Each week, Sam Polak breaks down the top coaching moves in MLS from the previous week. Here are his top five from Week 27.
5. Patrick Vieira’s defensive scheme
Midweek against Sporting Kansas City in the Bronx, New York City FC found a way to win 1-0 despite missing a number of key players due to international duty, suspension and injuries. Patrick Vieira had to have his NYCFC side defend well to give them a chance, and they did just that as they got the three points.
Defensively, Vieira had his team first prioritize securing the center of the field. Given the shot chart below, it’s easy to see NYCFC would not allow Sporting KC to generate meaningful offense down the center of field – almost all of SKC’s shots were off goal and from far outside. The two shots surrendered inside the box came off a corner and a rebound, suggesting NYCFC was almost flawless in preventing central attacking sequences in the standard runs.
Further, it was how Vieira had his side compensate as SKC tried to pass the ball out wide once they determined they were not going to get through the center. Any time the visitors played a ball toward the side, New York City players were keen to read the weight of those passes and pick them off whenever they were inadequate as seen in the two situations below.
Keeping the clean sheet thanks to plays like these, NYCFC were finally able to pull ahead in this match in the 84th minute.
4. Jay Heaps controlling the tempo
The New England Revolution looked to be the better team in their weekend matchup against the Montreal Impact through the first 45 minutes, but had nothing to show for it going into halftime tied 0-0. Discussing his team’s performance during the intermission, Revs head coach Jay Heaps spoke about the opportunity his team would have if they were to play “a little bit... faster in the middle to final third [and] faster going forward.”
His team did just this during the second 45 and finished the game 1-0 — and probably could have added another goal or two to that final scoreline during the second half as well. Instigated by their head coach, the uptick in pace from the likes of Lee Nguyen to Gershon Koffie to Kei Kamara to several others Revs as they pushed forward with the ball created the right dynamic for them put their stamp on the second half and to get the three points.
3. Jason Kreis midfield diamond with star forwards
In this just their third time starting together, Cyle Larin and Dom Dwyer teamed up to give Orlando City SC their first win as a starting tandem beatingD.C. United 2-1. In the previous two opportunities, July 29 and August 5, head coach Jason Kreis set up his team in a 4-4-2 with a flat midfield. Opting instead for 4-4-2 with a diamond in the middle this time round, Orlando’s offense clicked in a way that should have Florida soccer fans excited.
This change in tactics did three things. First, it prevented the two star forwards from playing too on top of one another. Putting a player like Giles Barnes at the attacking head of the diamond, Dwyer and Larin were pushed to play wider apart from one another as the center of the pitch was occupied in the attack.
Next, this change allowed for more players to get forward into the box when one of the forwards drifted a little out wide. This was exactly how Orlando scored their first goal. Barnes and Antonio Nocerino had joined Larin in the box for a service from Dwyer – who found himself along the left side of the 18 yard box during an Orlando attack.
And then third, their two forwards and midfield diamond forced D.C. to have to become more compact defensively. This in turn opened up the wings for Orlando City’s outside backs to come forward and apply additional pressure, which is exactly how they scored their second goal. Right back Scott Sutter found space along the right side and with five teammates in the box delivered a ball that Barnes eventually got on the end of.
Though adjusting the shape of the midfield to coincide with stating both Dwyer and Larin was inarguably an effective move from Kreis, it will be a bigger test to see if it will pay dividends against Atlanta in Orlando’s next match (4 pm ET; Univision, Facebook.com in US | MLS LIVE in Canada).
2. Caleb Porter turns up the heat on Pirlo
Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter got the better of Vieira over the weekend when the Timbers came out ahead of NYCFC 1-0. Porter had Portland collectively make it difficult for Andrea Pirlo when NYCFC were trying to build out of their own half.
The Timbers did this in all sorts of ways ranging from blocking off passing angles for Pirlo to potentially receive the ball, to putting pressure on him to have to make a decision faster than he may have liked, to deciding to mark Pirlo in situations where that meant sacrificing the ability to mark another NYCFC player, to marking him out of throw-ins, to keeping his back to goal.
Portland disrupting Pirlo in NYC FC's own half and picking his pocket for the go-ahead goal pic.twitter.com/reoJgbV5jA
— Sam (@11v11Sam) September 11, 2017
This strategy not only forced anyone outside of Pirlo to beat them, but it also produced the bonus consequence of forcing Pirlo into the turnover that created Portland’s game-winning goal.
1. Steve Cooke’s putting the right players in the right place
Steve Cooke made his debut on this week’s countdown with two personnel decisions that gave his Colorado Rapids the edge over the Houston Dynamo as they went on to win their first road game of the season 1-0.
Former Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni played Jared Watts almost exclusively as a center back over the past two seasons after he came into the league as a defensive midfielder. Cooke, after starting Watts there on August 19, made the decision to play the 25-year-old as a central midfielder on Saturday night. With Watts sitting in front of Axel Sjoberg and Kortne Ford, Colorado held their opponent scoreless for just the third time since May 27 and got their first win since July 1.
As seen below, Watts did a lot for the Rapids on both sides of the ball and showed that he could certainly handle the different responsibilities required by a central midfielder.
Rapids Jared Watt's playing as a center midfielder under Rapids interim head coach @stevecookeworldpic.twitter.com/xsZ3A9DZh1
— Sam (@11v11Sam) September 11, 2017
The Rapids interim head coach also made a great substitution bringing on Stefan Aigner in the 66th. Opting for Aigner was a bold play when Cooke also had Shkelzen Gashi on the bench. But Aigner went on to get the game-winning assist and further demonstrated that Cooke may be on to some subtle but impactful decisions that will hopefully lead Colorado back in the right direction.
