MLS Matchweek 3 Recap

It’s Monday night as I write this. We just wrapped up recording on the Designated Pundits recap episode for the week. I’m already late.

Truth be told, I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about this week. It’s not that there weren’t interesting things. Cincy rolled out a back 4 and won. Chicago waltzed out of Dallas with a Brimstone Cup win thanks to a flurry of late goals. Portland…well we talked about Portland on the podcast, so let’s be kind to the Timbers fans and gloss past that.

You know why I can’t write about any of these? They violate the first and only rule of this article. I didn’t watch them. You see, I went to watch RSL play San Diego. I’m sure you can probably identify with this, but when you’re a match going fan, you miss a lot of what else goes on in the league. 

Let’s put a pin in that. I’ll come back to that topic on another day. 

Today, I will resist talking about the LA teams losing. It could be good fun, but it’s not really that interesting yet. It’s only matchday 3.

So, indulge me. I’m going full homer.

RSL has an issue with their press this year. They’re dragging one of their defensive midfielders forward to press, but not compensating for it in the back. The end result is that they’re leaving a big hole in front of the defense. 

6 minutes into the game, look at this press shape. Notice how narrow Dominik Marczuk has gotten and how Braian Ojeda is sprinting forward to contest the ball, leaving a player unmarked in the space behind him.

I’ve highlighted unmarked players here. 9 of the 10 San Diego field players are visible. The only player not visible is a CB just beyond Ari Piol. San Diego has been clever here because they’ve created an overload. RSL can’t go man to man without sacrificing their overall shape.

San Diego breaks this press because RSL can’t get pressure on Anibal Godoy who moves into the open space. He plays a 1-touch pass to Franco Negri at the bottom of the image and RSL go from press into transition defense.

Immediately, you can see there’s a problem. On one side of the field, Negri receives the ball in space. On the other side of the field, there’s now an extra man since Anders Dreyer and Jasper Loffelsend are occupying the left back, Alex Katranis.

Let’s take this a little further. Negri carries the ball a few yards before connecting with Luca de la Torre. RSL don’t seem to be in a bad position here, after all, they’ve managed to prevent the direct counter. However, this opens up a new issue.

You can see here, Emeka Eneli and Marczuk are stepping to confront the ball. Marczuk is doing a decent job cutting out the pass wide towards Negri, who has continued his run forward. However, Tomas Angel has taken up a position in something I have quite optimistically called a “gap.” It’s more than a gap. It’s probably more than 20 yards of open space between the defense and midfield. 

De la Torre sees this movement and makes the pass. It’s actually not that good of a pass, if I’m honest. Angel misses it and has to chase it down. Fortunately for him, Justen Glad is running towards his own goal and is unable to capitalize on the loose pass.

Meanwhile, Dreyer and Marcus Ingvartsen have congregated at Philip Quinton causing an overload. RSL is unprepared for this moment because of the aggressiveness of their press. Remember, Ojeda stepped forward leaving Dreyer unaccounted for behind him. Diogo Goncalves has stayed forward, leaving the left side defense a man light. Between them, they’re not available to help pick up either Angel between the lines or the extra men of Dreyer and Loffelsend. Quinton and Katranis have 3 men to mark between them. If Katranis comes inside too far too soon, he risks being unable to react to a play out towards Loffelsend.

What happens next? Well Angel gets on the ball, spots his pass, and puts it into an excellent area.

Glad tries to face up the ball, but he can’t get tight enough to affect the pass. Quinton is still marking 2 men, and fortunately for him the pass is just behind Ingvartsen so he’s able to clear it away before it gets to Dreyer.

One more play. Here are 2 images showing this issue again. These are from a broken press in the 8th minute.

Notice that Angel is receiving the ball between the lines and Quinton isn’t tight enough to contest the ball. Ingvartsen and Dreyer are completely unmarked. 

Quinton shouldn’t even be the one to contest that ball. What are Glad and Javain Brown doing here? They’re certainly not marking anyone. Glad should’ve been the one to contest this ball while Quinton took up position on Dreyer and Brown took up a position on Ingvartsen.

Surprise, surprise. Angel plays a first touch pass to Ingvartsen who plays a lovely ball into space for Dreyer, who was completely unaccounted for.

That play ended in a shot for Dreyer. Quinton and Glad chased down 60 yards and managed to get goalside before Dreyer could shoot. Glad got the block and they gave up a corner.

I could go on, but I’ve hit my word limit. This was a consistent issue all game long. At one point, Quinton was marking 2 players and was desperately trying to get help that never came. RSL needs to address their press and transition shape. When players go forward and trigger the press, everyone else needs to snap to their mark and stay with them. The defense especially has got to be more proactive. They have to step up and really contest the entry pass.

Until Pablo Mastroeni and his coaching staff make an adjustment, I think RSL are going to struggle against teams who are willing to gamble numbers forward. There’s a lot of space to exploit in front of the defense and simple overloads to the left side will continue to cause problems for the defensive unit.

The good news though, I think this is a fixable problem.