Film from the Fortress: CLTFC vs San Diego Match Review

Reviewing how Charlotte's press stifled possession heavy San Diego and highlighted Abada's best game of the season.

Well a lot has changed since I last posted. Just a few weeks ago, I was trying to find some positives to take away from a poor game in Colorado. Just 3 weeks later and Charlotte plays their best game of the season to get a 3 game win streak and are pushing for the top of the league.

Now, similar to the Cincy game, Charlotte benefitted from playing a team they match up well against tactically. San Diego played in a way that allowed us to setup our favored press and create transition moments. But what impressed me was that we executed our gameplan very well and showed individual quality. I walked away not only thinking our gameplan was better, but also that our players are just better.

For this post I’m going to zoom in on a few specific things. First, we’re going to deep dive into our mid-block defensive structure and how we stopped any San Diego attack from developing. Then we will look at Abada and how his positioning led to his best game of the season. Finally, we will look at Patrick Agyemang and the moments he had that made a huge impact on this game.

Topic 1: Shutting down the center

The 43 minutes before the red card in this game was dominated by Charlotte. Despite having more possession, San Diego had no shots with 11 men on the field and presented no real danger. Our defensive mid-block stopped the San Diego attackers from receiving the ball.

Let’s start with the screenshot below. The shape of both teams is present in every example we will cover. For San Diego, their build-up structure was a 3-2 box midfield. Their right back (Loffelsend, #19) pushed up-field (he’s on the bottom of the screen) creating a back 3 defense in possession. They had 2 central midfielders drop in as a double pivot and then they would pull back their striker as a false nine alongside the other central midfielder to create a “box” of 4 midfielders. The goal here is get numbers into the center and play through the center to create high quality attacks.

Charlotte countered this by playing even more narrow than they usually do. We are in our 2-4 pressing structure but look above at how narrow Abada and Zaha are on the wings. The other key is we did not press aggressively. We let their center backs have the ball and wait for them to decide whether they wanted to play through the congested center or play to the wings.

No luck on the wings

One way to play through Charlotte’s mid-block is by taking the space out wide. San Diego tried this with no success. Let’s take the example below. The ball starts just like the example above with the center back in the middle of the back 3 (McNair, #17) with the ball and he swings a pass to the open right back (Loffelsend, #19).

Loffelsend has plenty of time but not much is developing. As he turns Zaha takes a good angle to get in front of him. Loffelsend doesn't see anything developing forward so he recycles back and we get to a similar position resetting our mid-block.

Above the middle is still very congested with Charlotte players. McNair plays it across to the near side center back (Reyes, #4) who looks to pass it back up to Loffelsend. Now in the image below there is not a ton of space and no real threat.

Reyes mishits this pass and it is a turnover straight to Doumbia. San Diego tried twice to progress down the right side and could not create despite the space we gave them.

San Diego rarely went down the left and when they tried it did not create any chances. Below McNair has the ball again and our mid-block is set.

Here McNair passes to the left back (McVey, #97) on the far side who passes to Lozano (#11) who has found space on the far side touchline.

Despite Lozano being their best attacker this situation does not look very threatening. Abada is able to get across to contest Lozano allowing our defense to stay set. As Lozano tries to cut in off the touchline, Abada makes the tackle and wins the ball back.

Unlike the Colorado game, San Diego did not want to take the space out wide that our mid-block provided nor were they able to create from out wide. San Diego wanted to try to build up through the center and those moments created opportunities for Charlotte.

Chances off mistakes

Our successful mid-block did two big things. First it protected our defense from dangerous attacking opportunities. Second, when our mid-block can win the ball back it provides our offense with chances to attack in transition. When San Diego tried and failed to buildup through the middle, Charlotte’s offense benefitted.

Here’s a quick example early in the game where McNair has the ball and our mid-block is set against their box midfield.

Here McNair makes an unforced mistake and makes a weak pass that Biel can easily intercept. Biel, smartly, immediately looks to drive forward in transition and score.

I’ve talked a lot about our buildup needing to create chances for Biel to run at a defense’s back line with runners. Here that comes from our mid-block instead. Biel makes a poor decision to shoot here. It’s not a bad shot but Zaha is wide open and we probably should have had an opening goal here.

This was from an unforced error. But Charlotte also used the mid-block to pick moments to ramp up the pressure and try to force mistakes.

