Dortmund, 1974. The Netherlands were playing Sweden in the group stage at the Westfalenstadion when Johan Cruyff did something nobody had seen on a football pitch before.
He shaped to pass with his right foot. Instead of striking the ball, he dragged it behind his standing leg with the inside of his boot, turned and went the other way. The Swedish defender Jan Olsson, who had bought the dummy completely, was left facing the wrong direction.
That was the birth of the Cruyff Turn. Cruyff invented it on the spot, in the middle of a World Cup match, and it is still taught to children around the world today.
What did Jan Olsson make of it?
Olsson later admitted he was stunned by what Cruyff had done to him. Oddly, he went further. He described the moment as the proudest of his career, even though he was the one on the wrong end of it. It is not often a defender builds his fondest memory around being turned inside out, but Olsson seems to have made his peace with it.
A move that outlived the match
The Cruyff Turn became one of the most imitated skills of the 20th century. Cruyff and his Total Football side went on to reach the 1974 Final, where they lost 2-1 to West Germany, and Cruyff never won a World Cup.
It hardly mattered for his reputation. One piece of improvisation in a group game became a permanent part of football's vocabulary, and his influence on how the game is played and coached runs far deeper than any medal count.
Tomorrow: number 18.
