August 23, 2016
Daniel Gajdamowicz/Philly Soccer Page
Union center back Richie Marquez goes in for a tackle on Toronto's Jonathan Osorio during the club's 3-1 loss on Saturday night.
Jim Curtin will have to decide between Ken Tribbett and Josh Yaro for Wednesday night's important road trip to Columbus.
Tribbett was involved in the concession of all three Toronto goals on Saturday and found himself benched at halftime. Yaro played the second 45 as a more conservative TFC looked to protect their two-goal lead.
Seven days prior to being pulled from the 3-1 loss, Tribbett turned in one of his best performances of the season. He put in a mistake-free 90 minutes in the four-nil clobbering at New England. He was assertive and physical and matched up well with the experienced and crafty Kei Kamara. This week, he struggled with Toronto's star power and looked off the pace.
"I'm a guy who likes a consistent back four," the Union manager said on Monday. "You try and find that during the year. I think you still learn little things in each game that they play together. Again, it's no secret, it wasn't Ken's best performance. We talked through the film (Monday) and I talked with him individually. He still had a lot of good plays in the game. He passed the ball really well. If you go back and look through the tape of the first half, he played through the lines really well. He scores a great goal. But, against one of the top strikers, not only in our league, but (anywhere), he had some learning lessons, for sure."
Sunday, we wrote about the defensive breakdowns that plagued the Union in the 3-1 home loss.
Monday, the always-candid Curtin was glad to elaborate on those issues and share takeaways from his team's morning film session.
Here's the first Toronto goal, which comes from some outstanding Jozy Altidore hold-up play and an even better ball from Marco Delgado. Sebastian Giovinco takes a brilliant first touch to beat Tribbett, then banks a goal off both posts and in.
Curtin: "If you break it down on the first goal, we talked about Keegan pinching in a lot more off of where the ball was kicked. If Jozy takes it off his chest and it goes negative (backwards), can we still get our center backs back in the same line? Can we drop deep to cover for them? That opens that seam and Delgado plays a hell of a ball, too. That has to be said. And Giovinco's first touch isn't bad on the play (laughs). That's a hard one, but there are little things that (Tribbett) could have done better on that one."
On the second goal, I thought Tribbett appeared to be picked by Jonathan Osorio in front of referee Mark Geiger. Toronto's Drew Moor found himself wide open inside the box and steered a free header into the bottom corner.
Curtin: "The second one, you read and hear different things, but there was no real screen, no hard screen set on that one. The last view, you can see that Drew Moor grabs his arm and gives him a little bit of a pull that creates separation. On that one, we talked with C.J. (Sapong). C.J.'s man in that instance did not come forward and did not come into the box. So could C.J. take the initiative on his own, to be the guy that recovers to the most dangerous spot, which is the penalty spot in that area? We share the responsibility for sure. It was Ken's man on that one, so it's difficult, but you learn from each of those two plays."
On the third goal, it's another superior show of strength from Altidore. Tribbett slides to his outside shoulder and allows the U.S. international striker to push inside.
Then, as Altidore moves toward goal, Osorio makes a nifty diagonal run to pull Richie Marquez in the other direction.
Here's the diagram I drew up in the player grades article to illustrate how that criss-cross worked out. It looks like a simple "stunt" that you would see from defensive linemen in American football.
You see that the Union defense looks to be in decent position as the play starts at the feet of Will Johnson. Marquez and Fabinho are keeping an eye on Giovinco and Osorio, while Warren Creavalle starts to slide into a defensive position.
This is what it looked like in real time:
Don't hurt 'em, @JozyAltidore.#ATTGotW or nah? VOTE: https://t.co/gotwrquv4V https://t.co/I5usj8nins
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 23, 2016
Curtin: "Then the third one, again, (Tribbett) gets in a wrestling match with Jozy. That's what Jozy wants. He's one of the strongest strikers in our league. Once he 'feels' you, that's what he wants. You almost want to initiate contact, then get away. That's when Jozy will just kind of play backwards or won't really make a decisive choice. Once you get tangled with him, he loves that. You could see that Alejandro (Bedoya) recovers. I thought Warren could have recovered better. Richie's run kind of fouls up the back line. He crosses over Ken, which you never want your center back to do..."
PhillyVoice: "Would you want him to pull off of that sooner if Osorio's run takes Richie out of the play?"
Curtin: "Exactly. Stop. Almost stop at that point, because, A, there's no way that Jozy can get him the ball with a guy draped over him, and, B, Osorio runs offside if Richie just stops. So, he chases him across the other center back, which is defending 101. And they know that, but in the moment, when you (play against) top guys, you try to help each other, but at the same time, you overcompensate a little bit or maybe overthink it. That was probably too long of a breakdown of all of the goals, but again, this is what we talk through. And these are good lessons for us and good lessons for everyone. Our fans can get a little bit of insight into what we're thinking about and what we're talking through to improve as a team. It's disappointing to give up three goals in one half at home. Second half, I thought we responded well and pushed the tempo, but at that point, it's too late."
