The Back Four: Shape-shifting Oakland, One Knox's midfield, and more
Breaking down the tactical trends that caught my eye in Week 6 across the USL Championship and USL League One
Welcome in to The Back Four!
Before we start, check out Backheeled for a massive deep-dive into all things USL Championship. From Orange County’s wingers to panic in Tampa Bay and everything in between, I’m covering all 24 clubs. You can also find This League! on the site for an audiovisual dive into the week that was.
Without further ado, let’s get to it.
Hope in Oakland?
There are matches where the ends are far more important than the means, and that defined Oakland’s weekend win in Tulsa. I actually did like the process – more on that in a moment – but the Roots nearly got quadrupled in xG terms, with Tulsa earning a 1.98 to 0.48 expected edge.
Don’t hyper-fixate on the stats in this one. With a level scoreline throughout the first half, Oakland held an edge in terms of shot attempts and shots on target. Things changed in the final 45 minutes, but only because the Roots had earned the right to sit deep. xG can be a useful tool, but it can also be an illusion, and that held true in the context of a match where Gavin Glinton’s return to a back-five shape paid dividends.
The Roots went long on 30% of their passes in Oklahoma, which is a comically high number that’s double the USL average. That mark didn’t vary even when the game was knotted up; Oakland very intentionally went toe-to-toe with a direct Tulsa team, seeking to tilt the pitch in their favor.
You see the basic blueprint above. The Roots go long from the right side of their back line, having transitioned from a defensive 5-2-1-2 into an attacking 3-4-3. Because the ball is moving left, the left wingback (Baboucarr Njie) and nearest center mid (Daniel Gomez) position themselves to try and claim a potential knockdown.
It’s a sensible structure, and it allows Gomez to claim the second ball and immediately strike forward while the proverbial iron is hot. Thereafter, Gomez hands off the ball to striker Peter Wilson and continues his run upfield to present a potential passing outlet that pins the defense.
Meanwhile, the rest of the forward line – Jose Sinisterra and Wolfgang Prentice – smartly forks their runs. Sinisterra cuts against the grain toward the left, presenting another through ball option in complement to Gomez. Meanwhile, Prentice shows to the edge of the box in case Oakland needs a safer pass. Prentice will ultimately receive and overpower an audacious chip into the area, but the ideas and relationships here are absolutely splendid.
Oakland’s go-ahead goal, the result of Njie and Gomez controlling the left side and going long toward more clever movement, wasn’t as graceful but was (obviously) more effective. The switch into a 3-4-3 gave the Roots a sense of pragmatism that’s often lacked in 2025.
Bobosi Byaruhanga doesn’t feature above, but he embodied the Roots’ night by putting up a poor stat line that completely obfuscated his major contributions. Byaruhanga went a mere 18-for-34 as a passer; he made three recoveries, but none came after the first goal. Of his five takeaway attempts, only one came in the opposing half.
Still, you can tell that Byaruhunga did two things well: deny opportunities in the halfspace with his defensive interventions and consistently progress the ball as a distributor. There are contexts in which accuracy matters less than intention, and the former standout for Austin in MLS Next Pro understood that moving the ball out of the Oakland half was his primary charge.
Would you like for the Roots to look more graceful in possession? I mean, sure, but that’s not how they’re going to win games in 2025.
The Western Conference is bifurcated between very direct teams (Tulsa, Sacramento, Las Vegas) and incredibly possessive alternatives (New Mexico, Lexington, Phoenix when they aren’t choking) which, in turn, forces the clubs in the middle to pick a side. Oakland is best off rolling with a back five, prioritizing route-one soccer, and cultivating a tempo that suits their roster.
Lexington on the cusp
Watch Lexington SC play, and you’ll likely come away impressed with their patient possession game. Take a glance at the table, and you’ll then be surprised to find them in eighth place with just six points and eight goals.
How does Lexington play, and why can’t they get over the line? Defensively, it’s (mostly) been a 4-4-2, shifting into a possessive 3-4-3 that showcases all the principles you’d expect from an elite scoring team. Even so, there’s a disconnect in the final third that often comes down to tempo.
Consider the USL’s top five possession teams in terms of their pass attempts per shot:
New Mexico: 64% possession, 50.9 passes per shot
Lexington: 58.4% possession, 37.1 passes per shot
Charleston: 58.4% possession, 31.3 passes per shot
Tampa Bay: 56.1% possession, 21.2 passes per shot
Detroit: 55% possession, 35.5 passes per shot
This isn’t a perfect metric, but it’s nice shorthand for a simple finding. Lexington simply has to work harder with the ball to create opportunities.
