Good morning, y'all. Your pal Sam here. Let's soccer.
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
WE WOULD NORMALLY DO AN MLS CUP BEST XI HERE
Generally, the actual MLS Best XI presented by Continental Tire announcement would offer a pretty clear path to us doing our own MLS Cup Best XI. There are a couple of problems though.
First off, we did a Conference Finals Best XI last week. From the four teams available, we picked one NYCFC player, two Austin FC players, five Philadelphia Union players, and three LAFC players. It could have very easily been five LAFC players though. I wouldn't have felt bad one bit about including pretty much an LAFC center back or Denis Bouanga on the wing. I didn't want the list to be all LAFC and Union guys plus Sebastian Driussi. But it totally could have been and it wouldn't have been far from the truth. Considering the final scoreline of both conference finals, maybe I should have just done it.
There's a bit of a dilemma when it comes to making an MLS Cup Best XI. The personnel changes drastically depending on what formation and style our hypothetical team is playing. I think in general you'd be near the truth having Philly's backline (give or take a center back) and Andre Blake in goal with Ryan Hollingshead subbed in at right back for Olivier Mbaizo. Then you can probably make a decent argument for Jose Martinez over Ilie Sanchez, but even that's close. The rest of this is an all-out fight totally dependent on hypothetical style and hypothetical tactics. You probably aren't going to Julian Carranza on the wing in a more possession-based system the same way you're probably not going to put this year's Carlos Vela up top in a setup that's essentially an ultra-direct Energy Drink Soccer spin-off. And the midfield, well, that changes completely based on how this team approaches things.
To me, that signals two things. Both of these teams are extremely well constructed with clear ideas about how they want to play and it's no wonder that they're in MLS Cup and finished even on points atop the Supporters' Shield standings. But it also shows that we're in for a heckuva tactical matchup on Saturday. A genuine "Styles make fights" extravaganza.
Now, if anyone is going to make noticeable tweaks, it's likely going to be Steve Cherundolo instead of Jim Curtin. The Union's setup is designed to force the other team's hand and LAFC are generally pretty excellent at adapting how they need to adapt. I think we can at least say that the LAFC setup will be drastically different from what LAFC did against Austin. The extended periods of possession where the LAFC center backs were allowed time and space to ping balls over the top of Austin's backline just won't exist. Instead, (plug for Matt Doyle's tactical analysis deep dive column in The Reading Rainbow), LAFC are likely going to attack Philly's diamond setup the same way everyone else does and create advantages out wide. Seems like they'll have a decent chance at doing that when their primary options out wide are Bouanga and Vela.
Of course, even if you successfully work the ball where you want to, then you have to get past Andre Blake. I don't know how exactly you're supposed to do that. I guess the larger point here is that styles make fights but Andre Blake finishes them? Or maybe it's the same points we've been making the entire week: There just hasn't been a better MLS Cup matchup ever. Look, whatever the lesson is here, I think we can all just agree that our expectations for this one couldn't be higher. That's not just aimless hype, that's just a fair assessment of this thing. Is it Saturday yet?
THE READING RAINBOW
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