This Week in Football History: Johan Cruyff's phantom goal

Johan Cruyff scored an extraordinary goal for Barca in '73

Adrian North is a big fan of Dutch football and today he hails the greatest master of them all, Johan Cruyff, for his extraordinary goal for Barcelona in 1973...

December 22, 1973 - Barcelona 2-1 Atletico Madrid, Nou Camp: Johan Cruyff's most incredible goal.   

In the early 1970's Johan Cruyff sat atop of the footballing world. Pele was coming to the end of his career with Santos and, despite Gerd Muller quietly going about his business of breaking record after record, Cruyff had become world football's second true global icon (after Pele).

At Ajax he had won everything - championships, golden boots, and three consecutive European Cups. But perhaps more importantly, Cruyff, under the guidance of the greatest Dutch manager ever, Rinus Michels, had introduced Total Football to the world and it took everybody else in Europe four years to play catch up with Ajax's futuristic version of football.   

The 1971 European Cup final saw Ajax beat surprise package Panathanikos 1-0 before Cruyff put Inter Milan's 'catenaccio' tactics to the sword a year later, scoring both goals in a 2-0 win. In '73 Cruyff made it a hat-trick of European Cups, assisting the winning goal in 1-0 over Juventus - Total Football was dominating the sporting world.   

And then Cruyff decided to take Total Football to Catalonia.   

Two years previously, Rinus Michels had already made the move to north-western Spain and in the summer of '73 the brain and the conductor of Total football were re-united once again.   

Compared to the success Michels and Cruyff enjoyed at Ajax, their five-year spell at Barcelona is a sad failure. Cruyff would never win the European Cup again and only claim one La Liga title, during his first and most prolific season at Barcelona in 1973/74. It seemed the Total Football experiment was unsustainable without the supporting cast of Johnny Rep, Johan Neeskens (who would also transfer to Barcelona later), Arie Haan and Ruud Krol.  

And Total Football was yet to have its most heartbreaking moment. In the summer of 1974 at the World Cup in West Germany, The Netherlands, coached for the tournament by Michels and led by Cruyff and the spine of the still great Ajax side would play some of the most beautiful football the world had seen before falling at the final hurdle against the pragmatic and counter attacking hosts and fierce rivals in the final.  

The guard had changed. West Germany had become the new super power and Bayern Munich were to repeat Ajax's feat of three consecutive European Cup victories between 74-76.   

However, there is one goal from Cruyff's time at Barcelona that stands head and shoulders above the rest. On December 22, 1973, just four months into his career with Barca, Cruyff scored what has come to be known as the "phantom goal". Footage of this goal in decent quality is increasingly hard to come by and the video linked above shows in all its grainy, pixilated glory.

Watching a cross from the right-hand side of the box Cruyff manages to contort his body into such a position where he can back heel the ball, while almost four feet off the ground, in between the near post and goalkeeper. And honestly, despite my love and bias for Cruyff and Dutch football in general, I think this is one of the best goals ever scored.   

For those of you who feel the need to see the goal in better quality, here's the best footage I could find - At 12:58 of *this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WKp_JuRO-g&t=12m58sn/a