The Back Four: All things playoffs, plus Sacramento
Takeaways from the first week of USL Championship and League One playoff action
Welcome to The Back Four, where I’m analyzing four things that drew my eye from across the USL. Need a recap of the entire Championship? Hit up Backheeled!
Note: we’re changing shapes into a back five today. I had done the usual foursome, but then the Republic decided to make a coaching change. In any event, let’s get to it.
Guy of the Round
I want to spotlight someone after every round of playoff action that won’t necessarily be getting plaudits elsewhere. These won’t be the goalscorers or creative dynamos, but the unsung heroes that are doing the dirty work.
First up: Charleston’s Chris Allan.
When longtime Battery center back Leland Archer pulled up gimpy at the end of a draw with Rhode Island on October 19th, Ben Pirmann needed to re-think his defensive setup. Sliding versatile left back Nathan DosSantos into the center was an obvious choice; DosSantos had mostly played there during a prior stint with Pittsburgh. Still, that created a vacancy at left back, the spot where DosSantos had started 30 regular season matches.
Enter Allan. A Swiss Army knife of a midfielder that followed Pirmann from Memphis to Charleston in 2023, Allan has almost exclusively operated as a heady center mid for the Battery. Using him at left back in the regular season finale against Loudoun was a bold call, but that game didn’t really matter. Repeating the trick against Pittsburgh and fearsome forward Bertin Jacquesson was a different matter.
In practice, Allan couldn’t have played any better. The Battery unexpectedly ran a 4-2-4 for much of the match, and they weren’t afraid to tilt the pitch with long passes from the back. Charleston’s 26-year-old Englishman leaned into that progressivity as a distributor, and he did wonders to deny Jacquesson on the way to a clean sheet.
You see Allan’s pass map here, and there’s a unifying trend behind his incompletions: every single one is a forward pass that moves play upfield against the Riverhounds’ press. It’s not like the midfielder-turned-defender was inaccurate, mind you. He completed 44 of his 54 tries. Still, even the errant attempts had a positive impact for Charleston.
What of the defensive side? Allan tended to stay deeper than right back Mark Segbers in possession, so he wasn’t all that likely to get caught out on the counter. He wasn’t dribbled past during the course of the 90 minutes, and he didn’t commit a single foul. Jacquesson ended up with four shot attempts, but just one was on target; Allan rarely gave him space.
Charleston’s two-man midfield of Jay Chapman and Aaron Molloy could’ve been thing because of the shape change, but #4 knew when he needed to make a step in from left back to steel the shape or vie for a second ball. He ended up with three ball recoveries, all of which came in the middle third of the pitch.
Whatever Ben Pirmann needs, Chris Allan can do. He’s a terrific player that doesn’t get enough love, and he’s proved that fact in spades while covering in the defensive line.
League One Quick Hits1
And just like that, USL League One was down to four. Greenville, Madison, Spokane, and Omaha all got the job done this weekend to advance to the semifinal round, and each club felt imposed a real tactical stranglehold on their respective opponents. I want to break down one key thing that let each team do the job.
Omaha’s relentless possession
It was an emotional week in Omaha given the news around Mechack Jerome (donation link here to support him and his family!), and his teammates lived up to the mix of grit and technique that make Jerome special. In a tight-run game, Lagos Kunga’s ability to charge through a defense like no one else made the difference, but Omaha still outdid Richmond when it came to cold, hard tactical execution.
Omaha’s shape was relatively fluid and interchange-positive, showing a mix of “back three” and “back four” principles depending on the positioning of players like Blake Malone, Joe Gallardo, and Ryen Jiba. When push came to shove, Dom Casciato’s side wasn’t afraid to defend with numbers in low block, but their most coherent offensive moments often came in a 4-2-3-1ish look.
Richmond tended to press in a 4-1-4-1 but could flex their wingers higher in certain situations or allow Chandler O’Dwyer to pop up next to Emiliano Terzaghi in a front-two press. Against that set up, Omaha was best when they could form passing triangles to isolate individuals in the Kickers’ midfield line.