Even among the most controlling teams in the Championship, Lexington has been the second-least efficient at generating shots. In terms of their system, LSC has often hit the feet of their 3-4-3’s No. 10s – the narrow-tucked wingers, if you want to be technical – but pursuantly been stonewalled, and that’s emblematic of the problem.
Consider the two plays excerpted from a recent loss to El Paso. In the first, Lexington has worked into Speedy Williams’ feet in the pivot (dark green), drawn the opposing pivot upfield, and passed toward Braudilio Rodrigues (neon green) in the left halfspace. The structure here is Boss’ preferred “three-box-three,” featuring a square-shaped midfield group that feeds into a front line composed of wider wingbacks and a central No. 9.
The second example, by contrast, illustrates the results of slower and less fluid attacking play. LSC has worked the ball forward into striker Cory Burke’s feet, but he’s already being closed down by an opposing center back. The biggest difference? El Paso’s pivot has recovered too, and there isn’t room to breathe.
You can figure out why that later frame is problematic by counting on your fingers: the Locomotive outnumber their guests seven to five in the defensive zone, as compared to a five-on-five scenario up top.
When LSC stalls out and meets a low block that outnumbers them on paper, how can they respond? Boss hasn’t concretely solved the problem yet – his team played 98 passes into the final third and just 10 into the opposing box this weekend – but he’s coming up with promising ideas to try and change that.
This play starts in typical Lexington fashion, with midfielder Sofiane Djeffal finding Nick Firmino in the pocket. Immediately, the No. 10 first-times a pass out wide to Marcus Epps, but there’s an extra wrinkle this time: Joe Hafferty is making an underlapping run.
Hafferty was acquired for a transfer fee this winter, and he’s held down the right side of the LSC back three. Used variously as a center back and right back in the past, Hafferty has been allowed to split the difference in Kentucky. The 27-year-old is taking 78 touches per game and has already attempted nine crosses despite that defensive deployment.
Here, his ability to push forward accomplishes a few things. In a pure numerical sense, it helps to combat that “seven-on-five” issue we saw above. In the specific context of the play we’re breaking down, it pins a Las Vegas wingback to buy Marcus Epps more time on the ball.
As Hafferty feints, Firmino – realizing that his role is filled by the advanced center back – tucks into the 18-yard box. The combined effect is to spread the Lights’s defensive shape and allow for Djeffal to burst into the now-open seam. While Lexington can’t find the center mid as he makes that daring run forward, this sequence is emblematic of the flow and tempo that LSC must prioritize.
Lexington feels close. You see plays like that, you look at the passing numbers, and you can’t help but recognize the potential. Terry Boss has set this unit up to succeed, now it’s just a matter of adding that extra little bit of execution to start turning draws into wins.
Winsome One Knox
The Ian Fuller era is off to a tremendous start in Knoxville, and after two straight wins over Greenville – one in the Open, one in the league – his side is now undefeated through five matches. In League One play, One Knox is allowing a downright stingy 0.65 xG per match, and their per-game xG margin is far and away the best in the division.
For my taste, the way in which Fuller’s midfield dominates matches while bending and flexing is Knoxville’s standout feature. With 25.3 midfield takeaways per match, One Knox has been the most successful team in the league at making stops in the central areas, and that showed against the Triumph.
In their own right, the Triumph have been up and down in 2025. A 1-0 win against Charlotte last week seems emblematic of Greenville at their best: able to weaponize dangerous wingers like Conor Evans and Chevone Marsh, maximizing Leo Castro as an offensive weapon and a marker against deep creators, letting Chapa Herrera cook as an initiator, etc.
It’s to Knoxville’s immense credit, then, that Rick Wright couldn’t recreate that mix in either of these clubs’ two matches.
I’ve highlighted two scenarios above that illustrate the Knoxville approach. Right off the bat, it’s meaningful to note that we’re seeing the baseline 4-5-1 that prevailed from opening day onward for One Knox. Fuller is sticking to his principles, even if there are tweaks from week to week to counter a given opponent.
Above, that shape manifests itself with Callum Johnson and Mikel Goling (the No. 8s) sitting somewhat above the level of Abel Caputo (the No. 6, in orange) to create a layered advantage against Greenville’s double pivot. To break through, the Triumph innately need to either drop some players low or attempt to go long.
