With the acquisition of Designated Player Claudio Lopez and a new stadium on the horizon, the Wizards came into the 2008 season looking to establish themselves as one of the major players in the Eastern Conference. Instead, KC find themselves at the bottom of the conference and have struggled to create chances and goals. A franchise whose history is based on defensive play was expected to move forward and be more aggressive, but once again are focusing on keeping a tight backline and finding it difficult to put the ball in the back of the net.
July 4th, 2008
Categories: Match Preview . Author: Jason Benfield . Comments: 6 Comments
In a league where teams routinely jump from worst to first (and first to worst) from one season to the next, two teams have managed to find a consistently high level of success. Houston and New England have achieved this by holding on to a set of core players, while adequately replacing the pieces that leave. Both sides have refused to use their Designated Player spots, instead opting for flexibility within the salary cap in order to fill any vacant pieces in the puzzle through the draft, trades, and the foreign market. Finally, however, Houston has not been able to fill a key off season departure, which will now result in a change in formation and change in position for key personnel.
June 26th, 2008
Categories: Match Preview . Author: Jason Benfield . Comments: 8 Comments
The Red Bulls enter Saturday’s affair with a much different attitude, roster, and formation than they did when they played Dallas earlier in the season. Heading into the first match, New York were loaded with talent and playing an aggressive 3-5-2 formation. Now, they have sold their best young player, their two most talented veterans are injured, and Osorio is changing the formation on a game-by-game basis.
June 20th, 2008
Categories: Match Preview . Author: Jason Benfield . Comments: 7 Comments
When Osorio came on board as the Chicago Fire head coach at the end of last season, he quickly installed a 4-5-1 formation that allowed Blanco to play a free role in the midfield and kept things tight at the back. It wasn’t the prettiest soccer to watch, but it was effective, getting Chicago into the playoffs and past the first round. Once Denis Hamlett took over at the start of the 2008 season, he tinkered with the formation a bit, bringing in some extra forwards and attempting to play a 4-4-2. However, he has now essentially resigned himself to play the same 4-5-1 that Osorio used last season, and that will most likely be the look shown to FCD this weekend.
June 13th, 2008
Categories: Match Preview . Author: Jason Benfield . Comments: 11 Comments
For the second straight game, FCD will face a team that plays in a more traditional 3-5-2 than their own. On the backline, the outside backs stay wide and actually join the attack at times, whereas the Dallas defenders squeeze inside and stay back.
June 6th, 2008
Categories: Match Preview . Author: Jason Benfield . Comments: 24 Comments
Clavijo began the season with a lot of success playing out of a 4-5-1 formation. Eventually, however, other teams adjusted and began preventing Christian Gomez, who was sitting just behind the striker, from seeing much of the ball; after the chances started drying up and Colorado were finally shut out at home against San Jose, the switch was made to a 4-4-2.
May 31st, 2008
Categories: Match Preview, News . Author: Jason Benfield . Comments: 7 Comments
In what has become a yearly tradition for Houston, once again they started the season off slowly on both sides of the ball. Every year, they start figuring things out on defense after a few games, and then sometime around midseason the offense kicks into gear. By the time the playoff run starts, both sides are very sharp; the great end of season form has led to consecutive championships.
May 27th, 2008
Categories: Match Preview . Author: Jason Benfield . Comments: 4 Comments
Things have changed a bit since the two teams met a couple of weeks ago, and not just from the obvious Dallas angle. After playing a 4-4-2 all season long, RSL came out in a 3-5-2 against Dallas before substituting Olave out in the first half and reverting back to their original formation. Against Colorado, they stuck with the 4-4-2 but it had a much more defensive feel to it.
May 23rd, 2008
Categories: Match Preview . Author: Jason Benfield . Comments: 3 Comments
Although Gullit is a big fan of “sexy football”, the horrid Galaxy defense forced him to reign in his ambition a bit at the beginning of the year. In the preseason game against Dallas, where LA actually had the run of play, he brought out a 4-5-1 formation, relying on the counter to create opportunities. Since then, the Galaxy have benefited from having a run of games at home to start the season.
May 16th, 2008
Categories: Match Preview . Author: Jason Benfield . Comments: 10 Comments
Jason Kreis has RSL playing a very aggressive, attacking style of soccer. They line up in a 4-4-2, but push a lot of players forward. The defense consists of two physical center backs who stay home and two outside backs who are free to move forward at will and support the attack on the wing. In the midfield, one player stays home centrally and has a defensive role, but the other three have primary roles in the attack.
May 9th, 2008
Categories: Match Preview . Author: Jason Benfield . Comments: 8 Comments