In this case, Malone (who you’d call the right-sided center back or right back depending on the phase) carries the ball up the sideline and draws a winger’s . attention. Meanwhile, Gallardo shows ahead of Malone as a potential receiver down the sideline. Malone can pass toward Gallardo, setting up a give-and-go to round Richmond’s left mid.
All the while, Pedro Dolabella shows centrally as the third man in the putative triangle. It’s not exactly smooth, but Dolabella is able to receive and dink a pass beyond Richmond’s No. 6 into Lagos Kunga between the lines. Because the play is so roughshod, Omaha can’t retain the ball from there, but the play isn’t yet over.
As soon as Richmond gets a sniff of the ball, the counterpress kicks in. Gallardo and Kunga deny Richmond’s first look at an exit pass, and then central midfielder Max Schneider (four interceptions, three recoveries) is there to step and take the ball away. Suddenly, Omaha is back in business. They don’t let the hard work that allowed them to enter the final third go to waste.
Schneider shines again in this second instance of zone entrance. The midfielder, in his second stint with Omaha this year after a weird loan recall thing with Indy Eleven, makes that Gallardo-esque cut to the sideline in this case, and that run takes him behind Richmond’s ball-side No. 8 to receive from Malone.
Crucially, Dolabella again flashes centrally and occupies the Kickers’ holding mid. That player, James Vaughn, is thus unable to slide wide to deny the nascent Omaha build. Full back Maxi Schenfeld must fill the gap instead, meaning that Schneider has space to look ahead, beat Schenfeld in behind, and set up a dangerous runner in the final third.
Yes, Omaha only tried nine total shots in their winning effort, but they had the better ideas. By controlling the game with the ball and tilting the pitch, they limited Richmond and set the table for Lagos Kunga’s winner. Not every victory needs to be pretty, and Union Omaha did what was needed to get over the line.
On Greenville’s offense
I’ve been a bit mean to Greenville from the summer onward, but they outplayed Knoxville from the jump on Saturday and did well to limit good chances after taking the lead. The Triumph’s ability to interchange in possession was key to spreading the guests out and creating opportunities.
The Triumph lined up in a standard back four shape without the ball, but their rotations upon regaining were the real standout. Early on, Evan Lee often pushed up from the midfield to essentially become an added striker. Pascal Corvino tended to tuck inside from the right wing to become more of a central attacking mid, but he had similar freedom to Lee.
All the while, Tyler Polak (the left back) and Nate Shultz (the right back) could push ahead cleverly to give their attack support. Moments where both full backs pushed ahead into the attacking line to give Greenville a five-man front were somewhat rare. More often, one player stayed low in a pseudo-back three. Still, the variability is what gave One Knox fits.
The shape develops into something like a 3-3-4 in this case (players labelled by their out-of-possession spots), a look featuring Polak underlapping as Lyam MacKinnon finds the ball on the sideline. Carlos Anguiano has hit MacKinnon out of the midfield. Meanwhile, Shultz isn’t visible on screen as he sits dip and elects not to make a matching upfield run.
Polak’s positioning creates a problem for the Knoxville back five. Right wing back Gio Calixtro has to go one-on-one against the Golden Boot winner, but center back Jalen Crisler is occupied by Polak and thus can’t slide over to help against MacKinnon.
This example ends with a deflected cross; MacKinnon went one for five on his serves. Still, a similar such play would end up at Polak’s feet instead of MacKinnon’s about 10 minutes later, allowing for a cutback to Evan Lee to take the lead.
Same idea here, but on the right side. This time around, it’s Corvino getting a touch in the half space slightly in front of the halfway line and Shultz making the step up from defense. Corvino attracts attention from a center mid and left wing back Stuart Ritchie; space opens up between the lines as the two Knoxville players close down.
Once Ritchie commits, Corvino releases a pass to a drifting Leo Castro (nominally the striker) in the right channel; you see him receiving in the still. Meanwhile, Shultz makes an overlapping run beyond Ritchie and becomes a viable passing option for Castro to find.
