Film from the Fortress: CLTFC vs San Jose Match Review

How an aggressive San Jose and Charlotte's newest signing gave Charlotte another big home win.

Another game at the fortress, another win. To be honest, I was nervous coming into this game. No Agyemang and Abada and our first game that we were heavily favored to win felt like a recipe for a disappointing draw or a 1-0 loss. I was relieved when Charlotte had 3 goals by halftime and a 4th after 50 minutes. But after watching it live I wondered if the game should have been a lot closer.

Getting into the film though I feel we deserved the win today. While the xG was closer than the scoreline, we looked the more talented team and had the better gameplan which allowed us to create more dangerous goal scoring opportunities. So let’s jump in and analyze why we got this convincing win. We will start with San Jose’s very bold (and ill-advised in my opinion) pressing structure and how it ultimately allowed us to play to our strengths. Then we will talk about Souleyman Doumbia and his impact on this game and our team. And finally we will look at how Preston Judd challenged our center backs before covering some quick topics.

Topic 1: Punishing an overly aggressive press

Usually teams seen as underdogs tend to not press and instead get an organized low block defense and force the other team to beat them in their set defense. Miami did this to us with success and I expected Bruce Arena to setup his team similarly. What happened instead was the most aggressive press that we have seen from an opponent.

Below is just 2 minutes into the game but this is the press San Jose ran all 90 minutes. They pressed in a 2-4 but they very quickly would jump into a man marking system. Notice how there are 7 San Jose players in the press below. One of the 2 central midfielders (Kay #14) has moved in front of his line to mark Westwood in the center and one of the central defenders (Romney #12) has stepped into the frame to mark Biel as he moves into the press.

Now an aggressive man marking press can work but there is very little margin for error. First off, with 7 players forward that means there are only 3 defenders to mark our 3 attackers (Toklomati, Zaha, and Kerwin) meaning any mishandled long ball could lead to a breakaway. And second, if the press is too slow or done incorrectly, or simply one of the Charlotte players beats his man you are conceding a transition attack with only 3 defenders back to cover 3 attackers. Basically, San Jose is encouraging us to play long balls and when we are able to break the press we will get a numbers advantage transition.

Charlotte FC is very comfortable playing long balls and loves to attack in transition, so we had a lot of success by just taking the gift that San Jose gave us. We took a few approaches to getting past this aggressive press and they worked well enough we did not have to change our approach.

Long Balls to the Wings

When a team does man marking, they are susceptible to getting pulled out of position by player movement. Charlotte used this tactic by moving Biel into the buildup and seeing how San Jose reacted. If a center back followed him and went man marking then we tried to go long and if he was not followed we would look for the open man in the press.

Here’s an early example where off a goal kick San Jose brings a high press in this 2-4 shape.

Here Kahlina goes long out the right wing aiming for Kerwin. Notice how Romney their center has stepped forward with Biel and basically all 4 defenders are man marking.

Kerwin wins this header and because Biel has pulled a defender forward, Toklomati is able to get to the headed pass. He does a nice flick behind him and Biel escapes his marker to run onto the flick.

Because of the man marking, we now have Biel with space and Zaha one on one on the left side. Biel plays a poor pass to him, but Zaha is still able to get the ball, take on his man before a double team comes and rip a dangerous shot on goal.

We did not win all of these long balls, but when we did (or San Jose made a mistake) it created an excellent attacking opportunity. And because we had an early lead we had no reason to try to build up through the press (and potentially risk a turnover in a dangerous position) when we could continue to play these long balls.

We’re in the second half with a comfortable lead. Here Biel is jogging into the press and with a center back following him again, Privett ignores the open pass to Doumbia and decides to go long toward Zaha on the wing.

Notice below how there are only 3 defenders to cover 3 attackers and we have a great transition attack if we can win the ball.

Zaha loses the header but Biel’s marker misses his header and Biel is able to get the ball and create enough space to look up.

You can see above that Kerwin has tons of space in behind. Biel finds him with a lofted pass and Kerwin does an excellent job using a burst of acceleration to carry into the box and get himself our 4th goal.

