I’m a big underdog guy. I love David taking down Goliath stories and seeing small things become great. That’s probably part of the reason I have such an affinity towards NCFC. They get a lot of flack for their performance last season and just their general ethos of prioritizing young academy players. Despite making it to the USLC playoffs in 2019, they’ve struggled to replicate any sort of good form. Last year, NCFC finished the season in 12th place in the League One Standings with a goal differential of -20. They faced 452 shots (FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY TWO) across 28 games, and conceded 50 goals. That concession rate was not a huge difference between the teams at the bottom of the table, but 50 goals shipped in a season isn’t GREAT and conceding 452 shots is certainly not ideal. On top of their defensive struggles, they really struggled to create despite having some high quality creative players like JayTee Kamara. They actually performed as expected, pretty much matching their expected goals on the season with 30 goals. Even though they converted their chances on par, they created the fewest big chances in the league with 42 and yet were 7th in the league in Big chances missed with 27. That’s not a good combination. That being said, looking a little deeper at the numbers behind their season, things weren’t all bad. There were some encouraging signs that show signs of life and encouragement for the future for NCFC fans. Let’s take a look:

First off, we know that NCFC didn’t create a lot of chances. The encouraging thing about NCFC on attack is that they were above average at converting their shots. Theoretically, their tactics freed them to get into good positions to score. When they did, they did better at conversion than alot of the clubs in the league. On defense, we see that NCFC did have a *slightly* above average opposition goal conversion rate. That being said, when you face as much pressure as the NCFC backline did on a regular basis (faced 50 more shots than the next highest team in L1), it’s amazing what they accomplished. Theoretically speaking, they were no easier to score on than Greenville or Chattanooga. This is obviously a more complex situation and simplifying it to just these numbers ignores tactics, defensive shape, etc. that gave each team their numbers, but that’s still quite an encouraging set of statistics underlying their season. On top of that, they did a really good job of converting the smaller number of corners they were able to muster. They far out performed what they were expected to when they won corners and this is a great sign for them heading into the new year. The numbers that NCFC put up make corners an incredible weapon for this team to have in a really competitive league. If they can put up those efficiency numbers at a higher rate of chances, they will be even tougher to deal with.

All these numbers tell us about last year, but we want to know what’s going to happen THIS year. So, for the next few minutes, I want to take a look at how their signings improve some aspects of their game.

Defense

Last season, keepers for NCFC dealt with a pretty interesting problem. An average of 18.5% of the shots they faced were headers. This was the highest average headers faced for a goalkeeping core (only including players who played over 500 minutes) in the entirety of USL League One. Their aerial duels were lacking and this caused a lot of problems. Max Flick is a great CB (I wrote about him for my first ever article at length here.), but the defense as a whole struggled to cope. Enter Jordan Skelton: Former Tormenta and Des Moines Menace Player and aerial duel extraodinaire (take a look at his highlights here). Jordan was a statement pick up for a growing NCFC team. At Tormenta in 2020, Skelton won 70% of his aerial duels on the season. That’s not a fluke or a percentage that just makes him look good despite not going for aerial duels that often. In 2020, only 2 other defenders won more aerial duels than Skelton (44 out of 63). One other thing I love about Skelton is how he communicates and organizes the back line so well. If you watched him at De Moines last year, you could constantly see him communicating with the other defenders and helping them keep shape. His strength in the air as well as his great organizational/leadership skills make him a great addition to an NCFC defense that includes another new signing— former (and now current) teammate Christian Young, El Salvador international Nelson Martinez, and many other high quality options (Flores being one of those).

Midfield

This is an interesting bit. Despite the return of many players, a key name will be missing on the creative end: Jay Tee Kamara.

Arguably, one of the more talented players in League One, Kamara will be a huge miss and maybe a bit of a blessing in disguise for a midfield in need of solidity. While he was one of the most prolific dribblers in the league (no one competes… other than possibly Damian Rivera), his desire to take people on sometimes got his team in trouble in central positions. This is especially important considering his INCREDIBLE creative ability didn’t help them enough (not really his fault) to outweigh how much he lost the ball. Losing the ball per 90 more times than anyone else on the team, he basically lost the ball every three touches. While his talent is undeniable and he’s got a place in higher leagues very soon/now, NCFC will definitely benefit from some more security on the ball this year. Obviously this risk-reward balance is inevitable for a creative player like him, but I’m not sure it’s something NCFC can afford in the middle of the field at the moment, as central areas were the source of greatest joy for opposing teams facing NCFC. The signing of Raheem Sommersall and the returnees in Pecka and Arriaga will hopefully be the start of a great midfield in 2022, but I’d imagine they’re looking to bring someone else in. I’m wrong all the time though, so we’ll see. Maybe we’ll see them continue that academy to first team pipeline that is such an important part of their ethos!

Forwards

The front line was a big issue for NCFC in 2021. Wingers and strikers consistently struggled to turn possession in the attacking half/final third into chances. Below, you can see how only one NCFC attacker was even average at getting into good positions when they shot. It was not ideal. This year , NCFC are LOADED with attacking talent that will likely turn a below average attack into an absolute force of nature. In Showkat Tahir and Jaden Servania, you have incredibly creative players who are incredible dribblers and creators. Their ability to act as a magnet for defenders on the ball seems to open up so much space for teammates and both of them have a decent eye for goal. You can see below how Showkat does an incredible job of opening up space for his team by wiggling through 2 or 3 defenders and therefore creating a chance for his team. Also, signing Servania from Birmingham Legion feels like a coup and NCFC should be absolutely thrilled to have acquired such a high quality young player. Both of these players are incredibly intelligent, able to find and make space for themselves and their teammates while also being able to work pretty well without space. I won’t speak on it today, but there’s a lot to be said for having players who can open up space via dribbling that really makes a team more dynamic and lethal.

Along with their wide talent, NCFC have acquired two top quality strikers for the League One Level. First up is Garret McLaughlin. McLaughlin spent the 2021 season at Toronto FC II after spending some time in the Championship. This season, he had a pretty decent return rate in a team that finished just outside of playoff contention. He had an above average conversion rate, which is quite good considering he had 10 “big chances missed” on the season. I’ve talked multiple times about why that isn’t really a worrying stat for me unless it’s accompanied by a lack of goals/ conversion rate, but as you can see below McLaughlin is well into the top half of strikers when it comes to his Goal Conversion Rate. Not only that, but it’s hard to find a striker who got into better positions to score than him. His xG per 90 is incredibly high, partly due to the tactical set up of TFCII, but also because he’s just good. As you can see below, he averages about .19 xG per shot, which basically means the positions he gets in imply that he’d score a goal almost every 1 out of 5 shots. That’s quite a good return rate. Obviously, for a striker to truly thrive at NCFC it’s important that they improve on the number of chances they create this year.

