Film from the Fortress: CLTFC vs Colorado Rapid Match Review

How Colorado exposed Charlotte's crossing weakness.

After the 2 game win-streak, CLTFC fans seemed to have sky high expectations for this game. Despite the high altitude, this game definitely grounded those expectations. Colorado provided the type of test I expected from the San Jose game. Despite being less talented as a roster than Charlotte, Colorado is a well-organized team, committed to keeping their defensive shape, willing to run and press, and not afraid to play direct especially when they win the ball in the midfield. We’ve seen Charlotte compete against good teams by playing like this, but we haven’t faced that type of team until this week.

Despite the poor result, there are multiple positives that should give hope that this team will continue to grow and improve over the season. A lot of the issues were just having a poor game with some touches and passes that do not reflect the quality of this team. And the tactical issues we had this game should be easy to fix. But what is most promising was we attempted (with some success) to address our buildup through the midfield which I still believe is the thing Charlotte needs to figure out to unlock their ceiling this year.

There are a lot of little things we could analyze but I want to focus and dive deep into the few big tactical aspects of this game showing some opportunities and issues we need to address. We will start with in-possession tactics and then go to out of possession.

Topic 1: Bronico in buildup and the bad habit we can’t kick

This was the first game of the season where Charlotte tried to use their two central midfielders to buildup into our attack. Specifically, Brandt Bronico was used as a pivot and showed some promise and ability to do this role. While it was not perfect, if Bronico can develop this ability to break the press as a pivot, it is going to help us consistently build into good attacking situations against any team.

Bronico in the pivot

Early and often this game, Bronico would drop into the press received the ball from his teammates. This early example shows how active Bronico was in the pivot and how it helps us build cleanly into attacking positions even against an organized and set defensive press.

Here Bronico gets a pass from Ream off a goal kick and Colorado is in a high press. He passes out wide to Doumbia and then starts to run forward out of the press. But he quickly recognizes there is nothing happening and he drops back into the pivot spot and receives the pass back from Doumbia.

Here he has some time and plays a pass across to Malanda. The pass is not perfect but Malanda receives the ball with Larraz (#8) running to pressure him. But with only one player pressing, he passes to Kahlina to easily get it to Byrne and as seen below Colorado drops into their mid-block.

So now Colorado is in their mid-block and we cycle the ball back over to Ream. You can see below Colorado is in a 2-4 pressing structure (with their wingers a bit off-line because of where Byrne and Doumbia are respectively). As Ream passes across to Malanda this triggers their near-side striker to run and pressure Malanda.

As Malanda receives he does not immediately play it long and instead passes it back to Ream. This continues to trigger a press as the other striker steps up to pressure Ream. You can also see their far side winger (Cabral #91) has stepped up more aggressively as well.

One benefit of Ream as our center back is his left foot and passing ability. He puts the ball on his left foot and finds a pass between the two pressers into Bronico. Bronico is about to receive a pass inside the press with pressure. As you can see below he does a great job positioning his body to seal off the pressure form Atencio (#12) and setup a one touch pass out wide to Doumbia.

That above pass and touch by Bronico has been non-existent in our first five games. Here after making the pass he makes a run forward pulling his marker (#12) and opening up that space. Doumbia has time as Cabral (#91) was originally pressuring Bronico and Westwood moves up to fill in the space Bronico left and receive the ball.

Thanks to Bronico’s skill and our willingness to try to build-up, we’ve broken down their press. However, this sequence matches the trend this game where our buildup ideas were good but our final execution was not always perfect. Here, I would love a stronger pass from Doumbia where Westwood can open his body up and either dribble forward or look to play a long ball now that he has space and time. But the pass is too weak and he plays a one-two with Doumbia. This option is still good but Doumbia misses the pass and it goes for a throw in.

Despite the result not being there the significance of this play is huge. We’ve essentially bypassed a press without having any of our 4 attackers have to drop in and touch the ball. If we can consistently do this, it will give our attackers the freedom and space to get the ball in dangerous positions and be able to create scoring chances.

