We haven’t done one of these in almost a month but this game deserves a closer look. In terms of the style of play it was very different from what we were expecting from a Mark Briggs team. Most obviously, this was a gargantuan defensive effort. On that effort Briggs said, “I want to see resilience, I want to see a team that takes pride in keeping the ball out of the net.” He still hasn’t seen a clean sheet performance (the Legion doesn’t have one yet this entire season). This game though should be a springboard towards finally getting one.
There were other factors affecting how this game needs to be assessed. First, there was meaningful squad rotation. Again, that’s prettty obvious. Briggs made no apologies for that, saying that soccer is a “squad game” and that everyone needs to be ready at any time. Frankly, his lineup choices were inspired. He knew he was facing a tough attacking team and put together a defensive lineup (from limited choices) that handled the game beautifully. The biggest crap shoot perhaps was putting Fernando Delgado in goal. Fernando knew he was the selection before the team left for Tulsa and he for sure was ready, making two impressive saves. Goalkeepers are generally older than field players but the 18-year-old handled himself with a surprising degree of maturity.
A second factor was the field. I asked Briggs about the narrow confines of the field affecting the game but he had a whole lot more to say. “When we walked out to warm up, they were still putting grass on the outfield and the mound…I actually asked the referee, “Is this safe?'” That is unconscionable.
A third change was the formation. The team played out of a 4-2-3-1. That’s obviously a classic setup as far as the team is concerned but this was the first time Briggs had used it. Moreover, the double pivot did not have Kobe Hernandez-Foster, who wasn’t even in the 18. Here’s how that formation actually played:
As always, red arrows represent substitutions with the outgoing player at the sharp end. This is a seriously compact look. Of the starting XI only Ronaldo (#9) averaged in the opposing half and that just barely. And the entire team is squeezed into the middle third of the field. Tulsa, by the way, were just as narrow, although they have seven players average in the Legion half.
It’s also hard to pick out a 4-2-3-1 from this. It doesn’t help that Jake Rufe (#13) at left back and Erik Centeno (#27) at right back effectively switched positions. And Sam McIllhatton (#6) in a pivot role is almost entirely overlapping Enzo Martinez (#19) at CAM.
The substitutions, by the way, all came after the last goal. Of the 5 changes Kameron Lacey (#77) for Ronaldo and Roman Torres (#25) for Enzo were like-for-like swaps. The two winger changes—Tyler Pasher (#15) for Preston Tabort Etaka (#10) and Danny Trejo (#7) for Sebastian Tregarthen (#21)—were not made at the same time but switched left for right in both cases. Tyler did spend time on the left but ultimately switched and ended up as the team’s most advanced player on the night.
I hope we don’t see anything like that again.
It makes sense that with the team playing that withdrawn there will not be many shots. The Three Sparks were outshot 27-8 overall. Here’s the first heatmap with the shots overlaid:
Yup. Just one shot in the entire half (by Enzo) and that from extreme distance. And essentially no penetration into the box. Tulsa had ten shots in the half and 4 of those were in the first 5 minutes. 8 were inside the Legion 18 and 2 were on target (Fernando saved them both). The second half was slightly better:
Most of the incursion into the Tulsa 18 was Ronaldo drawing and then waiting on the penalty. There were 3 other shots in the area though. Otherwise, there’s not a great deal of difference. And Tulsa racked up 17 shots in the half, 14 inside the box and 1 on target (Kalil ElMedkhar’s goal).
That goal was the result of ongoing chaos in front of the sticks. I asked Fernando Delgado if it’s easy to keep track of the ball with so many players in the box. “No, not at all. Actually, when there’s so many bodies in the way, so much traffic, you’ve just gotta peek to a side, just stay on your toes and just hope for the best, especially in those tight, tight, close-range scenarios.” In that particular instance, Phanuel Kavita, Tiago Suarez and Sam McIllhatton all got in his way in their own efforts to get at the ball. It was also a set-piece situation (a free kick) so the area was even more crowded than normal.
Overall, that crazed defending worked though with the team putting up an incredible 16 blocks (most in the entire USL pro ranks all year).
Despite being massively outshot overall, the Legion matched Tulsa in shots on goal – 3 each. A good percentage for the Legion and a rather dire one for Tulsa. The Legion also was not heavily outpossessed, managing 48.1% in the game. The Legion also made 334 passes, just one less than Tulsa. Some of the other stats are a bit odd: the Legion did not win a single corner in the entire game; Tulsa had 6. And despite the positioning discussed above, Tulsa had no offside calls and the Legion had 2. That’s perhaps a bit less shocking when you consider that Tulsa was clearly playing a very high line and the Legion was defending hard. The Legion attempted only 3 crosses (none of them good) and Tulsa tried a whopping 30 (15 were good).
There is, of course, nothing wrong with good defending. And if Jose Mourinho was watching this game he would be extremely pleased because this was classic park-the-bus football. Not the most attractive style – rather an edge-of-the-seat style – but it can work if you have the defensive stones to pull it off. In this case the Three Sparks did. But it’s not an approach you can really hang your hat on and sooner or later (preferably sooner) the team needs to break out of its slow-starting funks and get ahead of the game early.
Although, to be fair, this was just the second time this season the team has not trailed in a game and the first time against Championship opposition.
All food for thought.