The other striker is Nicolas Molina from UNCW and West Virginia United. Last summer, Molina was the Golden Boot winner and League MVP for USL League 2 scoring 16 goals in 13 matches. While I can’t really find stats to compile for his time in League Two (any data worth using is very hard to come by at that level), watching him play makes him look like quite the prospect for NCFC. While he is *quite* tall, his frame doesn’t prevent him from being good with the ball at his feet and connecting the build up. He’s pretty good in the air and is another one of those players that just seems to be in the right place at the right time. He had an incredible conversion rate in USL2 last season and rightfully won the award for the most valuable player in the league. This feels like a HUGE pick up for NCFC and while you never know until they’re there, I’m excited to see him play.

Now, obviously I don’t know how good this team is ACTUALLY going to be. I don’t know if i’m going to give a team a rating based off of pre-season signings, but I’m really encouraged by what they’ve done to address the issues of last year and create opportunities for more youth to make the jump to the first team. With the return of the young goalie Nicholas Holliday and many other young academy players ready to impress, i’m confident that we’ll see major improvements from the team in Raleigh. I’d keep an eye out on this young team that has seen players make international appearances, train in Germany with big clubs, and so much more.

After a decent campaign in 2020, FC Tucson started off the 2021 season at a snail’s pace. Languishing at 11th place after 9 games, things just didn’t look right. Even with averaging 52% of possession per game across those first nine games, their dominance was nominal. Scoring 10 (1.1 per game) goals in those first 9 games, they were only expected to score about 10 according to xG. It’s not like they were very creative and unlucky. The offense was performing as expected. Meanwhile, they were shipping goals left and right — allowing 16 (1.8 per game) in those first nine games. It was quite a rought start for a great coach and great team. Unfortunately, these situations often lead to changes in staff one way or another. Even though these types of situations are unfortunate, it was a pressure release in a team desperate for a do-over. Once Jon Pearlman took over, everything started to change. There was a bit of a transition period, but once they got over the bumps in the road, Tucson really took off. From June 29th to the end of the season, Tucson averaged 1.8 goals per game while only allowing 1.3 — a significant turn around for the Arizona based team. How did this happen though? Let’s take a quick look at how Pearlman helped steer the ship back on the right track to make a play off push for the first time in club history AND become a candidate for HC of the year.

FC Tucson is one of those teams that plays football worth watching. It’s not always clean, it’s not always efficient, and the goals might not always be for them — but it is almost always exciting. Setting up in either the 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation, the use of vertical passes (whether bypassing the press via long balls or just good progressive passes between the lines, usually the former was a last resort. They REALLY liked to keep the ball on the ground unless it was a switch of play.) gave way to much shorter passing combinations in the opposition half. Tucson prioritized short passes, flick ons, and dribbles between little passing triangles in order to create chaos and disrupt the defensive organization of the opposition. They tried to stay closer to each other in order to create these triangles to overload the defense. Keeping the ball on the ground was a big priority for Tucson in the opposition half outside of the occasional cross or switch of play. They were all over the pitch, but I circled the areas in which they were most prevalently used. This chaos, especially in the final third created a lot of great opportunities for the offense to work in the box.

There’s a HUGE emphasis on dead ball situations out in the desert of Arizona, with no team currently in League One scoring more from them i.e. Penalties, corners, free kicks, etc (North Texas is the only team in League One history who has scored from dead ball situations more often — by 1 goal). They scored 15 goals from dead ball situations alone last year! Tucson was also home to some of the best dribblers in the league and their ability to win fouls and get dead balls in dangerous positions made it easy for them to score from these situations.

All this promise in their play! So what went wrong at the beginning of the 2021 season? I’ll start out of possession since it was the more pressing issue.

First off, I’d say their biggest issue was defensive organization. The spacing of the last line of defense was constantly being exploited, the midfield trio seemed somewhat lost in transitions and they didn’t do well defending their own box. Seam runs between the FBs and CBs were especially prevalent for teams wanting to score against FC Tucson in the early stages of the season. The back line really struggled with tracking off ball runs. It didn’t seem like the players really knew whose job it was to take care of the runner — or they just didn’t see them. You can see some examples below. Some of this had to do with the tactics themselves: the use of overlapping fullbacks inevitably leaves the space they vacated open. While this was some of the issue as you will see below, the need to close down these spaces and push attackers towards the sideline was very evident. I want to be clear that I feel that this is an issue that was largely fixed later on. Communication was better and it got a lot harder to play through the seams both in terms of making those passes and in terms of players receiving those passes as the season progressed. I just note this because it was an area teams clearly felt they could exploit early on. Attackers were able to be relatively anonymous in an area where they needed to be the opposite.

9 (10, if you count a shot off the woodwork created by a seam run that rebounds to another player who takes another shot and scores) of their 16 goals scored against them in the first part of the season came from seam runs on or off the ball. They really struggled with their defensive positioning and this was only exacerbated by an inability to cut out line breaking passes. They seemed to have no good solution to this problem. Even in their wins, this space was exploited and they suffered because of it.

In attack, they were average early on. They dominated possession in most of their games and even created a decent number of chances. It wasn’t like they were inept here. Really, their attack was FINE, but it was very much overshadowed by struggles off the ball. They did struggle to build from the back from time to time and it forced errant long balls. That’s not to say that long balls weren’t one of the ways they progressed the ball. They were able to bypass pressure with these long balls (They were pretty accurate with these passes too), but they had a hard time building the way they wanted to afterwards because of how spread out they were on the field. While they stretched the defense well, they also stretched themselves and made it harder to engage in their desired short passing game. That being said, players like Calixtro worked very hard to try to rectify this situation.

On the attack, Tucson operated with a front three — A #9 who was heavily involved in the build up (throw back to the days of Dennis and Godoy as “Striker”) and two wingers making runs in behind, holding width, or dribbling into the box. Calixtro was adept at receiving the ball and driving forward or laying off passes to nearby teammates. I’ll touch more on this later, but as the season progressed, the front three of Adams, Corfe, and Calixtro/Perez/Uzo was one of the hardest to deal with offenses in USL League One. The 8s/CMs often made forward runs in behind the #9 as well. FBs would push up into dangerous areas to support on the overlap. Franke and Schenfeld were instrumental in building attacks on the wings, often combining with a CM and winger to quickly move the ball down the field. Below, you can see Calixtro taking up this sort of false nine role mentioned before, allowing Delgado to run in behind and score. This is where you saw glimpses of how dangerous Tucson could be.