All the while, defender Dani Fernandez is in a pickle: should he commit to Castro or Shultz? Support isn’t there from the wing back, and it’s a rapidly developing two-on-one. Fernandez frees, allowing Greenville to play up the sideline.
Shultz is the third center back by proxy in this final case from later in the match. Greenville generally had to re-think things after Chapa Herrera went down injured, and their call was to drop Evan Lee deeper into the midfield with Sebastian Velasquez stepping into the No. 10 role. Less likely to crash the box but more likely to link play between the lines with his best-in-League-One skill, Velasquez’s introduction didn’t lead to any sort of worsened performance.
The persistence is seen above. Shultz stays low on the right side as Greenville moves up the left. It’s Polak (circled in blue in the cover pic) stirring the drink, bouncing off of the deeper-seated Lee to burst ahead into attack. Meanwhile, Pascal Corvino makes a run into the right channel that helps to pin the defense. Corvino grew more positive in his movement as the game wore on, helping to restore the Triumph’s early balance. In the case, he nearly opens a lane for Polak to find Leo Castro on a through ball.
Those sorts of plays powered the Triumph all night, and they’ll be similarly useful breaking down Omaha next week if Rick Wright and co. play their cards right. I don’t quite know what to call this Greenville shape, but I know that I like it.
Denying Juan Obregon
Juan Obregon nabbed 17 goals in League One and Jagermeister Cup play this year. He’s a handful by any standard, one whose movement is a constant stressor for defenses. That Madison held Charlotte’s star No. 9 to just two shots - both off target - is a testament to their defensive communication.
Madison didn’t much stray from their usual back five setup in block, but they shone because of the performances of Jake Crull, Mitch Osmond, and Michael Chilaka at the back. The trio combined for 14 clearances; Osmond and Crull tried just one tackle between them, while Chilaka went for four. The communication and sense of give-and-take gave Madison what they needed. Teamwork reigned over wanton aggression.
In this case, the Independence are able to turn Madison over. When possession changes, Crull and the Madison midfield are committed in the attacking half. Charlotte swiftly pushes down the middle beyond the home team’s pivot, with Luis Alvarez shooting the gap between Crull and Osmond. That run puts Madison in a tough spot, and it allows Obregon to make a keen run across the face of the left-sided defender.
This is where communication is key. Crull commits toward Alvarez’s far-post run, and he relies on Osmond to address Obregon’s more central move. A lesser defense would double up on one runner or have their centermost man (i.e., Osmond here) lunge toward a near-post runner. Not Madison. Ultimately, Osmond is in position to head away a cross toward Charlotte’s star No. 9.
Throughout the night, Matt Glaeser’s side did well to maintain a two-on-one edge versus the Honduran international. The screenshot here evidences that pattern. Charlotte has quickly advanced upfield using a diagonal ball from the back toward Joel Johnson on the far side. Again, there’s a scenario where Crull and Osmond double up on that receiver and thus leave Chilaka scrambling to get goalside of Obregon.
That isn’t the case. Crull is trusted to take on Johnson, and Ferrety Sousa (the left wing back) can already be seen getting back to help him out. Meanwhile, the other two Madison center backs are there against Obregon.
If Forward Madison goes all the way, their back line will be the reason why: Saturday‘s win over Charlotte was evidence of this team’s stellar team defending. This Madison side is designed for knockout soccer.
Spokane and the power of the 4-2-4
The playoffs are chaotic every single year, but Spokane’s upset win against Northern Colorado felt like a real shock. Velocity didn’t just go to Windsor and scrape away with a win; they beat the Hailstorm by three goals and looked extremely smooth in doing so.
Spokane set up in a 4-2-4 featuring Jack Denton and Andre Lewis in their pivot, and the ability for that system to create three-man overloads across the forward line was massive. Despite spending about 25 minutes defending a big lead, they still outdid NoCo in terms of final third entries. 75% of their shots came from within the box. Velocity patiently broke their hosts down and rightfully advanced because of it.
