Tag: Morgan Brian

Route Two Soccer: Chicago’s Win Over Houston Bodes Well for Their End-of-Season Hopes

Posted on by Backline Soccer

It’s been a puzzling season for the Chicago Red Stars. They were supposed to dominate during the World Cup break, when they held onto most of their key players even as all the other top teams were decimated. But they struggled mightily during that period. Then they came out of the World Cup break on fire, reeling off five consecutive wins, only to turn around and lose back-to-back games to the two worst teams in the league.

Looking at the roster, they should easily make the playoffs. And yet here they are, right in the thick of a tough race over the final month.

It’s always hard to make predictions about this team, but on the evidence of this weekend’s performance against Houston, they might just have kicked things back into gear at the key time. It was an accomplished, comprehensive, and thoroughly dominant result, and a demonstration of just how good this Red Stars team has the potential to be.

As I flagged last week, Chicago has faced significant problems this year in the central defense, and that was addressed directly by coach Rory Dames’s lineup as the two best center backs on the roster were finally moved back into the central defense. Julie Ertz and Tierna Davidson bring a huge amount of value in their other roles, so it’s certainly not an easy choice to place them at center back. But for a team struggling to keep a tight ship, it made sense.

To some extent, the change was informed by the opponent. The Dash are one of the league’s weakest teams at building play through the middle, making it far easier for Chicago to get by without Ertz in the holding role to break up possession. Where they do pose a threat is in quick counters and out wide. Dames countered this by matching the ever-adaptable Casey Short up against Kealia Ohai, and by using the lightning-fast Sarah Gorden on the opposite flank. This arrangement shored up the middle by removing the shaky Katie Naughton, and strengthened the wide defense.

It also had an additional advantage: with Ertz and Davidson at center back, Chicago were ideally suited to pass through and around a scurrying Houston press. Few, if any, central defenders in the league are as comfortable on the ball as this pair. If the Dash are closing down Morgan Brian or Dani Colaprico coming for the ball, it was very easy for Davidson or Ertz to simply dribble forward to create new angles.

The only real danger here was overconfidence. At times, Chicago seemed to double down so much on beating the press that they played themselves into danger. But once they found their rhythm, it was extremely comfortable for the Red Stars to build from the back.

And this set the tone for the whole game. Chicago didn’t dominate possession, nor did they play a tiki-taka style. Instead, they held possession comfortably while drawing the Dash forward, and then pounced, moving the ball quickly into space. You can see it from the goals.

For the first, Morgan Brian received the ball around the halfway line, picked her head up and saw a clear, direct vertical line. One beautifully weighted pass, a single touch from Kerr, and Chicago scored. The whole move took 8 seconds.

For the second, Davidson intercepted a pass, found Nagasato in tons of space, who passed to Kerr, who dropped the ball back to DiBernardo. In those few seconds, Nagasato had raced forward and was now ready to receive another simple, lovely vertical pass from DiBernardo. She then slid the ball between two converging defenders to Kerr, who let it roll and then unleashed a shot. Five passes in about 12 seconds. 2-0.

For the third, Naeher gathered the ball, passed to Brian, who advanced it to Colaprico, who sent it back to Davidson, who found Short out wide. Short received the ball well behind the halfway line, had time to watch the forward runs, and launched a ball over the top. McCaskill ran it down, beating Amber Brooks who inexplicably let it roll, and shinned it past the keeper and into the net. Five passes in 15 seconds. 3-0.

This is what we’ve been expecting from Chicago for so long. They have the personnel to attack with lightning speed and precision. Not because their players are particularly pacey, but because of their collective ability to pick out passes, isolate defenders, and capitalize on space.

Obviously, it doesn’t hurt to have Sam Kerr leading the attack. We all know how good she is, and yet her conversion rates continue to astound.

But this is by no means a one-woman show. After a poor start to the season, Yuki Nagasato is back in good form. Dani Colaprico also seems to have righted the ship and found some of the precision that usually defines her game. But perhaps the most important cog in the machine is Morgan Brian. After several lost years between 2016 and 2018, it’s now been roughly a year that she’s been mostly fit and very good. But her performances over the past few weeks are another step above. She still might never get back to where she was at the end of 2015, but for the first time in a very long time, it feels like she’s back in the conversation for being one of the best midfielders in the league. Her calm possession and incredible field vision are critical to this style of play, and if she can keep it up, it could be the difference that finally earns Chicago that playoff victory they’ve been seeking for so long.

Nothing is set in stone. Chicago have looked great before, only to fall away just as they seemed to be poised to grab hold of the league. And while they could afford to live without Ertz against the relatively frail Houston midfield, they might not have that luxury against a team like Portland or North Carolina. And for all the great performances lately, they haven’t been getting the best from Vanessa DiBernardo, another key player who looks like she’s carrying some significant nagging injuries.