When Tucson had players like Calixtro situated between the lines of the defense, you knew something good would happen. Tucson had so many players good in tight spaces, which became a big part of their game plan. The problem for Tucson early on was replicating these offensive patterns on a regular basis. They weren’t particularly dangerous on the dribble (their main strength, in my opinion) and the support runs weren’t often as effective as they could be.

The “final straw” was against Union Omaha on June 26th, when 11th placed Tucson lost 1-0 to Union Omaha. Frustration was clearly setting among the squad with 2 red cards in the previous game alone (6 of the 8 regular season red cards against Tucson came before Pearlman was appointed coach) and a frustrated squad looked like they were running out of ideas against a solid Union Omaha side. They again controlled possession but it didn’t lead to anything, despite the high number of shots they took. After this loss, Pearlman was appointed as head coach on 6/29.

When he came on board, there wasn’t any huge tactical change. They didn’t change formation, most of the same players were still in the starting 11, and even style of play was similar. That being said, there were some key points that made them a more formidable opponent.

OUT OF POSSESSION

Despite still being scored on slightly above league average after Pearlman’s appointment, the defense was significantly improved. The 4-3-3 can inherently be a risky formation in transition moments, especially when your rest defense is often just 3 defenders and 1 midfielder, at best. Even so, losing the ball was much less of a scary thing for Tucson after tweaks were made to defensive spacing and positioning. Obviously things don’t change completely overnight, but you can see in the clips below how much better Tucson dealt with losing the ball and how players sitting in the seam were given much less space to work or forced towards the sideline. Even with the goal by Omaha, I don’t think it would have been a goal except for the goal being wide open. Even though Hurst does a great job of making space for himself, it’s not exactly a cannonball of a shot. Even when shots are taken, they look a lot less dangerous.

In the first phase of opposition build up, one of the wingers would push up into almost a second striker position to put more pressure on the opposition back line while the strong sided winger would drop back to protect space. It was effectively a lopsided 4-3-3/4-2-3-1. You can see in the videos below how much they threw at the ball side of the field, almost leaving the space between the pushed up winger and the FB wide open. The key here is that the “second striker” has to do a good job of blocking passing lanes to switch play – and generally they were successful. Not only that, but the starting point of the strikers was so much more aggressive as the season progressed. Before, the 4-2-3-1 defense kind of sat back and wanted to force teams to play around them. The idea is similar here, yet far more aggressive.

The 4-3-3 can inherently be a risky formation in transition moments, especially when your rest defense is often just 3 defenders and 1 midfielder, at best. After the appointment of Pearlman, you could see the fullbacks operating under the “steering wheel” tactic as popularly phrased by Louis Van Gaal, which basically means that you treat the back line like a wheel. If one FB goes forward, the other stays back. If both FBs want to push forward, a midfielder has to hold the space left behind. While this didn’t always happen, the goal was to provide a solid foundation to protect against the counter. This allowed them to regain or retain possession alot easier. It also allowed them to be more aggressive with their build up passing.

IN POSSESSION

Because Tucson’s structure was just slightly sturdier, it really opened the game for them to be more aggressive in their passing. As Tucson grew in confidence as a unit, you could really see them come into their own. Incisive, quick passes and aggressive dribbling were key components of a reinvigorated Tucson that suddenly became LETHAL in the final third. From the time of Pearlman’s appointment, until the end of the season, no team scored as many goals as Tucson did. They ended up level with Union Omaha for goals by the end of the regular season.

When FC Tucson was on, it seemed like they could always find a goal. They could disorganize opponents with their passing and dribbling, pulling defenders towards the on ball player. This opened up space for CMs and weak side wingers to make runs into space and take shots on goal. They did this so well against Greenville when Dennis makes an untracked run into the box after some great work from Adams and Franke. I’m not sure there was a collective team in the league that was as good at pulling opponents out of position via on the ball actions/dribbling as Tucson was, except MAYBE North Texas. Tucson’s dribbling and combination added so much value to their attack and honestly this lethality in attack took alot of the burden off the defense. Against Omaha, Corfe, Dennis and Uzo literally drag half the defense before Corfe makes a simple pass across goal that Adams is able to get on the end of and put in the net.

Not only did their dribbling pull people out of position, it’s what helped get them in dangerous situations for them to work with dead ball situations. Schenfeld’s dribbling in the box pulls 3 defenders his way and results in a penalty. They were so good at drawing fouls in tight spaces, being awarded 6 penalties, 5 of them coming after Pearlman arrived.

A LOT more could be said about how Corfe and Adams were able affect play through dangerous runs and dribbling, how Dennis’ foot is probably an actual cannon, and how influential the defenders were despite the rough start. Pearlman came in, gave the players belief and made some small tweaks that launched the 11th place team to their first ever playoff berth — and won a playoff game. Despite losing to Omaha, you really can’t look at the progress of this team under Jon and NOT be amazed. Even with Adams and Dennis leaving, impact players like Calixtro, Fox, Delgado, and Corfe are returning for another great season in the desert while newcomers like Tyler Allen will be ready to make an impact as well. If the second half of last season is anything to go by, there will be goals… and there will be A LOT of them. Jon Pearlman and FC Tucson will be a team to watch in 2022.

Ron Atkinson, John Harkes’s former coach on two occasions, was a very successful coach before the turn of the century. Coaching teams like Manchester United, Atletico Madrid, West Brom, and others, Atkinson created quite the coaching legacy. Harkes enjoyed a good spell with him at Sheffield Wednesday in the early 90’s, reaching the league cup final by upsetting Manchester United, winning english goal of the year, and helping his side win promotion to the first division. One of Atkinson’s (Fun fact: he’s otherwise known as Mr. Bojangles. As a person from the south, this feels like a name to strive for) most famous quotes is this: “Well, Clive, [Football] is all about the two M’s: Movement and Positioning.” While this is slightly infuriating to read, it’s sort of true. Football tends to rise and fall on these two things both in and out of possession. These are what might be considered paramount principles of the game. As I was thinking about what some “paramount” principles were for Greenville, I realized there were two V’s that made Greenville what they were: The Gregg Berhalter Passion Project (Verticality), and Pressure. Now as we start, I want to make my regular disclaimer: I am not John Harkes, Rick Wright, or Alex Blackburn. So, I reserve the right to be totally wrong or even just kinda wrong. This is me trying to understand what I see in GVL’s game and putting it on paper.

