Remembering the greatest teams: Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona ‘Dream Team’
When people talk about the greatest teams to have ever played the game, the conversation is not complete without talking about Barcelona under Dutch master Johan Cruyff from 1988 until 1996.
At its peak, the team earned the nickname The Dream Team.
Johan Cruyff awoke a sleeping giant
When Cruyff returned to the club he played for during his playing career as boss, Barcelona was in the midst of something of a lean spell. The Blaugrana had won La Liga just once in the 14 years before Cruyff’s arrival and two titles in three decades.
When he arrived in Catalonia, Cruyff seemed determined to turn the situation around. He is quoted as saying: “I know the club, and I don’t want history to repeat itself,”
“If we want things to change, we must change history.”
And turned around the situation he did. At the time, arch-rivals Real Madrid were the dominant force in the Spanish game. However, Barcelona returned to glory under Cruyff, and suddenly, Los Blancos were in the shadow of their Catalan rivals.
The Dutchman built an unbelievable team at the club. The team included the likes of foreign stars such as Denmark’s Michael Laudrup, Brazilian icon Romario, Bulgarian superstar Hristo Stoichkov and Cruyff’s compatriot defender Ronald Koeman.
The foreign stars were joined by homegrown Spanish talents such as Pep Guardiola, Julio Salinas, Andoni Zubizarreta and Jose Mari Bakero. The combination was almost perfect and led to a glorious spell for the Blaugrana.
Cruyff instilled the ‘Total Football’ style of football that his former boss, Rinus Michels, had mastered with the Netherlands national team. It was a style of play that married well with the new Barcelona boss’ football ideology. Cruyff and Barcelona was a match made in heaven.
The football played by Barcelona during those years was considered revolutionary because of how Cruyff had developed the ‘Total Football’ style.
Cruyff’s team didn’t win La Liga in his maiden season as Blaugrana boss. However, his team won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in his first season with the club, as they recorded a 2-0 final win over Sampdoria at Wembley in the final of the competition.
Four in a row in La Liga
The European Cup Winners Cup win was just the start, as from 1991-1994, Barcelona recorded four straight La Liga titles. The run of form is now regarded as one of the best in the history of the Spanish top-flight.
Only Real Madrid had ever won more Spanish league titles in a row, five titles between 1960 and 1965. Los Blancos repeated the feat between 1985 and 1990, with both teams going down as iconic La Liga teams.
The excellent title-winning streak also included going unbeaten at the Nou Camp in La Liga in season 1992/93. That period also saw the Catalan giants win their first European Cup in the 1991/92 season.
Once again, they defeated Sampdoria in the final of the competition at Wembley, with an extra-time goal from Ronald Koeman enough to clinch the win for the Catalan giants.
In all, Johan Cruyff won 11 trophies in his tenure as Barcelona boss before exiting the club in 1996.
A significant legacy
The Dream Team has left a significant legacy, which can be seen in the modern game. Many modern bosses have taken pieces of Cruyff’s football ideas and modernised them.
One of the Dream Team, Pep Guardiola, sees Cruyff as one of his coaching mentors. Speaking in 2011, the Catalan boss even stated that his successful Barcelona team couldn’t even compete with the Dream Team, saying:
“They were pioneers, and we cannot compete with that no matter how many trophies we win,”
”We will never equal the period of the Dream Team as they were the first to break up the long period without success. Louis van Gaal, Frank Rijkaard and I have added things, but none of this would have happened without the Dream Team.”
The Dream Team has come to be the standard at which Barcelona teams are now measured. The fact that Guardiola didn’t feel his team, which is now considered one of the best teams in club football, could not measure up is a testament to the quality of the Dream Team.
Barcelona’s achievements and football played during that period may well never be repeated. The Dream Team is legendary and arguably is the greatest club team in the history of the game.
Is the Dream Team the best-ever club team in the history of the game?