The roots of what would develop into tiki-taka began to be implemented by Johan Cruyff during his tenure as manager of Barcelona from 1988 to 1996.
Tiki-taka, in fact, was implemented as an offensive system in Moscow, not in Barcelona; in 1972, not 1988; and in hockey, not soccer.
Tiki-taka revolutionized world soccer. It also revolutionized hockey. Up until that 1972 series North American offensive hockey consisted of the dump-and-chase. Puck control was considered a waste of time; passing dangerous: picked off, you had a breakaway at the other end. It was also considered too “pretty,” effeminate. In soccer, too! “We’re playing tiki-taka! tiki-taka!” The name was an insult. In hockey Canadians dumped the puck into the opponent's zone, chased after it, and used their brawn to board and bowl over defenders and regain possession through brute force. Canada saw the Soviet players and their style of play only in the Olympics, Soviet "pros" against Canadian junior hockey and college players. The Soviets were fast, to be sure, but slight of build, they all wore helmets. Sissies. The '72 Summit Series was the first time Canada's best, its NHL players, went toe-to-toe against the Soviet best.
Canada never experienced a greater shock.
This is not hyperbole, it is truth: Every hockey expert predicted a Team Canada series win and all but one or two were confident it would be a perfect eight games to none sweep.
The shock filtered into the States after the Game One evisceration of Team Canada 7-3 in Montreal, including to a woebegone outpost in Western Pennsylvania. I was listening to the radio in my car one night and heard Canadian legend Phil Esposito plead with Canada's hockey fans to get behind their team. That was after Team Canada lost Game 4 in Vancouver, a game in which Canadian Bill Goldsworthy committed two thuggish penalties in the first period that led to two Soviet goals; a game in which Frank Mahovlich mugged Soviet goaltender Vladimir Tretiak;
...a game in which as a consequence of all the above the Vancouver crowd turned on Team Canada and began cheering the beautiful and sportsmanlike play of the Soviets!
Team Canada would go on to win the Summit Series five games to three with that one tie, in Moscow on a goal by Paul Henderson with under three minutes left to play. Team Canada won in part by dumping the troglodyte dump and chase:
According to commentator Brian Conacher, Team Canada had adjusted its game to not play "dump and chase" but instead retain possession in the offensive zone.
Canadian violence had a hand in Team Canada's win, too. In Game 6 Soviet ace,
...Valeri Kharlamov was targeted by Team Canada for attention. According to Conacher, "every time they get a chance, they're taking him for a rough ride along the boards."
[Team Canada] assistant coach John Ferguson: "I remember that Kharlamov's ankle was hurting pretty bad. I called Clarke over to the bench, looked over at Kharlamov and said, 'I think he needs a tap on the ankle.' I didn't think twice about it. It was Us versus Them. And Kharlamov was killing us. I mean, somebody had to do it."
...Clarke raced down the ice to catch a streaking Kharlamov and deliberately slashed Kharlamov's already sore ankle, injuring it and according to reports, fracturing it.
Kharlamov missed Game 7, in which the Soviets could have clinched the series, and although he played in Game 8,
...he was not at 100% and did not score.
1972 was also the year the rebel World Hockey Association began play in North America. It was difficult and expensive to pry players away from the established NHL so WHA teams turned to Canadian teenagers (Paul Holmgren, Wayne Gretzky), and to Europeans. The original Winnipeg "Jets" were bestowed a second nickname, the "Yets", for Swedish stars Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, who teamed with Bobby Hull to form the greatest line in WHA history. Finns, Swedes, and other Scandinavians proliferated in the WHA.
But that was later. The revolution in North American hockey began in the middle of that 1972 Summit Series with the fleet, wispy, Soviet skaters, and their possession-hogging, sniper-accurate passing in an organized formation of overlapping triangles. It began with tiki-taka.
