The one touch pass. It is elusive and celebrated. Coaches attempt to teach players this skill from the moment they learn to play the game. The nature of the beast is the first touch. Something Americans have struggled with in development. As such, we don’t often see MLS games feature much of the one touch, and certainly not from the native players. The Red Bulls have a master of one touch passing in Thierry Henry, and he showed the skill to brilliant result against the Sounders. It was an example of Henry at his very best for RBNY, and it was at stark contrast with his play against the Galaxy.
Henry and the One Touch Pass
It is not to say Henry did not play well. In the first half against the Galaxy, he linked up very well with Wright-Phillips. The latter should have been able to capitalize on at least one of the handful of chances served up by Henry’s delicate passing, but alas it was not to be. In the second half, Henry was much less effective. The games urgency dictated the play, and the Red Bulls ended up on the wrong side of a lopsided beating. The Galaxy could maintain possession and make the Bulls chase them around the field. When the Red Bulls recovered, they attempted to spring counterattacks to no avail. The Galaxy employed a similar pressing style seen the previous week against the Sounders, but those results could not be further apart. Why? I think the answer lies in the use, or lack thereof, one touch passing.
Both of these attacks were started or helped by terrific one touch passing by Thierry Henry. Here, we see the play that ultimately became the opening goal. The video is missing a moment just before where Henry receives and moves the ball almost instantaneously with a delightful touch. Defenders, (Yes multiple defenders.) are drawn to Henry every time he touches the ball, as well they should. By quickly distributing, he can exploit the space that opens as a result. His teammates need only to find themselves in any bit of that space and suddenly the defense finds itself on the back foot. In this example, the ball immediately goes wide to Duvall/Sam. The two forced the backline into action and in return the defenders shifted opening up more space wide. This is where Oyongo found himself in the box, free, and able to get off the shot that deflected to BWP who opened the scoring easily.
Next, we have a great pass and move play executed between Roy Miller and Henry. Henry picks up the ball in the middle of the field and passes to Miller. They interchange a couple of times until they are both lined up wide, with Miller ahead of Henry. Roy passes back, and then takes off up field. The defenders collapse on Henry who immediately knocks the ball forward and puts Miller into an acre of space and time to find BWP for goal number 3. It was a beautiful sequence that might go overlooked in the volume of Bradley’s goals this year, but it is an excellent example and lesson for any youngster looking to the pros for inspiration and wisdom. Henry is a magnet. Whenever he is on the field, he will draw attention. If he is able to speed up his release, teams will have to back off, which will open up space for him to dribble. Far too often, his play is somewhere in the middle of these two ideologies, and the results suffer. It should be noted, that these are not the only examples of his meticulous and cutting one touch passing during the game. New York created several opportunities, all born out of that quick release.
To beat the dead horse, if the Red Bulls had better finishing, this game could have been put to bed even earlier than it was. Their inconsistency means that you never know what you are going to get from the Red Bulls. All in all, their play against the Sounders and Galaxy was nearly identical. The only thing missing from the latter was Henry’s quick distribution. In Harrison, Bradley finished his chances, in LA he didn’t (See for yourself, 1, 2, 3). The flip side of this could be seen in the days of Juan Carlos Osorio and his “playmaker”, Rojas. Rojas was a left back and wide player that Osorio deemed capable of playing inside. The result was disastrous. Rojas signature move became dribble into trouble and lose the ball. It should have surprised no one that Rojas’ team was amongst the worst in MLS history.
I mention Osorio as another cautionary tale for how the Red Bulls played the Galaxy Sunday night. Far too often, RB was content to sit back and watch the game unfold. Attempt to main compact and boot the ball up field to reset or maybe counter. When counters did spring, there were usually 4 to 5 players involved. The inevitable turn over allowed LA to build rhythm and relentless attack. The result was evident from the moment the game started. If you give your opponent that much respect, they will bury you. We witnessed the performance of a Requiem.
With Houston coming in this week, and a win desperately needed, Henry should more carefully consider how long he holds the ball when he receives it. The faster he can move the ball the better. One last note, for a team to effectively play the 4-2-3-1 the way the Red Bulls want to play it, they need to rely on the press. This is a grueling tactic that should be reserved for teams that have much younger legs than the Red Bulls. A possession based attack that relies more on tikka-taka would be more ideal, but the Red Bulls don’t have the personnel to pull it off. They can maintain possession, but it is often fruitless. It also opens them up to counter attack and allows teams to bunker, the two things that have killed the Red Bulls this year. Let’s hope that Sam and Oyongo can contribute this week, and the maestro can pull the strings, quickly from a roaming position, ala Javier Morales.
With (unconfirmed) news of this being Henry’s swan song, he deserves to win the Cup. The teams destiny is in his hands.
Photo Credit: Bill Twomey @BillTNJ
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