The Back Four: Rogers, Vinyals, and divergent defenses

Tactics, stats, and other developments that defined the week for Richmond, Tulsa, Monterey, and Colorado Springs

Welcome in to The Back Four, Week Five! I’ve got more than 5,000 words of recaps plus wonderful Peyton Gallaher graphics for you on Backheeled, but I’m here to dive into a few other topics that caught my eye across the Championship and League One.

Let’s get to it.

Nil Vinyals, better than ever

Over the last three seasons, Nil Vinyals has put up 19.3 expected assists by my numbers. In his worst year since joining the Richmond Kickers, he ranked in the 92nd percentile of USL League One midfielders in that category. There’s not a more consistent creator in the history of the division.

The Spaniard first join South George Tormenta in their PDL days, inking a League One deal when they went pro. He moved to Virginia in 2021 after a few excellent years in Statesboro, and he’s now approaching 150 League One appearances at age 27.

What Vinyals provides in the center of the pitch has been definitional for a Richmond team on the rebound after a disappointing 2023.

Darren Sawatzky actually returned 72% of his minutes played despite finishing second-to-last on 29 points. Even if new signings weren’t voluminous, they’ve been impactful. Max Schenfeld has taken the most touches per match of any League One full back; James Vaughan has been a keen intervenor in the midfield. Adrian Billhardt has two goals already, and Vinyals makes him sing in attack.

Richmond prefer variants of a 4-3-3, with Vinyals as the No. 8 or No. 10 type on the left side of the midfield triangle. Above, you see him create in a few crucial ways out of that deployment.

The first play is a wonderfully weighted chip over the top into Arthur Bosua, a striker signed from Tormenta this winter. Vinyals starts by circling in the half space with two lines of defenders in front of him. He then spots the new forward’s run and plays a chance-creating ball that few USL players at any level could execute.

In the second case, Richmond builds from the back through opposing Central Valley’s press. The Kickers shift the defense wide by pushing midfielder Zaca Moran Correa to the sideline, thereby opening a lane into Vinyals. It’s the Spaniards eye for space and quick turn upon receiving Moran Correa’s pass that stand out here. Every movement is weaponized to advance Richmond.

Vinyals comes central in the final clip, receiving from Adrian Billhardt to initiate a give-and-go. The sequence of touches is wonderful: #10 gets the ball, takes a touch beyond a closing midfielder, cuts inside to attract a center back, and then looses Billhardt with the outside of his right boot for an assist. That’s defense-unlocking vision personified.

Vinyals has picked up where he left off in 2024, and while Richmond only has one win in three league games, they feel like a more complete team. Excepting Chattanooga and their small sample size, the Kickers are a top four club in USL League One by their expected goals (xG) margin. They’re only going to get better as the new faces (and academy graduates) get more comfortable operating around the all-encompassing hub that is Nil Vinyals.

Arthur Rogers and Tulsa’s potential

FC Tulsa traveled the entire “we are so back” to “it’s over” journey this offseason. Promising midfield signings like Charlie Adams and Jeremy Kelly were allowed to pursue other opportunities after inking Tulsa deals. That came in the wake of manager Blair Gavin’s January exit.

Put aside the what-if games: the negative news drowned out what was still a substantial re-tool, one based around the excellence of Arthur Rogers on the right.

If you’ve been reading my stuff for any amount of time, you’ll know the basics of the Rogers story. He was solid in a more traditional role with Hartford a few years back, dropped down to Northern Colorado in League One, and arguably became the best creator in the entire USL thereafter.

Split between deployments at right back, center back, and central midfielder with the Hailstorm, Rogers led League One in expected assists two years running. Especially in 2023, he was used as quarterback deeper down the pitch instead of a marauding wide threat; he’s also a brilliant set piece taker.

That role is changing in Oklahoma, but the 27-year-old Englishman is still a star.

You see Rogers’ heat map from last Friday’s draw against Phoenix Rising above, compared against one from a random Northern Colorado game from late 2023.

The differences are clarifying in terms of his evolution. He’s getting more touches in the attacking half and hugger wider. There’s less creation in the half spaces and deep areas and more in the offensive zone.

Against Phoenix, Rogers totaled more than 60 touches, and he attempted a whopping seven crosses. With the Hailstorm last year, he averaged just 1.6 crosses per match. There’s still tons of useful distribution - and top-notch defending - going on, but the style is different.

