San Jose Earthquakes forward Andrés (Andy) Ríos celebrates a goal with Carlos Fierro against the Vancouver Whitecaps on October 3rd, 2020 at Earthquakes Stadium. Photo credit: ISI Photos/San Jose Earthquakes
After his one goal/one assist performance on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Galaxy, Andy Ríos was the subject of his coach’s praise:
“He has a great vision for spreading the field. He’s a fighter like Magnus [Eriksson] and it was always going to take some time for him to adapt. I think today we see the Andy that we wanted to sign.”
At first glance, Matias Almeyda’s comparison of Ríos to Eriksson is a strange one: the roughly pickup truck-shaped Argentine is a two-footed center forward who at first appears like a throwback to the Brian Ching era of strikers. The departed Eriksson (who, by the way, scored his first goal back in Sweden a few weeks ago), is a one-footed inverted winger. As the meme goes: we are not the same.
However, one of Almeyda’s great skills as a coach is his ability to put players in positions where they will succeed no matter what their physical attributes might be. Again: Tommy’s a fullback, Judson spends time at centerback, and Carlos Fierro did some time as a false 9 on Wednesday. Andy Ríos, strangely enough, is a pseudo-#10 who uses his wide shoulders and great vision to spread the ball to wingers and create overloads. He is hardly the “magical little unicorn” that many expect from an Argentine attacking midfielder, but since the October 3rd victory against the Galaxy Ríos has 3G/1A in four games (Fierro owes him an assist against Portland as well, but I digress…)
“A Pivot Like Very Few”
I don’t think many Earthquakes fans knew quite what to make of Andy Ríos when he came to town in August 2019, announced a month after the Fierro signing. Here’s a dude with journeyman LigaMX experience (including the Clausura championship in 2016/17) and time in Brazil, not so many goals, at a big (for San Jose) salary.
In an offseason interview with my colleague Colin Etnire, however, GM Jesse Fioranelli showed his cards a bit:
“We signed them because we didn’t want to sign players with identical qualities of other players on our roster. We wanted to sign Andy Ríos because he’s the type of striker who can act as a pivot like very few. He’s not the type of striker that is comparable to Magnus, who is very strong in his last pass. But Andy is a player that tends to look straight to goal. His physical presence and technical skills will compliment [us] well.”
Jesse Fioranelli
This direct comparison to Eriksson – lost at the time, but resurfaced eight months later in Almeyda’s post-match presser, reminds me of my own January investigation into what the heck the ol’ San Jose #7 was.
Eriksson creates many opportunities, but he doesn’t create many great opportunities.
This seems to be the missing link in San Jose’s offense: somebody who can work with the immensely talented wingers to deliver a lethal final ball.
Is Ríos that person? It is honestly, too soon to tell. One would hope so, with his wages and from his limited looks. Ríos likes to lurk in the box and has the profile (if not the statistics) of an Argentine enganche.
If the past five games are any indication, Andy Ríos is indeed that person.
When I first saw Fioranelli calling Ríos a pivot, I just assumed it was a weird translation thing. “Oh,” I figured, “he means center forward.” But no. Fioranelli means pivot. Just, differently.
Traditionally, a pivot switches play between the left and right sides of the attack. At his best, Eriksson did this a lot: if you imagine your body as the pitch, with your feet at your goal and your head at the opponent and your eyes in the sky, Magnus hits the ball from the left hip to the right shoulder.
Done quickly, this gets the defense off balance and allows a winger to isolate against a fullback. With two DP wingers, this plays to the Earthquakes’ strengths.
Ríos plays higher up the pitch than Magnus. Instead of slicing the ball across the pitch, Ríos soaks up defenders and moves the ball into an oncoming winger or fullback. It’s a slightly different passing angle and makes for shorter and more vertical passes, but the outcome is the same: using gravity to upset the defense’s balance and isolate wingers in space.
These different styles can be seen in a quick-and-dirty table using ASA data comparing Magnus’ and Andy’s passing verticality and distance in their 2020 minutes (including Ríos’ time playing as a more traditional striker, which I’ll get to in a moment):
Passing Distance and Verticality in 2020
| Player | Passing Distance (m) | Passing Verticality (m) |
| Andy Ríos | 18.44 | 2.99 |
| Magnus Eriksson | 21.91 | 2.54 |
This looks insane at first: how is Ríos, who plays higher up the pitch, passing more vertically than Eriksson? It’s because those big switches Magnus hit go far — but don’t go very far forward. Ríos’ clips to an onrushing Lima, or Espinoza, or Lopez, or Fierro, or whomever else, actually drive the ball forward further.
A New Role for a Stalwart
Ríos isn’t playing as a CAM or #10, he’s not Pozuelo or Lodiero out there. He’s Andy Ríos. He’s the pivot Fioranelli brought to San Jose 14 months ago. So what took so long?
My argument – an argument I’ll develop further later on — can be summed up in six words: pandemic practice restrictions make soccer hard.