While Bronico was not perfect in this pivot role, he was willing to do it and did well enough that just his movement and willingness led to positive situations. Here Bronico checks into the pivot space in the press and despite pressure coming from behind, Kahlina makes the pass into Bronico, trusting him in the pivot role.

He keeps it simple and make a one touch pass toward the near side. Now he should pass this to Malanda who would receive it facing forward and could look long or to Byrne for the next pass. Instead Bronico puts it too close to Byrne who just puts under pressure by Larraz (#8) who presses on the pass.

Despite the poor execution, Byrne touches it back to Malanda who finds a great one touch through ball down the line and we get a transition attack.

If Agyemang does not get tackled by their center back here it may have been a goal. This example shows there may be some growing pains as we try to use our pivots more, but the long-term reward is worth these potential mistakes.

Bronico helping the attack

The last two examples showed how Bronico’s presence in the initial buildup can help us break a press without pulling Biel or Zaha back to support. These next examples show Bronico contributing to the attack through this pivot role.

Here the ball was on the right side of our attack and we are recycling play back around. As everyone is shifting with the ball, Malanda plays it over to Ream and we see Bronico in the center of our rest defense as a central midfielder.

Ream makes a quick one touch pass to Bronico who has some space in the center. In the past Bronico would receive the ball with his back towards goal, turn then slowly progress. Here he quickly opens his body and drives forward.

He takes the space given to him then gives an easy to pass to Zaha who is in the left half-space near the top of the box. Zaha is facing goal when he receives, makes a move on his defender and then is fouled by the incoming double team to earn us a free kick right outside the box.

Bronico does not need to be a masterful passer in this role. Above he just receives the ball and makes an easy pass to Zaha. But his quick and decisive movement to make the simple play gets the ball to our attackers with space in a dangerous position. Bronico also showed some ability to make chance creating passes from tight spaces. Here in the second half, Bronico drops into the press to receive the ball from Malanda.

Bronico plays the way he is facing and goes out wide to Byrne. Westwood’s marker moves out to apply pressure to Byrne and Bronico is open in the press and receives the ball back.

It is hard to show without the video (watch the replay if you can) but Bronico with incoming pressure dribbles forward into this press and then in a tight space makes a nice pass into the feet of Abada.

Abada turns the wrong way and essentially lets this ball run into his defender. But again regardless of the results this is great work from Bronico.

And finally here is another one on other side. Here Westwood drops out of the press to receive the ball. Doumbia has pushed up the line and Westwood finds him with a great lofted pass.

From this pass Doumbia gets pressure from the left back and their right winger (Cabral #91). That means Bronico’s only marker in the center midfielder next to the referee. As Doumbia holds up the ball with incoming pressure, Bronico has enough space to come and support.

Once again Bronico is faced with a playmaking/pivot tough decision. He has incoming pressure on his back, Doumbia is making a run down the line which may be covered, Zaha is jogging out wide with a player tight on him. With one touch on his weak left foot, Bronico finds the through-ball between the two center backs for Agyemang to run onto.

The weight of the pass it not perfect but Agyemang does win the ball and breaks forward. While not exactly the same this vertical seam run feels similar to his goal against Cincinnati, only this time it is not Biel providing the pass but Bronico. While I’d prefer Biel to be making this pass, it shows promise that we can get playmaking and key passes from Bronico.

Bronico in the pivot was the biggest tactical positive of this game. While it did not produce results this game, it shows us trying to address our biggest weakness for this season. I want to give credit first to the coaching staff for working on this. Also, I think they’ve done a great job of having different ways to beat the press (center back passes, long balls to wingers, buildup as shown above) and are willing to adjust and use different methods depending on what our opponent allows. I also want to give credit to Bronico. Being that midfield pivot is probably the weakest part of his skillset but he showed a willingness to try and did pretty well in the role. I thought our solution to buildup would be replacing Bronico with Williamson, Diani, or a future signing but Bronico showed in this game he may be able to do this role.

While this part was promising, there is one bad in-possession trend that has been there since the Atlanta match that showed up again here.

