TORONTO - Just a couple of weeks after Toronto FC forward Sebastian Giovinco marched into RFK stadium and single-handedly dissected D.C. United’s backline, the Black-and-Red strolled into a rainy, windswept BMO Field on Saturday afternoon looking for a bit of payback.
While D.C. may not have emerged victorious in the rematch — the two sides played to an entertaining 0-0 draw — United certainly succeeded in limiting the Atomic Ant's impact on the game.
Fully aware that they’d given the Italian forward far too much time and space in their first encounter, D.C. used a blend of solid positioning and no-nonsense, old-school physicality to neutralize him, really only allowing him one clean look at goal, early on in the first half.
It’s a similar recipe to the one employed by NYCFC last weekend during their 2-0 victory over TFC: defend Giovinco tighter, maybe even a bit nastier. It worked then, and it seemed to work on Saturday as well.
"You have to frustrate him, you have to try and deny him the ball,” United midfielder Davy Arnaud told MLSsoccer.com after the match. “You’re not going to take him out of the game completely, but I think we did a good job for the most part of being physical with him when we needed to, cutting out the lanes to him. When he was on the ball, I thought we defended him pretty well one-on-one, and got numbers [when we needed to.]"
"He kind of had free reign last time [we played TFC],” added defender Steve Birnbaum. "We wanted to [use our physicality] at the beginning of the game to let him know that we were there. He kind of shies away from being touched--you could see, a couple of times we went in on him, and he kind of fades in and out from there. We kept track of him the entire game. He’s an amazing player, but we took care of it."
United head coach Ben Olsen, however, wasn’t making too much of the suggestion that his side had used any particularly physical template to shut the forward down, suggesting instead that the Italian national teamer’s style of play lends itself to those types of situations.
"I think there’s a bit of hoopla right now, that because [NYCFC] fouled him a few times, everybody is going to play physical against him," Olsen said. "He’s a good player. He’s buzzing around. He’s going to get fouled. It comes with the territory of having that type of influence on the game."
Giovinco’s frustration certainly showd during the match against United. At multiple points in the first half, the diminutive forward motioned towards the referee, perhaps feeling that D.C. went in a bit hard or missed the mark on several challenges. In some cases, he may have had a point; in most, it seemed like his emotions were getting the better of him.
Birnbaum proved to be perhaps United’s most important defensive piece. While D.C. seemed to struggle to string together passes and establish any extended run of meaningful possession, their backline excelled, only allowing a trio of shots on goal and battening down the hatches solidly during a nerve-wracking final 10 minutes. Birnbaum commanded in the air and excelled on multiple occasions, tracking back quickly in emergency situations and closing Giovinco down quickly midway through the second half.
In fact Birnbaum looked a bit more like the defender who last year thrust himself into the U.S. national team picture, pairing so effectively with center back partner Bobby Boswell. Prior to Saturday, the Cal grad had strung together a few shaky outings, perhaps still shedding some rust from an early-season knee injury that sidelined him for several weeks.
"It's been tough for me. I’ve played every position in the back four recently so I haven’t really been able to get my groove back ever since I’ve been injured. So, I really did feel like myself again," Birnbaum said, reflecting. "Hopefully I can just carry that on to future games--today was probably the first game that I really felt like I was back to normal. It’s nice to have Bobby [Boswell] back there because he’s such a good communicator. It felt like it did last year, today."
