Nashville SC couldn’t find the back of the net against FC Cincinnati – but came close a number of times. Unsurprisingly, a few more defensively-oriented players top the breakdown and ratings.
Quick note: my ratings are score-based after a film review, and on a scale that… there’s technically no range but anything over 15 is generally good and under 9 or so is bad for a full game worth of performance. Community ratings are on a traditional 1-10 scale.
Formation and tactics
There was a little going on here (for the first time in a while, this was actually an interesting chess match). Nashville came out in a fairly standard 4-4-2 with its standard 4-4-2 personnel… but mixed up some positions. Lebo Moloto played on the wing to start the game, while Matt LaGrassa was the withdrawn striker. This played out a bit like a 4-2-3-1 (the formation du jour throughout much of USL and MLS, and plenty of Euro leagues, as well), with Winn on the left and Moloto on the right as purer wingers.
This ultimately flipped to the more standard usage (Moloto as the second striker for a 4-4-1-1 look) around the 18th minute, but alternated between the two at times for the rest of the game. London Woodberry was a like-for-like swap with Bradley Bourgeois at RCB, Taylor Washington one for Winn at left wing, and then when Ish Jome replaced Matt LaGrassa, Washington flipped to the right, letting Jome play left wing.
Cincinnati’s gone with a 4-4-2 diamond a lot lately, but man, was it terrible for them in the first half. They had no width in the midfield, allowing Nashville to box them in defensively, while also giving NSC all sorts of room to roam on the flanks when they had the ball. The fullbacks need to get forward a little bit to provide any sort of width in that formation, and they didn’t – the back four for Cincy was almost completely flat.
Credit Koch for switching at halftime to a couple more conventional formations: dropping one of the strikers (mostly Ledesma) back for a five-man midfield with two attackers in a 4-3-2-1, and a “two blocks of four” 4-4-2… but he probably shouldn’t have waited that long.
When FCC switched, their midfielders were able to defend wider (which took away some of the space that the wingers had in the first half), and they possessed much more solidly in the midfield with a great variety of passing options. However, it’s worth noting that most of their dangerous moments still came on set pieces or pure counters: the formation switch was an improvement, not a panacea.
Gary Smith community rating: 8.71
Community comments:
- “Big fatigue and team didn’t look like they should. Kinda flat overall.”
- “The team just looks better with Reed and LaGrassa in the middle with Lebo out wide. The team completely dominated the first half, until the switch of LeGrassa and Lebo.”
- “Unfortunate not to score, but one of our better attacking displays in the first half.”
Midfield
Ladies and gentlemen, your Man of the Match:
Michael Reed 17.70 (94 minutes) – Community rating: 7.50
Reed was extremely steady in the back (as usual), and continued his recent trend of being a bit more adventurous going forward, which was something that Cincinnati’s scheme in the first half certainly helped him do. I’d have to go back and check previous games, but I believe his first half was the only unblemished (no negative plays) for any player this year. He did have some poor ideas and a mediocre giveaway in the second half, but it certainly wasn’t enough to significantly harm his day.
Lebo Moloto 16.06 (94 minutes) – Community rating: 7.30
It’s hard to say how many of Moloto’s struggles in this one (and there were some) were a result of playing a position that he’s only cast in occasionally on the right wing. There seemed to be miscommunications more than there were physical execution mistakes, which sort of amplifies that feel. He got back to over-passing in the box in the second half, but in the first, he launched some pretty hopeful shots from distance… right to the FCC keeper. It really did seem like he was a little haunted by the first scoreless game in Nissan, and was too determined to have a different outcome this time. That led to a bit of inaccuracy and over-ambition.
Alan Winn 15.57 (94 minutes) – Community rating: 6.70
I’m surprised to see a community rating this low (though I imagine part of that is “offense specialist in game where offense was shut out”), because I thought Winn was pretty good. He showed off better vision than we’ve seen with consistency, and had an extremely nice play in the first half where he made a slide-tackle, quickly pushed the ball to Moloto, and managed to recover in order to be involved in the offense. You need to see more final product, but with limited opportunities in the game (at least on his side, especially with Moloto on the opposite wing), he did well.