Abada not providing width

To avoid repeating myself, I’ll share what I wrote from the Atlanta Match Review.

The problem is both Biel and Abada prefer to play in the right half-space. Now we don’t have time to dive into positional play but when they both drift into the half-space we lose our width and struggle to create chances.

Other than the first 30 minutes against Cincinnati, Abada continues to play centrally which causes us to lose all width and ability attack on our right side.

This started right away this game. Just one minute into the game, Zaha drops back to help with buildup and after drawing a double team he slips a great pass through to Biel. Look at how central Abada is in making his run through.

There are two crucial things to notice here. First, we have no player on the right side of the pitch which means all of our buildup and attacking is going to come from the left and center. And second, Abada is being marked by their left back (Murphy, #19) who is all the way over on the far side. Colorado can basically put their whole team on half the field. Basically, we are forcing ourselves to play to the left side and allowing Colorado to put all their defenders in that space.

Let’s show another example where Abada playing centrally hurts our attack and maybe costs him a goal. Here Zaha is on the ball out wide and notice that #8 on Colorado is the farthest wide player they have which making the left side very congested.

Despite the congestion Zaha dribbles past a player and then finds a great ball past the midfield line into Biel. Biel and Agyemang create an overload against their far side center back and with one touch Biel taps it through for Agyemang to run onto.

As you can see above Abada is super central and while Zaha, Biel and Agyemang have just made a great combination it is ruined by Abada’s positioning. Because Abada is central his marker (#19) is filling a central defensive role. This allows Colorado’s actual center back (#6) to drift over to the far side and challenge Agyemang as he runs onto the through ball. As Agyemang gets the cross off, none of our players are actually in front of goal able to get onto this cross.

Abada’s positioning means he’s marked and his run is to the near post. Even if he gets this pass it is a tough finish to get this on target. If Abada had started out wide and was running in from the near corner of the penalty box, he’d probably have more space and could run onto a back post or central ball. Also, if he is more central or on the far post, that could open space for Biel on a cutback cross from Agyemang.

In addition to hurting our actual attack, Abada’s central positioning stops our ability to buildup on the right side and allow Biel to find space beyond the midfield line.

Here we have switched the play from left to right and Byrne carries forward. The only problem is Abada is central and there is no-one on the right sideline for Byrne to pass too.

Byrne has to stop and recycle with a pass back through the center backs. It winds up with Bronico who carries forward and we choose to buildup on the left.

And once again with Abada being central the left is super congested with basically all of Colorado’s players on that half of the pitch.

And here again Byrne gets the ball with space but has no player out wide to pass too.

Biel comes out wide to try to help but he receives this pass in a terrible position and can only dribble it out for a turnover.

I’m not certain if Abada is coming centrally because of coaching or his natural tendencies. If it’s coaching I am shocked and curious why they are asking him to do this (and if any media person reads this can you ask about it in a press conference please). And if it is Abada’s natural movement there may be an argument for starting Kerwin over Abada. Not because Kerwin is a better player, but because heactually positions himself correctly as a right winger.

Later in the game Malanda makes a cross field switch into Zaha on the wing. Despite this ball being on the near side sideline, look at how far wide Kerwin is on the far side. And because of that, look as how much farther stretched Colorado’s defensive line is compared to the earlier examples.

Zaha makes a poor touch but quickly win the ball back and is able to make a run past his man. With Colorado’s defense spread wider, Zaha dribbles forward as we get into the dangerous position below.

Notice how Zaha and Agyemang’s runs have pulled both center backs toward the near side and because of the width of Kerwin, their left back cannot cover for his center backs. Zaha attempts a pass toward Biel and because of the spacing the left back is overloaded with 2 attackers to deal with. If he steps toward Biel, then Biel can play Kerwin through for a shot/cross. If he covers Kerwin, Biel can dribble into the box and shoot. Unfortunately, Zaha’s pass was off the mark and nothing comes of the attack. But the spacing and threat here is significantly better.

Abada’s spacing was concerning against Atlanta and a major issue against Miami. I thought it was resolved against Cincinnati but it came roaring back in this game. This is a major issue which seems easy to fix. I hope the coaches and Abada can sort this out quickly or else we will continue to struggle.

