Heading into Sunday’s cross-country clash between LAFC and New England Revolution there were three teams left with a perfect league record. Two of them were on the pitch at BMO Stadium. The answer to which was the favorite depends on whether you favor history or recent success.
LAFC, the defending Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup Champions, are coming off a midweek thrashing of LD Alajuelense in the CONCACAF Champions League. But New England Revolution hadn’t lost in the Pacific Time Zone since 2016 before LAFC had even kicked a ball in Major League Soccer.
Both teams began the match with their captains, Carlos Vela and Carles Gil respectively, on the bench.
For LAFC it was rotation after CCL in midweek while Gil was nursing a muscle strain. The rest of the Revolution was at full strength. It didn’t seem to matter once the game got going as a slightly rotated LAFC side manhandled New England.
The Black and Gold ended up battering New England Revolution 4-0, but how did LAFC make the demolition of an unbeaten team look so easy? Let me explain.
To begin the match, the Revolution was able to play out from the back. They were able to play through the midfield, and force the LAFC wingers back into their own half while dominating possession.
Things were going well for the away side. Around the fifteen-minute mark, however, the game changed.
Talking to both coaches postgame, they each identified that time frame as the turning point. Bruce Arena described, “We were ok for about fifteen minutes but then I think they took control of the game.”
On the other side, Steve Cherundolo commented, “The players implemented our match plan extremely well, I think, with the exception of the first fifteen minutes.”
On the surface, Timothy Tillman drew a penalty in the 13th minute which gave LAFC the lead and momentum. But if you looked at the game much closer, a trained eye could see there was much more going on.
Three things changed for LAFC
Midfield Shape
The Black and Gold needed to resolve the issue of the Revolution playing through the midfield. The main issue here was New England defensive midfielder Matt Polster having time and space to receive the ball from his center-backs, turn, and progress the ball forward while LAFC was forced to retreat.
A couple of tweaks from Head Coach Steve Cherundolo solved this problem for the home side. Defensive midfielder Ilie Sánchez stepped up into midfield a bit higher, condensing the pitch and tightening the space in midfield.
Then forward Denis Bouanga helped out by, “not pressing their center-backs and sitting on Polster.” This “changed everything” according to Cherundolo.
Rather than high-pressing as a #9 striker typically would, as Bouanga was the first fifteen minutes, Cherundolo asked the Frenchman to essentially man-mark Matt Polster while in a defensive shape in an effort to deny ball entry into midfield. It worked like a charm.
Pressing Ideas
Building on to the change in midfield also meant LAFC must adjust the way they pressed. Since Denis Bouanga was now dropping deeper, the LAFC “wingers were then a little more aggressive with their press,” described Cherundolo.
Pushing wingers Mahala Opoku and Stipe Biuk higher up the pitch meant pinching the Revolution in and forcing the ball inside to their center-backs.
Of course, with Denis allowing their center-backs to possess, but not allowing entry into midfield via Polster, the Revs had nowhere to go. I couldn’t put it any more bluntly than Steve Cherundolo did when he stated, “They didn’t have any solutions after that.”
The third LAFC goal is the perfect example of these first two adjustments in effect. Instead of pressing the center-back, Bouanga pressed Polster in midfield, forcing the backpass to his center-back Kessler.
Bouanga then follows the ball, pushing the press forward, and dragging the midfield with him. This pressure forces Kessler into making a bad decision by playing the ball into former LAFC midfielder Latif Blessing, who was facing his own goal, ten yards outside of the box.
The midfield work from Timothy Tillman, who is able to press higher as Sánchez pushes from behind and Bouanga drags from the front, allowed him to read the play the whole way; pick off Blessing, and smash it home to put the game to bed.
Physical Dominance
The final adjustment was simply an increased physicality. “They physically dominated us,” Bruce Arena told me, “They made it real hard on us and our guys did not respond well…A couple of players got dominated.”
One of the players he is surely referring to is U.S. Men’s National Team fullback, DeJuan Jones.
The 25-year-old was bodied by Denis Bouanga for the second LAFC goal, as Jones attempted to get back goalside but was prevented by the backside of Bouanga.
Of Jones’ performance, all Head Coach Bruce Arena had to say was, “Uhhh…it was ok. He’s still learning.” He certainly is, but he also wasn’t the only one.
To match the tactical domination, New England Revolution was physically dominated all over the pitch on Sunday night. That was the recipe for success for LAFC.
Lastly, I am obliged to mention this was also a night of firsts for the Black and Gold.
Center-back Denil Maldonado made his competitive debut for the club while both midfielder Timothy Tillman and winger Stipe Biuk scored their first goals. All three, are off-season additions.
With a reasonable amount of turnover, there were questions over whether LAFC would be able to keep the momentum going to begin the season.
The defending Champions have answered those questions with flying colors thus far.
LAFC have scored ten goals in their opening three matches of the season, each of which they have utterly dominated. As Bruce Arena put it, “Give a lot of credit. They did a good job.”
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