USL Super League: DC’s change and Week 16
On the Super League’s first-ever coaching change and a Fort Lauderdale-Dallas duel
Thanksgiving week was light on matches in the USL Super League, but the lone game between Fort Lauderdale and Dallas was a tactical delight. Meanwhile, DC Power made the bold call to make the league’s first-ever coaching change.
What should you make of that news and the Sunday night wrap to the matchweek? Let’s dig in.
Fort Lauderdale United (2) - Dallas Trinity (1)
Tyrone Mears has been full of fun ideas in 2024, but it hasn’t led to consistent success for Fort Lauderdale United. On Sunday night against a hot Dallas Trinity team, simplifying into a 4-2-3-1 shape that paid off handsomely in South Florida.
Recently, Fort Lauderdale had preferred a back three with extremely aggressive wing backs tearing up and down the flanks. When those runners stretched defenses and opened up the midfield, good things happened. United would deepen a forward - usually Addie McCain - and go “three-box-three” through the middle.
Those tenets didn’t entirely disappear in possession, especially relative to McCain’s ability to drop in. Still, United smartly kept Sabrina McNeill much deeper on the right to achieve a better overall balance and frustrate Dallas’ 3-5-2 into errors.
Within two minutes, Mears’ reconstituted press bore fruit. Usually, McCain would press up at the tip of the defensive sphere, while wingers Jasmine Hamid and Sh’nia Gordon sat a tick deeper. The aim was to deny the half spaces, fronting the outer reaches of Dallas’ back three and relying on pressing shadows to do the rest.
Above, the compactness of the 4-2-3-1 forces 17-year-old Jordyn Hardeman into a tight window down the middle for Dallas. A sideways pass to fellow center back Waniya Hudson will spring a trap, so Hardeman has to go upfield. There, center mid Felicia Knox (in bright blue) and right back McNeill (in white) both close down behind the attacking midfielders (in a gentler blue) and help to force a turnover. It’s a break from there, one punctuated in style by Hamid.
That Hardeman was again preferred to Hannah Davison in central defense was a point of interest. Hardeman is a terrific US U-17 prospect and has done well for Trinity, but Davison - a veteran of the NWSL and numerous international leagues - has been especially impressive in the early months.
Hardeman’s average pass this year has traveled forward by just 8.8 yards, and she’s underperformed her expected completion rate by 1.5%. Davison, by contrast, has been more progress (11.1 vertical yards per pass) and closer to her expected hit rate. That gap mattered in Fort Lauderdale.
In the first half alone, United registered six final-third takeaways, almost never allowing Dallas to find a central foothold. The reaction on Pauline MacDonald’s part was twofold. Wing back Rachel Pace began to drop somewhat deeper on the right to provide an extra passing outlet, and midfielder Gracie Brian also came lower to form a double pivot with Amber Brooks.
Of course, United had answers to those changes. By dropping their wing back in, Dallas didn’t really have a vertical threat on the sideline. It became easy for the ball-side full back - usually McNeill - to track the runner and negate the effect of the shift.
Centrally, we already saw Fort Lauderdale’s approach in the Felicia Knox takeaway that powered the opening goal. United wasn’t afraid to stay tight to the opposing center mids.
If Dallas got clever, though, good things happened; there was a particularly nice 19th minute build move where Brooks pushed high, forward Cyera Hintzen filled low, and a quick pass opened to Chioma Ubogagu on a now-spacious wing.
In their own right, Trinity often defended in a 3-6-1 with forward Sealey Strawn probing lower than Hintzen. The goal was to tighten up in the central areas and stop United from engaging in their well-worn midfield overloads starring McCain.
The gambit didn’t always work. If Fort Lauderdale had previously wanted to run a “three-box-three,” Sunday’s attacking formation was more of a “four-box-two.” In that look, McCain could position herself aside Tatiana Fung at the No. 10 spot, receive between the lines, and hit either Hamid or Gordon on the go. Dallas struggled to deny passes between the lines all the while.