Though Denton only took 48 touches and attempted just 34 passes (albeit on a 91% completion rate), his movement was fine-tuned to bend the Hailstorm and open up passing angles from deep. Lewis was more active with and without the ball, and the complementary setup worked wonders. #77 led all players with 58 completions - 14 of which were final third entry passes - and he also added that level of verve as a runner.
Above, Denton splits low as Lewis pushes wide, and NoCo parts like the Red Sea. Enter center back Marcelo Lage, who dribbles upfield into the now-vacant center of the park.
Lage still has to contend with the double pivot after breaking the first line of pressure, but that’s where the three-man bunching in Spokane’s front line comes in. Kimarni Smith stays wide-ish from the right wing position, Luis Gil pops into the right half space, and Anuar Pelaez probes to split the opposing center backs or to possibly receive on the hold.
Three Velocity men are there in one pocket, and NoCo commits. The result? Space for Masango Akale to receive in a functional one-on-one on the left.
Our second still comes moments before Spokane takes the lead, and it’s the same idea. This time, Lewis (the deeper player marked in blue) possesses with Derek Waldeck (the left back, also marked in blue) flanking him on the sideline. Another three-man pairing does double duty here, drawing the Hailstorm pivot over while freezing the back line. There’s now space for Lewis to hit Waldeck.
When Spokane eventually works back toward the right and forces NoCo to recover, a bit of a scramble ensues. The result is a goal for Luis Gil, one that would set the tone for two more conversions in semi-transitional moments to seal the match. Leigh Veidman’s side understood their strengths, put their best attacking players in advantageous positions, and advanced because of it.
Musing on midfields
When people talk about the playoff field, they’ll often fixate on two things when identifying a favorite: strong defending and a star striker. My favorite performances of the USL Championship’s Conference Quarterfinals, however, drove through the midfield. The best midfield units solidify their systems and give those special attackers the chance to score. We saw both sides of that coin between Orange County and Tampa Bay’s wins over the weekend.
Orange County pulled off one of the steepest upsets of the round, downing Memphis at AutoZone Park as the #6 seed. The pivot pair of Ashish Chattha and Seth Casiple was absolutely vital to their winning effort.
I’ve highlighted two distinct build-out sequences here that underline the variability that Chattha, who went 118 minutes and played an eye-watering 18 passes into the final third, and Casiple, who went six for six on long balls across 70 total touches, offered up.
In the first play, Orange County drops Casiple low to the level of their central defenders. OCSC is moving right to left, from Markus Nakkim to Dillon Powers to the far-sided Casiple. #8’s low drop gives his team an edge against the two-man front line Memphis applies in the press. Meanwhile, Chattha camps in front of that back three in order to (1) keep the high-pressing forwards honest over their shoulders and (2) keep the 901 midfield narrow to eventually allow for a pass around the edge.
The second play changes the dynamic, with Casiple serving as the high man relative to a deeper Chattha. Memphis has trapped Powers against the sideline here, but Casiple smartly makes himself available in the exact spot the central defender can pass into. There’s a possibility Casiple will be closed down upon receiving, but that’s where Chattha comes in: #8 can first-time a pass to #15 to break a trap and allow OCSC to switch the point.
Orange County only ended up with a 56% hold on possession (good but not mind-blowing), but they felt much more dominant than that. All that success began with their splendid chemistry in the pivot.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay also did the #3/#6 thing thanks to midgame stabilization that ran through their spine. Early on, the Rowdies’ 3-4-3ish shape struggled to deal with opposing Detroit’s ability to skip past higher pressers and play directly to their forwards. Daniel Crisostomo and Lewis Hilton weren’t bad, but they didn’t feel aligned and often overextended when stepping up to mark Maxi Rodriguez.
That changed when the Rowdies took a lead, and a lot of the credit owes to Leo Fernandes. Best know as the guy who contributed to 29 goals in his 2022 MVP season, Fernandes dropped into a deeper midfield role versus Le Rouge and showed off first-class positional intelligence. Though the Brazilian didn’t attempt a single tackle and went five for 13 on duels, he did a tremendous job at clogging space and limiting Detroit’s possession game.
