When broken down, football is a simple game.
Many figures have come and gone, but as in all walks of life, the impact of some far transcends even the game itself.
There was Herbet Chapman and the W-M, Hugo Meisl and the Wunderteam, Jimmy Hogan and Bela Gutmann at the Danubian school of football, Helenio Herrera and the Inter Milan powerhouse, and of course Rinus Michels and the Dutch total football.
At the fulcrum of total football lay Johan Cruyfff, the very essence of the system and the most influential man of the modern game.
While many of his fellow footballing visionaries were often regarded as being misunderstood, Cruyff simply could not be.
Coined by writer David Miller as “Pythagoras in boots”, Cruyff was a genius in his own right with an attacking flair far beyond his years.
What was seen as impossible to some was entirely within reason for the Dutch Maestro.
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Upon hanging up the boots he took his own playing style, largely built on a love for entertaining the spectator, and turned it into a footballing philosophy that would lay the foundations for some of the strongest dynasties the beautiful game has ever seen.
Though Cruyff’s impact is far reaching and his students can be found in every corner of the globe, his legacy is probably most felt at Barcelona.
In his playing days, he left his hometown club of Ajax for the Catalans, where he really cemented his legacy as one of the greatest footballers to have ever set foot on a pitch.
His venture into management followed the same path, as he took the reins at the Camp Nou and gave the La Liga powerhouse its identity.
‘Tiki-taka’ is a style built on short passing and plenty of player movement, sharing similarities with the total football style of the Dutch in the 70’s.
Pep Guardiola, a student of Cruyff’s, deployed these tactics when he was at the helm of arguably the greatest Barcelona side in the club’s history, and as such he became the club’s most successful manager.
In a case of student surpassing the teacher, Guardiola won 15 trophies, breaking Cruyff’s record of 11, before moving to German side Bayern Munich and continuing to hoard accolades.
The pupils of Cruyff preach his philosophies as if they were gospel, and how fitting it is that they have made their way to a city known across the land as being synonymous with religion.
Adelaide was a club devoid of success and struggling to find its identity, built on the ideals of being the people’s club and to unite a city split by an ethnic divide.
On the pitch, though, there was nothing to separate them from the rest of the competition.
A shrewd managerial decision saw the arrival of Josep Gombau, a Spaniard who had honed his coaching credentials at the famed La Maisa academy and was subsequently appointed as technical director of a Barcelona backed academy in Dubai.
Having studied under Guardiola, Gombau would implement the possession-based tiki-taka style of Cruyff with the structure and discipline associated with Pep.
In most cases, playing styles that are developed or most closely associated with a particular club have some sort of embodiment to the culture or lifestyle for the city in which they are based.
The city of Adelaide has a great love for the animated person but is desperate to find a balance between the refined and the rustic.
Gombau and his style were the representative the city had been dying for, an individual not afraid to hide his love and passion for the game, bringing with him a style that fans could appreciate.
And thus, a new identity was born, somewhere between diagonal cross-field balls and patient passing build-ups.
Gombau may have departed earlier than some would have expected but he did return Adelaide to the finals and gave United their first piece of silverware as they were crowned inaugural FFA Cup Champions, all the while playing some of the best football the country had seen.
Barcelona legend Guillermo Amor succeeded Gombau and would continue on his revolution.
Amor, a key cog of Barca’s fabled dream team and another of Cruyff’s devout followers, tweaked things slightly, eliminating much of the discipline and promoting acting on instinct and emphasis on creativity.
A lot more Cruyffian, a lot less Guardiolian.
Amor had a torrid start to his managerial career, having to wait until round nine to achieve his first win.
Since then, he has made a dramatic turnaround, taking the club from the bottom of the ladder to firmly in a foot race for the premiership.
A distinct South Australian flavour has been brought back to the club, with nine players born in Adelaide and emerging from the clubs youth system.
Gombau set out on improving the clubs academy, giving chances to the youth and creating a production line of home grown talent, the very ethos of Cruyff on which the Ajax and Barcelona dynasties are built upon.
Amor has continued that philosophy, further making 2016 a season to remember regardless of the end result.
Cruyff may have sadly departed, but his legacy is so profound that he will continue to live on for as long as the game is continued to be played beautifully.
As Guardiola said, “Cruyff built the cathedral; our job is to maintain it.”
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