Obviously, when thinking about a team’s tactical set-up across a season, it’s unlikley that you can be specific. This is because every team/game presents different tactical issues, different personnel within your own team have different strengths, and your team will inevitably have to find new ways to affect the game as other teams figure them out. Due to injuries and a man fresh off completing that PRO LICENSE (Congrats John! Also, it’s probably mostly the injuries part.), we saw a lot of adjustments across the season. Greenville played in 7 (SEVEN) different nominal formations with a ton of player rotation. So today, I obviously won’t be giving specifics about how Greenville play, but rather some basic principles and things I find interesting about their play style. I’ll break it up into two parts: In Possession and Out of Possession. We’ll look at the positions players tend to take up, how the play is built, how we get the ball into the final third/create chances, and how we recover when losing the ball. One thing to note about Greenville is that “positions” in a greenville set-up are not an “I” thing, but a “we” thing. In and out of possession, players rotate and take up different positions to force different looks on opponents. It can be quite the task to deal with the chaos of a Greenville side on any given day, but especially on good ones. That being said, in the midst of the chaos, there are all kinds of tactical instructions that actually make Greenville feel remarkably simple. I want to look at and highlight THOSE things, because they are what give Greenville some of their identity. Things like verticality (i’ve heard that if you say verticality in a mirror three times, Gregg Berhalter shows up for a press conference. I want to be clear: I don’t hate or dislike Gregg, I just can’t hear or see the word verticality without thinking about the behind the back pass extraordinaire), numerical superiorities, and the denial of central spaces to the opposition.

In Possession

From goal kicks, Greenville is pretty unassuming. You look at their formation and think “great! looks like a pretty standard back four. I can deal with that.” It doesn’t last, my friend. In the first phase of possession, Greenville generally will do one of two things: A short pass to the cb’s just on either side of the GK to start building from the back or a long ball out to wide to move the ball down the field more quickly. These aren’t the exact shapes that Greenville take up in this first phase, but you can generally bet that Greenville will look to get the ball wide as quickly as possible to move down the field. This is true even in other nominal formations. I’ll use the Toronto game from July as an example a good bit as it shows the simple intentions of Greenville despite the fact that the nominal formation was a 3-5-2 with Gavilanes as one of the three CMs. This game had Polak and Murillo playing as the wide CBs with Fricke in the center of a back three. Even with the nominal back three, Greenville played with Polak and Fricke as the two CBs while Murillo and Goodall took up the usual fullback positions in the first phase of build-up. While this was usually true, there were times when midfielders or fullbacks would drop into the back line to create numerical superiorities with three players, especially against formations with 2 strikers. This is meant to be a way of preventing the press by always having a free man available to receive and progress the ball into the next part of the field. Next is when things start to get weird whether we’re in a 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, or the 1-1-8 of the good old days.

Now we come to what Greenville is known for — Long balls and verticality. Greenville LOVED to stretch the pitch with their forwards and wingers pushing defenses back, forcing them into uncomfortable situations. Whether through long balls or line breaking passes, Greenville was consistenly able to move down the field quickly as a unit to put pressure on opponents. This stretching of the pitch allowed for some very interesting things: 1.) CBs were able to drive and carry the ball into space, typically into the halfspaces of the field in order to put pressure on the opponents defensive shape, which was already pinned by overloading/creating even numbers on the ball side of the field.

2.)In transition, this allowed for alot of space to open up in the midfield, allowing the ball to move from central areas to wide areas or vice versa very quickly. There were a lot of in to out/out to in patterns in Greenville’s ground passing game that stretched defenses horizontally after they were already stretched vertically, not unlike a taffee machine.

And 3.) Greenville’s long ball game required them to be good at winning the second ball after an aerial duel, even if they didn’t win the first. Dynamic movement and positioning (ATKINSON FROM DEEP) enabled them to close down and win those second balls to keep possession alive. This is also how Greenville scored the only goal in their October away game to Omaha.

Let’s be honest, sometimes the tactic was just “punt that sucker long” — and it worked. If you can’t tell, I love to over-exaggerate my generalizations when i’m writing. It’s my passion.

Despite the fact that Greenville can be very quick in transition, they’re not your average lob it up field and hope kind of team, even though it can sometimes feel that way. Greenville actually used their long balls really effectively to put pressure on opponents in possession, creating overloads and making the pitch small for oppositing teams. This allowed them to have dominant periods of possession that forced teams into low blocks and tough defensive scenarios. I’ve charted out some basic ideas of what a Greenville formation looks like in possession. It changed from time to time, when home or away and based on changing personnel, but the basic shapes of 3-3-4/2-4-4 and 3-2-5/2-3-5 were very common. As I said earlier, you saw 3 at the back when it seemed like they would be under a lot of pressure from the opposing forwards, especially when the opposing team pressed with a front two.

These three pictures sort of denote some formational set-ups seen when Greenville have possession of the ball (I do think the LCB is a little too far over in the middle picture, but when a member of the back 3 pushed forward, this was possible so I left it).There were little triangles and squares of players all over the field to help aid progression forward. On the ball side of the field, A couple of things tended to happen. There was always had someone holding width or running on the overlap while the other drove or held possession inside. This was very common between Ibarra and Mohamed later in the season. They rotated well and caused all sorts of problems for opposing defenses with their runs/carries. Not only did you have those rotations out on the ball side of the field, but the middle three players tended to gravitate towards the ball side to help with switches of play or facilitating incisive passes into the final third. Sometimes, the CMs would make runs in the space between the width being held and the strikers to help create overloads.

As you see above, it’s kind of rinse and repeat on switches of play. Lee does a great job skipping passing options to move the ball across the field more quickly while Ibarra and Polak combine quite nicely (Side note: This video is still so funny to me. Our Left Back is literally out here rouletting like Zidane in the final third before putting in a nice ball for the chance to be created. Kind of elite to be honest.) The defense is still trying to shift over to take care of them, which they aren’t able to do quickly enough. That quick pass from Lee is what opens up the defense to this weak side attack from Ibarra and Polak. You see again the principle of winning 2nd balls with good positioning. You might say, everyone wants to win the second ball after a duel, but not everyone has the highest number of completed Long Balls per game in the league while having the 4th highest percentage. Winning those second balls is essential for a team that so often makes use of the verticality available to them even if they’re good at winning them the first time. I’ve talked a lot about other facets of possession, especially how our fbs positioned themselves this season, which you can see here.

