The Seattle Sounders match against the New England Revolution was bad. Tactically, the Sounders took a few steps backwards on Sunday. DeAndre Yedlin was sloppy, pushing too high, too often. Lamar Neagle was nonexistent on the defensive side of the ball. New England counter-attacked to perfection, and I’ll give credit where credit is due. They put in place a plan that would target Seattle’s weaknesses, and it worked masterfully.
But it couldn’t have come at the better time. Exposing these weaknesses this early on in the season gives the Sounders manager Sigi Schmid plenty of time to address them.
Let’s start with defending the counter attack. Seattle was ripped apart on the counter attack on the 4th goal after Lamar Neagle decided to drive all the way from the right wing to the left corner of the penalty box, and after slipping and getting tangled at Clint Dempsey’s feet, the ball is easily snatched up by New England. The Revs passed down their right side of the field, crossed to a wide open Diego Fagundez on the left because of Yedlin’s poor positioning, and he easily scores against little pressure. I understand that when your’e down 3-0 you want to get forward on the attack, but if Neagle is driving all the way across the field, there is no reason for Yedlin to push that far up the field.
Sigi Schmid would be wise to correct this by reinforcing field positioning with Neagle, encouraging him to use his teammates to pass out of trouble. In the replay, it looks like he wants to take the entire backline on alone, and ends up running right into Dempsey. Also, the right back should be aware that if the guy in front of him is going to go on a little run, maybe he should shift left a little to cut off the angles on the field in case it’s turned over, which is very likely in a 1 v. 4 situation. You’re going to turn the ball over; it’s just part of the game. But setting yourself up to respond to that situation is key, and there should be no excuse for not being ready for it.
Two of the goals came essentially from not pressuring the ball quick enough in the mid-field. If you look at what New England was doing you see they were using a very high forward who would draw center backs to him and pull them out of position. Patrick Mullins played the perfect hold up forward by gathering the ball up top and distributing it out to the wings. The first goal was a simple 1-2 pass from Chris Tierney into Fagundez and back out, and Neagle is late to get over and cover his player. Once the ball is played wide Tierney is already gone and Neagle doesn’t even make an attempt to chase him down. After that it’s sent in for an easy tap in by Mullins. Step to the ball guys. If you let them sit there all day with the ball at their foot they are going to eventually pick out an easy pass. Take those options away.
The third goal is also one in which the entire right side of the field was wide open because Yedlin had once again pinched in too far, covering a player that could have easily been picked up by a center back. Gonzalo Pineda, even though he signals to his teammates to mark the other guys around him, doesn’t close down quick enough and fails to step quickly to Lee Nguyen. With all that time he easily slots home a very pretty through ball to Teal Bunbury and he slams it home. Mark up and pressure quickly, and that doesn’t happen.
The good thing is these aren’t hard things to correct. A little more effort and you can close down the ball in the mid-field. With a little more focus you can position yourself on the field a little better. Communicate a little more and you can mark more effectively. Clear your lines on a corner and you’ll have time to get back in position. I’m sure Sigi Schmid is harping on these exact things this week, and with Yedlin, Dempsey and Brad Evans all gone to the US camp, he’s got three other players desperate to prove they belong in the starting 11.
Jalil Anibaba went from being a starter for three seasons as right back for Chicago to riding the pine this season, so expect him to slot into Yedlin’s role and play his heart out. Dylan Remick and Leo Gonzalez are healthy, so look for one of them at left back. And don’t be surprised if you see Kenny Cooper or Chad Barrett up top or even a formation change with the abundance of midfielders and strikers available on the bench.
As Sigi Schmid said Wednesday, “We just have to know which team we are. Are we the team that played the first 10 games or are we the team that played the 11th game? I think we’re the team that played the first 10 games.”
I do too, so I expect Seattle to bounce back against the San Jose Earthquakes in front of 65,000 fans on Saturday with relative ease. Otherwise, I’ll have a lot more dissecting to do next week.
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