The Back Four: Omaha and experimentation
Tactics, stats, and other developments that stand out for Omaha, Greenville, Hartford, and Tulsa
Welcome to The Back Four, where I’m analyzing four things that drew my eye from across the USL. Need an analysis-heavy recap of the entire Championship? Backheeled is the place to be.
Now, let’s get to it.
On Omaha…
The best part of having bad hot takes right before a big game? Eating crow when they turn out to be wrong. That’s where I’m at after questioning Omaha’s back line in my League One round-up last weekend.
In terms of shape, system, and individual performances, Omaha didn’t put a foot wrong in Greenville to ascend to the top of the table with a 1-0 win this Saturday. They shut down the Triumph’s best threat and conceded just 0.2 xG for their efforts.
Dom Casciato kept his lineup unchanged after a ravaging win over Lexington a week prior, pairing PC and Pedro Dolabella in the midfield while employing a Milanese-Mastrantonio-Malone back three. My doubts about the central defenders turned out to be wholly unfounded: their aggression - to the tune of eight interceptions - shut down the Triumph and backstopped a flexible 3-4-3 press.
Omaha shifted in a few ways out of that basic formation, and every permutation did a stellar job at denying Ben Zakowski and an inside-cutting Lyam MacKinnon in the heart of the pitch.
In the example above, you see Lagos Kunga drop from the right wing and Dolabella step high from the pivot to man mark the Triumph center mids. Meanwhile, Aaron Gomez (left winger) and Steevan Dos Santos (the No. 9) stay on the edge of the box against the Greenville center backs. The effect? It’s difficult for the hosts to access the middle of the pitch without incurring the wrath of an Omaha player.
In Greenville’s previous game against Lexington, goalkeeper Gunther Rankenburg took just 19 touches as his side easily built out and progressed upfield. Against Omaha, that number was 49, evidence of a Triumph side that spun their tires in the face of the opposing 3-4-3.
Omaha rarely overextended in the wide areas, but that wasn’t because of timidity from their wing backs. Here, their shape almost looks like a 4-2-3-1 with Joe Gallardo pushing very high on the left side.
Pushing #7 stretch into the attacking zone could’ve been a death sentence against MacKinnon on that flank, but there’s coverage. Marco Milanese essentially replaces Gallardo in the lower area, hugging tight to Greenville’s prodigious #9.
Further upfield, that altered pressing shape denies the Triumph pivot and discourages a dead-end dump-off to the right back. The result? A hugely ambitious ball between the lines into Zakowski that’s cut out by an advancing Blake Malone. Not only does Malone intercept, but he instantly links with Lagos Kunga to send Omaha into the final third.
Even in their own area, Omaha brought defensive intensity that regularly unsettled any attacking rhythm their hosts tried to muster. You see the Triumph possess on the left side here, with winger Tyler Polak on the ball and the entire attacking line skewing his way. However, with Malone and Luca Mastrantonio stepping over and Milanese hugging tight to MacKinnon, that overload is of little use.
The first foray is rejected, and while Greenville quickly recovers possession, Milanese keeps his mark. There’s a shot in the end, but not one that makes Omaha sweat.
I’ve not touched on the attack here, and while the goal was the relatively scruffy result of a throw-in, Omaha had the better chances on balance. Kunga, per usual, was a real driver of action with the ball at his feet. Still, that defense-first perfection is why Casciato and co. are back on top of the table.
…and Greenville
There are two sides to every coin: what went wrong for the Triumph?
For my taste, the initial setup was overly conservative. Greenville‘s prior loss to Lexington, as frustrating and exceptional as it was, saw the use of a flexible 4-3-3. You got MacKinnon stretching on the left, Zakowski creating from his pocket on the right, and Sebastian Velasquez complementing them from the midfield - that’s maximum creation for this club.
There was a designed imbalance that almost put the Triumph into a possessive back three at times. Nate Shultz was more staid at right back, while Oliver Hald tended to push on the left. Hald alone put in six crosses! He competed none, but his activity still forced the opposing defense to react.
The Triumph didn’t score but consistently felt threatening. They did neither against Omaha in a system that was less fluid, did less to weaponize key players, and proved easier to defend against.
It’s reductive to view Greenville through the lens of MacKinnon’s production, but his success - or lack thereof - is the bellwether for their attack. Against Omaha, he took just two touches in the box, went eight-for-21 on his passes, and tried a modest two shots. His heatmap paints the picture of a player that never accessed truly dangerous areas.
Greenville’s average position map (not shown) paints the picture a proper back three with Hald as the left-sided defender, but it never felt like it in action. Hald, Shultz, and Tyler Polak - who I’d label the left winger in more of a 4-2-3-1 and not a wing back - combined for five cross attempts between them. That’s less than Hald alone had against Lexington.
The moral of the story? Greenville’s re-location of MacKinnon to the right and restricted sense of width created a static setup.
