Week 3 is in the books, and it was defined by a lack of goals. For some teams – New England and Sporting KC, to name two – that comes down to lack of sharpness.
For others, it's by design thanks to a lack of offensive initiative. It seems that there are more clubs out there overtly playing for a point than at any time since 2010, and when you combine that with the early-season finishing yips, you get some ugly, uninspiring soccer.
Here's Saturday summed up in one GIF:
Sunday got better. Let's start there:
1. BWP, MVP
Bradley Wright-Phillips, who had something like a million hat tricks last year, played his best game in Major League Soccer in RBNY's 2-0 win over D.C. United.
It's not just because of the counting stats, though with a goal and an assist, those were pretty good. It's because he was the tip of the spear in New York's 4-2-3-1, pushing the United defense back with his indefatigable and unselfish running. It's also because he was the release valve for a team determined to play their Atlantic Cup rivals off the pitch. And it's because he came back into the midfield to apply pressure to Perry Kitchen, never giving the United d-mid time on the ball. And because when he wasn't doing that, he closed down Steve Birnbaum and Bobby Boswell to force iffy, direct passes to nobody in particular.
There was justifiable concern among some in the RBNY fan ranks that BWP would struggle to live up to his DP status, given all the changes in team and scheme. Week 1, when he was largely MIA at Sporting, seemed to confirm those fears just a bit.
This week should have gone a long way toward putting them to rest. Wright-Phillips is still primarily a poacher, and yes, Thierry Henry was the more important player in Harrison last season – he did the hold-up and creative work that allowed BWP to be a creature of the 18 and pretty much nowhere else.
"Primarily" a poacher isn't the same as "only" a poacher, though, and Jesse Marsch has wisely decided to give his star goalscorer a larger role in the build, all part of the plan to replace Henry's production via committee. Marsch has Lloyd Sam cutting inside; he has Sacha Kljestan untethered, running all over the attacking half; he has BWP doing this kind of hold-up work:
What you see there are only two misplayed passes, four midfield recoveries and – this is the big one – four chances created, including an assist to Sam. In all of 2014, BWP created just 20 chances, never more than two in a single game.
There were other things about the Red Bulls to talk about on the day, including and especially the dominant play of Dax McCarty at d-mid; Kljestan's greater positional discipline (and subsequent drop in usage rate – a good thing for the nominal No. 10) compared to Week 1; and a positive debut by left back Kemar Lawrence. Matt Miazga put in a solid enough shift, and Sal Zizzo was busy and more dangerous at left midfield than Mike Grella had been in Week 1.
It must be said that A) United was awful, and B) this was a favorable tactical match-up for New York:
But the big story is that of BWP. He's not going to be what he was last year, nor is he going to be what Henry was.
The good news for RBNY fans is that, for one game anyway, it's clear that he doesn't have to be either of those things. The Red Bulls are finding a different way.
2. Interpreting the emptiness
Our game is about time and space. How do you create it, how do you use it, how do you do work for your teammates and let your teammates do work for you?
Some guys create it with remarkable 1-v-1 skills; other guys exploit it with remarkable speed. Others have neither of those things, but still manage a way to crack you open and be the best player on the field.
Dillon Powers gets it:
The Rapids played to their second scoreless draw in a row, generating a ton of chances that were only OK and in the process extending their winless streak to 16. Their goalless streak is now 420 minutes. This was all at home, up a man late, against an expansion team (NYCFC).
Powers was good in that Muller role, floating underneath a lone striker, but the simple fact is that there's just not a ton of space for him to interpret. The ball moves slowly and predictably, and that's how you get a team that hasn't scored in seven hours.
By my reckoning, Powers is more dangerous as an individual and more useful in any blueprint as a creator of space rather than an interpreter of it. Muller, who is just 25, has already scored more than 100 goals for Bayern Munich and another two dozen with Germany. He can float and find the spots where he's uniquely suited to do damage because 1) he's so reliable at finishing those plays off, and 2) the guys behind him for club and country are the High Lords of Space Creation (feel free to use that as your band name).
The best teams work together in concert, using the ball and their own movement – or sometimes just the threat of their own movement – to draw the opposing defense one or two steps out of position, then ruthlessly exploiting any over-commitment.
Colorado are, um, not doing that. Dropping Powers deeper into midfield would help, as it would forefront his biggest strength (vision and the ability to switch the field of play) and minimize his one of his clear weaknesses (he's not a finisher).