One bonus clip of possession with the goal against NC, which will forever be one of my favorite goals. Abdi crossing from the “Alexander Arnold” part of the field (as it should forever be known) into Gavilanes with the chip. Footy Scran would do anything to have that chip shared on their account (this is a joke about English people loving potatoes *insert laugh track since no one will laugh*). Everyone does such a good job here of ripping apart NC’s defense.

What makes the goal so great to me is that not only is the overload done so well to make the RB second guess before losing Gavilanes, but Lomis is wide open as well, which splits the mind of the defenders. Since Ibarra has pushed up and the LM has no idea where he is, the LB is forced to keep an eye on both Ibarra and Lomis. He’s too wide on the ball side to really do anything meaningful if Lomis gets the ball. You can’t let the second highest goal contributor in 2021 have this much space in the seam to just — hang out in. With McLean showing deep and pulling the RCB out of the line, there is effectively 1 defender that has any meaningful way of recovering this ball. Anywho, I love this goal. Moving on.

Out Of Possession

Even though possession and goals are all kinds of fun to talk about, all good things must come to an end. And for Greenville, not having the ball was more likely than having the ball. Possession was a means to an end for Greenville, not the end itself. Always content to move quickly up the field to create chances, there wasn’t always a guarantee that it would be held onto for long periods of time. So what did Greenville do when they lost the ball? Obviously it would depend slightly on the opponent, but often they simply sought to win the ball back as quickly as possible. Their counterpressing was generally good, seeking to have as many people as possible ready to jump on the ball after a loss of possession. With the 2nd highest amount of possession regained in the final 3rd, you could see that their goal with these long balls and pressing was to create chances by constantly keeping the back line on their toes.

Typically, Greenville players are only tasked with pressing upon loss of possession and not so much in the first phase of the opposition build up, but not always. This ball oriented press forces quick movement of the ball with players available to help get the ball out of danger. You’ll see this press all across the field, but it’s most potent in the opposition half. The thing about defense or being out of possession is that it’s just as much part of your attack as your passing combinations to move the ball down the field. Positioning players in good positions to win the ball back and transition quickly or pounce upon loose balls was key to a pretty annoying Greenville defense. Here, the press forces a dangerous turnover that McLean easily puts away.

What if they can’t win the ball quickly though? Greenville was not afraid to “abandon” the ball oriented press if it wasn’t working, quickly dropping into their mid/low block 4-4-2. There were a couple of notable exceptions like the beginning of the above Madison game in which Greenville started out defending in what I believe was a 4-2-3-1 shape and the final against Omaha that was more of a 4-1-4-1. The one area where Greenville tended to struggle was in recovery transitions. Because of the intensity of the ball oriented press, it could sometimes leave players out of position. This allowed opposition teams the freedom to launch forward into space if Greenville doesn’t execute properly. I think the most notable example of this was the Charlie Dennis goal at Legacy Early College. Our new fullback, Noah Franke gets on the ball for the “bad team” (it’s okay, he’s on “good team” now), drives into the space left by the pressing left side and puts a cut back into the box for Charlie Dennis who aptly lost his marker and puts it in the net. That being said, if Greenville execute well and deny quick progression you would TYPICALLY see something like below:

If they weren’t going to win the ball back, they were going to go ahead and tend to their defensive responsiblities. Greenville often set up in this man to man oriented 4-4-2 with one striker staying high along the shoulder of the last defender while the other, who was sometimes the AM or a winger or CM, would drop a little deeper. They compressed the field, marking all players on the ball side aggressively, content to leave the weak side players open. They were confident in their ability to shuttle their defense over quickly enough before the weak side wide player had time to do anything significant.

Below, I’m going to refer back to the bizarre 3-5-2 base formation game against Toronto FC II. Greenville moved back into the 4-4-2 out of possession with the WB/midfielder (Goodall) becoming the LB and the RCB (Murillo) becoming the RB. Gavilanes moves wide into the LM spot while Ibarra and Lomis stay up top — unless they rotate (they do it a lot so I mention it a lot). They man mark aggressively, attempting to force bad passes and keep the ball wide. If the ball gets inside, it’s closed down aggressively by the CMs or CBs. Greenville were comfortable to keep their shape and prevent the ball from progressing into the penalty area. They didn’t do this as well as they have in previous years, but that is largely due to the fact that we had to play people out of position for an entire stretch of the season.

Obviously the 4-4-2 has it’s weaknesses. Despite the fact that the whole point of a 4-4-2 is to deny central progression in the first phase of build up and move people into wide areas, it’s pretty easy to overload the wide areas if you pin the right people. This is why Greenville had to be more aggressive in closing down balls and keeping numerical superiority. In moments that they weren’t able to do this, they tended to be punished. Above, Toronto does a great job of rotating with passes out-to-in that were much easier because the man marking wasn’t successful/tight. It gets them a free kick in a dangerous area.

All throughout Greenville’s play you see the desire to move forward quickly, stretch defenses, and put pressure on opponents in and out of possession. This the two V’s of Triumph Soccer: Verticality and Pressure. If Greenville are able to win the ball back, you can refer back to the beginning of the “in possession” section. This is the cycle of soccer. possession, transition, attack, we lose it, transition again, get attacked, recover the ball, so on and so forth until the final whistle. When it comes to Greenville, i’m always going to be biased, but what the coaching staff and players are building in Greenville is so fun and i’m so excited for the future. If you’ve got any feedback, i’d love to hear it. I’m not the Head Performance Analyst at Man City or anything like that, so I’m not opposed to feedback from anyone and everyone. I’d love thoughts, questions, corrections, etc.

One last note: Does this play make Fricke the *Second* outfield player to play goalie and make a save or are we not going to allow it since Christensen was still on the field? I guess we’ll let Hemmings and Christensen answer that one.

The departure of Abdi Mohamed is a big loss coming into the 2022 season for the Triumph. I’ve written about this before, but the fullbacks were a huge part of Greenville’s system last season and Abdi played an important role both in getting the ball to the final 3rd/into the box and in defending in a stout Greenville Defense. You can read about that here. 

Abdi truly did it all from that Right-back role, sometimes filling out a back 3 in longer periods of possession and more often than not, interchanging with the winger along the last line of the opposition to create chances in the final third. While he was quite solid in possession, he was just as strong when defending that right side of the field. Abdi Mohamed even rescued points for Greenville on multiple occasions last season, most notably the last second headed clearance against Omaha to secure the 3 points. Free kicks and corners from the left side of the field were also important things that Abdi took care of ( Greenville pretty consistently used in-swinging corners and free kicks upon the introduction of Gavilanes to the squad regularly, but I’ll cover that another day) and that’s another area that has to be filled in the squad, though not necessarily by the incoming right back. 

