One of the big keys to the success of Cristian Espinoza in 2019 was his pairing with Magnus Eriksson. One of the big questions facing the San Jose Earthquakes in 2021 is Espinoza’s expected pairing with Eduardo “La Chofis” Lopez. Image credit: ISI Photos / San Jose Earthquakes
On one hand, there’s the universally-underwhelming welcome Eduardo Lopez has gotten from Earthquakes fandom. One can appreciate that a guy who was gotten on a one-year loan after being suspended by his club in Liga MX, does not seem at first glance like the answer to all of San Jose’s woes.
On the other, he does possess a skill set that can let other people be that answer. In 2019, Cristian Espinoza was one of the best attackers in MLS — second in the league in xA — while playing alongside a left-footed deep-lying #10. La Chofis isn’t Magnus Eriksson. But by looking at how Magnus, Espinoza, and not-least Tommy Thompson played together, one can see what San Jose will try to do and improve on in 2021.
As you may know, I am two parts into a three-part offseason review/preview. It’s not forgotten! But with the vagaries of this offseason and my sense that they’re not quite done yet adding players, I didn’t want to write confidently about San Jose’s identity until they’re committed to one themselves. It looks like Almeyda’s staying, which is a great first step. But still.
Eriksson’s Role
As we remember from the second half of the 2020 season, Magnus Eriksson was tough to replace. This wasn’t just because of his own skill, or even the way he wore the captain’s armband, but also how his skills interrelated with others.
San Jose has been deadly in transition under Almeyda. But they also prefer to dominate possession, and their preferred position from attack is to set up at the left shoulder of the opponent’s box to give Cristian Espinoza space.
Here, Eriksson, Thompson, and Espinoza form a triangle and are all moving down the sideline together. This does two things: it allows Tommy to play behind Espinoza’s defender, and it forces Salt Lake to bring defenders over because either Thompson or Espinoza are real threats to beat their markers to the endline. Wondo takes up space as a central attacker and Vako has cut in to serve as an inside forward.
When San Jose rotates the triangle, Eriksson serves as his own sort of center forward, making a run to the box that takes up space and defenders to free the more dynamic duo of Espinoza and Thompson.
If I was an MLS coach, I would call this The Espinoza Zone. There are six defenders around Espinoza trying to cut off his passing lanes, but none of these guys are really on Espinoza, giving him plenty of time to pick up his head and find someone while a defender is ball-watching. Wondo has dragged the center backs deep enough to keep Eriksson onside.
Espinoza slips the ball behind, and Magnus has a free run into the box, where Wondo finds some space and Vako is crashing far post. This is basically The Play that San Jose tries to run against a set defense. Magnus’ ability to play off Espinoza’s hip to shift defenders off the playmaker, first by threatening a left-footed cross in and later by running in behind, gives Espinoza the space to be a playmaker.
Andy Rios: a Back-to-Goal #10
Compare this aggressive approach to how Andy Rios took on that position. Because Rios is predominantly right-footed and is more comfortable as a target player, he starts closer to the box and serves as a pivot.
Here, the play starts with Espinoza isolated against Vancouver’s left back. Fierro is playing almost more as a true center forward in partnership with Wondo while Rios tries to move the defenders away from Espinoza.
Judson’s pass out has a bit too much loft, allowing Vancouver to reset and forcing Rios to come back to the box to help. Here, Rios can’t keep the defender honest by rotating away from Espinoza, which would let Lima hit the endline. Rios, 25 yards away and with the ball on his right foot isn’t a threat to cut into Zone 14 or ping a cross. Instead, Rios and Espinoza compress the triangle, bringing Lima’s defender in to help.
The compression between Espinoza and Rios allows them to 1-2 the ball to an open Nick Lima, who puts a good shot on frame.
A Left-Footed 10 gives Tommy room to roam
An attack focused on Espinoza requires players that can play off of Espinoza. One of Almeyda’s master strokes since coming to San Jose was recognizing the Thompson-Espinoza partnership: the way Espinoza occupies defenders allows Thompson space to attack 1v1, which is what he does best. This works even better with a left-footed #10 working with them:
Here, Vancouver has to follow Eriksson as he compresses space towards Espinoza because he’s such a threat to shift his hips and start cutting inside/send a cross to Wondo’s head. A right-footed player moving away from goal isn’t the same threat. He would have to rotate his body completely and send in a pass across his body, giving the defender plenty of time to step up.
