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| Yep. Scary. |
So, you’ve got the current Supporters’ Shield leaders coming to your place for a visit. How do you prepare? What steps can your team take to make this visit as frustrating and generally unpleasant as possible?
The work of preparing an answer to those questions falls on FC Cincinnati. For what it’s worth, I’d call getting past the idea of Los Angeles FC as somehow invincible a first necessary step. It gets harder from there, unfortunately…
When LAFC beat Sporting Kansas City 3-1 last weekend, they played a certain way, one that looked familiar, but still different in their win over Sporting Kansas City in Week 7, something familiar, but still different, from what they played like when they first joined MLS (think of a man you've known for a long time showing up with (or without) a beard the next time you see him; just work with me). Back then, LAFC deployed what I recall as a “second-wave press” - i.e., they’d keep the forward players high-ish, but without chasing much, but would go after the first ball into midfield like fucking piranhas and then “Red Bull” teams to death - i.e., the two-to-four-pass-then-goal/miss/corner attack - after the turnover. It was a spin on Red Bull New York’s gegen-press and relentless described it well.
The “relentless” essence hasn’t changed, but where and how it happens has. For one, new coach Steve Cherundolo has dialed back the defensive posture from “hunt” to “step” - i.e., they pressure the ball, only more with emphasis on creating conditions for turnovers than actively forcing them (for what it’s worth, I’d argue this shift started under Bob Bradley). While this has changed where the attack starts (e.g., deeper), it hasn’t rewired its fundamental impulses. LAFC under Cherundolo still gets the ball forward quickly and keep pushing forward once they get it up there; these forays either succeed or fail in short order, but they also have the cumulative effect of steady, targeted probing. I even saw this in their loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy. To lift a phrase out of the MLS Weakly for Week 7:
“[LAFC] hardly played SKC off the pitch - and the numbers back that up - but they played with…I guess I’d call it persistence. LAFC gets hold of the ball and just keeps probing, Kwadwo Opoku from one side, Latif Blessing from another, like a series of small fires. Ismael Tajouri-Shradi’s wunder-goal drew most of the attention, but I see Jose Cifuentes’ insurance goal as the real payoff for all that work.”
The work of preparing an answer to those questions falls on FC Cincinnati. For what it’s worth, I’d call getting past the idea of Los Angeles FC as somehow invincible a first necessary step. It gets harder from there, unfortunately…
When LAFC beat Sporting Kansas City 3-1 last weekend, they played a certain way, one that looked familiar, but still different in their win over Sporting Kansas City in Week 7, something familiar, but still different, from what they played like when they first joined MLS (think of a man you've known for a long time showing up with (or without) a beard the next time you see him; just work with me). Back then, LAFC deployed what I recall as a “second-wave press” - i.e., they’d keep the forward players high-ish, but without chasing much, but would go after the first ball into midfield like fucking piranhas and then “Red Bull” teams to death - i.e., the two-to-four-pass-then-goal/miss/corner attack - after the turnover. It was a spin on Red Bull New York’s gegen-press and relentless described it well.
The “relentless” essence hasn’t changed, but where and how it happens has. For one, new coach Steve Cherundolo has dialed back the defensive posture from “hunt” to “step” - i.e., they pressure the ball, only more with emphasis on creating conditions for turnovers than actively forcing them (for what it’s worth, I’d argue this shift started under Bob Bradley). While this has changed where the attack starts (e.g., deeper), it hasn’t rewired its fundamental impulses. LAFC under Cherundolo still gets the ball forward quickly and keep pushing forward once they get it up there; these forays either succeed or fail in short order, but they also have the cumulative effect of steady, targeted probing. I even saw this in their loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy. To lift a phrase out of the MLS Weakly for Week 7:
“[LAFC] hardly played SKC off the pitch - and the numbers back that up - but they played with…I guess I’d call it persistence. LAFC gets hold of the ball and just keeps probing, Kwadwo Opoku from one side, Latif Blessing from another, like a series of small fires. Ismael Tajouri-Shradi’s wunder-goal drew most of the attention, but I see Jose Cifuentes’ insurance goal as the real payoff for all that work.”
