it, but in the field, all the space and time he successfully mastered. It is true, Pele or Maradona was a great player for being able to change the game single-handedly.

But Cruyff was on different sides. He can change the course of the game alone -and this is important- together involving the role of all his colleagues in the field.

If Pele and Maradona use his muscles and their brains to trick the opposing players, the Cruyff use his brain to trick the opposing team with all players in his muscles.

The Controller Time

Football is space. There is a ball, and there is a field, there is two-wicket, and there is a line. But when people go in there, then football that had only limited room suddenly have a perspective time. The relativity of time can only occur if there is a subject who experience or feel. The subject, in this case, is a football player.

The entire universe is a pluralistic space perspective. Intertwine intertwined and so elusive.

I will take the example that this is not too difficult to understand.

The stars we see at night, actually are the stars we see billions of light years before. We see the light at the billions back and are up to our eyes is light in the past. It may be that when we look at the stars, the stars we see at the same time has become a supernova or fade die slowly.

Why did it happen?

For such a long distance from the Earth to the stars, we see very far. So far, until the unit of length for the size of the space of the universe is how long the light can take it. And because light takes a time to reach Earth then when it gets to our eyes, the stars we see are a form of reflection of the real stars.

Another example that easier is the sun, the nearest star from Earth, which is about we just take an average of 8 minutes 20 seconds. Then it means the light we receive is the sun in the past, in the past 8 minutes 20 seconds ago.

That is why in football, we know the term "vision play". Ability in which a player can design an early attack foundations. The views far into the future. The views across the dimensions. Long-term plans to open the empty space of the opposing team and exploit them.

Vision is a matter of predicting gameplay. Predicting space on the football field at the same subjects in it. Predicting the meeting points of space (the field) and time (the players) are favorable.

It is complicated, because of what is seen by the players on the football field everything is past. The distance between players to players, at least, create the time bias to get to the eyes of the player who is carrying the ball.

There is a fraction of a second-time difference between the reality of what is visible. Of course, the difference is not as much as when the sun to the earth. But in fact, there is clearly a difference.

Andrea Pirlo is probably one of the closest examples that can translate the cross-dimension of a player's ability. A game that looks simple, but the simplicity of it represents the highest level of football. Pirlo can predict how the meeting point of the ball which he sent from a distance of a few tens of meters to be placed to the foot or head of Filippo Inzaghi while both are playing for AC Milan.

Consideration of the distance and time intertwined with the pace of the ball and the acceleration run of Inzaghi should be in a perfect composition to deliver an assist. When Pirlo saw Inzaghi in a position that far, he was seeing "Inzaghi in the past" and immediately he should be able to do calculations to see where the next point position "Inzaghi in the future".

In the larger construction, Cruyff able to unearth his ability to cross dimensions to be used for the greatest benefit of his team.

If you have time to watch how the opening match of the Netherlands in the 1974 World Cup when he meet with Uruguay, you will understand that the understanding of space and time not only understood Cruyff alone. But also the entire team. Or if you want a bit radical, the whole "limb" Cruyff was playing in the match.

"If you get the ball you have to make a field as large as possible, and if you lose the ball, you have to make a field so small as possible," are the words of Cruyff matter of "Total Football" is often quoted everywhere.

If we look deeper in practice, the real word of Cruyff did not just stop at the issue of space, but also time. As my premise was, that so there's a subject (player) on the pitch then when it is also a time perspective also have a big hand.

Once your space is limited, then at the same time your time will be limited as well. Once the Dutch players lost the ball and they do the pressing so tight, players Uruguay not only lose the space but also in time.

Time to rethink vision of the game to the next stage. Even when time is not enough to rely on the legs reflexes to do dribble to avoid opponents brunt.

On the other hand, when Cruyff and his friends play the ball, they not only expand space but also extend the time. By lengthening the time, Cruyff's team can catch their breath. Designing the vision to play step by step. In the end, the displacement position and role of the player in the "Total Football" became possible because of the amount of time available.

"There is only one ball, so you need to have it," he said. If the ball can be controlled not only the playing field can be controlled, but also the perspective of time in the field.

And there, then "Total Football" represents the utilization of the relativity of space and time in football with the plenary.

Unfortunately, "the controller time" is only able to control the time at the football field. Off the pitch, Cruyff was a human being. She has no power at all to control time.

Seven days ago (24/3), the news of his death shocked the world of football. Personally, I never really liked Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer for me is much more powerful if we talk to winning the title. Both as a player, coach, and as an aged old man (in fact Beckenbauer has longer age).

But nothing that can not be sad when I heard Cruyff, a figure that changed football with an ego the size to be an entertaining spectacle had breathed her last.

And even if his body can not stop death, Cruyff has shown that the legacy and the great man could not be stopped even by time.