Topic 2: Issues with defending crosses

As an organized, direct, and counter-attacking team, I expected Colorado to mainly threaten to score off of transitions. But Colorado exposed and tried to exploit a defensive weakness that is usually a strength for Charlotte, defending crosses.

A soft spot in our crossing coverage

For these next examples, I need to briefly cover Charlotte’s defensive approach. To oversimplify it, Charlotte packs the middle of the field tucking our wingers and full backs inside. The idea is to prevent central playmakers from having time to dribble and pass through our team. Naturally this opens up space on the sidelines but Charlotte feels confident that if the ball goes down the sidelines, our fullbacks can either stop the cross or our center-backs and midfielders can handle them easily.

Colorado was the first team that actually looked to build out wide and play to the sideline. Below is a typical example of Colorado’s buildup. They would drop one of their center midfielders into the backline (giving them a “back 3") and pushing both their fullbacks up the sideline. Here Bassett (#23) has dropped back and is on the ball and we see their right back up the sideline on the far side and their left back (Murphy #19) providing width on the near side.

The ball swings to their left center back (Awaziem #6) who dribbles into the space in front of him and their left back continues to stretch wide as a passing option. Notice how Abada and Byrne are tucked in, driving this play out the wings.

Unlike previous opponents, Colorado gladly takes the space on the wing passing out wide to Murphy (#19). He dribbles forward as Byrne comes out to challenge him. Now so far everything is fine for Charlotte, the ball is out wide and our defense is set and can handle a cross. However as we see below their main playmaker Mihailovic (#10) is wide open between our two defensive lines.

Mihailovic receives this and turns forward. Westwood provides late pressure and Malanda stays in front and blocks the shot for a corner, but we cannot be giving players this much space.

What Charlotte lacked was coordination in defending these crosses. In the example above, Byrne has positioned his body to force him to continue wide but he is not high enough to cut off this horizontal pass. Second Malanda is deep potentially to prevent a cross going toward the six yard box that their main striker could make a near post run after. But by being deep and without Westwood back at the top of the box we provide this opening.

This lack of coordination was not isolated to that one incident. Here we try to clear and lose the ball in a counter-press. However we reorganize our defense and are in a good defensive shape as the ball goes wide to Mihailovic.

But as Byrne comes out to contest we see that horizontal pass open up again due to lack of coordination. Byrne is not high enough with how he is positioned to block off the horizontal passing lane. Malanda is deep again and Westwood does not pickup Cabral standing between him and Malanda.

The ball comes to Cabral who tries to take a first touch before shooting and it gets tackled away but if he shoots this first time it is a dangerous spot.

Wide runners into the box

Colorado saw we were willing to let them move the ball out wide and that our crossing coverage had some soft spots and they looked to exploit them. Specifically, Colorado wingers would make runs from out wide across the goal to find space between our midfield lines and center backs.

Late in the first half Colorado comes at us in transition. Despite Byrne being out of the play we are in decent shape as Malanda goes out to contest Atencio (#12) out wide. Note our marking with Ream on Navarro (their striker) and Doumbia on Cabral their (right winger).

With Malanda now going out to contest a cross, Navarro makes a run toward goal while Cabral makes a run inside toward the top of the penalty box. What these run do is pull both Ream and Doumbia back toward the goal. This coupled with our midfield not being back and Malanda’s positioning not taking away a horizontal pass gives Cabral space at the top of the box to receive a pass.

As Cabral receives Doumbia and Westwood both converge which probably stops a shot. But Cabral lays it off to Mihailovic who now has space at the top of the box and no pressure.

Mihailovic takes a shot which is saved well by Kahlina. Again our defense does handle this but Colorado is now creating runs to get space in between our defense and midfield line in the box.

This tactic became more prevalent in the second half as Colorado continued to make these runs from out wide across the box to get open. Here we take a long goal kick and lose the ball allowing Colorado to attack again, but our defense is naturally set.