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| I call it, "They Can Be Beat." |
Anyone familiar with LAFC will note that the tip of the probe, aka, Carlos Vela and Cristian Arango, hasn't even come up yet. All that’s very scary on paper, obviously, and Cincy fans will very likely spend a long, anxious afternoon watching the defense scramble to get in front of all the moving parts…but, the entire set up works the same way as the big, tunnel-filling drill in the movie, Labyrinth. If your team can figure out a way to get around by big, scary part, they’ll find a fairly regular team in the space behind it. Now, I don’t want to over-state that idea - the field won’t suddenly tilt and funnel toward LAFC’s goal if Cincy pushes past, say, Keylln Acosta - but I see LAFC as a top-heavy team both in terms of personnel and tactics. The question of how much pressure Cincy can send the other way remains open (the calibration continues), but I wanted to center the argument that they’ll find mortals back there should they arrive. If anyone asked my advice (never happened, factually; not once), I'd stick with Plan A on the attacking side - e.g., some version of get everything you can out of Brandon Vazquez, Luciano Acosta and as much “other” as can step high enough, but, as with that big, half-metaphorical Jim Henson drill, wisdom argues for paying the most attention to the bit with the spinning blades.
At a brute, broad level, I suspect Cincinnati will succeed or fail this Sunday to the extent they can keep LAFC one step removed its last line of defense - something that’ll take a good day/alignment from the Orange & Blue’s historic weak spot, i.e., the midfield. I have no real idea how tall Cincinnati’s new-ish midfield can stand against LAFC’s, and I feel the tickle of a kaleidoscope of butterflies taking wing in my belly when I try to imagine it, but the conversation doesn’t need to end there. I think Cincy has…let’s call it a respectable shot at surviving all that so long as they stay connected, focused, organized, and, for the love of the gods, mind the movement off the ball. And all that twice-over any time an LAFC attacker gets past a Cincinnati defender. To switch the phrasing to the personal: don’t let LAFC beat you, make them do it.
To float a thought to damn it, I hope FC Cincinnati doesn’t resort to a bunker/counter to make that happen. Going the other way, a press strikes me as suicidal - and I’d try to talk down anyone who suggests it - and maybe that counts as an adjustment to Cincy’s preferred approach (also, has Pat Noonan actually arrived at a preferred, settled system and combination of players to make it work? I don't think he's miles off; see below). If I had to articulate a game-plan, it’d go something like this: match LAFC’s energy in midfield, but without running around like idiot puppies; take a long view of the game in the hope that their Wednesday U.S. Open Cup game plus travel takes more out of their legs than your 120-minute game in the same tournament on Tuesday - i.e., play like this is a 90-minute game, look for your chances, but don't force them, and whatever other spins on long-form cliches you can come up with. Look, Noonan gets paid for this shit, I don't.
That note on the midfield segues to the question of how Cincinnati should line up. Sticking with a 3-4-1-2 (or a 3-5-2) isn’t the worst idea in that stuffing a crowd in the midfield shortens the distance between defensive players and generally clutters up a good area in which to take the fight to LAFC. Sadly, wingbacks account for two of the four (or five) in that set up and going toe-to-toe with LAFC could lead to space opening behind and, golly, do they have the personnel to cause all kinds of mischief back there. I think I'd go with four at the back - especially with Nick Hagglund suspended (and I type that as someone who sees him in the space between meh and MLS and league-elite in the USL) - though the construction of that four gets tricky, and for a lot of reasons. I'm curious to see what Noonan trots out, honestly, because, 1) I don't think it's crazy to admit there's still work to do back there, and 2) LAFC will almost certainly break through to whatever backline FC Cincy sets up, and I'm having trouble imagining one that manages that without alarm bells clanging all over the city.