And one more example just a minute later. Most of the play is on the right side and Malanda gets the ball, he looks up and plays a long switch to Zaha. Now I do not love long balls to Zaha where a defender can jump for a header and potentially give Zaha a shove while he is in the air. But in this one the San Jose defender misplays the ball and it falls right to Zaha.

With limited defenders left, Zaha carries into the box and opts to slide a pass to Kerwin who gets a great shot that is just off target.

I have to applaud Charlotte’s coaching staff for this gameplan. Plan A was if they are going to press aggressively, let’s bring Biel back to bring a defender forward, and then we will play long balls that if we can win them, we have a golden scoring chance. And we rarely had to go to plan B.

Attacking before a press was set

Another point of emphasis was Charlotte looked to go at San Jose before they could setup their press. Increasing our tempo while San Jose was still setting up their defense caused confusion and created openings.

Here San Jose just went on a counter attack and a through ball from Arango was grabbed by Kahlina. With their attackers too far forward and their midfield not caught up yet, Kahlina smartly rolls it out to Westwood immediately who can move forward without pressure.

Westwood picks out Biel who has found some space on the right side. As Biel receives the ball, San Jose tries to go man marking as their center back Romney steps forward to pressure Biel.

But this man marking is too late and Biel has space to turn. With Romney stepping forward, the other center back shift over to this near side with Toklomati. Both full backs are keeping an eye on Kerwin and Zaha respectfully and that leaves a gap in the far side center back. Kay, their central midfielder is marking Bronico and I do not think he realizes he has no cover behind him. Biel takes a touch centrally putting it on his left foot and Bronico makes a vertical run from midfield and has so much space in behind.

Bronico has a great finish (and celebration) to a chance caused by playing fast and getting San Jose stuck between trying to setup a defense and trying to get into their man marking press.

Limitations to Malanda’s passing

While we had success in creating dangerous opportunities, we struggled with our execution in buildup. Specifically, Malanda was either too slow or off on his passes multiple times that prevented us from building through this press (instead of going long). After he had an incredible passing game against FC Cincinnati, this is a reminder of his limitations as a passing center back.

I think the big difference in this game versus the last one was he was pressured from head on instead of how Cincy pressed him from the side. The head on pressure prevents Malanda from dribbling forward and stepping into the pass and potentially could rush him as he sees the pressure coming.

I’ve got 3 quick examples of some errant passes caused by pressure. Here, Malanda has Judd (#19) bearing down on him but he has plenty of space. He looks to play the ball in between the two central midfielder of San Jose as Toklomati is dropping into that space.

I like the idea and understand this may be a difficult pass to make, but his pass goes nowhere close and is an easy interception.

Here is another one where we’ve just won the ball back and Kahlina passes it to Malanda. He is under some quick pressure from Bouda but he has time to look up and can see both Westwood and Byrne available. He tries to pass to Byrne which is again a good decision but completely misses him and Arango winds up getting the errant pass.

Lastly here Malanda tries to switch the ball over to Doumbia. He does have some pressure coming from Arango but he has time here to make a good pass. I like the idea but he sails this pass over Doumbia and it lands out of bounds for a San Jose throw in.

I show these clips not to say Malanda is bad, but to temper expectations on his ability to be a consistent answer to passing through an opponent’s press. He has a willingness and some trust by the team to try to make these incisive, press breaking passes, and the Cincy game showed he has the capability to do it. But I’m not sure how consistently he can do it and especially against a 2-man front line pressing system where he will have pressure coming directly at him.

I want to wrap up this topic by just saying how I’m still baffled as to why Bruce Arena tried this defensive setup. An aggressive 2-4 press can work against us (as Seattle showed) but it requires a lot of talent, coordination, and commitment by the players that I just don’t think San Jose has at this point in the season. They allowed us to play long balls instead of trying to pass through the press and we got to attack in these transition type opportunities where their defense had little chance. Our coaching and team did a great job taking the gift San Jose handed us and we took our chances well.

However, this game we did wind up needing to build up through the press once to get that opening goal and only 2 players on Charlotte were actively trying to build through the press. One was Wilfred Zaha and one was our newest player Souleyman Doumbia.

Topic 2: Debut thoughts on Souleyman Doumbia

Whoever in the organization was able to ensure Doumbia was eligible and available to play in this game deserves a raise because his inclusion made a huge difference in this game. This game gave us an opportunity not only to see the new signing play, it also allowed us to see how our shape changed by playing a left back instead of a center back in the left back role.