Of all USL players to have attempted at least five total crosses in 2024, Rogers has played the second-most on a per 90 basis. That seven-piece against Rising brought his average down a smidge. There’s meat left on the bone in terms of outcome: Rogers is creating less than 1.5 shots per game in spite of the voluminous service.

Rogers has also taken a back seat on set pieces because of Justin Portillo. A longtime USL stalwart, Portillo has been the best corner-taker in the league to date. Naturally, losing out on those high-leverage creation opportunities is going to artificially drive the Englishman’s numbers down.

Still, Tulsa’s system is defined by the #4’s threat on the right. New manager Mario Sanchez has run a 4-2-3-1, but the shape has been wildly narrow. Players like Boubacar Diallo and Blaine Ferri - center mids by trade - have tended to start on the wings. With those players hugging inside, Rogers has had ample room to overlap on the sidelines.

For all my late-breaking doubts, this Tulsa team has the right mix to at least be in the playoff discussion. Whether they can break above that level will hinge on their ability to keep maximizing Arthur Rogers.

Chewing on Baca

A month ago, most USL fans could’ve predicted that Sacramento and San Antonio would be top-three teams in the West by xG margin. No one would’ve picked Monterey as the club to complete that trio.

Frank Yallop runs a 4-3-3 most of the time. His is a team comfortable employing Alex Dixon as a false No. 9, Tristan Trager as a defense-stretching poacher, or Luther Archimede as a classic hold-up forward. Their chances derive from classy interchange and looping underlaps from the central midfield. Watching Monterey flow has been an unexpected joy.

Still, it’s their defense that’s been a driving force this season. Kai Greene and Carlos Guzman got the spotlight in my latest Backheeled recap, and I want to highlight Rafael Baca’s¹ brilliance at the No. 6 spot here to complete the loop.

Baca, a 34-year-old midfielder, was born in Mexico but moved to the greater Los Angeles area as a child. He attended Loyola Marymount and was drafted by Yallop’s San Jose Earthquakes ahead of the 2011 MLS season. He shone in the Bay Area, earning a move to Cruz Azul in 2013, where he spent the better part of the next decade.

When Baca came available last season, Yallop jumped all over a reunion. It’s only now that we’re seeing why the pick-up was so major.

Monterey uses their full backs aggressively. Morey Doner on the right and either Walmer Martinez or Grant Robinson on the left are given license to push up the pitch and to close hard on opponents. You see that above, where both step to the wingers in opposing Phoenix’s 3-4-3.

When Rising retain the ball despite that onslaught, Baca - the lone holder - recognizes that there could be gaps in either channel. As such, he tracks back into the center of the box and allows Greene and Guzman to rotate wide. In doing so, #10 lets the center backs know that they can rotate without ripping a hole open in the box.

Baca’s sixth sense for coverage behind the full backs is crucial for Monterey.² This was especially evident against Rhode Island in a Sunday afternoon match a few weeks back.

You see the basic model that Khano Smith used to trouble Monterey above. RIFC would restart by going long into striker Albert Dikwa, who took up positions on Monterey’s left. The response was to use the left back to tightly mark Dikwa.

Naturally, pushing a defender high and inside opened a gap, so Rafael Baca was called upon to cover those spaces. He mostly did a brilliant job, and the task was yet another example of his responsibility within this team.

Say things went wrong? Well, the answer wasn’t very good for Yallop and co. The balance can’t ever be perfect, but it’s the exceptions that prove the rule in terms of #10’s performance.

Monterey is on the front foot in this case, hinging into a 4-1-4-1 pressing shape that they often use against opponents in a back three. That look creates traps against the wider opposing defenders by using the (1) striker, the (2) ball-side center mid, and the (3) ball-side winger to close down.

The clip above comes from a match in early March, and Monterey don’t quite have their timing down. El Paso breaks the developing trap, but watch Baca’s reaction. As soon as the window opens, he’s rotating to pester the receiver. #10 slows down the play and allows a defender to burst upfield to close down.

Every Monterey match has been filled with those moments of easy-to-miss beauty from Rafael Baca. This team has surprised me in a lot of ways, but their success is rooted in their exceptional man in the midfield.

Switchbacks’ backslide

Colorado Springs ain’t right.

I’ve been a soft Switchbacks skeptic since the Hadji Barry sale in all honesty, but the club proved me wrong in 2023. In what ended up as Stephen Hogan’s lone season on the sideline, Colorado Springs finished fifth in the West, just five points away from second place. They did so with a pressureful, fast-paced system, one that seemed replicable for 2024.