Moments of pressing

Charlotte was content for McNair to have the ball as the center back and sit in our mid-block. But as San Diego tried to play into the center, Charlotte would pick a moment to spring a press and try to force a turnover for a transition chance.

Below our block is a little higher up the pitch but the narrow shape and McNair on the ball is still the same.

Here Alvardo (#70), one of their pivots, is just outside of the press and receives the pass in between Biel and Agyemang. Neither pressure Alvardo and he passes toward the other pivot Tverskov (#6).

Tverskov is San Diego’s main pivot (player expected to break the press) so when he receives the ball above, Biel immediately closes him down to prevent him from going forward to try to break our press. Tverskov plays it backwards to the left back on the far side. Biel continues his pressure toward the left back and the pass goes back to McNair. Note as McNair receives this ball Charlotte jumps into a press with Agyemang moving to close him down.

From here now Charlotte is going to try to contest every pass and force a mistake or turnover. McNair passes across to Reyes as Zaha jumps forward to pressure. Alvarado is moving toward the near side in the pivot and gets the pass from Reyes but Biel is moving with him and is on him when the pass comes in.

From here, Alvardo tries to dribble pass Biel. Biel drives him to the sideline and deflects a pass for a San Diego throw in. We do not win the ball, but Alvardo having to dribble from the position is extremely dangerous. Despite not having the ball, this sequence is a better chance creation for Charlotte than San Diego.

This mid-block with pressing at opportunities did create a goal scoring chance. Here McNair has the ball again but notice how both Agyemang and Biel are near Tverskov and Alvardo has space in the pivot.

McNair passes to Alvardo who turns and looks forward. Now normally I would say this is a failure of our press to allow a pivot to turn. But Biel moves to pressure Alvardo making him decide on an action quickly. The bet here is that with this limited time, Charlotte believes Alvardo is more likely to make a poor pass than find a line breaking pass. Alvardo tries to thread a pass through to Loffelsend (#19).

As Loffelsend receives this ball Zaha and Bronico immediately try to pressure him as we now look to ramp up the pressure. Loffelsend has to take a touch back and toward the center to avoid Zaha and Bronico is able to get a tackle in.

What looked like a dangerous pass from Alvardo turns into a trap and Charlotte has pried the ball loose. Biel gets the ball just outside the center circle and taps it forward to Abada who runs onto the ball with some space.

Now Charlotte is in a transition moment as San Diego looks to set their defense. Smartly, Abada looks to drive forward decisively. With some good movement and some Pep Biel magic Abada is tapping in the opening goal of the game just 10 seconds after the clip above.

Our press was the biggest defining aspect of the first half. San Diego wanted the ball and wanted to attack by buildup through the middle. Our mid-block stopped them from creating any dangerous attacks by shutting down the middle. And when San Diego tried to get through a packed center, Charlotte upped the pressure and turned it into transition attacks.

Topic 2: Abada dang time

Let’s go back to that opening goal and look at it from the offense. Abada gets the ball out wide and dribbles forward in this transition attack. San Diego is trying to set their defense as we move forward. Biel finds a nice pocket of space and Abada plays it to him.

Biel turns and does some absolute magic to dribble past a defender and get a through ball in. But look at what Abada does here in 4 second. As he plays the pass above he looks to move from the wide position inside to become a goal scoring threat and nobody picks up his movement. Note San Diego’s far side center back (McNair, #17) in the image above in relation to Abada. Now look at the image below.

Abada went from out wide to goal side of McNair and does a great to flatten his run and stay onside as Biel finds a through ball and Abada scores.

I wrote in my Colorado Match Review how Abada has not been playing wide and it prevented us from attacking down that side of the field. In the goal above, Abada starts wide providing space for Biel. And then he cuts inside using his ability to find space in the attacking third to get the goal. Abada did both those things (stayed wide initially then cut inside to find space) in this game and put in his best performance of the season.

Getting the spacing right

Abada’s width suited our buildup against San Deigo’s pressing structure and allowed us to build our most dangerous attacks from our right side. Below is a great example of how the right side with Abada, Biel and Scardina could break through San Diego’s defense. San Deigo pressed in a 4-3-3 shape as shown below.

We did a similar setup against Nashville in the first half and ran into similar problems that San Diego will here. With this narrow 4-3-3, Scardina has some space and Malanda plays it out wide to him. As Scardina receives Malanda’s pass notice who pressures Scardina, it is not the winger Lozano, it is their left central midfielder.