So everything could very well still fall apart. But if anyone can disrupt the duopoly at the top of the league, Chicago is probably your best bet. If they can continue to play like this, they can beat anyone.

Route Two Soccer – How Will Chicago Use Morgan Brian?

Posted on by RJ Allen

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When news arrived that Houston had traded Morgan Brian to Chicago, it immediately inspired speculation about the motivations for the deal. Was Brian the rumored national teamer that might be headed to Lyon? Was this simply Houston’s effort to get something out of the player before she departed for foreign shores? If so, and given her lingering health issues, would she even play for Chicago? But we’ve now heard that Brian plans to stay in the States and that she’s ready to suit up this weekend.

So, while there is certainly some interesting reporting to be done about how this all went down, this is a tactics column, and we’re going to jump right over the ‘how did we get here’ part and take a look at how Brian might be used now that she’s joined the Red Stars.

The most likely scenario: a 4-4-2 diamond

Early in this season, there were some rumblings that Chicago wanted to work on their tactical flexibility. And in the first few games, we even saw glimpses of it. But as the season has progressed, they have settled quite firmly back into coach Rory Dames’ preferred approach: the 4-4-2 diamond. This setup looks to back the center of the pitch, relying mostly on fullbacks for depth. It’s generally very compact, and while Chicago has shown flashes of higher-level ball control, they often seem less concerned with holding possession and more interested in quick, direct attacks.

In its most successful iteration, the diamond has featured Ertz in the holding role, with Colaprico on the left, DiBernardo in the 10, and Huerta on the right. And the arrival of Yuki Nagasoto seemed like it could be the final piece of the puzzle—giving them another player with elite technical skills to pair with Press.

However, in recent weeks some of the luster has come off this basic setup. Despite a wealth of quality midfielders, they’ve had a difficult time producing much; generating tons of opportunities, but very few good ones. Meanwhile, the forwards have drifted further and further back, hoping to revitalize the attack, but taking themselves further out of scoring range in the process. It’s all been a bit stagnant.

It also hasn’t helped that the injury bug has bit a few times—forcing some reallocations between the backline and midfield, and some last minute substitutions.

So … if we assume that Dames is likely to stick with his preferred setup, the question is where Brian will fit into the mix. And it’s actually a difficult question to answer, given the impressive versatility of many of these players. If DiBernardo has to miss another week, Brian could easily replace her in the attacking midfield role. If Ertz is needed at center back, Brian could easily take over the holding role. And while no one would mistake Brian for a winger, the whole point of the diamond is to allow the ‘wide’ midfielders to pinch in. Just as Colaprico has thrived on the left this year, Brian could easily take over the right.

But, if we assume a full strength side in Chicago’s traditional diamond, this is probably the most likely deployment of resources. While Ertz has been excellent in the midfield, it was a luxury that depended on strong performances from Naughton and Johnson in the back. As they’ve begun to falter, the arrival of Brian might be the trigger to move Ertz back.

Ultimately, it’s a question of what Dames believes the team’s main problem to be. Because there are plenty of minor variants available here, all of which are slightly better or worse in small ways. Brian and Colaprico could swap, as could Huerta and Nagasoto. Alternatively, Brian could take over the attacking midfield role, pushing DiBernardo to the right (where she played much of last year), with Ertz staying at the bottom of the diamond.

The problem with all these approaches, however, is that they don’t really resolve the underlying problems. Now, that may not be necessary. After all, Chicago were flying high a month ago using this system, so maybe simply adding another elite player into the mix will be enough to achieve a reset. But if Dames sees the rot as going a bit deeper, Brian’s arrival opens up a broad new realm of tactical possibilities.

Pushing the attack higher with a back three

With Brian now joining the team, Chicago probably has the strongest midfield of any team in the league, with a wealth of top-level talent, who all excel on both sides of the ball. Dani Colaprico is one of the best holding midfielders in the US pool but is arguably only the third best of this group.

The ‘problem’ is that for all their depth here, Chicago simply doesn’t have much width. With a back four, that’s addressed by asking the fullbacks to run like crazy. But that’s been hit or miss and creates serious exposure risks at the back. A back three resolves this problem by pressing the fullbacks up to become wingbacks and allowing the central trio free reign to control play through the middle.

This is one possible setup, which deploys Huerta as a wingback. It’s a bit risky, but Huerta is potentially interesting in that role, and it gives Chicago a much firmer grip over the midfield. An alternative would be to swap Gilliland in for Huerta, which offers a bit more defensive solidity but a bit less attacking flair.

But the heart of this approach is the space it creates for Brian, Colaprico, and DiBernardo to operate freely in the central midfield. Bringing Brian into the mix, in particular, is a huge upgrade given her comfort and vision with the ball in tight spaces. She isn’t quite the wrecking ball defensively that Ertz has been—though she is shockingly good at occupying space and managing play—but she makes up for it with smoothness in possession and the ability to organize play through the middle.