I even liked this club’s offseason! Signings like Koa Santos (a Loudoun star) and Wahab Ackwei (former all-USL with RGV) from within the USL or Quenzi Huerman (scored for fun at UNC) and Yosuke Hanya (clever as all get-out with Rapids 2) from the outside added quality to the extant framework. Ronaldo Damus was the piece to bring it all together up top.

Instead, the Switchbacks have ripped off four losses in a row because of a defense that’s conceding 2.2 xG per game.

The root of the problem is complete and utter passivity at the back. Shape-wise, there’ve been two games in a back four, two games in a back five, and zero games where the unit has looked at all communicative.

Inconsistency in selection hasn’t helped. At the center back spot, we’ve already seen five players selected across four games; Matt Mahoney is the only player to have started each time out.

As graphed above, no one in this back line is comfortable intervening. Colorado Springs’ center backs are averaging barely two tackle attempts match, the second worst number in the USL.

Why the timidity? Some of it is personnel. Ackwei ranked in the 37th percentile of defenders for defensive actions per game last year; fellow addition Delentz Pierre was roughly average with Real Monarchs in MLS NEXT Pro in that same area. Using Duke Lacroix - a more natural full back - in the middle hasn’t helped the cause.

It’s also been a matter of approach. Against Miami in their opener, Colorado Springs pressed high in the midfield, so they didn’t want their defense to over-commit after line breaks (albeit to little success). The Switchbacks sat off in the following game against Detroit, but there wasn’t enough coordination to make the change a winning one.

Take the still from this weekend’s Sacramento defeat as yet another example. You see Colorado Springs in defensive recovery, with Mahoney - the farthest center back up the pitch - lagging to recover as his team finds shape. Meanwhile, Russell Cicerone, a 44-goal scorer over the last three years, find a pocket in front of the defense amidst that recovery.

If this situation had gone right, the nearest central defender - James Musa - would’ve closed him down. Behind Musa, Wahab Ackwei would’ve hedged fill any open space. Meanwhile, Mahoney would’ve hauled ass behind Ackwei to mark the opposing striker. It’s a bad situation no matter what, but the read is fairly clear.

Instead, no one closes to Sacramento’s #11 as he receives. The result? A game-deciding concession.

We’ve seen far too many of these instances so far this year, but all isn’t lost. The year is still young, and the issues seem correctible. I still trust James Chambers and this Switchbacks unit to round back into playoff-adjacent form.

Threads!

I post too much, so here’s a backlog of my bigger game recaps. Want the goods on the Las Vegas midfield? Check out this week’s USL Tactics Show.

• Tulsa - Phoenix (4/5)

• Hartford - Miami (4/6)

• Detroit - North Carolina (4/6)

• Louisville - Indy (4/6)

• Memphis - Orange County (4/6)

• Pittsburgh - Tampa Bay (4/6)

• Rhode Island - Charleston (4/6)

• Colorado Springs - Sacramento (4/6)

• New Mexico - El Paso (4/6)

• Oakland - Monterey (4/6)

• Birmingham - Loudoun (4/7)

Final Thoughts

Some other stray items…

• I was busy last week! My free-to-read recap of the US Open Cup’s Second Round was a hoot over at Backheeled, and my interview with USL CCO Court Jeske on the CBS deal and the league’s media presence is useful reading as well.

• Need more Richmond talk from people who know the club best? River City 93 is the place to be.

• Kaylor Hodges is back up with a nice recap of the Birmingham Legion’s dumpster fire start to 2024. Talk about an improvement on Sunday though!

• Massive shoutout to the Knights Who Say NISA gang for the amazing work they put into the quixotic task of covering the nigh uncoverable.

• I started Twin Peaks last week, and it’s the kind of show where I watch it and want it to be my whole personality. Kyle MacLachlan is one of our most underrated actors and human beings in general.

• I saw a dude on a bike with a Brooklyn FC hoodie, so I yelled “nice hoodie!” He kinda just looked confused; exciting times in New York City.

See you later this week!

1. Anyone remember Carlos Bacca, the fine but not extraordinary Colombian striker? I accidentally mis-label Rafael as “Carlos” a frightening percentage of the time before realizing something is amiss.

2. When I talk about Phoenix, I know I can just use “Rising” without an article for variety. I heard a commentator do that with “Union” for Monterey, but it feels wrong? I may try it eventually.