There were hints of Ríos’ prowess before. A throw-in off his chest against Chicago Fire set up one of San Jose’s nicest goals of that tournament:
In San Jose’s first eight games coming out of MLS is Back (their first eight games without Magnus Eriksson), Ríos played as a straightforward center forward. The only game in which Ríos and Chris Wondolowski started on the pitch at the same time was in the Seattle Sounders bloodletting, where Ríos played closer to goal than Wondo. Almeyda at first gave the creative reins to Vako, with (perhaps predictably) frustrating results. Tommy Thompson and Florian Jungwirth got time in the midfield. It often looked like San Jose was trying things out for the first time on game day — and maybe they were.
The LAFC match was Ríos’ first time in San Jose playing less as a striker and more as a midfielder. According to Wyscout, Ríos had only one touch in the box: a shot on goal from 18 yards in the 78th minute. That September 28th match, however, marked a huge increase in involvement that hasn’t let up. I have a big table for those interested (courtesy of Wyscout), and some charts for those who aren’t:
Andy Ríos involvements since MLS is Back
Andy Ríos passing since MLS Is Back
There are a lot of lines on that chart but basically: a lot more passing, generally, and a lot more good passing to boot. Ever since the win at LAFC, Andy Ríos has been a lot more involved:
Team Passing and Andy Ríos since MLS is Back
A Rebalanced Midfield
Ríos is the heir apparent to Magnus in many ways. He’s become a lockdown for 90+ minutes under Almeyda who plays ferociously no matter the minute or the score. He’s also unconventional in a way that has deeply frustrated a segment of the San Jose fanbase. Much like how Magnus was excoriated for not being a shifty playmaker like Lodiero or I dunno, Arjen Robben, Ríos isn’t banging in goals like a “TAM-Level Forward” should. Similarly to Eriksson, Ríos has a propensity for selling CONCACAF-y fouls in the midfield. His next nutmeg will be his first. Compared to someone like Cristian Espinoza, who just looks like a La Liga-level winger out there, Andy Ríos is not going to win hearts.
And it’s worth mentioning that Ríos’ increased involvement isn’t a leading indicator of San Jose’s recent success but only a component of it.
Which is a complicated way to say: Judson has elevated his game. While the Brazilian has been a destroyer since he came to San Jose, he has taken on much of Magnus’ role as Jackson Yueill’s secondary distribution partner. He doesn’t need to hit an Eriksson-ian 5 key passes a match, but he does have to hit clean passes to the fullbacks, Ríos, and Yueill. It’s great seeing Judson develop further: if he can become a Diego Chara type box-to-box – yes, the Diego Chara who had 2 assists against San Jose in their recent match – then San Jose can be even stronger and even withstand the loss of Yueill to a European club in the coming years.
One of the biggest risks of involving Judson in the attack historically is that it gets him out of position defensively. Minnesota United was able to pick this apart to end San Jose’s MLS is Back run. As I said after the tournament:
When MNUFC hit the counter, Judson was out of position to be a safety valve in defense because he was contributing to the attack. Judson was chasing folks downfield instead of moving laterally to snuff out counters.
As Andy Ríos said at his post-game presser on October 14th, much of his role so high up the pitch is to shut down counterattacks. His pressing is not necessarily to gegenpress and win the ball, though that would be nice: it is also to give the defense time to reset.
There is a nice little virtuous cycle here. Judson getting more involved in the attack means that Ríos can get the wingers the ball in better positions. Ríos pressing aggressively alongside Wondo means Judson doesn’t have to act as a sweeper bailing out the midfield. Yueill then gets free rein to conduct the attack, and JT Marcinkowski can get the ball to any of the other 10 guys on the pitch if they’re in a half-yard of space. It can’t really be called a tactical masterclass until it means 3 points against Seattle or Portland, I don’t think, but it’s a lot better than what we saw last month.
In the Midfield, Going Forward
Andy Ríos is 31 years old and probably has a year left on his contract. Even in this revitalized run of form, he is not someone who will likely outlast Almeyda’s four-year project here in San Jose.
What he can do, though, is be an anchor to build that project around. It’s easy to imagine his skillset working well partnering with a striker who is a bit more, ah, pacey than the 37-year-old Wondolowski. He has so far been successful in getting guys like Carlos Fierro, Marcos Lopez, and the suddenly goal-scoring fullbacks involved. There is something to be said for a veteran who knows his role and knows how to execute.
A solid Andy Ríos also means that San Jose can give Gilbert Fuentes and Jack Skahan another offseason to develop into MLS starter-quality attacking midfielders. Neither of them are going to play the same as Ríos, but Fuentes in particular seems to be the sort of shrewish gegenpresser that could send this Earthquakes attack to the next level. If Ríos can hold down the fort into the summer 2021 transfer window or beyond, that would allow Fioranelli and Almeyda into this winter offseason solely targeting a premier striker.
Ríos isn’t a traditional pivot, but he has really owned the job over the past five matches. If San Jose can make this level of play the floor and level up from here, rather than be the up-and-down Quakes of Almeyda’s first 50 matches or so, then San Jose makes the playoffs and the Almeyda Project can have some focus going into its third year. If you asked San Jose fans on September 1st if they had their CAM, they would likely laugh into their masks. Now, they might realize that the Magnus replacement has been here all along – and he’s ready to put the San Jose attack on his back all the way to the playoffs.