Chemistry lacked between the wing backs and elevated No. 8s in their 3-5-2 and/or 3-6-1 press, making it easy for United to squeeze directly through the channels. Mears’ adoption of a back four helped that cause and generated the necessary angles to work through without overly endangering their own defensive line.
Dallas looked miles better out of the halftime break, more a matter of intensity and posture than tactical philosophy. Yes, Davison’s entrance into the back line helped the Trinity cause, and Waniya Hudson was bright at wing back. More than any change, it was the patience with the ball that got Dallas back into the mix.
Fort Lauderdale tended to overextend when Trinity didn’t fall into their traps, flexing their wingers too high into more of a 4-2-1-3 and thereby allowing the guests to advance. When Dallas started tucking Ubogagu in from the left wing, breaks started to come apace in the new match environment.
Dallas’ goalscoring move is seen from the onset here, with the aforementioned Ubogagu receiving between the lines. She’s the wing back, mind you, but she’s taking up an incredibly narrow position. The entire Dallas midfield five is marked in red.
With Ubogagu coming central, Fort Lauderdale compresses. Suddenly, defender Jenna Winebrenner can streak into the empty gap and find a touch.
There’s one more factor to note: the midfield movement on the far side. Ubogagu’s run has a domino effect that extends beyond her vacant wing. By reinventing herself as a center mid by proxy, Ubogagu gives both Sam Meza and Amber Brooks (marked with that “2” in the clip) room to charge up toward the final third.
That’s the case here, with both Meza and Brooks stalking wide of the Fort Lauderdale back four. By working inside-out, Dallas is thus able to set up a Winebrenner cross.
Of course, the slanting runs from the two proper strikers are necessary to make it all sing. The result is a knockdown won by Brooks off the cross and a goal for Allie Thornton in the end.
Dallas kept generating looks in that manner throughout the second half. Meza became more involved, United struggled to make central stops, and the comeback win felt like a given. A 74th minute header from Gracie Brian, making a very Brooks-esque run, hit the woodwork and nearly made it so.
It wasn’t to be. Mears let his team go more direct and focused his energies on the counter, and Addie McCain proved irresistibly good in that phase, too. The Super League goals leader, McCain finished the night with a perfect two-for-two aerial record, two interceptions, and a final third recovery. Her ability to get dug in was definitional for Fort Lauderdale.
It was only fair that McCain would come up big on the winner. Fort Lauderdale lumped a ball downfield to start the sequence, allowing their star forward to pick up the pieces thereafter. Quickly working the ball to Sh’nia Gordon, McCain would advance toward the box and tee herself up for a possible shooting opportunity.
Meanwhile, Jasmine Hamid would flash across the face of goal to make herself available on the end of a cross. The result? A deft touch back from Hamid, a chance for McCain, and a beautifully worked and tactically distinct winner for United.
As strong as Dallas looked in the second half, Fort Lauderdale ended up on top because of their smart in-game shifting. Tyrone Mears got his decisions correct on Sunday from the get-go, trusted his instincts when it mattered, and pushed United just two points back of the playoff line at the end of it all.
Alternating Current
With their club just three points out of the playoffs - albeit with the joint-most matches played in the Super League - the powers that be in DC decided to move on from Frederic Brillant after an unlucky 13 matches in charge. The move represents the league’s first-ever coaching change, and it comes as a major surprise.
Brilliant made more than 150 appearances in MLS at the end of his playing career, including a four-year stint with DC United. Assistant coaching spells with the MLS club and then-affiliated Loudoun United in the USL Championship soon followed.
In March, Brillant signed on as an assistant for the Utah Royals in the NWSL, where he remained for just 10 matches before DC Power came calling. Now, he and the fledgling USL club have decided to “mutually part ways.”
As I discussed last week after DC scraped by with a win in Fort Lauderdale, the Power have been one of the least fortunate teams in the league relative to their xG. No one represents that misfortune better than Jorian Baucom, who ranks second in the USL with 23 shot attempts, third with 3.9 xG, yet only has one goal to her name.
