Lucas Cavallini “El Tanque” forced the Earthquakes to make defensive decisions for which there was no true “best choice”. Photo credit: MLSsoccer.com
In the Almeyda era, San Jose has dominated the Vancouver Whitecaps. In the Almeyda era, San Jose hasn’t faced the ‘caps with Lucas Cavallini.
There were a few reasons why Marc Dos Santos’ Canadians defeated the Earthquakes on Sunday: a dreamy Ali Adnan free kick, Bikel and Owusu doing a double-Judson impression, some nice halftime adjustments. But mostly, Vancouver’s DP striker had a brilliant game.
Cavallini didn’t come into MLS with the same hype as other LigaMX goalscorers like Raul Ruidiaz, Gustavo Bou, or Alan Pulido. Perhaps it’s because he did his goal scoring at Puebla, a side without much fan support up north. Perhaps it’s because Cavallini’s Canadian, but hasn’t gone to Europe like Cyle Larin and Jonathan David.
Whatever it is, it’s too bad, because Lucas Cavallini is awesome. His nickname, El Tanque, is extremely good – a rarity in a sports landscape where every team has an el mago or la joya. And also because, well, Cavallini is a tank. He’s a really smart center forward who is singlehandedly dragging Vancouver above the playoff line even when he doesn’t get on the scoresheet, like Saturday.
Cavallini gets the ball pretty high from Leonard Owusu, and the San Jose defense looks fairly set. Thompson, Espinoza, Judson, and Lima are all on their guys with Jungwirth floating as sweeper. But already you can see Cavallini planting with his left as Oswaldo Alanis is crashing in on his left hip. The dude is about to turn his old LigaMX adversary.
Owusu rushes into San Jose’s right channel to create an overload as Alanis chases Cavallini. Vancouver gets their overload to the right as they turn a 4v6 situation into a 3v4.
You, sports fan: “I would dribble the ball into space, where no defenders can bother me.”
Cavallini, sports athlete: “I am dribbling the ball right at Nick Lima.”
It’s not that Alanis took a bad route to Cavallini, it’s just that the Canadian has a massive lower half that is impossible to push off the ball. Unless Alanis wants to take a yellow and set up a free kick minutes after Adnan’s wonder strike, he has to just sit on Cavallini’s hip.
That 3v4 is now a 3v3: Fredy Montero, Dajome, and Cavallini up against Lima, Judson, and Jungwirth. It could be nice to say that Espinoza should follow Dajome, but he has to track both Adnan and Owusu.
Similarly to what I wrote last week, and kinda the theme of my thinking on soccer: force the opponent into having to make bad choices. Right now, Lima has to choose between stepping up to Cavallini or sticking to Dajome; Judson has to decide the same, and Jungwirth has to decide whether to step to Montero or block Cavallini’s shooting angle. Three choices, none of which have right answers! All basically because Cavallini is both strong and smart!
If there’s been one knock on Nick Lima, it’s that he’s such an athletic specimen he often tries to out-athlete tough situations. He kind of has to step up to Cavallini, but he is a bit late in doing so, which gives Dajome a really good angle down the left flank. Maybe Lima thought he would be able to scramble and get back to him after the pass, but he gets a bit bamboozled by Cavallini, who will then prove the worth of being the only dude on the field with thicker thighs than Lima himself.
Just textbook “finish your run” from Cavallini: he situates himself between all four defenders and Dajome by accelerating after his pass. Montero helps him out by dragging Judson to the top of the box.
Are picks illegal in soccer? Yes. Is it ever going to be called? No.
I’ve seen some people griefing on Thompson for not guarding Toussaint Ricketts tighter, but I’m not really sure what else he could do. Marcinkowski got a paw to Dajome’s low and hard shot, which pushed it into a spot where Ricketts could get it and Thompson couldn’t. If JT didn’t get a glove to the ball, it would’ve likely gone in. That’s a tough shot to direct out of play for a corner. The only reason Dajmoe was able to hit it was because Cavallini had the quickness to turn Alanis in midfield, the strength to ride a challenge, the intelligence to run right at Lima, the endurance to finish his run, and the CONCACAFiness to stand in front of two defenders and decide that’s where he wants to make a cup of coffee.
To be blunt, that’s not a play that Yordy Reyna or Fredy Montero was making in Cavallini’s absence.
San Jose Needs a Tanque
It might be easy to watch that gif and think that oh, maybe Alanis just should have taken a better angle or fouled Cavallini in the beginning. To which I’d respond, it’s really difficult to take a good angle or push over a dude as massive as El Tanque. And it’s a special kind of player who makes five correct decisions in a row in order to set up his teammates for a goal.
The big contract churn at this club in the offseason means Jesse Fioranelli is in the position to really put resources towards a striker who can win games from a simple pass in the midfield. San Jose fans are probably a bit more comfortable with Andy Rios holding down the #10 position until Jack Skahan and/or Gilbert Fuentes are ready after watching the team/reading my article. The real gap in the team right now is someone who can both consistently make the correct decisions (which Chris Wondolowski does) and have the athleticism to shift an entire defense around (which Wondo does not).
Getting someone who can do everything he needs to do in Almeyda’s system, in MLS, is probably the single biggest acquisition Fioranelli will make in his time as GM. It’s the difference between the currently stolid, midtable, club and real competition for silverware — look at how Sporting Kansas City has transformed with Alan Pulido, after all.
I don’t watch enough soccer to have good talent acquisition radar, but I can say that someone like Pumas’ Juan Ignacio Dinenno looks like he’d be a blast to have around. I have zero sources inside the club, but can imagine that San Jose would fill their forward positions with an MLS stalwart who loves to press like Maxi Urruti, a USL/MLS tweener like Foster Langsdorf, and a big-ticket acquisition. It might even be less about the goals San Jose can get from their striker corps and more about the ability to press the opponent and put teammates in great positions.
There are still a handful of games before fans have to go in offseason transfer-tracker mode, thank goodness. But one can’t help but wonder what this team would look like with a bit more firepower, when they see the sort of firepower the Whitecaps have in El Tanque.
