MLS Matchweek 4 Recap Article - What We Watched

Each week when I watch MLS matches, I am impressed by a wide variety of traits and attributes. I see players demonstrating their strength, pace, vision, and outrageous technical abilities and I love it. This week, I watched Hassani Dotson hit one of the best volleys you will ever see. I just about jumped out of my seat when I saw it. 

And yet, this week, I’m not here to talk about silky smooth technicals, blistering pace, or even Dotson’s picture perfect volley. I want to make the case for my favorite player skills of the moment; quickness.

I understand the temptation to think about quickness the way you think about pace, but trust me they’re different. Pace is about top speed. Remember Jayden Nelson running past, well everyone in Portland's squad on matchday 1? That’s fast, but not necessarily quick. Quickness is about the explosion over the first 5 yards, being able to react before someone else, or executing a move before the defender can react. 

Lots of quick players might not be able to run away from the opposition and that's ok. They’re gaining advantages by making decisions and executing those decisions so quickly that the other team can’t get near them.

Here's the proof. 

First, take a look at this Emil Forsberg goal from matchday 2. I admit, this has been living rent free in my head. This is about Forsberg’s decision making and how quickly he can get the shot off. Go ahead and enjoy this beauty, but keep an eye out for a few things. Watch Forsberg from the moment he gets on the ball. Watch him process the pressure of Andy Najar and once Najar closes him down, look for how much space Forsberg needs, or doesn’t need, to get the shot off.

I love this goal. I love it because Najar is a good veteran defender. I love it because you can see Forsberg recognize the pressure and make a decision. Then, notice the simplicity of the movement. Forsberg doesn’t need any fancy moves. He uses a little body feint to get Najar to slow his momentum, then Forsberg pushes the ball into space and unloads his shot before Najar can react. Forsberg barely has the ball for 2 seconds.

Let’s look at another example. And forgive me, I’m going to use a clip of Lionel Messi scoring a goal, but this isn’t about him. This is about Bartosz Slisz who made one quick decision and one slow decision.

Thinking about quickness, what did you notice here? Did you see that Atlanta had established comfortable possession of the ball? They completed 3 relatively uncontested passes, starting with Slisz who recovered the ball and one touch passed it wide to Lennon. Lennon completed a one touch pass to Aleksey Miranchuk, who took two quick touches to recycle the ball back to Slisz. All of that was great. The quickness of the ball movement meant that Miami struggled to apply immediate pressure on the ball. Atlanta should have been able to establish control and advance the ball, but Slisz made a mistake. The mistake isn’t a loose second touch once the ball comes back to him. It’s seeing the pass and not making the pass with his second touch.

Watch the play again. Even if Slisz had been cleaner with his touch, the counterpress was going to reach him before he could play the pass so long as he tried to take three touches. That ball has to be played more quickly. And the pass to the left wing is on. 

In this sequence, quickness looks like decisiveness. Slisz gets caught not making a decision and he was punished for it. It was a shame, for Atlanta fans. That’s a cheap goal to concede.

Same game, same team. I really want to emphasize that quickness is not just a physical trait. Watch Saba Lobjanidze in this clip.

Saba can see the field here. Latte Lath has a lot going on behind him that he doesn’t know about. There’s no reason for Saba to come into Latte Lath’s space in the first place and no reason to physically run into him while he’s trying to take a shot. 

Saba is a really talented player and I’m not here to tell you he isn’t. However, this is a moment when being mentally quicker probably results in a goal for Atlanta. If Saba recognizes the occupied space and alters his run, Latte Lath has a much better opportunity. If the communication from Saba to Latte Lath is better they might be able to adjust and the chance falls to Saba instead. Both are better outcomes that probably end up in a second Atlanta goal, but both require mental quickness that wasn’t there in the moment.

Last example here. Watch this counter attack opportunity that falls to Diego Rossi. Look for mental quickness, technical quickness, and physical quickness.

Rossi picks this ball up a good 10 yards inside his half and runs it all the way down to about 10 yards from goal. He does have a bit of a head start, but that’s still a lot of straight line speed to not get caught by Jeppe Tverskov. But speed is not necessarily quickness. A lot of players could run the ball down that far and then fail to get the shot off or fail to turn it into a meaningful chance. 

Rossi is better than a lot of players though. He’s clearly getting tired, but he has the mental quickness to figure out how to turn his position into a real chance. Look at Tverskov overrunning the play when Rossi makes his cutback. At that point Rossi is going away from goal. Tverskov isn’t processing information as quickly as Rossi. That leaves him vulnerable to the cutback. Rossi then has the technical quickness to execute the quick cutback and push the ball for his shot. It’s two perfect touches. Notice how quickly he is able to change direction, adjust his body, and explode into the shot. Tverskov gets caught out by Rossi’s trickery, but he recovers pretty well. When Rossi takes the shot, Tverskov’s foot is just behind the ball. He misses blocking the shot by maybe 6 inches? That’s the advantage Rossi gained by being quicker.

If Rossi doesn’t shoot over, it’s a goal. The goalie and defenders can’t stop it. Rossi had to be fast enough to get down there, but it’s his mental, technical, and physical quickness that turns a good position into a real goalscoring opportunity.

Quickness for me is the ultimate measure of a combination of traits. To be truly quick, a player needs to be mentally, physically, and technically quick. They need to decide and execute faster than the players around them. This is a game of fine margins and quickness is the difference between getting the shot off or getting the shot blocked.

And that’s why it’s my favorite player trait right now.