Here Mihailovic is out wide with their substitute winger Harris (#14) creating a 2v1 against Doumbia. As the ball goes wide to Mihailovic, notice the movement of their other sub, their left winger Fernandez (#11, black box around him) currently marked by Byrne.

With the ball wide Bronico has dropped down to contest the cross. Ream and Malanda are both in the 6 yard box in their zones. Fernandez who came from out wide to the penalty spot continues to run across goal. Doing this he losses Byrne as his marker (who stay in his zone on the far post) and neither Westwood nor Ream pick up this run. Mihailovic passes across and Fernandez receives the ball in a nice pocket of space inside the box.

Ferandez controls the pass but his back is toward goal. From here Westwood immediately tries to pressure Fernandez preventing a shot but there is nobody at the top of the box for the layoff pass. Westwood has to turn and sprint to contest this shot.

According to FBRef this shot has a .33xG which is not a type of chance we want to be conceding. Westwood makes an absolute hero block with this recovery run but it does not hide the danger this run created.

And here is our last example. Colorado is recycling the ball after we stop a transition chance. Diani (in for Bronico) steps forward on Bassett (#23) forcing him to play back to his defenders.

The ball cycles from the center back out to the left back as we force play wide and Colorado does not complain. As this play goes forward note Mihailovic (#10) who started wide and has drifted more central while still being covered by Doumbia.

Colorado then gets it out wide to Fernandez who dribbles forward as Byrne jogs out to meet him. There is no perceived threat here but note below how we are already conceding some space for that run across the box.

Malanda and Ream are dropping while Westwood is pulled wide and Diani is too far forward. We also see Doumbia dropping off allowing Mihailovic to make a diagonal run unmarked into that circle of space opening up in front of him. Fernandez makes a quick dribble down the line then squeaks a cross past Byrne into that open space.

From here, Mihailovic runs free onto the ball, opens his body toward goals and gets a first time shot into the bottom corner to open the scoring.

What went wrong here is a combination of little errors by multiple players. As you can see below on the replay Byrne probably needs to block this cross so it does not go into the specific area that is open in the box. But also if Diani makes a quicker recovery he should be there to contest this run. And lastly, there needs to be better coordination where Doumbia passes off this runner to Ream/Malanda or he needs to man mark on this run across.

My biggest problem with this goal is it was too easy for them to score. If you watch the video replay there is not any creative play by an attacker or really any change of pace or speed. They just cycle the ball out wide, dribble it forward casually and then get a cross to a wide open player who scores.

Now that it is in on film, I’m sure our team will find a response on how to deal with these runs. Because with how we play defense and force teams out wide, we cannot have a glaring and easily exploitable weakness on defending crosses.

Conceding chances in transition

Outside of theses crossing plays, Colorado looked most threatening in transition. When we failed to build up, Colorado looked to play forward immediately. Because we have struggled to build up consistently, these opportunities have been available in most games but Colorado is the first team to really attack us following a midfield turnover.

This first example is not a super clean transition but still shows the threat Colorado posed. Ream has the ball from buildup and makes a decision mistake here. Doumbia is wide open on the sideline but Ream fails to see him twice and instead tries a lofted pass to Zaha who is marked by their right back.

Zaha and Rosenberry (#2) contest for this pass and it goes back and forth for about 5 seconds between a Charlotte then Colorado touch. Eventually it gets to the image below where Bronico is going to the ball but a Colorado player gets a touch and it falls to Atencio who looks immediately to play forward.

Atencio (#12) carries his dribble forward and with Bronico and Westwood both caught upfield he can run straight at our defense for a 5 on 4 as shown below.

We handle this pretty well and Atencio plays a ball toward Navarro who lets it run through and Larraz (#8) on the far side gets a one touch shot at the top of the box he puts wide.

The example above showed the threat Colorado posed even when it was not a direct turnover but just fighting for possession in the midfield. This next one shows that as we try to buildup more we may put our defense in tough positions.

Off a throw in we get the ball to Byrne as a winger comes to apply pressure. Byrne plays it back to Malanda but the pass it too short and Navarro (#9) is able to run onto it.