Bolu Akinyode 11.09 (94 minutes) – Community rating: 6.90
I actually think my grading system was a little more down on Akinyode than was the eyeball test. It was partially a matter of Cincinnati’s strategy (which meant not many counter-attacks – or much offense at all until the second half formation change – and gave him more space to work forward with Reed), but the one or three times per game that he’s half-heartedly jogging after his man – after that man has acquired the ball – were not present. He was a little more daring in his passing going forward, and while a few of those were incomplete, I’d rather he mix it up just a bit, even if it primarily makes his typical short-lateral-backward stuff a little more open. He still needs to get the head up quicker to survey passing options when he’s in space though, instead of an assumption that a man is bearing down, and moving it to the easiest target, rather than finding the right target.
Taylor Washington 2.15 (23 minutes) – Community rating: 7.00
Washington’s time came after FCC had shifted formations away from one that he would have eaten for lunch, which was unfortunate. He could have made Cincy pay even more than a Winn/Moloto combo did with his speed if he’d gotten some time against that midfield diamond. As it was, he still had some space to get in a couple crosses, and tried to spring himself on a give-and-go with Allen (he didn’t get the return service), and put in a nice, if short, shift.
Community comment: “Taylor was all over the pressing FCC squad.”
Ish Jome -0.40 (14 minutes) – Community rating: 6.30
As usual, don’t read too much into a negative score out of a really short stint on the field, just because each action is amplified score-wise when there’s no time to do other stuff and cancel it out. His only negative play was a failed trap on a sideline (a clearance up the sideline, in fact), and the rest of the way he was pretty much neutral.
Community comment: “Ish had no real touches.”
Goalkeeper
Matt Pickens 14.21 (94 minutes) – Community rating: 8.60
I considered making an executive decision to name Pickens MOTM despite the lower score (it’s not his fault FCC didn’t have more opportunities – he did everything asked of him), but thought Reed’s performance was good enough to give it to the man who had more play-to-play involvement… and was a big part of keeping Pickens mostly untested. He did get chipped in the first half – the ball went wide enough that it actually stayed inbounds and curved away from the goal – but came up with the two huge saves late. A very good day feels basically old hat at this point, and that’s probably a good thing.
Community comment: “MOTM should have been Pickens, saved the team a point with a couple astonishing saves in the final 15.”
Defenders
Kosuke Kimura 14.79 (94 minutes) – Community rating: 7.00
I thought Kimura had another fantastic performance (that’s several in a row now, if I recall correctly). Of course, part of that is the style of play the opponent brought – he had tons of space up the flank, and really wasn’t challenged heading back in his own direction. Still, making the plays that are available to you is the name of the game, and he did just that. He had a couple crosses that didn’t come off just right – you may recall that was one of the problems when he struggled early in the year – and the weird half-pass half-shot header that dribbled harmlessly out of bounds on a good Nashville chance.
Justin Davis 12.51 (94 minutes) – Community rating: 8.00
Like Kimura, Davis is going to thrive against a team that wants to give him acres of space down the sideline. He plays a little more fast-and-loose when he’s comfortable, so that resulted in a little bit of scrambling to recover, but he mostly gets the job done in that phase of the game – with some exciting slide tackles mixed in. FCC had little success attacking wide, so it is what it is in terms of defensive consistency.
Liam Doyle 9.23 (94 minutes) – Community rating: 5.40
Doyle was far from flawless, but after watching the game live, I wouldn’t have expected the type of negative responses he received in the community ratings, and I remain surprised after a film review. He has a tendency to step up and stab at the ball (a trait ironically shared with fan favorite Bolu Akinyode), but is more consistent recovering to make up for when he’s beaten doing so. Both times a player got in behind late in the game were certainly not his fault, either. The one huge goof he had (a clearance that actually went backwards and led to the attempt to chip Pickens) was obvious and humorous, so my guess would be that single play is sticking in folks’ heads.
Community comment: “Doyle had another nightmare. Despite his passing ability, he makes some really sloppy mistakes and was lucky not to be punished. If Woodberry and Bourgeois are healthy, he should be dropped.”
I rarely opine on the community comments, but that is a strange comment to make when Woodberry was bar-none the worst player on the pitch (which isn’t the usual state of affairs, just for this game he had a rough one), and if NSC had lost the game it would have been exclusively on him.
