Toronto FC's identity beginning to take shape
It was another positive week in Toronto as Jermain Defoe scored again and the Reds secured a 1-0 win over DC United in their home opener.
After an impressive display made by Ryan Nelsen’s side, the scoreline could have been much greater were it not for goalkeeper Bill Hamid’s key saves, as TFC definitely should have had more goals.
Ryan Nelsen deployed his usual 4-4-2 and it worked perfectly both offensively and defensively. What was particularly brilliant was the counterattacking play. In a defensive sense it worked well against DC United, and forced their ball carriers into bad passes.
When attacking, TFC produced a quick, attractive approach, insisting on a direct kind of soccer, delivering long balls to the forwards in the manner to come out very quickly on the counter-attack.
Nelsen was not concerned about controlling the ball and possession. DC United seemed vulnerable to long balls, particularly when played to Gilberto, who made a nice pivoting job up front. As a modern centre forward, Gilberto showed some nice touches in the final third building good combination with Defoe and the men in the midfield.
In the middle of the pitch, TFC dominated. The quartet of Rey, Bradley, Osorio and Jackson is probably the midfield corps Nelsen prefers right now. In the defensive end of the match, Nelsen favored a narrow 4-4-2. Both Rey and Jackson were extremely disciplined throughout the game with their defensive positioning.
The whole midfield were compact, which meant TFC's two banks of four closed down DC United's offensive players. Out of possession, the shape of the midfield was changing into a sort of 4-4-2 diamond with Bradley ready to jump out and start the pressing action while Osorio sat primarily as his duty was more about a defensive role.
On the offensive end, the wingers were excellent at finding space down the flanks. With Bradley playing as a box-to-box midfielder providing nice passes on the attack both Rey and Jackson gave Ben Olsen’s side trouble into wider zones creating danger down the flanks. Bradley especially was brilliant in his decision-making and TFC were able to get the offensive front four behind DC's defence.
It was what might be forming into a 'classic' TFC performance: a good defensive shape without dominating possession, but with fast attacking play. Nelsen’s offensive players proved to be dangerous when attacking immediately. Bradley was reliable with his passing and irreplaceable defensively by producing a huge amount of work without the ball, while Jackson had one of his best performance into this start of the season getting many chances free down the right.
Michele Tossani is a football tactician with a Ph.D. in History. Michele resides in Florence, Italy and is a tactical analyst for Futbol-Tactico.com
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