TAKEAWAYS | Keep Portland Weird
LAFC earns its first road point but can't find a winner despite playing up a man for much of the second half.
A couple of goals finished with world-class technique. Eight yellow cards were issued and a combined 34 fouls were committed between the two teams. The goalkeeper renowned for a game-saving red card showed a red card in a similar fashion. A possible game-winning goal disallowed in the dying moments. It’s strange when a match makes El Trácifo seem tame by comparison.
That was LAFC’s 2-2 draw in Portland in short.
In consecutive matches against rivals, LAFC earned four points. Not bad, considering the Black & Gold’s historically bad start to the season. And yet, something tells me the general vibe isn’t one of content around the fan base - playing up a man for 42 minutes plus stoppage time and not winning can have that effect.
So, what gives?
Let’s have a look at the Takeaways from LAFC’s 2-2 draw against the Timbers:
Mixed Bag
Before the trip to Portland, LAFC’s road contests went as such. A blowout loss in the middle of a blizzard. A toothless performance in Minnesota. And a crumbling defeat despite leading with less than 15 minutes remaining in Colorado.
Feel free to dismiss the first away trip as an anomaly, but, officially speaking, LAFC traveled to Portland with zero points earned on the road in three matches. So, the point earned in Portland was a step in the right direction.
More positives. LAFC secured its first result of the season when not scoring first in the match. Against the Timbers, LAFC came back from a deficit not once, but twice. It was also the first time Steve Cherundolo’s team earned a point in an away match it trailed since June of last season.
It wasn’t all good though.
There were costly individual errors. The midfield’s inability to apply pressure 25 yards from its own goal on Evander and Jesus Murillo’s poor body positioning before the pass for the first goal. Then on the second goal, Timothy Tillman not tracking Evander and Ilie Sánchez dropping into the backline and then stepping out at the wrong time to let the Timbers star waltz into LAFC’s penalty area. Just to name a few.
The errors came from players you count on in tough matches. Simple errors cascaded to punish LAFC, giving the team an uphill battle on the road.
Then there was the inability to find the winning goal despite being up a man for nearly the entire second half.
There’s a temptation to think scoring is inevitable with an extra man. Rarely, do we consider the opposition’s will in the matter, let alone that it’s not totally out of the realm of possibly a team could score with 10 vs 11. There are tradeoffs. It’s not all brute force.
With a man advantage, LAFC did a lot of what you’d want to see a good team do. The Black & Gold controlled possession and pushed all 10 outfield players into Portland’s half for long spells. They moved the ball from side to side and forward, all while risking vast amounts of space in behind. That’s the thing about space behind a backline, you don’t need numbers to exploit it. Sometimes it’s just a matter of a footrace or a 1v1 opportunity gone wrong and Portland still had players on the pitch capable of either of those feats. But despite the individual errors in the first half, LAFC limited Portland to just a couple of set pieces while creating numerous chances from open play on the other end.
What LAFC didn’t produce were clean opportunities on the Portland goal. Prior to the red card, LAFC took four shots for an xG total of .41, according to FBref.com (xG is a measure of the likelihood of a shot resulting in a goal using historical data and taking into account position of the shot, type of shot, defender position, etc., so it makes for a pretty good measure of the quality of chances created while not taking into account the skill of the player’s finishing). After the red card, LAFC took 11 shots for a total xG of 1.06. More shots and a larger aggregate xG following the red card but a marginally lower average xG per shot (.10 vs .09).
It was a disappointment for a side that historically prides itself on scoring goals.
But they did eventually put the ball in the net.
Had the referee waited a second later to blow his whistle and relied on VAR to sort out the aftermath, we might not be having this conversation. In a game that is low-scoring by design, moments that can go either way have huge repercussions but are often forgotten.
Those are the fine margins at play at all times in sports. And yet, we render judgment unconditionally. If Nathan Ordaz isn’t called for a foul there, would you feel differently about LAFC after the result in Portland? And how dependent is that on just one play?
Mati Magic
When Mati Bogusz is on his game, there are few players like him in this league.
“He’s a player, obviously playing out of maybe his best position, but still finding ways to help his club win games and finding the back of the net,” Cherundolo said of Bogusz after the game.