Colorado looks to be direct and Navarro backheels it to Mihailovic in the left half space. Because of the poor pass, Malanda has been pulled out wide to cover where Byrne usually is.

We are in a decent position here but Mihailovic absolutely cooks Diani and cuts to his left dribbling into the box. He then passes it back to Navarro who has made a run into the box from out wide. The result is a shot at the penalty box that is blocked by Doumbia.

Similar to the crosses, Colorado eventually got rewarded for threatening with these chances. We just conceded our first goal and from the kickoff we win a free kick and cycle the ball across our defense from Ream to Doumbia. As Doumbia dribbles forward he holds onto the ball a touch too long and the winger is able to close down the space.

As Doumbia tries to dribble out of trouble a second defender comes in and Doumbia losses the ball.

This ball falls to their right back Rosenberry who takes a few touches and then threads a ball through to Mihailovic.

From here we see Colorado look to play direct and attack in transition. Mihailovic runs at our defense and Navarro immediately makes a run across Malanda to try to get in behind.

Despite how good Malanda has been all season, he takes a poor angle to this ball and Navarro gets there. As Malanda tries to recover it leads to a penalty, giving Colorado a 2-0 lead.

These opportunities to attack us in transition have been there for our opponents but Colorado was the first team that was organized and intentional in attacking us directly in transition. However I do not think this is a major issue for our team. We have a very talented back-line and they can usually handle 1 on 1 battles. But to reduce these situations we need to continue to improve in buildup to reduce the amount of times we lose possession in the midfield. Also more focus and coaching on our rest defense and positioning to counter-press could help provide better coverage when we do turn the ball over.

Topic 3: Offensive Miscues

There was a 20-minute period to start the second half where the game was very end to end. In what felt like a college lacrosse match, it felt like a series of 4v4 or 5v5 half field games where we would each alternate attacking. I honestly felt this was the most promising stretch of the game for us where our attackers had an opportunity to show their quality in advantageous situations. The issue today with the attack was just a series of miscues which squandered our chances to get an opening goal.

Poor touches and the pitch

One thing both Westwood and Dean talked about in the post-match press conference was the pitch was slicker than they expected and this showed. We had a few poor touches and overhit passes and they cost us some good chances.

Here Malanda has just tracked down a through ball in the right corner. He does a great job of dribbling forward about ten yards. Because of the end to end flow of the game, there is not a press set and Malanda finds a great pass into Biel who can run at the back line.

Biel runs forward with our other attackers and we have a 4 on 4 in transition. Biel correctly spots Zaha with some space on the left and plays a through ball. However he hits it a little too hard and it carries Zaha to the corner flag.

You can see above Biel’s frustration knowing he just missed this pass. This does turn into an Agyemang shot but if that ball gets to Zaha in stride the chance is a lot more dangerous.

Our touch also let us down in the final third. Here we get a free kick in transition and Bronico smartly grabs the ball and play a quick pass to Zaha. Zaha gets pressure by their right back (#2) and does a great job to play Agyemang through onto that side.

Agyemang carries this into the box and with their defense resetting he picks out Zaha who arrives late at the top of the box.

Zaha gets the pass and is looking to take one touch and shoot but his touch gets away from him and Colorado wins the ball back.

I’m willing to chalk these miscues up to a combination of the pitch and our attackers not having their best game. Both Biel and Zaha have shown the quality they have on the ball and unless we see more of this in future games I do not this is an issue moving forward.

Poor decision making

Coupled with the poor touches was some poor decisions in transition which cost us other chances. Here we stop a Colorado attack and Westwood makes a quick outlet pass to Bronico.

Bronico is able to carry the ball to the midfield line and we can go into our attack. Abada makes a vertical run from the center circle which kind of looks like a decoy run but Bronico tries to play it through for him.

My notes on this say “Bronico, why?" and I’m not sure what he saw here. Abada is a few steps behind his defender and this would require an incredible ball and burst of speed to even have a chance. Also while I’m pleased Bronico being more involved in buildup, he is not the person we need playing this long through ball. I’d much rather he pass to Biel or Zaha on the wings or even lay it off to Westwood who can try to ping a long ball.