You get two examples to that end here. In the first, striker Leo Castro drops to hold up possession. In doing so, he effectively draws an Omaha center back with him. Polak spots what’s going on, and he knows that he can run in against past that defender. He also as a head start on opposing wing back Isaac Bawa, an early entrant off the bench.
What goes wrong? From the opening whistle, Polak was at a pace deficit against Bawa, starting wing back Dion Acoff, and Joe Gallardo when he moved rightward in the second half. #3 thus had less time and space to think while on the move. Polak still does really well here, but there are issues further ahead. When the winger finds a crossing angle, there’s only one real runner in the box. Polak could hit an anticipatory cross to meet that runner - Ben Zakowski - but it’s risky, and the play thus fizzles out.
Greenville build from deep through Shultz at right back in the second case. Immediately, though, there’s a visible issue. One center mid is planted behind enemy lines in a hard-to-access spot; the other is so far afield that he’s barely discernible in frame. Shultz wants to make a progressive pass, but his only chance to do so requires an inch-perfect ball.
Shultz tries to split the middle and find either MacKinnon or Evan Lee, but it’s an incompletion. Afterwards, you can see #9 throw his hands up in frustration at the bottom of the screen. That’s about as good an encapsulation as any for Greenville’s offense outing. Neither their shape nor their execution were up to snuff on Saturday.
It’s not a moment to panic: Omaha’s a great team, and the Triumph defense was largely solid. Even so, Greenville’s winless-in-three record against Omaha and Madison this year may necessitate changes down the stretch.
Anderson Asiedu, man of many positions
Hartford Athletic may well be the weirdest team in the Championship. Expectations were sky high in Brendan Burke’s maiden campaign in Connecticut, and results haven’t been up to par. Still, between stylistic shifts and an idiosyncratic roster, it’s never been boring despite the lack of success.
Somewhat shockingly, Hartford has the worst statistical defense in the league, having conceded 2.15 xG per 90 minutes. While they’ve benefited mightily from Renan Ribeiro’s USL-best shotstopping in net, they’ve still allowed the second-most goals in the East in practical terms.
Burke’s inability to nail down a lineup in any area of the pitch is a big part of the problem. Joey Farrell and Jordan Scarlett have nailed down the center back spots for the most part (though Farrell was benched against Charleston), and that’s pretty much it in terms of consistency. Three players have started at right back,1 the left back spot is still up for grabs, and Burke’s forward selections are ever-shifting.
Amidst it all, I’ve been fascinated by the usage of Anderson Asiedu. The former Birmingham Legion midfielder does two things really well: recover possession and keep the ball at his feet under duress. How has Burke used those talents?
Those skills make Asiedu one of the best defensive mids in the league. 5’6” but strong and nimble in his hips, the Ghanaian made more than eight ball recoveries per match during his three-year run in Alabama, all while beating opponents on the dribble about a time-and-a-half per match. That dribbling was full of function rather than flair: think about a slick turn against the counterpress rather than a slaloming carry into the final third.
When Asiedu appeared as the right winger for Hartford two weeks back, it thus caught my eye. We’d seen Asiedu shunted into that role to detrimental effect in Birmingham, making Burke’s choice to use him out wide all the more confusing.
Asiedu is a natural center mid, and he takes narrow positions as such no matter where he starts. That’s just instinct. Above, with the entirety of Hartford’s 4-2-3-1 midfield skewed to one side of the field and Asiedu especially narrow, opposing Loudoun can easily hit a switch and break through. Asiedu can’t recover in time, allowing the guests to double up on an isolated right back.
To Burke’s credit, he noticed the issue and swapped #12 to the central attacking mid role within a matter of minutes in that Loudoun loss. It was the first step of what’s been continuing experimentation relative to Asiedu.
The diminutive dynamo got the start as the No. 10 last weekend at Charleston, and contrary to the week prior, it felt like a tactical masterstroke. Burke wasn’t responding at halftime this time around. Instead, he and Hartford used Asiedu as a weapon to dictate the terms of the match.
No, 28-year-old wasn’t responsible for single chance created. Still, his elevated central role allowed him to man mark Aaron Molloy. In the opening 45 minutes, Asiedu kept the star midfielder in his back pocket, rarely conceded space, and did wonders to disrupt the Battery’s rhythm - you see as much above. Bad passes forced by the broken rhythm allowed Hartford to counter and take a 2-0 lead.
Admittedly, Molloy had created nine chances by full time. That would rank him sixth on Hartford’s roster for the entire season! Even so, almost all of those contributions came in the second half when Hartford was down a man. Burke’s gameplan worked until Ribeiro got sent off.
Is Asiedu at the No. 10 spot the path forward? Possibly, but it puts a great burden on Michee Ngalina and Deshane Beckford on the flanks as the sole source of creative verve. We aren’t finished seeing this Hartford side experiment, and I’m fascinated to see where it all lands - in terms of Asiedu’s usage and the club’s final place in the table.
