Well… that happened. In an unfortunate game that was lacking in bright spots, we’ll look at some of the notes from the Greenville game before looking forward to the massive Cup Quarterfinal on Wednesday (which the team may also have been doing).
How Much Is Too Much?
Apparently, 59.6%. That’s what our total possession ended up as in this game, far above our normal standard. It was 57% at the half, which was a concerning sign at that point as well, and didn’t help that at that point we were down a goal and needed to chase. 59.6% is our highest of the league season, close to matching the amount from the Des Moines Open Cup game this year (60%) and higher than the next mark by almost 6%.
As previously mentioned here (and everywhere that talks about the team), we would much prefer to have a smaller amount of possession and take our chances on the counter. That showed, as we struggled to break down a solid Greenville defense. After having a few bright moments in the first part of the first half, we lost most of our spark after the first goal went in and Greenville did what they do best. It definitely will look different against SKC midweek, and let’s hope that’s for the best.
A Marked Difference
This is only the third time we’ve played Greenville at home. The 2021 Championship game, well, we know how that thankfully went. But this game now makes both league home games we’ve had against them ending in a similar poor result, a loss.
These games also have something else interesting in common, the style of game that ended up being played in comparison to the other games against Greenville. We also held a large majority of the possession (67.6%) in that first 2021 home game against them. They scored early then and turtled for the rest of it, a bit similar to this weekend’s game as well. The foul makeup is also similar between the two games. In all of the other games against Greenville, we heavily out-foul them. Not in league home games though. Last time, we both committed 17 fouls against the other. This game, they out-fouled us (13-16). Let’s hope our next game against them ends up looking a lot differently statistically, as that means that we’ve been able to adapt so that we can continue playing our style even when they don’t want us to do so.
The Daze of Player and Formation Rotation
It is only every once in a while that we see Union Omaha playing a back 3 with wingbacks, but this was one of those onces! It started with changes at halftime. Personnel that changed were Joe, Noe, and Ryen coming off while Dion, JP, and Yoskar subbed on. That in and of itself isn’t too surprising, getting players a bit of a run out before the midweek game while saving the legs of others (especially Ryen, who has played almost every minute of the season so far with our non-existent depth at LB). What was surprising about those changes was the aforementioned switch in formation, not to mention who played what position in it! It ended up looking something like this:
Very odd indeed! JP did end up switching with Eddie after the goal to play in a more natural position and Dion moved forward once Emir came on to help defend, but this was perhaps the weirdest positioning in a formation I think I’ve ever seen us play. Was it originally to save JP’s legs by playing as a back but still getting time on the field? Was it to experiment for SKC where we may need to play differently to disrupt their style? Was it maybe to experiment in seeing others playing those different positions to see what may work over the season with how low our depth is in certain positions? Either way, it definitely was a bit bewildering to see.
I’m curious to see what Jay does with the information gleaned from the experiment. We may or may not see the fruit of it against SKC on Wednesday. And with that said, looking forward to that Open Cup Quarterfinal game is a great antidote for this past one. I am looking forward to seeing the 700+ Omaha fans there to see if we can take down yet another MLS team!
Who Gives A Hoot? 