Spakenburg’s success in Groningen was partly due to the daring tactics that De Graaf had mapped out. While the underdog normally digs in around his own sixteen, Spakenburg FC Groningen dared to chase their own half. “I’ve been a big fan of Cruijff all my life. He says: if you go down, you have to do it with your own vision. You have to radiate that. Otherwise I don’t like it.” But De Graaf also knows that such a battle plan stands or falls with the question of whether the players dare to carry it out. “If we are completely run over three times in the first fifteen minutes, they really go backwards.”
Spakenburg coach Chris de Graaf in Een Berg Sport: ‘Little sleep, but plenty of energy!’