Because Vancouver has to respect Eriksson’s run and Espinoza’s general terror, they open up the endline for Thompson (and Espinoza, such a professional, finishes the pass with a rotation and a near-post run):
It’s not that Lima can’t make the same run, it’s that he’s not as good at it as Thompson, while possessing a much more devastating outside shot. So you can see how Lima won the right back job when Rios earned the CAM spot: Rios’ back-to-goal style opens up the outside-the-box look for Lima, while Eriksson plays facing goal to see Thompson making a run as the defenders focus on Espinoza. Cf, Thompson’s penalty-earning run in MLS is Back (at 1:39 below):
Better Looks
As we know from Jamon Moore’s intensive American Soccer Analysis series, not all attacking looks are the same. With Rios, San Jose took a lot of crosses. With Eriksson, it was a lot more cutbacks. Cutbacks are simply better attacking moves than crosses. The value of Eriksson’s play is not only the moves he makes but the moves he allows others to make.
This gets into what San Jose can expect, or at least hope for, from Eduardo Lopez. La Chofis doesn’t have to be a hero. He just has to help Espinoza to be more heroic.
I made reference to “The Espinoza Zone” earlier in this piece, and I genuinely mean it for two reasons: when a passer like him is surrounded by defenders, it almost always means that other Quakes are open that he can hit with a cross or cutback. Also, opponents who are forced back to defend are not in a position to counterattack. For a team as susceptible to counterattacks as San Jose, the best way to stamp them out is to force the opponent to keep 10 men behind the ball (and six of them surrounding Espinoza).
There are not many players I’d feel comfortable with given the attack shown below:
Of course, Espinoza was able to turn that into a cutback on top of the six for Shea Salinas (at 11:53):
La Chofis as the New Magnus
Lopez isn’t Magnus, for better or for worse. I don’t think he has the vision and sense of space that Magnus has, and might be less involved in the buildup. But he’s also more comfortable close to goal and wayyyy more technical than the Swede. La Chofis is his own dude with his own strengths and weaknesses, there’s no doubt about it.
But what San Jose need is someone who can bring the best out of Espinoza and also switch play closer in than Yueill. Chofis can offer that. Combined with a more dynamic inside forward than Vako and a more true, actual, leftback, and can see how this leads to more meaningful possession and a stronger attack.
When Lopez was under Almeyda, he played as an inverted right winger (similar to Eriksson under Mikhael Stahre). This was effective, although partly because Orbelin Pineda was an incredible enganche for that Chivas side. And may have been a better target for San Jose this offseason, but I digress. La Chofis will be expected to make the same transition this season that Eriksson made before 2019:
A lot of Chofis’ highlights show a weird, idiosyncratic player who dribbles like a left-footed Vako, has the low center-of-gravity of Matias Perez Garcia that allows him to receive the ball in pressure, and the vision of Eriksson. This highlight here makes him look like Yung Messi, checking to the ball and receiving a wall pass to get an open look (to Carlos Fierro?!) (at 4:29)
This video, particularly the bit starting at :032, gives a good sense of Chofis’ strengths and weaknesses. Drifting in from the right side, he creates a ton of 1-2 passes and soaks up defensive pressure to find the open man. Starting in the center of the pitch, he just kind of wanders to the left touchline and out of danger.
The hope with Chofis is that he’ll take pressure off Espinoza by moving inside while Tommy makes an endline run, giving Espinoza the run of the offense. The absolute best-case scenario is that Lopez plays like a mix of Vako and Eriksson, serving as a midfield outlet out of pressure, dribbling through challenges and hitting progressive passes in stride.
It’s also worth noting that Chofis’ left-footedness is another point of contrast with Vako: when the Georgian cut inside from the left, there was never a left back or anyone else who could keep defenses honest — they would collapse on him instead. When Chofis cuts from the right, he has not one but two players (Espinoza and Thompson) who need to be respected. This allows him to unbalance defenses in a way Vako, despite his wonderous technique, never could.
It should be added that these are highlight videos and hope springs eternal this time of year. There’s also the chance that he gets frustrated without the ball and generally acts like The Talented Dude in Rec League trying to dribble around his team and the opposition. We’ll see.
Conclusion
“Latino Magnus” is both a funny thing to visualize, and what San Jose is hoping to get out of La Chofis in his Earthquakes tenure. Of course, even that isn’t an answer to the defensive questions, which are still very real and likely affecting the real chances of this selection getting trophies.
There’s a bit more intentionality than Almeyda’s detractors would admit to with this move. Eduardo Lopez can be really special surrounded by the players in the attack. It’s what they do without the ball that will determine how late in the season we will be watching this team.