Now I want to be clear and upfront, it is a very common tactic to play a left sided center back as your left back and I think that tactically Tim Ream can play left back for Charlotte and the team can be successful. But this game did highlight how playing an actual left back like Doumbia instead of Ream helped our buildup, provided more attacking threat, but also opened some defensive gaps.

Positives: Press breaker and width provider

The biggest benefit of having a proper left back versus a center back on the left is the ability to help in buildup and provide width on the left side. And Doumbia specifically showed a skill set that I think can not only support Zaha by helping with buildup and in the attack but also enable Bronico to play to his strengths.

One thing that impressed me was Doumbia’s willingness and ability to break the defensive press. This next example shows his ability to do this and then support the attack by providing that width to support Zaha. Doumbia receives a pass from Privett and is immediately pressured.

He does not panic and actually dribbles centrally trying to create a passing lane. But he has great dribbling skills and winds up cutting back outside and just beating his marker off of the dribble.

Doumbia accelerates up the wing as Zaha drifts from out wide into that left half space. Having burned his marker, Doumbia dribbles at Zaha’s marker giving Zaha some space to lay off a pass.

Doumbia’s ability to break the press off a dribble has freed Zaha now to run at the defense in transition. But Doumbia continues his run down the wing and Zaha lays it off to him setting up a dangerous cross.

Doumbia’s ability to become that fifth attacker (similar to Byrne on the right) will help provide space and options for Zaha in attack.

As we saw above, Doumbia was able to handle the responsibilities of buildup covering for Bronico (who is generally weak at this) and meaning instead of coming toward the ball Zaha can receive the ball in an attacking position. But Doumbia also showed that he can be an attacking threat when buildup goes through Zaha.

Here we have circulated the ball for about a minute and San Jose is full on man marking. You can see on central midfielder (Harkes #6) is already forward on Westwood and the other (Kay #14) is jogging toward Bronico. In addition, Zaha is coming to the ball bringing their right back (Lima #24) forward and while off screen right now their center back (Romney #12) is stepping forward to mark Biel who has dropped into the press to help (yes that will be 8 players in the press).

Doumbia plays the pass up the line to Zaha. Now in the past when Zaha receives the ball here, he immediately gets pressure with a double team incoming. He either tries to dribble out of it (usually without success) or just plays it back to the left back and we recycle. But Doumbia’s speed, ability to get forward, and dribbling skill provides a new option here. Notice the movement below as Zaha receives the ball with pressure from Lima. First Biel stays central keeping that center back (#12) forward and central. Then Bronico has started to make a run up to the left sideline pulling his marker (#14) out wide with him. Lastly, Doumbia is running into that left half space that Bronico is vacating and Zaha passes it to him.

Because of the movement above, Doumbia has a lane that he bursts through and all of a sudden it is four on two. Notice how the two players chasing him currently are the midfielder that Bronico pulled out wide and the center back that was marking Biel. With a simple give and go Zaha and Doumbia have created a huge chance.

From here the ball goes out wide to Bronico, his cross gets blocked but falls to Biel who is unmarked as San Jose try to recover and we get our opening goal. Now you might say the goal itself was lucky but when you see the image above and how tough of a defensive position this is San Jose cannot complain about conceding.

Drawback: Defensive coverage and transitions

Now all this attacking boost from Doumbia does provide some potential issues or at least drawbacks. If our left back plans to push up more, we need to make sure we are covering properly to not put too much pressure on Privett (or potentially Ream as our left center back) in transition. Specifically, the partnership between Bronico and Doumbia is key as Bronico needs to cover different areas with Doumbia is in versus when Ream plays.

Here is a good example where Zaha has the ball and both Bronico and Doumbia make a run in from the left wing

The first issue is they are both occupying the same space. The other issue is that this pass is intercepted and now neither of them is in our transition defense. Zaha essentially becomes our left back in this transition and they easily pass between Zaha and Westwood and get to run directly at our back line.

Fortunately, I think this issue can and will be fixed with practice and coaching. In fact, we saw an improvement on this just a few minutes later. Here Biel comes back and wins the ball and does a nice combination with Zaha to go into transition. As Biel drives forward notice Doumbia on the far sideline running forward while Bronico is farther back near the defense.

