Quakes Quickie: Why Shape Matters

Photo credit: ISI Photos

When Matias Almeyda took the helm of the San Jose Earthquakes in 2019, one of his first and most ingenious moves was putting players in weird positions to maximize their strengths. Last Saturday, in a 3-1 loss to New York Red Bulls, Almeyda did basically the opposite of that. The Earthquakes players looked uncomfortable, out of sorts, and lost with very little connectivity between them. 

For the most part, it looked like they were play-acting a previous version of the team: Jan Gregus was the distribution hub a la Jackson Yueill, Francisco Calvo was passing like he was Oswaldo Alanis, and Jackson Yueill was putting out fires moving the ball side to side like Judson. Except Gregus isn’t a deep-lying distributor, Calvo can’t balance a field like Alanis, and Yueill isn’t a defensive anchor. There was one sequence in particular that got the national LOLs out at our beloved Earthquakes.

This play starts just a few minutes after a nifty Chofis header gets the Quakes even. A little frenetic play at midfield wins San Jose a throw, and after Chofis dances around Dru Yearwood and takes a wall pass from Cristian Espinoza, he finds himself…in a corner facing a 3v5:

Look, Chofis has some magic in him, but a good rule of thumb is that if you find yourself in a position where you need magic, maybe you shouldn’t have gotten into this position. Before the clip, there were a handful of opportunities to switch the field via Gregus or Tommy Thompson. Chofis didn’t use them, and instead, he ends up with a shinful of Jon Tolkin.

San Jose’s gameplan, generally, is to push the ball into the opposing wing and then press the fullbacks to win the ball back. It’s not a bad strategy, all in all. The problem with playing the ball into the wings 3v5 though, is that if you lose you are facing a 5v2 the other direction, and you can’t press a 5v2.

Not that San Jose is in any position to do so. As Chofis took the ball up, Tanner Beason was instructed to move up and bracket Omir Fernandez with Gregus, leaving Jackson Yueill 1v1 with NYRB’s striker Patryk Klimala.

Omir Fernandez, listed at 5’7” and 141 lbs., is double-covered by over 12 feet of Earthquake. Klimala, 6’0” and 167 lbs., is defended by Yueill, who for all of his strengths as a player is not gifted at standing up target forwards at the midfield stripe.

I’m not sure what the thought was here. I doubt that Beason made the decision on his own to leave Klimala to Yueill, it’s more likely that San Jose’s press was designed to win the ball ahead of Yueill. But did they just…not think Tolkin can kick the ball 40 yards in the air? Because he can.

Here, you can almost imagine the little “!!!” over Beason’s head as he scrambles back. Jamiro Monteiro, meanwhile, is tasked with tracking Caden Clark’s run at the top right.

Yueill actually does a decent job winning the first ball before Fernandez – who just never stopped running all dang game – cuts off his angle to Calvo. The new Earthquake is caught between responsibilities to (A) move towards the right touchline and provide an outlet for Yueill, and (B) be the only living thing between goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski and 3 onrushing Red Bulls.

Klimala wins the ball back from Yueill, who weighs about .65 Klimalas, and then picks up his head to one of his fellow onrushing Red Bulls without a living thing between them and the goalkeeper.

Calvo does manage to get back and force the Red Bull’s Caden Clark into a turnover at the top of the box, so kudos for that. But it’s worth taking a moment here to bullet what has to go right for the Earthquake’s press to succeed:

• Yueill has to win the ball or at least slow up a center forward, or generally channel Oguchi Onyewu
• Either Benji Kikanovic (last seen on the opposing 6-yard box) or Monteiro (a #10 who got to practice two weeks ago) has to sprint back to cover an attacker who has 30 yards on them

A more sane and logical system would have put the right center back on Klimala and had a defensive midfielder like Judson covering Caden Clark’s run from the midfield stripe, allowing the left center back to play as sweeper. Instead, you had three guys – Yueill, Beason, and Monteiro, doing something that they had no business doing, from a part of the field they had no business being in.

There were some silver linings to the phases of play on Saturday. Tommy Thompson is still really dangerous around the box – his fouls suffered and far post runs gave the Quakes their best offensive looks of the night. Cade Cowell wants to play defense. Jamiro Monteiro, before he was absolutely gassed at halftime, looked like a angry little unicorn making tackles and spitting balls from the midfield.

It’s reasonable to watch this game and say that you can see how this roster can be successful. A wrecking ball like Judson puts out fires while Yueill and a midfield partner attack the ball. If you’re really committed to getting Cristian Espinoza and Chofis on the field at the same time, you could even play Calvo as a left back alongside a centerback pairing of Beason and Oskar Agren (editor note: given Nathan’s injury), with Espinoza as an advanced right back and Monteiro as a deep #10 until Gregus or Remedi gives him a much-needed breather.

There are ways to make next week’s match against Columbus far more competitive. But a 3-6-1 formation where everyone is acting like someone they’re not, no matter how clever it feels, is no way to do it.