When Wright’s side did so, Knoxville responded. The second frame highlights Evans, Greenville’s right winger, tucking into the channel in a moment where the visiting defense is somewhat overextended and unstructured. However, left back Stuart Ritchie is allowed to mark Evans on the drop and make sure he can’t turn upon receiving.
On paper, it’s risky to let your fullback push forward and track an opponent’s backside. Here, though, it’s the perfect read, and it’ll force the Triumph into a fruitless build sequence.
Greenville’s best moments came in semi-transitional sequences when they could quickly find Herrera at his feet after recovering a Knoxville turnover. There were a number of plays where #8 would quickly beat a defender, force a rotation, and launch his team into the attacking zone. There’s a reason Herrera completed eight passes into the final third and led Greenville with 26 completions in the attacking half – he understood how to weaponize tempo to beat One Knox’s flawless resting structure.
Still, this game belonged to Fuller and co., who weaponized the effectiveness of their midfield philosophy to force turnovers and generate their game-winning goal. You see the play broken down above, but it starts with the No. 8s bearing down in the counterpress as a precondition to Mark Doyle going full Mark Doyle at the far post.
Quick Mikkel Goling spotlight while we’re at it: American Soccer Analysis’ awesome 2025 MLS Draft big board rated the midfielder as a strong prospect in terms of possessive control (i.e., pass completion, lack of turnovers) and off-ball activity (i.e., interceptions, recoveries), and he’s living up to that billing in Tennessee. He didn’t succeed on a single dribble attempt and went a fairly horrid 11-for-24 as a passer last Wednesday, but his positioning was great and each of those incompletions was a forward pass meant to advance play.
The moral of the story? One Knox is meaningfully improved in 2025, in terms of their coaching, system, and depth.
On Omaha’s feeling-it-out stage
If you’re worried about Union Omaha already…well, don’t be. Despite losing to Richmond last Wednesday and putting up a measly 0.62 xG in the process, Omaha is still a defensively elite side that has plenty of strong ideas. Is the execution lacking a bit of the sharpness we’ve come to expect in Nebraska? Sure, but it’s mid-April.
Against the Kickers, Dom Casciato rolled with a 3-4-1-2 in the press. In what might seem like a small tweak as compared to the 3-4-3 that predominated last season (and as recently as the Open Cup win against Des Moines), that formational change meaningfully altered Omaha’s structure going both ways.
In terms of personnel, Joe Gallardo began the match on the bench before entering in the second half as the left-sided forward. Brandon Knapp, meanwhile, held down that “1” spot between the forward and midfield lines, and he tended to stay deeper even if his side flexed into an aggressive 3-2-1-4 on longer restarts.
Knapp ultimately didn’t attempt a single tackle, but that wasn’t his job. Instead, the midfielder tended to mark Richmond’s lone holding mid, Dakota Barnathan, in order to deny central spaces and force the hosts to the outside. When that worked – as it often did – Omaha was in business.
You’ll note that pressing shape in this frame, featuring two forwards (green), two holding midfielders (black), and Knapp splitting the difference between them. Because of that structure, Omaha can clog the central lane and drive their hosts toward the sideline.
At that point, Dion Acoff – the ball-side wingback – has the freedom to step, closing to the opposing receiver at the sideline. Omaha’s wingbacks tended to stay deeper as a baseline deployment, but these scenarios in the press were a clear trigger to get forward.
In this instance, Omaha is able to force an incompletion. Richmond plays a ball past Acoff, but it’s met by Brent Kallman at the back. By the time we get to the top frame above, the ball has worked its way back to Acoff, who turns upfield to assess the situation.
Already, forward Aaron Gomez is showing toward Acoff to receive, and there’s ample off-ball movement to support him. Both Knapp and Isidro Martinez burst upfield after the opposing turnover, and they’ll be targeted by a Gomez backheel to set up a possessive move into zone 14.
That situation highlighted above ultimately ends in an incompletion, but it feels like a blueprint for Omaha as they move from the pressing phase into attack. That’s not to say it’s all been perfect. Richmond found too many opportunities to play over the high-closing wingbacks, and they took particular advantage of Charlie Ostrem on the Omaha left. 54% of the Kickers’ final third entrances came up his side.
Still, Richmond is a very patient attacking team, and Omaha had obviously useful ideas despite the loss. Things are still a bit nascent in 2025, but there’s no doubt Casciato and co. will work themselves back toward the top of the pile.