Biel misses Zaha with his next pass and San Jose comes on the attack. Doumbia is caught forward but Bronico covers him. Note here as Arango is running forward Bronico is actually jogging back into that left back position marking Espinoza. Doumbia is making a long recovery run into Bronico’s position and trying to get pressure on Arango.

This is a great defensive sequence and I think shows that having a true left back like Doumbia could increase Bronico’s value on this team as a player that can cover a lot of ground and is willing to fill into the space and roles to cover his teammates.

I’ll wrap up this topic with some larger thoughts on the squad. Doumbia was a huge difference maker this game. His buildup to get that opening goal set the tone and allowed us to play those comfortable long balls moving forward. I still think that Ream can be an effective left back for this team and our defensive ability is probably strongest with him there. But this game showed that the specific trio of Zaha, Bronico, and Doumbia complements each other well. I think if we do keep Ream as our left back then a player like Williamson or Diani may be needed to support Zaha in buildup and attack. Either way, it is great to see Doumbia bring so much to the table so quickly and better for Dean Smith to have more options to use in setting his lineup.

Topic 3: Struggling with Judd

With Josef Martinez on international duty Preston Judd (#19) got a rare start for San Jose. While we have faced much better strikers to start this season (ex. Latte Lath, Denkey, Suarez), Judd is the first striker we have faced that really leans into physically challenging opposing center backs. I dove into this about Agyemang in my Atlanta match review and Judd created a similar problem where any ball thrown at the back line he was competing for to try to make a chance.

While we had a few defensive issues this match, this is the one I want to focus on because this is something I do not expect our center backs to struggle against. Let’s start with San Jose’s best chance of the game which kind of comes from a fluke. After a long attack by Charlotte, the San Jose right back gets the ball and just launches a clearance to relieve the pressure.

In what feels like our goals from the Atlanta and Cincinnati matches with roles reversed, Privett cannot get a good header on the ball and it glances off of him into the feet of Judd who is sandwiched between Privett and Malanda. Unfortunately, Malanda slips here giving Judd a little more space to dribble and face forward.

Judd dribbles into the box being marked by Malanda and (beacuse of the slip) Privett is rushing to cover him. This dribble provides time for Arango (#9) to join the attack and with a nutmeg pass through Bronico, Arango gets a wide-open shot.

Kahlina makes the save of the game here and bails us out. Now a lot of this is just unlucky (a haphazard clearance and Malanda slipping). But Privett needs to do better on the initial header and the fact that Privett and Bronico both help on Judd leaving Arango wide open is also a problem. Malanda needs to be trusted to be able to stand up against Judd and win that defensive battle.

Fluke goals from situations like this can happen but I expect our defense to nullify most of them. While Malanda gets a pass here for the slip (and ultimately did pretty well defensively this game), Privett struggled with defending Judd and his combination of physicality and pace.

Later on we have another long ball incoming, this time from the San Jose goalkeeper. To note our press looked good this game (especially with the effort by Biel and Toklomati), but San Jose did not look to build-up through the press and just opted to go long frequently.

Here the goalkeeper has more time, but if you watch the video replay Judd gets space between him and Privett and Privett never even gets within contact of him while the ball is in the air. This is not a 50/50 ball, Judd is clearly going to be first to it. He receives it and with that touch lays it off to Espinoza trailing behind.

This sets up Espinoza with the ball running at our defense in a 4 on 4 with no midfielders to protect our back line. Espinoza gets a shot at the top of the box that goes wide. We handle the threat fine, but this is too easy for Judd and San Jose. Privett needs to be in contact with Judd while the ball is in the air and contesting the pass so even if Judd wins it he is under duress and pressure making it harder to execute that first touch.

I think you might see where this is leading to. Late in the second half, a bouncing ball lands at a San Jose player who just launches it up in the air.

Judd is a bit faster to react and he runs onto this surprisingly good through ball with Privett in pursuit. Privett is probably about a half step behind Judd as Judd chests the ball forward. Privett is able to get contact with Judd at the edge of the box as shown below.