To finally acknowledge the elephant in the room, oh yeah, there’s a talent gap - even among the MLS long-timers, e.g., Ryan Hollingshead > Alvas Powell, Ilie Sanchez > Junior Moreno (or, perhaps more accurately, whatever Sanchez gives up to Moreno in energy and bite, he makes up for it in passing range/accuracy). FC Cincinnati’s work is very much cut out for them and the cloth is large. To bright side the challenge, soccer fans across the country just saw a bunch of teams stare down a gap just as wide, perhaps even wider, in nearly 20 U.S. Open Cup games just this past week and enough of them manage. Moreover, these are the games and/or teams FC Cincinnati has to learn how to manage if it wants to go anywhere higher than the top step of MLS's cellar.
At a brute, broad level, I suspect Cincinnati will succeed or fail this Sunday to the extent they can keep LAFC one step removed its last line of defense - something that’ll take a good day/alignment from the Orange & Blue’s historic weak spot, i.e., the midfield. I have no real idea how tall Cincinnati’s new-ish midfield can stand against LAFC’s, and I feel the tickle of a kaleidoscope of butterflies taking wing in my belly when I try to imagine it, but the conversation doesn’t need to end there. I think Cincy has…let’s call it a respectable shot at surviving all that so long as they stay connected, focused, organized, and, for the love of the gods, mind the movement off the ball. And all that twice-over any time an LAFC attacker gets past a Cincinnati defender. To switch the phrasing to the personal: don’t let LAFC beat you, make them do it.
To float a thought to damn it, I hope FC Cincinnati doesn’t resort to a bunker/counter to make that happen. Going the other way, a press strikes me as suicidal - and I’d try to talk down anyone who suggests it - and maybe that counts as an adjustment to Cincy’s preferred approach (also, has Pat Noonan actually arrived at a preferred, settled system and combination of players to make it work? I don't think he's miles off; see below). If I had to articulate a game-plan, it’d go something like this: match LAFC’s energy in midfield, but without running around like idiot puppies; take a long view of the game in the hope that their Wednesday U.S. Open Cup game plus travel takes more out of their legs than your 120-minute game in the same tournament on Tuesday - i.e., play like this is a 90-minute game, look for your chances, but don't force them, and whatever other spins on long-form cliches you can come up with. Look, Noonan gets paid for this shit, I don't.
That note on the midfield segues to the question of how Cincinnati should line up. Sticking with a 3-4-1-2 (or a 3-5-2) isn’t the worst idea in that stuffing a crowd in the midfield shortens the distance between defensive players and generally clutters up a good area in which to take the fight to LAFC. Sadly, wingbacks account for two of the four (or five) in that set up and going toe-to-toe with LAFC could lead to space opening behind and, golly, do they have the personnel to cause all kinds of mischief back there. I think I'd go with four at the back - especially with Nick Hagglund suspended (and I type that as someone who sees him in the space between meh and MLS and league-elite in the USL) - though the construction of that four gets tricky, and for a lot of reasons. I'm curious to see what Noonan trots out, honestly, because, 1) I don't think it's crazy to admit there's still work to do back there, and 2) LAFC will almost certainly break through to whatever backline FC Cincy sets up, and I'm having trouble imagining one that manages that without alarm bells clanging all over the city.
To finally acknowledge the elephant in the room, oh yeah, there’s a talent gap - even among the MLS long-timers, e.g., Ryan Hollingshead > Alvas Powell, Ilie Sanchez > Junior Moreno (or, perhaps more accurately, whatever Sanchez gives up to Moreno in energy and bite, he makes up for it in passing range/accuracy). FC Cincinnati’s work is very much cut out for them and the cloth is large. To bright side the challenge, soccer fans across the country just saw a bunch of teams stare down a gap just as wide, perhaps even wider, in nearly 20 U.S. Open Cup games just this past week and enough of them manage. Moreover, these are the games and/or teams FC Cincinnati has to learn how to manage if it wants to go anywhere higher than the top step of MLS's cellar.
Choosing to be optimistic. Which is not unreasonable. Yet. With fingers crossed, and a wish to be entertained, amen.
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