We Really Needed That Rain

Three points in godawful conditions

Before I get started: The USWNT play Brazil this Saturday April 5. Because USSF wants to hype up the May 31 match at Allianz, they sent me a huge box of giveaways (like US Soccer puffer coats). We usually don’t get many folks out for a friendly, but we want to get a good crowd. It’s an Aurora+Black Hart+US Soccer collab and we have a ton of giveaways. Let’s get amped for the Aurora season, USWNT, and women’s soccer. See you April 5 4PM!

Ok, that was miserable

I’ve watched soccer in ten degrees at Allianz Field, but I think Saturday night’s 35 degrees in an unending downpour was the worse. My son wore sneakers, not rain boots and they were so soaked through thirty minutes in that it was the first time he’s made me leave the game early that I didn’t complain. But you know who didn’t seem to notice? The Loons.

Up against the MLS Ultimate xDawgs in Pablo Mastroeni’s Real Salt Lake, Minnesota out xDawged them. It wasn’t necessarily scrappy, but the Loons were the first to every second ball. They were hungrier.

What’s striking is that the defensive solidity came with a defensive trio that had just over a dozen MLS starts between them. Duggan marshalled the three with surprising ease, Diaz had a very secure day, and there were only a couple of times I even noticed Romero on the pitch, which isn’t a bad thing.

And if you look at the defensive action map, it looks remarkably less busy than the last few games where you could see World War I era trenches dug in front of the goal. It looks pretty mundaine and tidy. There’s a good number of Xs marking interceptions from the midfielders that are encouraging.

That Midfield

Which brings me to the midfield. Heartbreaking news this week as we heard Hassani Dotson will be out for 3-6 months. He’s out of contract at the end of the season, so hopefully we can see him back in the mix in September.

The midfield trio is now going to be Trapp, Pereyra, and Lod and I want to spend some time talking about Pereyra. I have already been keying in on him this season with the question of “is he going to step up to that DP moniker?” Yes, folks, he is. Not in a Reynoso way, but he looks to be a Robin Lod style midfielder: tenacious in the press, simple and clean with his passing, great with a final ball, maybe not quite as good at goalscoring as the Finn.

Here are two early looks for Pereyra. A big part of these is the return of Rosales, who is just so skilful on the ball and sucks up so much opposition attention that it lets Pereyra move into the space right at the edge of the 18 yard box. I think this is going to continue to be where the Loons attack gets built.

That said, just to contradict my own Pereyra is Lod part deux, let’s look at the differences in their passing maps. Lod is a glue guy. You hardly notice how much the little work he does holds up the team.

Pereyra, on the other hand takes a few more chances and that comes with less success. But with those chances come balls like this one that creates the second goal. It’s just so damned pretty the way it doesn’t just sit in front of Tani, but it leads him with its spin toward goal. Hats off to the finish too, but man, Pereyra keeps racking up these assists.

A quick word about Trapp is that I think he’s been really quite good this season because his role is limited. He doesn’t have the passing range that Ozzie Alonso once had, but he can look forward and connect with his partners and if he’s working with Rosales, Lod, and Pereyra, then he can really thrive.

The Strikers

The first goal was the best summation of the night. It comes from doggedly pursuing the opposition, turning it over, and then quickly carving them up. But credit to Tani for his part in this goal. Much like the second goal, he receives the ball back to goal, lays it off and then runs toward goal. It’s quite simple stuff, but goals don’t have to be complex!

A lot of players do good work here. Trapp, with the fun back heel, Bongi makes a really dangerous and distracting run through the opposition (a lot of Bongi’s work like this goes unnoticed), and it’s Diaz who makes that superb run outside and sends in this cross.

I’ve pointed it out with Harvey before, but this is one of the hallmarks of Ramsay’s tactics: the right CB will make a marauding run and either allow Bongi to overload the center with a run or they’ll be the late run into the box themselves. It’s really worth watching the game and training your eye on that Diaz/Harvey role for a little while to see what and how they’re doing.

I need to interject here because my friend Tom reminded me about this brilliant Lod pass. He threads that needle from distance.

Ok, but this section is about the strikers. There are times I’m a little skeptical about Tani and his ability to play an important role as a starter week in week out, but he’s had two braces this season and he really can show up. He should have had a couple more on the night.

I think it’s interesting that the Loons are playing with two strikers, but rarely do the strikers interact. Rarely, for example, do you see a ball put forward to Tani and then he releases Yeboah (and vice versa). Instead, each tends to operate in his own vertical silo. It happens so much that we have to assume it’s intentional. That each striker has their own set of geometrical partners: Yeboah with Rosales/Pereyra and Tani with Bongi/Lod.

I still don’t have real insight on this. It’s just something I’m watching and trying to think about what Ramsay seems to be doing. Happy to hear what people think is happening. Or maybe I’m overthinking and it’s that the two just don’t have good chemistry!

Let’s close out on this one though. Bongi just out here showboating and driving the RSL players insane!

I hope you’ve all dried off. Next week it’s away to NYCFC, so hopefully I’ll see you at Black Hart.