The question for Baucom and others is clear: is the slow start just down to bad rolls of the dice, or has Brillant’s decision-making been the problem? DC clearly decided it was the latter.
I’ve been impressed by the Frenchman’s managerial prowess on a few fronts. For one, his trust in young players has been admirable. Teenagers Allie Flanagan and Riley Cross look like solid pros with NWSL upside, and Brillant has given them the time to shine on the field against professionals. Flanagan, in particular, has won games for the Power.
For all coaches in the nascent Super League, the opening months were a time to forge an identity. DC’s off-ball 4-4-2 has been solid and unflinchingly physical, and that’s a credit to Brillant. As the makeup of the roster has evolved, Brillant has stuck to a system where that defensive look flows into an attacking 3-5-2. This is where issues have emerged.
DC haven’t shown enough growth with the ball. Yes, the ideas have been good on paper, and, yes, there’ve been scoring opportunities, but this team consistently feels underbaked in dangerous positions. Passing metrics represent a red flag that goes beyond xG underpformance.
In the attacking third, Power players have underperformed their expected completion percentage by more than 4% per American Soccer Analysis. That’s the second-worst mark in the USL. Additionally, DC is rock bottom in terms of xA in open play. They simply haven’t been up to snuff, and Brillant has mostly used the same core group and same middling shape amidst the troubles.
Some of the problem comes down to roster construction, which was always going to be an issue in Year One across the USL. League-wide, you’ve felt clubs figure things out on the fly and only just begin to develop chemistry.
By contrast, DC has felt stubborn. As much as I like the Brillant system on paper, he’s stuck to a middling script to a deleterious degree.
Take this example sequence from a recent draw against Dallas Trinity. You see DC’s shift into a 3-2-5 already having taken place; right back Susanna Friedrichs has advanced upfield to become more of a winger, leaving three center backs as a possessive base.
Meanwhile, there’s a split in the pivot. Katie Duong - one of the brighter stars of the early USL season - has dropped low as fellow center mid Jennifer Cudjoe pushes somewhat higher.
High-low splits like this can accomplish a few different things, bending the opposing midfield structure or potentially teeing up a long ball by adding numbers upfield. DC, with a fairly low 13% long passing rate and middle-of-the-table 7.4 vertical yards per pass, typically hasn’t preferred the latter option.
Still, Dallas isn’t really bending. They’ve scouted DC and know how to deny a centering pass to Duong.
The result? A trap. Trinity bends their own 3-5-2 to wall off Claire Constant at the right-central defensive spot. A cutback to Madison Wolfbauer down the middle will be intercepted, and the same logic applies to Duong.
The only option, then, is to squeeze upfield. A pass to Friedrichs is on toward the sideline, but she’ll immediately be closed down. Constant, the ball handler, thus decides to get ambitious.
We elide the pass, which targets attacking midfielder Charlie Estcourt, and cut straight to the inevitable result: an interception for Trinity.
Instantly, Dallas will be able to charge past a half-advanced Cudjoe in the pivot and bear down. They’ll go at a back line that must rotate into a foursome out of a threesome in order to get a stop.
We’ve seen these sorts of problems recur again and again at Audi Field. Brillant has been too hesitant to make changes and re-think the shape around his team. Altering the setup in the midfield, for instance, has been a necessity - one that’s gone unfulfilled. There’ve been just enough of those problems to leave Brillant unsettled.
Still, it’s very early! Again and again, DC has been incredibly jumpy in their decision-making. From the swift logo change to the ongoing uncertainty about their stadium for the second half of the USL season (see home venues listed as “TBD”), the Power haven’t exactly oozed stability thus far.
I trust the process in general, and I can argue in favor of moving on from Frederic Brillant, but all the smoke may just be arising from an underlying fire.
Cover Photo Credit: Fort Lauderdale United / Twitter