A tactical tweak in the first half by Santos Laguna’s manager Benjamin Galindo helped the Mexican side run rampant as Santos Laguna made their first ever Champions League final.

Luis Silva came in for the suspended Danny Koevermans while Joao Plata replaced Reggie Lambe for Toronto FC. Galindo was forced to make two changes due to suspension as Jose Olvera and Daniel Luduena came in for Osmar Mares and Darwin Quintero, respectively. He also recalled Panamian centre back Felipe Baloy and forward danger man Oribe Peralta into the starting eleven.

Formations to start the game:

Toronto sit back and look to counter, use set pieces
The strategy for Aron Winter seemed to be to defend fairly deep, stay compact in midfield, and hit Santos Laguna on the counter and earn free kicks and corners. It worked quite well in the first half as the home side were poor when losing possession. Toronto’s first goal came off a corner kick and the second was a quick attack as Nick Soolsma delightfully picked out Plata for a fine finish.

Both sides started out in a 4-2-3-1 formation and for a while Toronto looked comfortable. Peralta was moving well up front but TFC had a spare central defender at the back. Any movement between the lines was dealt with by Toronto’s holders, Julian de Guzman and Terry Dunfield, who operated as a shield for Toronto’s back line and helping insulate them.

Santos switch to 4-4-2, TFC exposed
Santos’s formation, though similar in base positioning, was different. Marc Crosas and Juan Pablo Rodriguez were the two holders but rather than providing a defensive presence their main job was to pick out long forward passes in behind Toronto’s defense. Partway through the first half Santos Laguna went 4-4-2 with Herculez Gomez moving from the right wing to partner Peralta up front. This move made sense for many reasons.

Formations after Santos switch:

First, since Toronto were not pressing Santos all that much it meant they didn’t need a third central midfielder to help keep possession. Crosas, Rodriguez, and even Baloy when he stepped up were able to comfortably keep the ball despite theoretically having a numerical disadvantage in midfield.

Secondly it meant that both Ty Harden and Miguel Aceval were occupied directly by an opposition striker and therefore could not cover for each other. The first goal conceded by TFC was poor defending from Aceval combined with Gomez finally being in a central position, but the second goal demonstrated the problem with no spare man perfectly. Peralta was being marked by Aceval and the Mexican striker dropped deep into midfield. If he was alone up front Harden would be free to sweep up behind him but Gomez was playing off the shoulder of Harden and he attacked the space vacated by Aceval, received the ball, and finished calmly.

Finally it brought Christian Suarez into the match and helped him vary his attack. Originally Suarez was stationed on the left wing where he would predictably cut in and kill any momentum his team’s attack had, but when he switched to the right following the formational shift he was free to change up his attack on Toronto’s back line. He could make a run through the channel and burst toward goal, as he did to earn the penalty, or he could beat his man out wide and deliver a ball into the box as he did for the second spot kick. He also gave Santos some natural width which further helped his forwards find space.

Toronto stick with a back four, unable to chase game
Perhaps the crucial moment of the game came at half time. Toronto were still well and truly in the game; in fact, they had the advantage as Santos still had to score. It seemed to make sense for Winter to stand pat with what was working in the first half, but as mentioned previously Galindo had made a change to his side midway through the first half and Winter didn’t respond.

Something Winter could have done was to switch to three central defenders. Everything was there for the switch to happen. Toronto are not foreign to the system, although not having Torsten Frings might have swayed Winter’s decision to not go with three centre backs. They had Doneil Henry and Aaron Maund on the bench, or Matt Stinson could have come on at right back and Richard Eckersley could have moved into central defense. And since Toronto weren’t using their midfield numerical advantage to press and didn’t need a goal, sacrificing Silva for a defender made sense as well. As it were Toronto stuck with their formation, and when they went a goal down they had to start coming forward. Doing so against Santos Laguna is suicide as Seattle showed and the rest of the game was academic.

Conclusion
A bright start from Toronto was negated by Santos Laguna’s varied attack which was maximized by a mid-first half switch from their manager. Toronto could have responded by going back to a spare defender at half when they still were leading on away goals but in the second half their individual defensive frailties got exposed. Few will fault Winter for not changing anything at half time when Toronto had the result they wanted but he failed to respond to a change by the opposition and in the end the Mexican’s abilities shredded Toronto’s back line to end Toronto’s fairy tale run in the Champions League. Winter has done well to get his side this far in the competition and should be commended, Toronto was never expected to match up to Santos and for a game and a half they were level but one more tactical switch might have seen the impossible happen.