Johan Cruyff received the ball outside the penalty box at Westfalenstadion, West Germany, on June 19, 1974. The Netherlands captain, clad in the black shorts and orange jersey that would become iconic after the 1974 World Cup, was being marked by Jan Olsson, a 32-year-old Swedish defender.
As Olsson rushed to the edge of the box to try and dispossess Cruyff, the Dutchman feigned a pass by dropping his shoulder to the right. With Olsson committed to pursuing the ball on his left, Cruyff pulled the ball back behind his supporting leg and spun to his left. The Dutchman then left Olsson behind and charged towards the Swedish goal. The match eventually ended goalless but became known more for Cruyff’s manoeuvre against Olsson, which was dubbed ‘The Cruyff Turn’.
“The turn wasn’t something I’d ever done in training or practised,” recalled Cruyff in ‘My Turn’, his autobiography.
“The idea came to me in a flash, because at that particular moment it was the best solution for the situation I was in. There are impulses that arise because your technical and tactical knowledge has become so great that your legs are able to respond immediately to what your head wants them to do,” wrote Cruyff.
“Even if that’s nothing more than a flash in the brain.”
A DEVIOUS RUSE
As the first half of AC Milan’s Serie A match against Torino drew to a close at the San Siro on Sunday, Rafael Leao, located in the left half-space of the Torino half, passed the ball to Theo Hernandez further down the left flank.
Hernandez was located just outside the left of the Torino penalty box, just as Cruyff had been almost 50 years ago against Olsson.
There was a Dutchman involved here too, with centre-back Perr Schuurs of the Netherlands and right-back Raoul Bellanova of Italy trying to block Hernandez’s path to the Torino goal.
For a fleeting instance, Hernandez seemed to weigh the options before him: to try and first beat Schuurs and then Bellanova and advance towards goal, or pass the ball elsewhere and help Milan work their way towards goal, an option that seemed to have a higher probability of success.
The French defender turned away from the Torino goal, jogged back from the penalty box and played a return pass to Leao, who had advanced further down the left flank. Even as the Portuguese winger was trying to decide whether to roll the ball across to Christian Pulisic in the middle of the penalty box, the Milan left-back noticed that Schuurs and Bellanova had left the Torino box to pursue Leao.
At once, Hernandez raced back into the empty space that had opened up behind Schuurs. Leao, who noticed Hernandez’s run, showed remarkable equipoise and deftly rolled the ball into the box to play in his French teammate. Hernandez ran on to the ball, and when the Torino goalkeeper Milinkovic-Savic rushed forward to close the angle towards the goal, the Milan left-back beat him with a nimble chip over his right shoulder.
The goal was Milan’s third of the night against Torino, the pick of the 4 they scored against the Granata to win 4-1.
Torino manager Ivan Juric later called the encounter his “worst match since I’ve been manager of Toro. We deservedly beat Milan twice last year. (But) there was no competition today.”
Schuurs, who fell prey to Hernandez’ craftiness in the lead up to the goal, conceded after the match that it had been a “difficult” one. “Difficult and tough game yesterday, we need to stay strong and improve,” the former Ajax centre-back wrote on his Instagram account. “See you next week. Together in good times and difficult times.”
Schuurs, who also scored Torino’s lone goal in the match, received much love for his post from the Granata faithful.
“Big brother, the only one who puts his heart in it and always puts his face on it,” wrote one fan.
“One of the few that always saves himself!” wrote another.
‘I LAUGHED THEN, I LAUGH NOW’
Olsson, who was at the receiving end of Cruyff’s genius in Dortmund, later said he still laughs when he watches the footage of the Dutchman bamboozling him. ““My teammates after the game, we looked at each other, they started to laugh and I do the same,” Olsson told the Press Association when Cruyff passed away in 2016.
“I laughed then and I laugh now. It was very funny. He was a world-class player. I do my best but I was not a world-class player. The players in my team, they all laugh because they know me – we laughed together in the changing room because everyone saw what a player he was. What more could we do?”
Following the victory against Torino, Hernandez posted pictures from the match on his Instagram account, singling out Leao in his post even as he praised the “Great team work” put in by his teammates at Milan. “Thank you San Siro,” added Hernandez.
Responding to the Frenchman’s post, Leao wrote only one word in appreciation of his teammate: “Crack.”
Olsson said that in the years that followed his World Cup match with the Netherlands, people would come up to him and ask him for help in replicating the ‘Cruyff Turn’ with them. “Many people tell me: ‘Do it with me, the sequence with Johan Cruyff.’ Many people say that and I do the same because I am very proud to have been there. My parents remembered this sequence. I played football at the top for 18 years and never experienced anything like it,” said Olsson.
NEXT UP FOR HERNANDEZ: ANOTHER EX-AJAX MAN
Following Milan’s victory over Torino, the Rossoneri currently sit on top of the Serie A table. The Diavolo have 2 wins from 2 matches played, the same as Napoli, Inter and Verona, but have been accorded first place on goal difference.
Milan’s style of play, too, has improved markedly from last season, a result of 9 new signings the club completed in the summer along with 8 departures of players from last season’s squad.
“We need to think that each game helps us to develop, to get to know each other better and improve on what we prepare in training,” said Milan manager Stefano Pioli after the win over Torino.
“It’s clear that, today, we played better than we did against Bologna (who Milan beat 2-0 in the opening week).”
“We need to keep this work up and make use of every day in training, and every match to always improve,” the coach said.
Next up for the Rossoneri is Jose Mourinho’s Roma, who will be desperate to claim a victory when they meet at the Stadio Olimpico after collecting just 2 points from their opening 2 matches this season.
If Mourinho plays his usual 11 against Milan, Hernandez is likely to come up against a former teammate of Schuurs’ at Ajax – Denmark’s Rasmus Kristensen, who played with Schuurs at the Amsterdam club in the 2018-19 season.
From the way this revitalised Milan is revving up for the new season, few would bet against Hernandez pulling off at the Stadio Olimpico something similar to what he did at the San Siro last week.