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Surviving the first round is never my aim. Ideally, I'd be in one group with Brazil, Argentina and Germany. Then I'd have lost two rivals after the first round. That's how I think. Idealisitic.

Johan Cruijff

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Johan Cruijff
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More quotes by Johan Cruijff

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Football is a simple game. It's just very hard to play it simple.
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I still have a lot of room for improvement.
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Every advantage has its disadvantage.
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Why couldn't you beat a richer club? I've never seen a bag of money score a goal.
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Before I make a mistake, I don't make that mistake.
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He has been outstanding. [Manuel] Neuer is an extraordinary goalkeeper, who would deserve to win it.
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The hardest thing about an easy match is making a weak opponent play poor. A poor player isn't poor because he tends to kick the ball in his own goal. It's because when you put intense pressure on him, he loses control. So you have to increase the tempo of the game and he'll automatically give the ball away.
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The ball is an essential part of the game.
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Sometimes something's got to happen before something is going to happen.
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If you have the ball, you must make the field as big as possible, and if you don't have the ball, you must make it as small as possible.
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You know I don't think there will ever be a time when the English player is not respected, and feared, across the world of football. The English footballer is very brave and strong and committed and there is always enough high-class players in his team to cause concern in any opponent. It is a national characteristic.
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Speed is often confused with insight. When I start running earlier than the others, I appear faster.
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The most difficult thing about an easy match is to make a weak opponent play bad football.
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Every professional golfer has a seperate coach for his drives, for approaches, for putting. In football we have one coach for 15 players. This is absurd.
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You have got to shoot, otherwise you can't score.
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If my forward arrives in a one vs one situation, I always say: 'let him work it out.' Then my players say: But we can help him!'. My reply is: First, there's a good chance you'll only run in his way, and as a second attacker you're drawing a second defender with you, and two vs two is harder than one vs one.'
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Italy cannot beat you but you can lose to Italy.
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There are very few players who know what to do when they're not marked. So sometimes you tell a player: that attacker is very good, but don't mark him.
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Without the ball, you can't win.
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I look at Messi, and he makes me laugh. A beautiful footballer who is still like a kid. A world superstar, but still a kid. Innocent, you know. He just plays.
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