You see that play out above. The sequence starts with Crisostomo (three interceptions, six recoveries) man marking Rodriguez in Tampa Bay’s attacking half. You don’t see Fernandes initially, but he’s just off screen, providing similar coverage against the other member of the opposing pivot.
Detroit can’t bounce passes off their center mids because of the Rowdies’ setup, and they’re forced to work wide. This is exactly what Robbie Neilson wants. As soon as the hosts swing around the edge, wing back Blake Bodily closes down and forces the receiver to turn heel. Meanwhile, that three-man Tampa Bay midfield shuts down any sort of centering pass that could keep the progressive play going.
There couldn’t be a more perfect example of how Tampa Bay established control on Saturday night. Yes, it took a standout Jordan Farr performance in goal to get over the line, but the Rowdies only got to penalty kicks because of their central discipline.
Danny Stone and Orange County won their match because of the deep-lying offensive contributions of their midfielders. Neilson’s Rowdies advanced thanks to organized pressing and standout defensive communication from their central group. You could hardly pick two clubs that use more distinct styles, but both proved just how useful elite midfield play becomes in the playoffs.
Playoff Odds!
In Round One, the playoff model went eight for 12 on picks, which is pretty decent? Memphis and Northern Colorado were the big misses; both sides were assigned 73% chances of advancing at home, only to be upset.
Ahead of Round Two, only Forward Madison is given that level of surety. They’re a 73% favorite to advance over the spunky Cinderellas from Spokane. My gut tells me that Madison’s back five is set up to deny the overloads that fueled the Velocity last weekend, but you never know.
Greenville is an away underdog to Omaha, but only just. Omaha beat the Triumph in both of their games this year, running up a 4-1 net scoreline and 31-20 edge on shot attempts. Both clubs looked strong in the first round; the availability of Chapa Herrera is something to watch on the Greenville side.
The Championship’s Eastern Conference is all chalk. Charleston enjoys a slim edge over Tampa Bay after those two teams split the season series. Their first matchup was the game where Aaron Molloy got hurt and Nate Worth scored a magical winning free kick. Meanwhile, Louisville hosts Rhode Island, the only visitor to win at Lynn Family Stadium in 2024. The expansion team bested the eventual Players’ Shield winners in a 5-2 barnburner back in June.
The model only likes one upset, and that’s Las Vegas over New Mexico. If we’re being honest, I thought both teams underperformed in their opening matches. The Lights were better than Sacramento for sure, but they looked impotent while spending large amounts of time in the final third; New Mexico’s flat first half and odd lineup picks against Phoenix would’ve been punished with a loss against a better team. Elsewhere in the West, Colorado Springs holds a big edge on severely underrated Orange County.
On Mark Briggs
I’ll hit on all the big USL coaching news during the offseason, but Sacramento’s decision to move on from Mark Briggs is a stunner that deserves some consideration. Yes, the Republic underperformed expectations. There’s no denying that a fifth-place finish and first-round loss are below the standard in Sacramento. That said, Briggs still helmed this team to the playoffs and nearly upset the Seattle Sounders in the US Open Cup quarterfinals amidst adverse circumstances.
This Republic roster was built to run a 3-4-3ish system with Rodrigo Lopez pulling the strings in the midfield, Jack Gurr tearing up the right sideline, and Russell Cicerone wreaking havoc from the left. A veteran back three would hold it all together.
For a handful of unbeaten matches to start 2024, all went to plan. Across a stretch of about 800 league minutes before Lopez went down, the Republic scored 1.6 goals per game and outshot their opponents by seven attempts per 90 minutes. Without Lopez, Sacramento allowed 1.6 xG a match and saw their shot production crater by more than 40%.
Meanwhile, Cicerone wouldn’t start a single game between May 11th and September 7th. Conor Donovan and Shane Weidt would miss extended spells in defense. Gurr would go down in a late-season match against Monterey and be unavailable for the home stretch. Teams are more than their star players, but Briggs managed 2024 with a hand tied behind his back.
That the Republic only used one sub in the first 119 minutes of their playoff loss in Las Vegas has become a flash point in adjudicating Briggs’ exit. You can point to that fact and say that the depth wasn’t there. That’s a fault of squad building more than management.