The Rapids have a new DP, a million wingers and a couple of fullbacks who badly want to get forward on the overlap. Let one of them interpret the space Powers creates.
3. Another death March in Chester
Lots of people are torn on the first goal in Philadelphia's 2-0 home loss to FC Dallas on Saturday. I think Rais Mbolhi has to get off his line at a sprint and sweep that thing away. Others say that it's too big a risk – it's not a sure enough thing that he beats Tesho Akindele to the ball. You can watch it HERE and form your own opinion, then argue about it
The indignity of Philly having continued questions (if not outright issues) at 'keeper, along with the insanity of the elbow Zach Pfeffer swears he didn'tmeanto throw, dominated the postgame in this one.
My focus is the fact that this team, which is born to run, has not been able to. Neither Andrew Wenger nor Sebastien Le Toux have been consistently dangerous, and that's an issue that begins in central midfield.
I had the Union pegged as a playoff team this season precisely because of that spot on the pitch. Both Vincent Nogueira and Maurice Edu are smart, experienced box-to-box midfielders who can pass the hell out of the ball with either foot, and that would lead to transition chance after chance (or so I thought).
So far, it hasn't happened. Transition opportunities are withering on the vine:
Both Nogueira and Edu had a chance to play the ball between FCD's lines there, but instead they shuffled the ball laterally and gave Dallas time to get back. Yes, Raymon Gaddis had an acre of space in front of him, but so did Pfeffer – the middle was open, and when you're willing to play that pass you make the defense collapse, subsequently opening up space for the rest of the attack.
This is all kind of a counterfactual since 1) we don't know that any pass to Pfeffer would have been completed, and 2) we don't know if Pfeffer would have done something useful with it rather than dropping the People's Elbow on the Victor Ulloa or something. Proving what could have gone right is always a lot harder than showing what went wrong.
But complaining about the lack of production from talented attackers is a lot easier than figuring out what's causing said lack of production. Right now it's this: The balance is off in Philly's midfield.
I still think they're a playoff team, by the way. But I thought that last year, too.
A few more things to ponder...
5. Game states painted the picture at the Avaya Stadium opener on Sunday night, as San Jose jumped out to a two-goal lead and held on for the 2-1 win over the Chicago Fire (watch Harry Shipp interpret some space HERE, in one of my favorite goals of the year so far).
If you just looked at the stats, you'd think Chicago were miles better. They attempted 50 more passes in the final third than San Jose, completed them at a higher clip and even managed to be dangerous from out wide, especially on the overlap.
For Frank Yallop, it's a little something to build off of. For Dom Kinnear, it's three points and a little something extra to work on, starting with Fatai Alashe and JJ Koval's inability to control the game – or even really connect with each other – in central midfield.
"[Chicago] had some good movement in there: Shipp and Maloney were kind of finding some gaps. On that first goal, we got kind of pulled around," Kinnear said after the game. "I thought we were a little bit slow in trying to get them to play wide, and I thought we were a little bit disjointed at times, and I thought that was the reason they were kind of playing through the middle. The message was always trying to get these guys to play wide, try to set up matchups out there."
4. That Philly-Dallas game was only the second-most vicious of the weekend, behind Saturday's 1-0 Vancouver win at Orlando City. I wrote a bit about it HERE.
The best moment from that one was Pedro Morales' lone run-of-play moment of brilliance, our Pass of the Week:
It drew an equally spectacular save out of Orlando 'keeper Donovan Ricketts.
3. New England are terrible in March once again. Their scoreless home draw against Montreal leaves them with one point and no goals through three games, which is just about in line with what they've done over the past couple of years. This game was marred by a gruesome injury to impact Impact rookie Cameron Porter. Get well soon.
2. The Timbers are also slow starters every year. The good news in Rose City is they got a road point thanks to Saturday's scoreless draw at Sporting. The bad news is they are now 0-3-8 in March over the last three seasons, and last year's stumble out of the gates eventually cost them a playoff spot.
1. And finally our Face of the Week goes to... Steven Gerrard!
March 22, 2015
He made that face after getting red in Liverpool's 2-1 loss to Manchester United, but it could easily have been for the Galaxy's 1-1 home draw vs. Houston on Saturday night. The Dynamo's 4-6-0 ended up pulling Robbie Keane deeper than he wanted to go, killing the flow and denying any chance at tiki-taco.
I don't blame Owen Coyle for going defensive on the road since he's trying to win points, not rewards for artistic merit. But it doesn't mean I have to enjoy watching it.
