With consecutive home wins over conference-leading teams, Toronto FC stands suddenly – all alone – astride the MLS Eastern Conference.
Both wins came in a 4-3-3 formation, for which current coach Chris Cummings declines to take credit. Compared to the inept, sputtering 4-4-2 everyone suffered through under departed coach John Carver, TFC looks like an entirely new – and suddenly dangerous – team.
Last night, a fellow soccer writer looked me right in the eye and wondered how the same squad could look so bad a week ago, and so good now? I humbly suggest the truth is deeper than how the players play the system. This is about the system playing the players.
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Let’s start with the back four:
Fullbacks Jim Brennan (left) and Marvell Wynne (right) love to push forward in attack. In Carver’s 4-4-2, that left the centrebacks exposed. Adrian Serioux would come out to man-mark the lead attacker, leaving Kevin Harmse or Marco Velez all alone. That, as we’ve learned far too many times, ain’t good for anyone.
With no one to pass to, Harmse just hoofed it. That meant the midfield always had to fight for possession. Hold that thought.
Midfield:
Under Carver, Carl Robinson dropped back, and TFC had a rotating cast of two wingers and a lurking attacker. This all but abandoned the back four. In this 4-3-3, however, Robinson is joined at the back by impressive rookie Sam Cronin, able at last to play his natural position.
What this means for Marco Velez (who’s played two good games since Harmse hoofed himself to the sidelines) is simple. He has help. There’s always a midfielder to pass to. For the midfield, that means less fighting for long balls from the back – the majority of which always go to the opponents.
Yikes, you’re thinking. Six at the back? Hold that thought, as well.
All of this leaves Amado Guevara the centre of midfield pretty much all to himself. And he likes it! His world is far less congested than it was in Carver’s 4-4-2, and he still has plenty of help and options on …
The wings:
At no point, anywhere in the win over Kansas City, did any red-shirted TFC man attempt the Andy Welsh/Rohan Ricketts one-man suicide run down the wing. Brennan and Wynne pushing forward, with strikers Pablo Vitti and Chad Barrett ranging back, creates a sliding, overlapping system of ball advancement where everyone has options.
I spent the entire KC game assessing every Toronto touch. When the player got the ball, did he have one or more teammates to pass to? Overwhelmingly – all night – the answer was yes.
So – not only is a 4-3-3 TFC able to calmly and constructively claim, possess and advance the ball at the back, it also has presence and potential in the midfield, created entirely by a move away from a slapdash, unreasoned clutterfest to a smooth, practical multi-pronged support system that lets everyone do what they’re good at. And then, of course …
The attack:
How are you enjoying Danny Dichio these days, Reds fans? Man of the match for me, two games running.
In the 4-4-2, where every team possession was a struggle, it wasn’t easy for Dichio to read the play and be where the ball could come to him. Now, with an ordered midfield that possesses more and scrambles less, Dichio can do what he was born to do – hold the ball, and make lightning passes to attacking teammates.
And, as happened on the winning goal yesterday – when the play breaks down and his mates are perfectly positioned to scramble it back to him – he can still make perfect, delicious passes straight to the back of the enemy net.
Pablo Vitti, meanwhile, shook off a stumbling first half, and did some dazzling solo work down the stretch. He even stutter-hopped through four defenders at one point, before rolling a shot just agonizing inches past the post. The goal would have become TFC legend had it gone in. This system gives the young Argentine room, and a clear role as a creator. Carver … didn’t.
Oh, and both Dichio and Barrett tracked back to make sliding defensive plays, while both Brennan and Wynne continued to figure in the attack. Sure, the defence miscued sometimes, but it never ran out of numbers, or options. The fact that rookie goalie Stefan Frei continues to impress ain’t hurtin’ a hoot!
This team, in 4-3-3, is like a single possession-hungry organism that can actually play football! Sure, they’re doing in on the cheap, and certainly the overall talent in the organization won’t scare the global powers anytime ever.
Call in Dollarama total football, if you will, but most importantly of all – it’s working!
Dwayne DeRosario?
Good question. He’ll be healthy soon. Where does he fit in?
I’m sure he’d love to be where Guevara is. One of them will be the advance middie for sure. The other goes out on the wing, in place of either Vitti or Barrett. Carver’s loyalty was to Barrett, but Vitti can’t be benched after what he did last night. And neither can Dichio, after two inspired 90-minute blinders just four days apart.
Wherever DeRo settles, this formation maximizes the abilities of every blessed player on the field for TFC. Compared to that terrible loss in Dallas just over a week ago, when nobody knew anything about where they were and just what exactly the heck in all this universe they were supposed to be doing, the transformation is breath-taking.
And – I really do believe – it’s real.
Toronto FC is finally showing us how good this team can be. The job’s not done, and they haven’t won a darn thing yet, but I’ve always been a huge and ardent fan of anything that makes sense.
This clever 4-3-3 is passing that test impressively. If remaining coaches Chris Cummins and Nick Dasovic are its masterminds, I think it’s time to promote one of them to field general. The Voyageurs Cup, after all, is right around the corner.
Are you loving this, TFC fans?
Onward!