Privett has closed the distance but he’s still a bit too far behind Judd allowing Judd to try to get one more touch and get a shot off. As Privett fights back into position he holds Judd who falls to the floor leading to a penalty and a red card.

Personally, I think this maybe was a penalty and definitely not a red card. But Privett has put himself in a tough position here from this wild through ball.

Overall, I think Privett is a great player and I still remember that he earned that center back spot over Tim Ream last season. This is the first time I’ve seen a striker really get the better of Privett and cause problems for our defense not in how a team built up, but just in how Judd beat Privett in specific battles. I do not want to make any generalizations from just one game but I do want to continue to monitor how good are our center backs and question if they both are as dominant as I may have assumed. Unless there is an appeal, it will be interesting to see Ream play in that center back position next week and see how that pairing does in game.

Quick Topics

I would say those 3 topics (the press, Doumbia, and Judd vs Privett) defined this game and led to the final scoreline. Before wrapping up I want to give a few quick thoughts on Toklomati and make on quick tactical callout.

Thoughts on Toklomati’s first start

Idan Toklomati got his first start with Agyemang on international duty and he impressed. As our advanced forward, I think he is willing to do the things that Agyemang is asked to do, specifically compete against center backs for balls and make vertical runs in behind. Now I think he does them well, but not as well as Agyemang (Agyemang also has a better shot/shot power). But I do think Toklomati does a few things better than Patrick, specifically he is great at leading the press and his passing and facilitation to other players.

Let’s highlight these two skills with his goals contribution. In CLTFC 2025 fashion we have a clearance that goes toward a defender facing his goal. Toklomati gets good initial pressure (I would call this a counter-press or pressing immediately after losing possession).

The defender makes a mistake trying to dribble pass Toklomati and he makes a clean tackle and we are on the counter. This first part highlights his willingness and ability to press. But next he carries the ball forward to the box. What is different from Agyemang is Toklomati goes at a controlled pace and keep his head up giving Kerwin time to make this run.

Kerwin gets a good shot off but a defensive goal line save denies a goal and it falls back to Toklomati. And here is where we see his passing skills as he threads this beautiful pass with his weak foot to Westwood. I love how 2 San Jose players both tried and were just out of reach of this pass.

This coupled with his pressing effort, his flick on in an earlier example in topic 1, his missed chance and his overhead kick, Toklomati made a positive impression.

Now I still think Agyemang is clearly the starter for this team. Agyemang provides a combination of pace, physicality, and shot power that directly compliments our attacking style (quick in transition) and our personnel (Zaha and Biel both wanting Agyemang to pull the defense back so they have more space to operate). But Toklomati has definitely earned himself minutes, solidified himself as our backup striker, and I think he should be considered as a backup winger either right behind or potentially before Kerwin.

Switching to a 4-3-3

For the second time the season (the first was against Seattle) Dean tried to use his second formation of a 4-3-3 when he brought on Diani for Kerwin. I talked in my Seattle review about how it changes our defensive shape, but this time instead of playing Kerwin and Smalls (true wingers) in those wide positions he planned to play Zaha on the left and Biel on the right. With these more playmaking wingers that would want to play in the half space, that opens up the chance for both Byrne and Doumbia to join the attack with width as our 3 midfielders (Westwood, Bronico and Diani) would stay back in our rest defense.

Unfortunately, we never really got to see what this would look like as 3 minutes after this change Privett got a red card and we reverted back to our normal 4-4-2 defensive shape except with just 1 striker instead of 2 and Diani at center back. I just wanted to bring attention to this as I think the idea of the dual playmakers with the width from our fullbacks is an interesting one that I’d like to see get another chance in the future.

Conclusion

It is too early in the season to make any bold claims but another win and a convincing one against a team we should beat is a huge positive. I think similar to the Cincinnati game we benefitted offensively from a pressing structure that worked to our advantage. However, credit is due to our coaching and players for identifying the weaknesses in our opponents, playing to them, and taking our chances. In addition, we saw that we now have a left back we can use to provide width and help with buildup and I think we have found a bright attacker who can provide depth and contribute in any spot across our front line.

I will say that every week we learn more about our players, what are team is capable of, and where Charlotte can improve. I’m interested to see what we can learn from our match in Colorado, and hopefully we can grab our first road win of the year.