One last example in what was our last transition attack during this end to end phase of the game. After some big defending including blocking 2 shots, eventually Ream intercepts a pass and immediately plays it to Abada who like Bronico has space to run with Colorado forward.

Abada does a great job and carries it essentially from box to box with no pressure and we have a 4v3.

Abada has a ton of options. He can play it safe and pass to Biel who can look to create from that right half space. He can also play it either over the top or on the ground to Zaha who will probably be one on one with their right back and can look to create. Or he can go for the killer pass and try to play Agyemang through in between the 2 center backs. But instead he settles for the worst and take a shot from outside of the box. This is very much the wrong decision and gets Colorado off the hook.

Similar to the poor touches, I am not too worried about these poor decisions yet. I think they can be easily fixed from a game review and unless we see continuously poor decision making I will chalk it up to our attack just having an off game.

This topic does not have any large lessons learned or key fixes we need to make. This topic more points out that we had a good 20-minute run in the second half where we got into good attacking positions and had our quality been better on the day (which our attackers have shown better quality) we could have had a goal and maybe walked away with some points.

Quick Topics

I do not have any clips for these topics but just wanted to note some other observations.

Trouble with goal kicks

Colorado mostly played a mid-block this game but they went to a very aggressive man press off of our goal kicks. We struggled to build past these goal kicks and wound up just going long for the last 20 minutes of the game. Similar to what we did against Atlanta, these long goal kicks stifled our ability to get into the attack and this goal kick coverage is one of the reasons that the second half became less end to end after the 65th minute.

Updated thoughts on Diani

Every time Diani plays, I have some interest as he has the touch and physicality to be both a good defensive presence and buildup player in our midfield. I have noted I wanted him to get more minutes to learn more about his game and this was the first game where I started to see some concerns. Mainly Diani is slow and his lack of speed was exposed today. In topic 2 we saw that Diani pressed a midfielder and then failed to get back to cover the space that Mihailovic used to get their first goal. Also, if you watch at 65:20 you can see Diani’s lack of speed and reaction time is how Mihailovic just bursts past him in transition. Especially with how Bronico showed improvement and ability to play in the pivot, I am less interested (but still open to it) in seeing what Diani could bring to this team with extended minutes.

Privett vs. Ream

I quickly wanted to note Ream had a good game as our left sided center back. His passing was phenomenal and similar to what Malanda did against Cincinati, Ream provides the ability to make line breaking passes from our center backs. However, Colorado did have a lot of success playing direct and in transition down our left side. I’m not sure how much Ream is at fault for this but that is an area Privett has excelled in. If we move forward with Ream and Doumbia, I think Bronico is going to need to actively track back and support that defensive side in transition (especially with Zaha playing on the left).

Conclusion

This was a disappointing result, but I walk away from this game a lot more optimistic than I thought I would. A main issue this game was simply we weren’t at our best which is just sometimes going to happen. Our quality is better than what we showed today and I think most of the miscues from this game will not travel moving forward.

On the positives, I loved how we tried to expand how we play by getting Bronico into buildup and trying to break their press with our pivots. It shows our coaching staff is willing to adjust our gameplan to what our opponent are doing. Also, it is promising for the long-term season output because we have to find a way to buildup like that if want to reach our full potential as a team and an attacking threat this season.

We do have some things that need to be addressed. Abada’s positioning is a problem continuing to plague our team in both buildup and attack. Defensively we need to fix our crossing issues as our defensive identify since Dean took over has been about forcing wide and preventing or comfortably defending crosses. But I believe both of these are fixable with the current roster and if we can learn these lessons early on that should help us continue to fight for a top 4 spot.

Colorado was the first team we played that did not need possession, was organized in their press and defense, and looked to attack directly in transition. I think we will run into a lot of teams like this and it is a style that Charlotte has struggled to beat. I hope this loss is a learning point for this team and we can take these lessons forward to get better results against these teams moving forward. I can’t wait to be back at the bank on Saturday for a rivalry game against Nashville.