The Los Angeles Football Club prevailed over the Los Angeles Galaxy by a modest 2-1 score, but it could have been much worse. Steve Cherundolo exposed a fundamental flaw in the LA Galaxy, a team built and structured to possess the ball and control the game. In the Vanney-ball series, we examined the three basic principles of possession soccer: force the defense to move by creating overloads with a high-tempo passing game, maintain a defensive compact shape even while attacking, and break lines with incisive passes to create transitions and combinations in goal-dangerous spaces.
Nine out of ten starting field players can thrive in a possession-based system. One does not, Riqui Puig. When the other nine run off the ball to create space, Puig waits to receive it before he runs. Other players take one or two touches; Riqui averages between five and seven. Possession-based players pass the ball when under pressure; Puig dribbles. Puig plays looping passes that players must control, while Mark Delgado and Gaston Brugman play quick grass cutters that cut through the lines and keep the game flowing.
Peter Vermes provided the league with a template for controlling the Galaxy, and LAFC executed it to perfection. Set up a narrow and compact low to mid-block shape. Dispossess or foul Puig when he gets the ball while marking runners and stepping into the passing lanes. When Puig tries the killer pass, cut it out and launch the counter-attack. When the Galaxy fall behind, wait for them to abandon the possession system and win the resulting track meet. But for the heroics of Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy and the poor form of LAFC forward Denis Bouanga, the game could have been 3-1, not counting the phantom penalty call against Miki Yamane.
As coach Greg Vanney trains the team to play his possession-based system, the team seems to struggle more. Puig stalls the high-tempo passing rhythm and dribbles when he can combine. Vanney must face the reality that if Riqui does not get the ball within a few passes, he will wander all over the field in search of it. Whatever rhythm develops will be interrupted to make room for a different kind of attack.
Riqui Puig demands the ball from Julian Aude who can play to Joseph Paintsil in space.
A series of eight high-tempo passes caused the defenders to move. Notice how they face their own goal. A pass down the line to Paintsil brings Jovelic and Pec into the play and gives Puig the opportunity to take a position at the top of the box. Evidently, Puig demanded the ball, so Aude dribbled to open up a passing lane. Aude pushes the ball toward Puig, a signal to set up a relational sequence. Jovelic and Paintsil do not respond to the cue by moving closer to Riqui.
Julian Aude and Riqui Puig look to play a relational sequence, but their teammates do not respond.
The longer the passing sequence, the harder it is for Puig’s teammates to anticipate his movements. When he fails to connect a pass or loses possession, the Gs find themselves defending a numbers-up counter-attack. Gradually, players like Yamane and Julian Aude tire from constantly sprinting back to cover until Yamane stays home, and Aude no longer tracks back in time to help the center backs and midfielders.
Riqui Puig dribbles. LAFC wins the ball and exposes the Galaxy defense.
When Puig dominates the ball, Paintsil disappears from the game. He is not the kind of player who wants the ball to feet so he can beat a defender off the dribble. He thrives during a possession sequence when goal-dangerous spaces open up. He likes to play one-touch combinations with teammates. He times his runs perfectly because he feels the tempo of the passing, feeding off passes to space coordinated with his run. Through seven games, Puig has yet to deliver a clean pass to Paintsil as he attacks space.
Dejan Jovelic also thrives when the possession game puts him in a position to combine with teammates running off him. Unlike a prototypical number nine, he needs good passing and movement to grant him some separation from the player marking him. When he receives the ball at his feet, he can pass and move into goal-dangerous positions. He needs less than a yard of space to get off a shot. Because Jovelic requires service to score goals, he must adapt his game to suit Puig.
The Galaxy score when they bypass Puig and combine through Jovelic.
After another sequence of passes that did not involve Puig, Brugman split the line with a pass to Jovelic, who deftly played Aude in for a shot off the post. After a melee with LAFC sacrificing their bodies for the cause, Aude composed himself and slotted it home.
As long as Vanney remains the Galaxy’s coach, the tactical approach will be founded on a possession-based system. The roster players all suit the system, with a single outlier who drags the team away from system soccer. No Other DP in the league has more touches, passes, and giveaways than Puig. Vanney clearly wants to adapt the system to take advantage of his strengths, but at what cost? At some point, Puig must also adapt to the system and the strengths of his teammates.
One possibility could be for the coaching staff to sit down with Puig and study Lionel Messi. Messi restricts himself to the attacking parts of the formation, rarely dropping deeper than the midfield. Defenders cannot predict the number of touches he takes or the kind of pass he’ll play. He only requires that his teammates run and he will find them with a pass suited to their skills. Messi looks to draw teammates into the game before finishing the play himself. He can operate comfortably within a possession-based or counter-attacking system.
If Puig can reduce the number of touches per possession and keep the rhythm and tempo flowing, he can pick advantageous moments to attack the defense. To succeed inside Vanney-ball, he must be willing to allow his teammates to dictate the rhythm and control of the game while choosing those moments when the defense drops off to carry the attack forward himself. Delgado, Brugman, Jovelic, and Pec can combine to deliver defense-splitting passes to Paintsil in space, freeing Puig to operate at the top of the box, where he can be deadly.
Flashes of brilliance show what Puig can do if he works within the system.
By the second half of El Traffico the Galaxy played neither possession nor relational soccer. When Puig received the ball, they simply stopped. The game opened up for LAFC to finish off the Galaxy. McCarthy thwarted a series of menacing chances and Bouanga skied a gimme. As dysfunctional as the Galaxy have been in the past two games, they nearly rescued a point against one of the best defensive teams in the league.
The Galaxy continue to play with such desire and quality that they can win games dominated by the opponent. However, to become a consistent winner, Vanney can no longer allow Puig to dictate the game from every part of the field. Everyone, including Puig, must adapt as quickly as possible to Vanney-ball so Paintsil can terrorize defenders with his pace and Pec can leave them in his wake.
We know that Vanney can win championships, but can he convince Puig to change his approach? With one home match against San Jose sandwiched between away games to Vancouver and Austin, we will know more by the end of April. The congested schedule starting in May will leave little room for major adjustments.