I want to highlight four right-backs who could bolster the backline of the Triumph. One championship option, two proven league one players, and a quality MLS drafted player who needs a fresh start. Greenville still has 2-3 more international roster spots available, so I’ve included 2 Americans and 2 international players that could end up in the green and blue. Who can fill the shoes of the incredible Somali right back that will be lining up somewhere else this season? Let’s find out:

*I’m including links to highlight videos for each player rather than film on this site to give their Youtube pages a boost and more people can see the qualities of these players from the players’ perspectives!

Zachary Ellis-Hayden 

*highlights can be seen here*

Ellis-Hayden lined up for the now-defunct OKC Energy in the RB spot and logged about 1600 minutes for the Championship side in 2021. With the OKC Energy taking a break, you can bet that a lot of the players on their roster will be looking for new teams to ply their trade this season. The Canadian Right Back was quite good for a lackluster OKC Energy side this season, defending well, helping in the build-up, and creating chances. Combining strong runs, technical quality, and defensive intelligence, Ellis-Hayden would be a high-quality option to replace Mohamed on the right. 

Jonathan Ricketts

Key Stats: 

Total Duels Won % – 61% (GREAT in the air)

Chances Created – 31

Dribbles completed % – 70%

Long Balls Completed % – 37%

*highlights can be seen here*

I don’t think I’ve kept it a secret,  but I think Jonathan Ricketts was one of the best fullbacks in USL League One last season. An incredibly strong and brave defender that somehow also has great attacking ability, I’d love to see Jonathan Ricketts stay in League One another year to bolster Greenville’s back-line. While he does have the ability to make good runs with the ball, his best quality is his ability to receive the ball in dangerous areas and get it into the box. A lot of this had to do with Chattanooga’s tactical setup, which you can read about here. Ricketts’s defensive strengths combined with his attacking prowess make him a perfect candidate for the role in Greenville. While he’s likely to be pursuing a move to the Championship, he’d be very welcome in the Upstate of South Carolina!

Noah Franke

Key Stats: 

Total Duels Won % – 54%

Chances Created – 25

Dribbles completed % – 70%

Long Balls Completed % – 36%

*highlights can be seen here*

Noah Franke had a solid season at FC Tucson last year after a spell with the Riverhounds in the USL Championship. Noah was a slightly different type of fullback, much more attacking in nature with an incredible dribbling ability to take on opponents. Much more content with 1-2 pass combinations, he’s really good in close quarters and good at getting the ball into the box. His strengths lie in his attacking prowess rather than his defensive capabilities, even though he IS a capable defender. The one downside is that his roles within the teams he’s played in don’t seem to jive with the long passes and longer defensive periods that are typically associated with Greenville. Even so, I’ve included him here because I think he has a lot to offer going forward, which Greenville also typically utilizes in that role quite often. I’d say he’s the least likely option of the four being mentioned just because of his profile, but he’s a high quality player regardless and I’d love to see him at Legacy. *Update: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE GOT HIM

Noah Billingsley

*Not enough data for him from last season, finding it hard to break into a set in stone PHX Rising squad while on loan there. Key stats will be from 2020 during a 9 game stint at LV Lights.*

Key Stats: 

Total Duels Won % – 57%

Chances Created – 2 (did not venture forward very often in this setup)

Dribbles completed % – 38%

Long Balls Completed % – 30%

*highlights can be seen here*

You’d be forgiven for not knowing this name, but Billingsley is a high-quality right back that could use a fresh start. Hailing from New Zealand, Billingsley was selected 18th overall in the  2020 MLS SuperDraft by Minnesota after a great collegiate career at UC Santa Barbara. Loaned out by Minnesota to the USL Championship twice, the 24-year-old right-back is now out of a contract for the 2022 season and in need of somewhere to call home. Having started his career as a forward/winger, Billingsley has done well in his move to the right-back position over the past few years. He also has 3 caps to the New Zealand National Team under his belt.The 6’1 defender is strong in the air, good going forward, and positionally disciplined. There are some raw aspects of his game to work out, but I think he’d be a great fit for the Triumph both defensively and going forward. I have no idea what’s next for this guy, but a reboot for a year or two might be exactly what he needs to be the quality player everyone knows he can be.

I don’t have any special knowledge in terms of where these players are going, but I would LOVE to see any of these players put on the Green and Blue in 2022. If you know them, get to talking to them so that they can take up this vital role here in Greenville.

Bonus Players:

Jonathan Dean

Toby Sims

This one is SO serious. Toby Sims is a quality CB/RB that would make an outstanding addition to the Greenville backline. Dude’s won so many awards I don’t even have the time to list them all. The 2021 USL League Two defender of the year has plenty of experience playing here in SC and is absolute quality. He’s going to be quality and he’s available… so Triumph offices… you know what to do.

*Highlights Here*

The USL League One can be an unpredictable place: Two teams who are most comfortable on the counter attack played in the 2021 final (imagine Burnley winning the Premier League. Omaha fans, before you come for me: I don’t think Omaha is the Burnley of L1), at least 4 teams changed formations every week like it was FIFA Ultimate Team, and defenders will probably end up playing as forwards at some point in the season. This can all be very scary for your League One soccer teams that don’t like chaos around them. The Red Wolves are NOT a fan of all that “unpredictability” mumbo jumbo — unless it involves a last minute Galindrez goal. Instead, they use whatever means necessary to make sure they have control of the game. I wanted to take a few minutes  to take a look at what makes Chattanooga’s control such an effective tool for winning games. A couple of weeks ago, I posted this graphic (see below) showing the xG per shot (basically, how good of a position in relation to the goal were they in for each shot on average) of players in the USL League One and I noted the very high xG per shot of many Chattanooga players (Even Jonathan Ricketts was on par with some of the strikers and wingers in League One).

Left alone, this is an unhelpful bunch of data points smashed together. When they’re paired up with tactical insights, we begin to get a better understanding of what’s going on. To be clear, this won’t really be a Chattanooga tactical explanation piece because I’m not Jimmy Obleda (it’s actually me and two other friends in a trench coat that make up Obleda and my friends aren’t with me while I write this) and don’t think it would be fair for me to try to tell you what he’s thinking. Instead, I’m just going to give you a simple version of what I see and what effects it has on those who encounter them. 

