Interface Digital Labs

Goodbye to Totaal Voetbal

As we are redecorating our existing office prior to relocating, it’s time to say goodbye to our Totaal Voetbal ‘74 mural.

The mural, featuring Dutch football legend Johan Cryuff, was created using the excellent Illustrator plug-in Scriptographer. An amazing web-based application for creating large-size murals is Rasterbator.

This on Totaalvoetbal on Wikipedia:

Space and the creation of it were central to the concept of Total Football. Ajax defender Barry Hulshoff explained how the team that won the European Cup in 1971, 1972 and 1973 worked it to their advantage: “We discussed space the whole time. Johan Cruyff always talked about where people should run and where they should stand, and when they should not move.”

The constant switching of positions that became known as Total Football only came about because of this spatial awareness. “It was about making space, coming into space, and organizing space-like architecture on the football pitch,” said Hulshoff. The system developed organically and collaboratively: it was not down to coach Rinus Michels, his successor Stefan Kovacs or Cruyff alone. Cruyff summed up his (Total Football) philosophy: “Simple football is the most beautiful. But playing simple football is the hardest thing.”

The 1972 European Cup final proved to be Total Football’s finest hour. After Ajax’s 2:0 victory over Inter Milan, newspapers around Europe reported the “death of Catenaccio and triumph of Total Football”. The Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad declared: “The Inter system undermined. Defensive football is destroyed.”