Perfect Penaranda
If you had told me a month ago that a former Northern Colorado player was transforming FC Tulsa’s season, I would’ve been super happy that Arthur Rogers was back from injury. Instead, it’s goalkeeper Johan Penaranda that’s saving the day for his new club.
Since debuting against Miami on June 19th, Penaranda has conceded only two goals in 360 minutes of action. That run includes 55 shots against, 19 of which were on target. Saturday night’s last-ditch penalty save in Monterey was icing on the cake for a goalkeeper that’s doing everything right to cover up for a shaky Tulsa defense.
Only two goalkeepers exceed Penaranda in terms of expected goals prevented on a per-game basis: the aforementioned Renan Ribeiro in Hartford and possible MVP candidate Danny Vitiello in Sacramento. It’s a small sample size for the former Hailstorm man, but it indicates just how tremendous the 24-year-old has been. His overall 2.8 goals prevented put him in the top five in the league in a minutes-agnostic view; that’s great.
To date, Tulsa have allowed 2.01 xG per game. That’s the worst mark in the Western Conference. Though they’ve conceded 26 goals in practice - mediocre, but nothing extraordinary - they’ve benefited from poor opposing finishing more often than not. You can blame injuries, midseason moves, structure, or a hole host of other factors, but goalkeeping has been an active drag for most of 2024.
Before Penaranda took over, offseason signings Joey Roggeveen and Michael Creek had both put in subpar performances in net. Creek, a spot starter for St. Louis in MLS NEXT Pro during the last two years, was about average but proved a bit error-prone and struggled as a long distributor. Roggeveen, meanwhile, came over from the Dutch second tier and was disastrous as a shot-stopper.
Enter Penaranda. As a 22-year-old starter for Northern Colorado in 2022, he impressed with good ball skills and did as well as you could hope for an expansion team that lacked structure. Dislodged from the starting job in 2023 and allowed to walk thereafter, the native New Yorker has turned into a mid-season boon for Mario Sanchez and FC Tulsa.
What are Penaranda’s qualities in the box? He’s smart coming off his line - you wouldn’t mistake the League One grad for a sweeper, but he’s firm and quick when he decides to commit. Penaranda is good with rebounds as well, rarely redirecting shots into the path of a waiting opponent.
You see those assets in action above. In the first play, Tulsa’s 4-2-3-1 press is played over, resulting in a seam between two defenders. Penaranda recognizes that the Monterey receiver over the top has a tight angle, and he steps up at the right time to make himself big and limit the potential of the impending shot. A save ensues.
The next play comes from later in the same match. This time, a loose-ball situation sees Monterey onto the break. Tulsa’s left back doesn’t track a secondary runner, and it looks like Penaranda is about to face a one-on-one. Instead, #99 scrambles ahead to knock the through ball away out of harm’s way.
One more clip evidences Penaranda’s reaction time. In the wake of a weak clearance off a late-game set piece, Tulsa camps deep in their own box. Opposing Miami laces in a cross, and Penaranda prepares himself for two possibilities: (1) either make a quick-twitch stop to the near post on his left or (2) lunge right if the pass squeaks through. The latter scenario comes to fruition, and Penaranda pokes it away with lightning reflexes.
High-leverage stops have been Johan Penaranda’s calling card so far in Oklahoma. He’ll need his defense to shape up if 11th-place Tulsa - a team with three games in hand on much of the West - want to get into the playoff mix, but he’s already changing this club’s outlook.
Threads!
I post too much, so here’s a backlog of my bigger game recaps. Looking for discussion of Indy Eleven’s system as they advance to the US Open semis? Check out this week’s USL Tactics Show.
Final Thoughts
In other news this week…
The USL Show is coming to you live from Oakland this Sunday! We’ll be pitch-side before and after the Roots’ nationally televised match against Sacramento, which is surreal to say out loud. Check out all the content we’ll be putting out around the trip, and also consider buying a USL Show scarf.
Because I’m a working adult who’s traveling for a live podcast, I may be delayed with the Substack newsletter next week. The usual Backheeled recap - all 5,000+ words of deep-dive analysis! - will be on time at the usual place.
How good is Clay Holstad for Rhode Island? From day one against New Mexico United, the dude was tearing the midfield apart and ripping shots off the woodwork without a second thought. His growth into a nigh unstoppable center back in recent weeks is no less impressive. Class player - and long live the Crew 2 pipeline!
Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+ is a banger, folks. Even if you know the Harrison Ford version, this miniseries revival (which got renewed for a second season…?) brings the perfect amount of “vaguely familiar character actors cooking” that you want out of a legal drama. I’d also die for Jake Gyllenhaal, who’s one of the last leading men left that’s willing to be an angry weirdo in like 90% of his roles.
I’m like 80% sure this is Alen Marcina subtweeting me. Again, folks, I’m wrong a lot!
That’s all, folks. See you soon!
No one has ever been happier to get out of Hartford than Rece Buckmaster.
Asiedu played such a great first half, and the gameplan was excellent. Too bad Rebeiro threw it all away.