I think the word mentioned earlier, “control”, is the best word to describe the desire of Chattanooga’s tactical set up. Whether they’re in possession, out of possession, facing set pieces, or taking set pieces, their man goal is to control — the ball sure, but also the field. This season, Chattanooga had an average of 53.2% possession, the second highest in the league. Chattanooga’s main goal was to have the ball, and when they had it, control the space on the field. Why? The smaller the size of field your opponent has to work in, the harder it is for them to string together any sort of meaningful possession. How did Chattanooga limit teams from possession? Two main things that are really one thing: Their defensive line sat REALLY high while their team had possession, sometimes you’d even see Jason Ramos sitting in the opposition half ready to receive the ball or make a tackle.

The second thing was their high press. In order for a high defensive line to work (this is a generalization of course, but it’s definitely harder if you don’t do this), you have to press high to keep control of the ball if you lose it. In other words, Chattanooga gained control of the ball by making the field as big as possible for them, but as small as possible for defending teams. Chattanooga was incredibly good at keeping the ball where they wanted it and pressing high, winning the ball in the final third more times than any other team in USL League One (169 times!!!!). If they didn’t have the ball, you best believe they were going to work to get it back as quickly as possible in order to retain control.

This allowed Chattanooga free reign to work pretty much anywhere they wanted on the field. They often pushed their full backs very high and wide and allowed their wingers to tuck inside to create more problems for defenses in central areas. Below is an example of the different options Chattanooga had when they had possession. You can see that they were pretty much able to control the central areas without much hope for opposing defenses. They rotated A LOT, but this gives you a basic idea of the Chattanooga offensive structure as they sought move the ball forward. You can see why Chattanooga strikers might have better looks at goal as well. If you’re constantly trying to win the ball deep in your own half and trying to get down the field, you likely will have a harder time getting closer to goal. On the other hand, if your team pretty much owns the field, you don’t really have to go far to get close to the goal. Juan Galindrez had an incredibly high xG per shot of 0.21 this season, meaning that he was expected to score 1 from every 5 shots on average. Chattanooga was the joint highest creators of big chances with 60 and were expected to score well over 40, but not quite meeting that mark. Chattanooga took over 13 shots per 90 on average but only had a goal conversion rate of just under 10%. Some would say they were incredibly unlucky, striking the woodwork a league high 18 times. Even with these good positions, you can see that these chances didn’t always work out for them like they hoped.

This video is kind of long, but I wanted to highlight how this control that Chattanooga wants to have is exerted on teams to force chances and goals. Some would call Chattanooga incredibly lucky when it came to late goals, scoring 12 in the last 15 minutes of the game last season. I don’t think they were lucky. Putting this much pressure on a tired opponent isn’t luck, it’s hard work and solid execution. They were superb in this stage of the game (I do not have stats to back up this next statement, but I believe it meets the eye test), and it seems like they pressed harder and sat higher in this phase than any other. Here’s a clip from their 87th minute goal against Tormenta.

As mentioned in the video, Chattanooga’s structure makes it very hard for opponents to break free when they regain possession of the ball. In central areas, Chattanooga create a block to prevent central progression up the field. People like JCG, Ualefi, and Villalobos were instrumental in helping Chattanooga retain and win back possession centrally. This forces teams to try to play the ball wide, giving Chattanooga extra time to make recovery runs into a more defensive shape. Chattanooga were excellent at preventing shots because of this, allowing the fewest shots per 90 of any team in the league. The one problem with a high line is that execution is KING and one mistake can cause so many problems (see Playoff video below).

Long story short, Chattanooga’s desire was to have control of the ball, and the field as much as possible. The only chaos or unpredictability that Chattanooga wanted was the chaos and unpredictability created by them. By and large, they did a good job of making sure that happened. This year, you can see that they’ve already secured many important pieces that make this formation work in the lineup, but they’re not done yet. With Navarro is there only center back returning so far, they’ll probably be looking to bring in another ball playing defender that allows them to exert the control they want. They also hope that they don’t hit the post as often this coming season! This will probably dramatically increase their goal scoring as long as it’s in the back of the net and not off target (tongue in cheek).

I feel as though I’m rambling at this point, but I hope this makes sense and you enjoyed it! It will be interesting to see how Obleda continues to use this tactical set up as I’m sure they’ll be looking to take another crack at the playoffs this coming year. Only time will tell!

Merry League…One…mas (eh)? Name isn’t important. It’s just a great time for fans to get ready for the new season, prep to be loud and proud at next season’s games, and make cookies in the shape of your favorite team’s logo! The schedule is HERE. It’s four months until the new season and all through the league, not a team has finished their roster, not even the Red Wolves. So let’s take a look at each team’s needs from goals, to humans, to midfield solidity. So here we go, 11 day of League One-mas (still don’t like it, but fans can workshop something better later)!

On the first day of league one-mas, Central Valley Fuego FC really need: A human

A soccer player – like, anyone. If they have a warm body on their roster by the new year, we’ll call that a HUGE dub.

On the second day of League One-mas, Charlotte Independence really need: a chance at Rebuild FC

Any time a team ends up dropping down a league, you can expect a lot of turnover to happen. As to how much, we’re yet to find out. Moving to the USL L1 was not under the best circumstances with off the field issues (racism, conspiracy theories, and no money, OH MY! All of this has been regularly reported on and can be found by simply typing “Charlotte independence” into the news section of google) plaguing the organization, and their fans definitely deserve better. The supporters groups in Charlotte have been working hard to fight for their team, so hopefully we’ll see some good come out of all of this. It’s likely to be a full or at least extensive rebuild, so adding some reliable players who know League One to the roster would be smart. We’ll see what happens and even under confusing and shrouded circumstances, a big team is joining the league.

On the third day of League One-mas, Chattanooga Red Wolves really need: To Solve the Striker Situation

Chattanooga has got a lot of really good depth across the field, but one area that they really struggled in was the “striker” position. Now at the risk of framing Obleda into a L1 Guardiola, they NEED to make a striker decision: Are they going to sign another striker or are they going to start Galindrez more? Because they need a striker who can start and affect the game for them week in and week out (*Obleda proceeds to start Villalobos up top and Galindrez on the wing and somehow it works*). Some of their options this season didn’t strike a ton of fear in opposing defenses, and that needs to change. Juan Galindrez was an incredible super sub, scoring 9 of his 11 goals from substitute appearances. He’s absolutely a proven goal scorer, but wasn’t involved in the build up nearly as much as his counterparts. Will Galindrez be their man this season or will he continue to play the ever important role of last second day-spoiler? It really depends on what else Obleda expects from his starting man and if Galindrez can make it happen. Either way, you can expect him to be heavily involved in his team’s success. Hopefully we’ll find out soon.