Of course, you could use that same bit of evidence to make the opposite argument. Might Briggs have been able to get more out of a talented roster?
Cristian Parano went unused against Las Vegas, and his example is a damning one. Parano emerged in the attacking midfield during the summer, operating in the right half space to carry the burden amidst Lopez and Cicerone’s absences. Though Parano ended up with just two assists on the year, he put up 72nd percentile chance creation and 76th percentile dribbling success in the process.
Between an August 25th win at San Antonio (where Parano was subbed out at halftime) and the end of the year, the midfielder never went more than 70 minutes in a match and started just four of nine possible matches. Going with a diamond-tinged 4-4-2 for the playoffs - a shape Sacramento hadn’t seen all year - and omitting Parano entirely felt stubborn.
The same thing stinginess applies in the case of Jonathan Ricketts. Yes, he went down injured over the summer, but Ricketts was underused even before that point.
The versatile wing back was a borderline all-USL player with Rio Grande Valley for my taste, and Briggs often used him as a late-game difference-maker early in the year. Ricketts was memorably impactful in a comeback in Rhode Island in May, scoring an added time equalizer off the bench.
Amidst all the absences, why didn’t we see more of the ex-Toro? Briggs cleverly deployed him as something like a target winger in his brief appearances, and sustained minutes for Ricketts could’ve added important variety to the Republic system. Sacramento was too willing to stick to a singular gameplan even if the pieces to run it weren’t available.
Briggs had support to try and get back into shape. This team added Kieran Philips and Justin Portillo midseason, after all. Philips turned into one of the elite fastbreak forward in the USL after joining up on loan, while Portillo provided his typical tempo-setting in the pivot. Neither signing could stem the tide of losing homefield advantage and crashing out in the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
You could also argue that the team for a reset was nigh. Sacramento relied on numerous players either beyond USL standard for their age (Nick Ross, Justin Portillo, Lopez) or drawing perilously near the typical 28-to-30ish corridor after which players start to decline (Luis Felipe, Lee Desmond, Gurr, Cicerone). If Briggs’ exit is the first step of a larger process, the choice starts to make a bit more sense.
Still, the Republic’s final expected goal difference in 2024 was plus-11, the top mark in the West and the fifth-best in the USL. Briggs should’ve earned a long leash thanks to years of success. As Devon Kerr noted, the manager’s record includes:
Playoff appearances in four of five seasons with Sacramento
#1 seed in the West in 2023; Conference Finals berth
2022 Open Cup run ending in a title-game loss to MLS’ Orlando City
100 USL Championship victories, a mark attained by only two other managers
Yes, expectations are sky high in Sacramento. Yes, you can rightfully quibble with Briggs’ deployment and personnel applications. That said, the record and the context of the 2024 season don’t lie.
Moving on from Mark Briggs with all that in mind feels like a mistake. He’s a top coach in this league alongside the likes of Ben Pirmann and Danny Cruz; you aren’t going to find an upgrade.
Threads!
Here’s a backlog of my bigger game recaps. Looking for more Charleston talk? Check out this week’s USL Tactics Show on the socials.
Final Thoughts
In other news this week…
My friend and yours Owain Evans wrote a scathing but fair piece on the need for change at Phoenix Rising. Even if you disagree with the premise, it’s worth a read - and it’s an interesting question to consider when rival clubs like San Antonio and Sacramento are making big changes in the West.
Kicking off the playoffs with a penalty shootout that ends at like 1:30 AM on the East Coast is exactly what I’m looking for. Long live the chaos - but, uh, please fix your pitch, Lights.
Getting new albums from Tyler, the Creator, Freddie Gibbs, and IDK in the span of a week is a blessing for the whitest rap fan you know (which is me).
That’s all, folks. See you soon!
Cover photo credit: Tampa Bay Rowdies / Twitter
“Quick” is relative, so…uh…sike?
This thread starts with a lineup graphic and a bizarre emoji picture of a pig. Don’t write threads on your phone, folks.