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A frantic opening left Toronto FC fans in dreamland before LA’s wingers scored to give the Galaxy a slim advantage heading back to California. Set pieces were the key to the opening leg and both teams will look to tighten up defensively before the crucial return match.
Deep lying midfielders important
In the absence of Julian de Guzman, Terry Dunfield played in midfield beside rookie Luis Silva. Dunfield had a decent match, he moved the ball laterally well and was positionally sound, but he attempted roughly twice as many passes as Silva. The young rookie is clearly the man Toronto would rather have on the ball and though he was efficient in his passing he wasn’t involved in the play enough. Contrast this with the LA Galaxy. When you consider that David Beckham played over twice as many passes as Juninho, including the pass to Landon Donovan to start the move for LA’s first goal, then you begin the appreciate the importance of your passers playing closer to the defense to get on the ball. Toronto need to get their creative players the ball more often, as de Guzman in for Dunfield will probably help, but because of the decision to play Torsten Frings at the back there was a bit of a disconnect between Silva and his back line.
Frings the key for TFC
Aron Winter decided to play Frings at the back and go with three central defenders versus the Galaxy’s two strikers. Their high line confused LA at the beginning forcing the visitors offside multiple times. However, once the strikers got the timing of their runs down Frings did superbly well to read the game. The TFC captain made eleven clearances in the match. Compare that to the other four centre backs in the game: Ty Harden, Miguel Aceval, Andy Boyens and A.J. DeLaGarza; combined the four made fifteen clearances. Clearly the German is an asset at the back, but as mentioned earlier there are changes to Toronto’s style when Toronto drop Frings between the central defenders.
While Frings dropping deep helps TFC break the press of the Galaxy’s two forwards and gives license for the full backs to bomb forward, it creates distance between Toronto’s defense and midfield. Every action has an effect somewhere else on the pitch and this was one of the main reasons Silva wasn’t able to get on the ball as much as Toronto would have liked. Playing the 3-4-3 the Reds need to be more compact to give their backline options to pass to. Los Angeles would probably be happy playing a high defensive line against Toronto. It would keep Danny Koevermans out of the box where his strength and movement would probably dominate LA’s centre backs but it would open up space for Toronto’s pacy wingers.
LA fatigue an issue?
Of course, all these possible tweaks would be moot unless Winter sticks with the 3-4-3. With the way LA finished their match against Real Salt Lake he might be tempted to attack the MLS champions. Beckham will need to be pressed more no matter what, and if he plays deep in midfield then Toronto will need someone to shadow him. Although he completed fifty passes against Toronto, with many of them being dangerous forward balls, his pass completion rate was only 62% -- not a great number for a central midfielder. Hounding the former English captain could lead to turnovers and force him to work physically, and that goes for the rest of the LA Galaxy eleven. Beckham looked dead tired after the loss to Real Salt Lake and may not be in top shape for the return leg against TFC. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him play out wide in order for Bruce Arena to shield him. If he does play centrally, Winter might consider playing a 4-2-3-1 an having his attacking midfielder basically man mark Beckham, much like Ryan Johnson did against Daniel Hernandez in Toronto’s 3-0 win over Dallas, leaving one of the two deeper midfielders free. A high octane pressing game might just work to TFC’s advantage if they are indeed the team in better shape.
Set pieces always central
We would be foolish to not mention set pieces as a potential decider for this match. Three of the four goals scored at the Rogers Centre came from corner kicks with the other coming from a cross in open play. Dealing with dangerous balls in the box was a problem for both sides and both teams have capable dead ball takers in the forms of Frings and Beckham. Besides personnel solutions like inserting height and strength into your line up or the cliché of concentrating harder, one obvious solution is to concede less corners.
Joao Plata enjoyed early success against Sean Franklin and it was he who earned the corner that led to the first goal. As the match wore on, however, Plata faded out of the match and Donovan took over that flank. The wide battles will be key as both teams have full backs capable of getting forward to support their wingers and pin back the opposition, and with both keepers not looking dominant in the air both set pieces and crosses from open play could decide the tie. there.
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