On the fourth day of League One-mas, Forward Madison really need: Offensive Efficiency

Forward Madison was a curious case of underperformance this season. Shooting many more times per game than average in the league while simultaneously having the joint lowest goal tally (I don’t include own goals in offensive performance numbers, but second lowest if you’d like to include them), is a big problem. Glaeser is coming in to work on a big task and his ability to get this team firing will be the main factor in their success. They just lost their leading scorer/assist leader to a return to Greenville, so they need someone who can get good looks in front of goal and QUICK. Glaeser is putting together a good squad but will need someone who can inspire confidence in their offensive production this season. They didn’t do THAT bad on defense, but when they did go behind, there wasn’t that much confidence on getting back in. The good news is that Glaeser’s philosophy seems very attacking, citing Carlos Carvalhal as one of his inspirations. Carvalhal has been previously quoted saying “Clean sheet? We don’t use this word in Portugal. It does not make sense to me. I want my teams not to let in goals but between 1-0 and 5-4, I prefer 5-4 because I love football.” If this is any part of Glaeser’s philosophy (this is pretty funny when thinking about Glaeser, the former goalkeeper), Madison has a much better chance of doing well in League One next season. Score more and their decent defense will feel a lot less pressure. More goals, more wins, more vibes=more jerseys, I think.

On the fifth day of League One-mas, Greenville Triumph really need: Goals, Goals, and more Goals

Just like Madison, my beloved Triumph is in need of some help on the offensive side of the ball. This season, there were not many teams who struggled in front of goal more than Greenville. One of the worst teams when comparing the number of goals scored to their expected goals (third worst in the league), Greenville would have been (and they were at some points this season) caught up a creek without a paddle if it hadn’t been for Marios Lomis (scored or assisted 42% of all goals last season). Teams like Greenville, who are expecting to challenge for the title, can’t stay on top if they continue to under perform offensively. The signings of Coutinho and Keegan are positive declarations of intent, but Greenville will likely be hoping to add one or two more goal scorers to the squad. They’ll also be hoping that Gavilanes and Brown can add some more goals from the wings this season and they probably will. Even so, it’s hard to see improvement upon last season without one or two more goal scorers. Greenville’s defense will likely be stout as always, but the mantra “defense wins championships” is only true in so far as you can reliably take the lead, which wasn’t always a sure bet last season. Even so, John Harkes has shown he can get the absolute best out of the players he has, so it’s gonna be a good year!

On the sixth day of League One-mas, North Carolina FC really need: Midfield Solidity

This season, no defense faced more shots than NCFC. They were run ragged, always being forced into clearances, blocks, and last minute tackles. When you concede 50 goals in a season, you assume that your defense was poor… right? Well, that’s not really the case for NCFC. In fact, it was no easier to score on NCFC than it was to score on Greenville. They actually lost the ball fewer times per game than almost anyone in the league. The difference? The path of least resistance at NCFC led straight to their goal. You could practically walk up to their back line at times, which put so much pressure on a relatively young/new defensive core. They rode the storm well, but you can bet they won’t want to do that again. NCFC has already made some smart moves with the re-signing of Pecka and the acquisition of Sommersall, but I’d bet they bring in at least one more for good measure. Put people in front of that defense who can hold onto the ball and protect the back line well and I think NCFC will look a whole lot better than we thought they could.

On the Seventh day of League One-mas, Northern Colorado Hailstorm really need: MORE

I mean… a lot. And that’s no knock on them. They’ve made some statement signings in Rob Cornwall and Lachlan McLean, but fielding two players will get you disqualified from a match every time. That being said, If they keep signing the level of quality they have so far, expect a big season from the Snow boys.

On the eighth day of League One-mas, Richmond Kickers really need: An Ivan Magalhaes Replacement — if that’s even possible

Richmond’s defense was incredible this season with all of the pressure they were under, the only team facing more shots than them was NCFC and they held strong with the help of a TOTY goalkeeper in Fitzgerald who’s returning and a solid defense. One part of their defense was particularly stout and that was the man, the myth, the legend: Ivan Magalhaes. Ivan won 70% of his ground duels (62% ground + aerial) across the entire season, which is ridiculous, and swept up just about anything that came his way. His presence in the back line was so reassuring for a team that seeks to soak up pressure and he will be sorely missed. If they want to be successful in the same way they were next season, either the entire defense is going to need to do a lot of stepping up or they need a really solid replacement who can get close to replicating the work he did.

On the ninth day of League One-mas, Tormenta FC really need: Mayr-Falten Replacement

They declined options for A LOT of their players. With all of the turnover, it’s really hard to tell what they’ll need. It really depends on how they decide to set up next season, but they probably need a replacement for Mayr-Falten. Previously an attacking midfielder, he played as a “wingback” for much of the 2021 season to really good effect. Finding an offensive wing back who can affect play in the final third but defend as needed will be key moving forward if they plan to continue with a back 3. Falter was tied for 2nd with Jay Tee Kamara for Big Chances Created with 11 and was such an important part of Tormenta’s game plan. Replacing him will be essential to success in 2022.

On the tenth day of League One-mas, FC Tucson really need: Defenders Who Won’t Get In Trouble

Fc Tucson scored a ton of goals this season. They were such a threat going forward and their spot in the playoffs was deserved. The problem they faced was — dun dun dun— the consequences of their own actions. Their back line alone accrued 7 red cards this season with two more against forwards and it put them in so many bad positions. Their high flying offense was good enough to go far, but a lack of discipline will always keep you from getting where you want to go. The signing of Jacob Crull is already a step in the right direction, but they’ve got a few more spots to fill. Expect to see some squeaky clean card records among their new defensive signings. This season, don’t wear Christmas sweaters around Tucson fans — they’re probably sick of the color red.

On the eleventh day of League One-mas, Union Omaha really need: To Keep As Many Players from 2021 As Possible

2021 was a great year for Omaha, playing incredibly good team soccer and winning the title to boot. In my opinion, their strength was in their team cohesion and structure. They were completely unified in purpose and tactical understanding and it made them incredibly hard to play against. Even so, there were some stand out players that probably put a lot of teams on notice and they might just be on the move. They’ve already had some returnees, but they’ll definitely want to keep that winning feeling alive in 2022 and a lot of that will be down to their personnel. The loss of Jacob Crull will sting a bit, but there are some decent defenders available and we’ll likely see that hole get plugged either internally or externally very soon. How many players will Omaha keep? That’s yet to be seen, but keeping their best players will be a huge wish coming into 2022 to keep their dominance alive.

It’s gonna be a great season for the league with the two extra games and I could not be more excited to be in the thick of League One soccer. Enjoy League-One-Mas (still bad) and may all of our teams be awesome!