Tactical fluidity

There are obviously pluses and minuses to every approach, and the back three is no different. But it offers a lot of advantages to a team overloaded with talented central players who need a bit more support from the wings. And it also offers a lot to a team with several world class attackers, which nevertheless has consistently struggled (for several years now) to actually find the back of the net.

So, there is a real case for making a change here. But, as with all tactical conversations, it’s important not to overstate the differences. While the back three might seem like a major shift, it’s actually not that far away from the 4-4-2 diamond discussed above. In effect, the back three pushes Ertz back from her holding role, while pushing two fullbacks up into the midfield. The result is a much wider attacking line, which prevents opponents from collapsing into the center to suffocate the passing game. It is an approach that can be exposed by speed on the wings, but the extra body in the backline does a lot to limit the damage here.

Indeed, one of the big advantages of exploring your tactical options is the ability it gives you to shift things mid-game to exploit opportunities as they arise. And here, the versatility of the Chicago players becomes absolutely deadly.

With the right players, a 3-4-1-2 can switch fairly seamlessly into an aggressive, attacking 4-3-3. All you have to do is drop Short into the backline and push Huerta forward into the front.

Alternatively, you can capitalize on the wealth of talent in the holding midfield role by loading up the central midfield and shifting to a 4-2-3-1.

The key point here is simply: Chicago has options. It remains to be seen how many of those options they employ, and some may work out better than others. But at a bare minimum, they ought to at least be exploring the possibilities.

How far can the diamond take them?

In the end, Dames doesn’t seem likely to make any major tactical moves, at least not in the short term. But he should seriously consider it. Chicago has been very good for three years now but has consistently stumbled once everything was on the line. That may be nerves, bad luck, or just happenstance. But it also likely has something to do with their stagnant style of play. The diamond is a solid setup and can be very successful on its day. But it’s very constrained and doesn’t give your star players many chances to seize the game by the reins and do something special.

With the additions of Brian and Nagasoto, Chicago is now bursting at the seams with top level attacking talent, and they have a rock solid support system to give those players a chance to impose themselves. The diamond has served them well, but it’s time to unfurl the sails a bit and see what else they can do.

Breaking News: Chicago Red Stars Acquire Morgan Brian

Posted on by RJ Allen

The Chicago Red Stars have announced that they acquired US Women’s National Team midfielder Morgan Brian in a trade with the Houston Dash.

https://twitter.com/chicagoredstars/status/902931494322270208

In exchange for Brian, the Red Stars have sent Kristie Mewis and future considerations to Houston. Mewis was traded to the Red Stars from the Washington Spirit on August 21 and scored one goal in what would be her only appearance for Chicago on August 26.

Morgan Brian was drafted to the Dash as the first overall pick in 2015, and she made 33 appearances with the team. She has been dealing with injuries throughout the 2017 season and has not played since July 23. It is not known at this time when she will appear for the Red Stars.

Mewis will be available to play for the Dash’s game against Seattle Reign FC on September 3.

 

Route Two Soccer – Washington Keeps It Simple, Get Results

Posted on by RJ Allen

Washington squared off against Houston this weekend in a matchup between the two bottom teams in the table, and in many ways that’s precisely what the game felt like. Neither team looked particularly confident in possession, both suffered awkward defensive breakdowns, and the play was often more than a little sloppy. However, there were also some important signs of life, particularly from the Washington side.

Dueling 4-3-3s, but very different approaches

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Washington came out in a fairly standard 4-3-3, with the only twist being the lack of a true central player in the forward line. Arielle Ship was nominally deployed as the central striker but drifted back and to the wings as much as she stayed in the middle. To the extent that the Spirit had anyone consistently in that central attacking zone, it was due to Kristie Mewis pushing forward.

The result was a very contained approach, with all eleven players taking on meaningful defensive responsibilities, and generally looking to strike on the counter more than to build out of the back.

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On the other side, Houston also employed a 4-3-3, as they have used most of this season. However, with new interim coach Morales at the helm, there were some changes. Once again, they experienced a major shuffle in the backline, with Amber Brooks being dropped from the holding midfield role to serve as center back, paired with Cari Roccaro, and flanked by Levin and Daly.

Presumably, these moves were designed to bolster Houston’s midfield, allowing Brian to play the holding role, creating space for both Andressa and O’Sullivan to join her. It’s an idea that makes some sense in theory—bring in more skillful attacking players to link play with the forward line and maintain possession—but which did very little to address their underlying problems.

Washington in 2017: defensive woes

The Spirit’s game plan was quite simple, but also fairly effective. Stay behind the ball in numbers, apply aggressive pressure once the opponent enters your half, and let your forwards break with pace when the chance comes. There have been teams playing like this for almost as long as there has been a game of soccer, and there’s a reason why it’s never truly gone out of style: it’s devilishly effective.