The “out of his best position” part is key here. Bogusz is a gifted player. He has great technical ability, covers a lot of ground, finds pockets of space, and is difficult to dispossess when he’s running at defenders. This season, he’s been asked to play in a false 9 role that forces him to reinterpret some of those individual qualities differently. For that, he’s maybe unfairly dinged at times - the versatility to help teams in multiple roles is usually a good thing, especially in a salary-cap league.
Both of Bogusz’s goals against Portland demonstrated why he has to be in the team. What can you say about the freekick to level the score? It’s just brilliant. Pure quality to get the ball over the wall and then under the crossbar from that distance. Bogusz has that in his locker.
Despite the brilliance of the second goal, it was the first goal that had more encouraging signs for Bogusz in his current role.
Through the first 20 minutes of the match, Bogusz had been doing pretty standard false 9 things. He was dropping from a higher position to deeper pockets in midfield to help in the buildup. The movements gave LAFC a bit of tempo on the ball but did little to threaten the Timbers until the 22nd minute.
As LAFC moved the ball from the touchline to a central area, you’ll find Bogusz once again hovering around midfield. It’s his awareness of his teammates and spacing in this moment that created a dangerous opening. With his teammate Cristan Olivera in a similar pocket of space though, Bogusz’s drifted higher, positioning himself between the Portland center backs as a vertical threat. Having dropped deep throughout much of the match leading up to this point, Bogusz ghosted into the space with little awareness from the opponent.
The Timbers aren’t able to get ample pressure on Tillman as he received the ball in a central position. The LAFC midfielder does the smart thing with the extra time and space, looking beyond the short option provided by Dénis Bouanga to the more dangerous deeper position of Bogusz. The pass from Tillman was the perfect weight and angle for Bogusz to turn quickly and race into Portland’s penalty area.
“I just saw behind me free space. So, I just take a touch, close my eyes, and shoot,” Bogusz said after the match.
The “closed-eyed” technique aside, it was a clever bit of play from an attacker and one you might expect from a more experienced center forward. If Bogusz can keep adding that to the heaps of talent he already has, maybe we’ll be talking about more goals and less about him playing out of position.
LAFC’s Best 11?
After eight games played, we’ve completed a virtual quarter of the season. To this point, LAFC has used exactly two starting 11s and just 12 starters. And despite that continuity in starting lineups, the team hasn’t had the same result in consecutive matches this season.
With that in mind, this is a topic of conversation from the end of our Happy Foot Sad Foot Live Postgame Reaction show after the Timbers match: Is it time to change things up a bit?
That question is now moot or possibly exacerbated, depending on how you look at it, by the yellow card shown to Eduard Atuesta in the 87th minute of the Timbers match. Atuesta will miss the next match due to yellow card accumulation. So, that change will be forced on Steve Cherundolo.
One caveat to consider, and this is a huge caveat. We base our opinions on what we see during matches on the weekend. However, the coaching staff has the benefit of numerous data points. Matches are just a small piece of the puzzle. Throughout the week, the coaching staff has numerous training sessions to assess the players, copious amounts of fitness and medical data, and, of course, the opposition scouting and tactics planned for the upcoming match.
Ultimately, the coaching staff is much better informed when making these decisions, which is why I generally shy away from these conversations. With Atuesta already out though, is there a case to be made for additional changes?
I gave my thoughts on the postgame show. I want to know what you think. Drop your starting 11 against NY Red Bull in the comments. Let me know why you made the changes based on player characteristics and the upcoming opponent - remember, NYRB are a pressing side. I’ll respond to each 11 with my thoughts and we’ll get a good discussion going.
I'd like to see:
Bouanga-Kamara-Martinez (if fit)
Bogusz-Illie-Tillman
Campos-Chanot-Long-Hollingshead
Lloris
Since we are playing an on form Red Bulls team maybe we should try to use the players with Eastern Conference experience. I would be in favor of benching Bouanga but that is probably not in the cards.
Besides LLoris I would try: Bouanga, Kamara, Martinez - Bougusz, Ilie, Tillman - Palencia, Chanot, Long, Hollingshead.