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Posted by
Dominic Sikora,
April 4, 2011 |
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Aron Winter inserted both Tony Tchani and Danleigh Borman straight into his line up and kept the same 4-2-3-1 shape that won last week but was only able to escape BMO Field with a draw as Robin Fraser earned his first point as manager.
TFC start confused, Chivas capitalize
With two completely new faces in the starting eleven and their captain gone Toronto understandably looked out of sorts to start the match and went down early. Causing further confusion was probably Chivas USA’s shape, or lack thereof. Fraser’s side played something approaching a 4-3-3ish shape. Alejandro Moreno stayed central mostly but Justin Braun started on the right but found himself drifting from flank to flank. Nick Labrocca stayed to the general right of Ben Zemanski, who played a holding role, while Jesus Flores was found patrolling the left wing as Marco Mondaini moved around between the lines. In truth it is almost fruitless to try and diagram Chivas’ formation as it was extremely fluid and oscillated between different shapes.
Chivas’ left side of interest
Earlier in the season, when Steven Pienaar was still at Everton, he was deployed on the left wing but ended up playing mostly in the middle. This gave Everton’s left back, Leighton Baines, acres of space and he constantly bombed downfield to fill it. This made their left side both a strength and a weakness – Baines was a fantastic attacking threat but was often isolated when the opposition had the ball. A similar phenomenon happened here as both Flores and Mondaini played fairly centrally and Ante Jazic attacked the space on the left wing. He got forward to good effect but the flip side was that when Toronto did manage to get the ball out to Javier Martina on the right he was usually one-on-one with Jazic, if the full back was in position at all. Although Ty Harden had an alright match defensively at right back it would have been nice to see a more adventurous defender support Martina and take advantage of Chivas’ left side. Especially because of how they looked when dealing with crosses.
Chivas suspect in the air
Robin Fraser started Heath Pearce, more of a full back than a centre back, and Andrew Boyens, a tall player but with little jumping ability, as his centre back pairing. As a result Toronto did well when they managed to cross the ball in, Alan Gordon hitting the post off a Martina cross before finding the net on a well taken free kick. Although the delivery was great and Gordon’s finish was good Chivas’ marking was sub-standard on the goal. Gordon also did well to earn the free kick, drifting deep and wide as he did in his debut, and was rewarded with his first ever goal for the club.
Different players, similar style
Although the line up was much different from last week Winter’s players played a similar style. Alen Stevanovic came in for Dwayne De Rosario on the left wing and did similar things as the former captain, cutting in on his favoured foot and Borman got forward well, maybe not to the effect of Mikael Yourassowsky last week, to offer support. It is interesting to note that every left winger to have played for Toronto this year has been inverted, that is right footed on the left wing -- Martina against Vancouver, De Rosario against Portland, and both Stevanovic and Joao Plata against Chivas. Tony Tchani offered a more physical presence than Nathan Sturgis and did really well in winning and keeping the ball, and Maicon Santos resumed his attacking midfield role.
Maicon Santos – Withdrawn Targetman?
It seems like Winter is keen on the idea of keeping Santos in the number 10 role, referring to his captain as a midfielder when asked about why he gave him the armband. In such a deep position Santos offers an interesting set of problems to the opposition. In contrast to a classic playmaker Santos is tall and powerful. He is usually able to shrug off defenders which means that when faced against a midfielder he enjoys even more of a physical advantage. This is similar to when Dortmund employ powerful striker Robert Lewandowski in an attacking midfield role, he regularly wins possession and flick-ons due to using the strength of a target man versus a central midfielder rather than a centre back. Combine that with Santos’ ability to play weighted diagonal balls and strike from long range and Winter may have found out how to get the best out of his new captain.
Santos’ miss deflates home side, centre backs have time on ball
However it was far from a perfect match for the new captain. Early in the second half another trademark space creating move by Gordon coming deep led to a great chance as he sent in Maicon Santos. A comedy of errors led to a glorious opportunity go begging and from then on TFC seemed content to sit back and let Chivas have the ball at half. As Zemanski was usually lined up beside Santos when Chivas had possession it meant that their centre backs enjoyed time on the ball. Whereas Chivas’ forwards did well angling and pressuring Toronto’s backs when in possession Gordon didn’t seem to interested in pressing Pearce and Boyens,aAnd while those two may lack defensive prowess in the air they are good with the ball and Boyens regularly found himself coming forward and initiating attacks. When a midfielder was forced to come forward and press him it meant his man became free and Toronto were left scrambling and leaving space open in the midfield. Luckily for them Stefan Frei dealt well with Chivas’ long strikes and earned his side a point. When Adrian Cann, Nana Attakora, or Dicoy Williams were on the ball and being pressured Toronto needed their midfielders and forwards to drop very deep and offer an option, especially with the way the wind was knocking down their long balls.
Conclusion
Many interesting tactical tidbits came out of this match. First it seems Winter might be favouring a 4-2-3-1 formation with Santos as an attacking midfielder. Second is the fluid shape Fraser employed. Unfortunately the weather conditions led to a subpar second half as the wind meant that most forward balls were sent too far for Chivas or not far enough for Toronto. Frei’s motion of telling his team to come back on a goal kick in stoppage time typified what the second half was like for Toronto.
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