Alta in the channels
I had seldom few compliments for AV Alta after a disorganized loss in their debut match, but Brian Kleiban very clearly had a vision. With his Alta side riding a three-match winning streak across all competitions now, it’s a good moment to discuss the changes that have made the 4-1-4-1 come together so splendidly.
In the losses to both Tormenta and Richmond, I fretted because the lone No. 6 in the Alta shape felt unshielded, and that problem still recurs in certain moments. The Lancaster-based side fell into an early deficit against Chattanooga on Saturday when Osvaldo Lay (that lone holder) was played past, leading to a penalty-creating through ball.
That sequence was the exception that proved the rule. Alta kept their powder dry thereafter, ably navigating the Red Wolves’ press because of their tendency to tuck the fullbacks into what’s essentially a 2-3-4-1 shape. Need evidence of the impact? Left back Walmer Martinez picked up 69 touches and made five recoveries; right back Maboumnou Alassane one-upped him with 87 touches, adding nine defensive actions on a 70% duel win rate.
This wasn’t a one-time phenomenon, either. Fullback positioning has been a real signature for Kleiban so far.
Above, you’re seeing examples from various phases in the win over Westchester, in which Alta’s fullbacks were allowed to narrow out and provide a structural foundation. In that 2-0 victory, Kaloyan Pehlivanov started at right back in Alassane’s stead, but the effect remained the same.
The first play above features Pehlivanov stepping up to fill a gap over Lay’s right shoulder. Alta isn’t quite aligned in their 4-1-4-1 press, and Westchester is set up to exploit the halfspace until the Bulgarian international steps up.
Same idea, different phase in the second example. Here, Martinez nearly pushes into the center circle to help reclaim a knockdown as Antelope Valley restarts. This is just one screenshot, but it’s representative of a game where Alta held a minority of possession yet completed more attacking-half passes than Westchester.
It’s worth noting that Alta is patient on the ball but still mixes in direct service from the back – that’s how you generate knockdowns as in the example. Antelope Valley leads League One with 61% possession and 397 passes per match, but goalkeeper Carlos Avilez has gone long 36 times in his club’s last two games. Above, Martinez’s move upfield allows Alta to claim the second ball teed up by Avilez’s long distribution; it’s the 2-3-4-1 shape in action.
Those principles pay off in an attacking sense as well, teeing up the central midfielders to innovate as off- and on-ball penetrators.
Liberated of deeper responsibilities because of the role the fullbacks serve, Harrison Robledo and Jimmie Villalobos have been stupendous in the No. 8 spots in Kleiban’s midfield. I highlighted that fact in this week’s USL Tactics Show, breaking down a possessive sequence that began at Martinez’s feet at left back before ending in a stellar bar-down goal for Villalobos.
The big takeaway? Alta is for real, and if they remain this structured all season long, they’re going to be incredibly difficult to outnumber in the all-important central areas.
Quick Hits
In other news this week…
I hit on New Mexico last time they played, and much of what I wrote about Ousman Jabang, Gedion Zelalem, and Marlon Vargas still applies after a nice win against North Carolina. What I didn’t cover is the excellent passing Talen Maples provides at the back. Seriously good under pressure! Credit to This League! co-host Peyton Gallaher on this one, but Maples leads USL outfield players with a 16% touch share this season. In layman’s terms, that means no player touches the ball more often – and you saw why on Saturday.
Semi-regular shoutout to Ryan Allen’s weekly USL Odds column, which smartly identified that Spokane would beat Texoma by two goals on Sunday night, among a slew of other smart picks and fun movie length references.
You know who rocks? Long-deceased English actor Rex Harrison, who you might know from My Fair Lady or as the original Doctor Dolittle. The headline roles are fun, but the guy was *so* good when he got cast as an unlikeable, blustering cad. If you take his Wikipedia profile at face value, Harrison might’ve actually just been that guy in real life, but we’ll set that aside.
I’m motivated to bring this up by The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, in which Harrison starts out by embodying that typecasting but subverts it in the loveliest, most romantic way. The secret sauce in Mrs. Muir is actually the Bernard Herrmann score. You may know Herrmann as the guy who composed for later Hitchcock movies as well as for Citizen Kane, and he’s in John Williams territory in terms of iconic, perfect movie music if you ask me.
Cover Photo Credit: Oakland Roots SC / Twitter
Always excited to read breakdowns of AV Alta in particular, but loving the chance to learn more about the league through articles like this. Great stuff!