Going into the season, Washington’s strength looked like its backline, which had been quite stingy in their run to the final last year and which was returning with most of its key players. However, the defense has been anything but solid, conceding sixteen goals so far (most in the league).

The real question is whether those failures are primarily the fault of the backline, or whether responsibility needs to be shared more widely. And here the answer is clear: the blame needs to be spread around. The key to Washington’s team defense last year was the way it began from the front. They swarmed high up the pitch, closing tight on the ball to limit time for decision-making, closing down passing lanes, and generally making it difficult to play. And that is where Washington has really suffered this year. Losing the likes of Crystal Dunn, Joanna Lohman, Christine Nairn, and Diana Matheson—all two-way players with the intelligence and experience to work in combination—has made it extremely difficult for them to recover that defensive solidity. And in potentially the biggest blow, they’ve been forced to go without Tori Huster—one of the best defensive midfielders in the game today—since early May.

Coach Jim Gabarra has tried a number of different approaches to compensate, some more effective than others. At times, their deep-defending 3-5-2 has looked effective, but it’s not clear that they have enough quality in central midfield to take advantage of the numbers that it offers there. There is potential there, but so far it’s been a mixed bag at best.

A simple approach: defend in numbers, and let Pugh hit them on the break

But against Houston this weekend, the team finally looked a bit more like their 2016 selves. Not on the attacking side, where smooth passing, confident possession, and creative interplay continues to remain a distant memory. But defensively, this was a far more coherent team performance. From a team that has looked disjointed and more than a little frustrated at times this year, it was a breath of fresh air to see them defending as a unit. Havana Solaun and Meggie Dougherty Howard deserve special acclaim. Neither really fits the mold of a true holding player, but they worked together to close down Houston’s midfield—taking advantage of some relatively lax refereeing to establish a disruptive physical presence.

Meanwhile, the team’s discipline—keeping plenty of numbers back consistently—gave the center backs a bit more freedom to push forward without as much fear of leaving holes behind them. All of this allowed Washington to create a reasonably condensed field—packing the defensive third and stepping out to pressure the ball once it got close. That left Houston with plenty of possession, but also plenty of turnovers from their unsuccessful attempts to pick the lock. And those turnovers were deadly.

This was Mallory Pugh’s third game with the team, but the first time when they took full advantage of her presence. Her blistering pace and skill on the ball was enough to rip Houston apart on the counter and was the clear difference-maker in the game. Washington has other talented attackers, ones who can play the same role on occasion (Ordega, in particular, showed her ability against Sky Blue earlier this year), but none have the consistency or skill of Pugh. Without Pugh, Washington’s approach would be effective but all-too-predictable. With her, even when you know what’s coming, it’s difficult to avoid getting caught out.

It worked against Houston, but …

However, it’s important not to overstate the case. Washington earned a deserved victory on Saturday. They had a clear game plan and executed it well. And it’s certainly a replicable model. After all, a well-organized defense and lightning counters can beat any team in the league on its day.

But it was particularly well-suited for Houston. As mentioned, this was a team with a new (and agonizingly slow) center back pairing, which was hoping to control the midfield with relatively small numbers. And in order to make that plan work, they needed to ask quite a bit of Morgan Brian—who was tasked with occupying the holding midfield role and with pressing forward in the attack. It’s not that Brian can’t do both (indeed, she had her best game of the season), it’s simply that without a second skilled defender in the central midfield, there was no one left to shield the backline from the inevitable counters.

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Given that setup, this Washington approach was perfectly suited. And even with that being the case, it’s hardly like they shut Houston down entirely. Brian and Andressa both picked out some excellent passes, and both Ohai and Beckie found themselves with plenty of solid chances. And while Washington was quite successful at holding a rigid backline and relying on the offside trap to aggressively compress the field, they were only a few inches from getting caught on several occasions.

Against a better team—with an offense more in-sync and a backline with more pace and skill—Washington might have been in trouble.

So it would be a mistake for them to simply rest on their laurels here. Still, this was an incredibly important proof-of-concept game. It showed that they have a good sense of what Mallory Pugh brings to the team, and the ability to capitalize on it. It gave the team a win and lifted them off the bottom of the table going into the international break—which should also do wonders for team confidence and cohesion.

And with the likely return of Huster once the season starts back up in two weeks, there’s every reason to think that Washington can improve on the general model exhibited here. A bona fide defensive all-star guarding the backline should give everyone else a bit more space to press higher, and allow the Spirit to build back toward the sort of all-encompassing defensive unit that they were last year.

Washington still seems like an extreme longshot to make the playoffs—there are just too many unseasoned players in key positions here to achieve the kind of consistency that would require—but this is a respectable team and a far cry from the disaster that many were predicting a few months ago.