Bradley Bourgeois 8.06 (54 minutes) – Community rating: 6.80
It’s a shame Bourgeois got injured, because he was having a fantastic game. He’s gotten so much more comfortable working the ball forward in possession (and has the recovery speed to track back when it doesn’t work out), and has honed in on when to bang the ball over the top in distribution.
Community comment: “Hated to see Bourgeois go after the half.”
London Woodberry 1.02 (40 minutes) – Community rating: 6.30
Woodberry was almost singularly responsible for both FCC chances in the late stages of the game. On the first, he let a player in behind, showed the speed to recover, and still got shrugged off like a gnat in embarrassingly easy fashion. On the second, he simply got walked by an opponent with the ball at his feet. He’s solid on a possession-to-possession basis, but if he’s going to make the huge mistake like that, it’s a bit of a liability, yeah?
Community comment: “Defense was stout until Woodberry came in, unfortunately. Hopefully Bourgeois will be OK.”
Forward
Brandon Allen 13.51 (94 minutes) – Community rating: 5.60
Even though he didn’t score, I thought Allen had a nice game (he’s going to come in for a lashing from the folks who think “if he didn’t score, he didn’t have a good game,” I guess, but that level of analysis is… that level of analysis). He absolutely, no questions asked deserved a penalty in the first half. You’ll see below my section on officiating has a bit more detail, but suffice to say that’s not an acceptable job performance by the official, and there is no excuse for it. He had a couple other opportunities where I thought he over-passed instead of just trying to bang one in – you’re a goal-getter, so get goals – but the mentality is understandable when your defense has limited FCC so resoundingly.
Community comment: “Allen put in a good shift despite the lack of scoring.”
Matt LaGrassa 12.30 (80 minutes) – Community rating: 6.50
He could just as easily fit in with the midfielders (and Moloto could fit in here), but since LaGrassa started the game here and a lot of the most interesting observations were at this position, here we are. I thought he had a very good game: something about not playing on the wing seems to agree with him – or at least get him comfortable, because this was his best wide midfield showing in a while, too – and while the chemistry and passing relationships clearly suffered for both he and Moloto being in a different spot than usual, you can see serious upside here.
Community comment: “Really impressed with LaGrassa and Winn, especially with how the connect with Moloto/Allen in and around the box.”
Lengthy aside on the officiating
Since part of my halftime column focused on the official, I guess I’d better follow up… on a re-watch, it was even worse than I thought. Emmanuel Ledesma for FCC made a questionably dirty play on Justin Davis that was rightfully called a foul, then made one that was transparently a yellow-card offense on Liam Doyle, all within the first eight minutes of the game. I actually don’t think there was intent on the Doyle play, but it was dangerous nonetheless, and a dangerous play by a guy you’ve already given a warning to. That, naturally, let the game spiral a little bit.
Lebo Moloto’s yellow card was pretty borderline – that was close to a red for me (from behind, no intent on the ball, despite commentary being semi-dumbfounded about a card at all?) – but he had the courage to do it because the leniency already shown. I don’t think there should have been more than a yellow in Dekel Keinan’s foul just a couple minutes later, but already you’ve gotten to a point where the game is going to be more physical than you’d like because you didn’t try to rein it in when the opportunity was there earlier.
I don’t think both of the fouls in the box committed on Brandon Allen in the 21st minute were penalty-worthy, necessarily, but if you don’t call the first, you sure as heck have to call the second. This was pretty clearly a ref who didn’t want to have his whistle decide the game… and ironically he did just that by not enforcing the rules as they should be. Things settled down a bit after the half, but it really seemed like we were going to see an extremely dangerous tackle leading to an injury at some point before the break.
I really think Bradley Bourgeois probably deserved a yellow card for getting in Danni Konig’s face when the two tussled out of bounds (though they were apparently having a civil conversation about fireworks), but the long conversation the official had with both players is actually where he seemed to finally get control of the game, so that’s where the serious complaints really started to tail off.
Hate to harp on the officiating (especially when the outcome probably would have been the same, albeit with another goal apiece instead of scorelessly, if it had been a well-officiated game) too much, but sometimes duty calls.
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