With the left central midfielder stepping up and wide on Scardina, that leaves the central midfielder to have to mark Biel and move left to cover ground. With Abada staying on the touchline, the left back is stuck out wide as well. This leaves a good area of space between the 4 far side San Diego players for Biel to move into and receive a pass.

Scardina plays it into Biel and Tverskov is a step behind so Biel can run at the defense. From buildup, we have been able to create a transition like attack with our spacing.

On this specific play, Biel plays a through ball to Agyemang who is offside. Even though Abada does not touch the ball, his spacing on the touchline creates the space for Biel to move into. And by starting wide, Abada can then cut in and combine with Biel to create dangerous chances.

Here is a similar attack. Again the left central midfielder is on Scardina and Abada is wide giving Biel space to move into and receive a pass.

As Biel receives this pass McNair steps forward as the center back to contest him vacating a space centrally.

From here now Abada starts to cut inside. Biel pokes a pass into his feet and using good technique and speed Abada dribbles inside.

With good spacing, nice movement and one touch from Biel, we have passed 3 defenders and Abada is running with a 3 on 2 against the back line. Similar to an early example, we decide to shoot instead of passing across to Zaha wide open. But despite the result, the spacing and movement from Abada is fantastic.

This game showed just how incredible Abada is at moving without the ball and finding space in dangerous positions. I’ve got a few more clips for this topic so buckle in. Here we are recycling the ball from our left side. A few seconds ago Abada was a little more central but as the ball swings right he is jogging out to the touchline to play wide. You can see here his body is facing the touchline as he moves wider.

I call this out because against Colorado (the last time he played right winger) he would stay central and let Scardina be the only wide player. This wide movement is a huge positive that he is intentionally providing width. Malanda swings the ball to Scardina and similar to the examples above, our spacing and San Diego’s shape creates a nice pocket of space for Biel.

As Biel receives this ball Abada runs behind him with an underlapping run inside. This run creates confusion for the defense. Their center back McNair is already on Biel but now their left back Diop with Abada inside also pressures Biel. Reyes, the other center back, is marking Agyemang and there is nobody Abada.

Biel gets the ball on his left foot and plays a through ball in between McNair and Diop. Despite being a few steps behind the defensive line, Abada has picked up speed and easily runs through for a chance on goal.

The shot gets saved and I’m sure some will say Abada should have scored this. But the combination of Biel and Abada creating a scoring chance like this has not happened yet and if we continue to create chances like this, the goals will come.

Abada the playmaker

Later in the game Biel was replaced by Williamson who played a little bit deeper. Instead of looking to get in behind on Biel’s through balls, Abada had some great moments moving into the playmaking spaces that Biel usually occupies.

Here we start an attack with Abada out wide for proper spacing as we move into the attack.

With Vargas making a run Abada cuts inside toward the top of the box and passes it back to Diani. Now that we are in the attacking third, Abada continues to move inside and finds a pocket of space just inside the box.

As Williamson receives the pass from Diani he looks up and plays a clean ball right into Abada’s feet. Abada looks to make a one touch pass across to Agyemang.

Abada does not get his feet right here but it i good to see him not only find good space but look to create and be a playmaker.

Here’s another quick and similar example. Here Abada has drifted inside to a similar spot. He receives a similar pass from Williamson and does a creative pass as Williamson runs forward.

Not only is this a great pass, Abada continues his run and finds space inside the box.

Unfortunately, Williamson goes for the shot but if he plays it back that is a dangerous chance as well.

And one final clip with Abada really filling in for Biel. Here we stop a San Diego attack and get the ball to Williamson with time and space. Williamson is a lot deeper than Biel usually would be and that central space behind the midfield line is empty. Despite starting out wide, Abada floats into that space and receives the pass from Williamson.

Abada let’s this ball run in front of him then makes a through pass sending Toklomati in for a shot.

Abada was my man of the match for this game. This game showed the quality he can provide and reinforced for me that his positioning has been the problem. When we are building up, Abada has to stay wide to provide a passing lane and allow space to Biel to move into. But as we move into the attacking third, Abada should cut inside and get into the box. He has (and showed in this game) good touch and dribbling speed, good technique and creativity on the ball, and an incredible ability off the ball to find space and stay onside. It is only one game, but I’m hoping this is start of our right side creating a lot of chances and some great goals.

Topic 3: Agyemang, the man of moments

I feel like I’m repeating my Cincinnati game review writing about Abada and Agyemang, but Agyemang had a fantastic game as well. Agyemang had moments this game that showed their centerbacks were not good enough to deal with him. And while there were only a few moments, those moments led to two goals and a red card.

I’ve said it before, but Agyemang’s role in this attack means he will fade at times this season. He will almost always have (at least) one center back directly on him and his main goal is to push the defensive line back with the threat of his runs so that Biel, Zaha and Abada have space in front of the defense to receive and create. Because of this, Agyemang will be competing all game for a few touches and a few moments to make a difference.

Bullying a center back

Agyemang did not have a big moment until the 30th minute. But over the next 15 minutes he dominated Reyes and got him sent off. Here’s the first yellow card, we have a nice buildup on the left side and Westwood steps forward into a nice pass from Zaha.

The first thing to notice is Agyemang makes a great recognition here. He is about to make a run down the left side but sees Doumbia’s run and instead drops off the defensive line to provide Westwood with a passing option. Dropping into space to receive is something Agyemang does not do as often but he did it well this game.

Westwood gets it to him and he turns and dribbles. This run reminds me that Agyemang used to a winger and he’s a decent dribbler. He makes a nice progressive run here including holding off an initial challenge from their right back using his body.

Agyemang continues his impressive progressive dribble and looks like he has a chance for a shot or to pass it to Abada. But Reyes comes in to make an ill-advised tackle and fouls Agyemang, earning himself a yellow card.

This sequence showed a few things Agyemang can do that he usually is not asked to. He received between the lines and made a progressive dribble at the defense. It was good to see this dimension of a threat he can pose to a defense in key moments.

What Agyemang is mainly asked to do is make runs past the defense using his pace and physicality to get onto through balls. Here I think it is a goal kick (the broadcast cut to a replay and I could only get images from watching a replay later). Note the ball gets to Scardina and the spacing that got Biel open in the earlier examples is what gets Agyemang open here. The left center mid made a long run to pressure Scardina. Abada is wide pinning the left back toward the sideline. And here, McNair steps forward as that sides center back to cut off a pass to Biel. However when McNair steps forward, it opens up space and behind and Agyemang’s eyes light and he takes off.

Agyemang starts running across Reyes and they make contact as they fight for position. But Agyemang is too fast and too strong and he get the separation and space he needs on Reyes and the second image below shows he’s through on goal.

Agyemang has won the battle, Reyes tries to recover and gives him way too much contact, earning himself a second yellow and conceding the penalty.

Agyemang went 30 minutes of silence but he’s always fighting for a chance to make an impact and this moment here probably put the game away. Agyemang found the space and then just was better than the center back facing him.

Agyemang is a problem for other teams

So Agyemang also caused our 3rd goal in this game. We have a throw in in the corner and Agyemang comes over to be an option. As Ream is looking to throw it in, Agyemang gets his body onto the smaller right back and immediately shields space to receive the ball.

As the throw comes in Agyemang has just bullied this right back and now he can attack. As he is about to dribble into the box, he gets tripped by the right back earning us a free kick.

From this free kick Westwood whips in a ball that Privett gets onto and scores his first career MLS goal.

As Charlotte fans see more of Agyemang and Toklomati, (who has played well and deserves minutes) this game is a good reminder of the skill Agyemang has and the sheer problem he can cause any MLS defense. His combination of pace and strength, with his shot power and dribbling ability, means that he can make a goal scoring moment for the smallest of opportunities. I’m not sure the average MLS center back can handle his ability for a full game. There will be games (like this one) where the other teams center backs are just not good enough to deal with Agyemang and that will be the difference in the game.

Conclusion

After some busy weeks it is good to be back to writing about Charlotte FC. This was a great win and performance. We were the better team on paper and this was a good tactical matchup for us and our team played to those advantage for a convincing win. Now, I still think Charlotte has some questions to answer about this team that were an issue in Colorado (and somewhat against Nashville).

But I walked away from this game confident in the quality of this team. Watching the individual players in this game (and also the Montreal and Nashville games) our players just look better. I feel we should be winning these home games against worst teams like we have. After only 9 games, I feel this roster is a top 10 MLS roster and has the quality to compete against anyone and to win a lot of games. I hope to see that quality show up against New England this weekend.