MLS Week 15: Parting thoughts on Patrick Vieira and more before the World Cup break

Patrick Vieira was a blessing. The San Jose Earthquakes are … not. And more in this week’s MLS review.

In the middle of this weekend’s MLS games — the final full slate before the start of the World Cup break — the United States Teens picked up a 1-1 draw in Lyon against France’s first team.

France are among the World Cup favorites. The U.S. were starting a group ranging in age from high school seniors to college juniors. That’s a heck of a result. Let’s give it the Random Result of the Week award.

Here’s what happened in North America, highlighted by Patrick Vieira’s final game in MLS:

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Vieira is moving on to bigger and better things:

With a three-year contract at French club Nice sitting on the table, Vieira finished his NYCFC tenure with a 1-1 home draw against Atlanta United. His time in MLS was always a precursor to more eminent and luxurious jobs on the international scene, those befitting the former World Cup winner’s prestige.

He’s taken great steps forward as a coach and built one of MLS’s best teams in his time here. NYCFC’s defined build-from-the-back ethos was Vieira’s vision and most significant accomplishment, even if it never led to rivalry wins or playoff greatness. NYC’s failures in big games, particularly New York derbies and postseason contests, remain his biggest flaw.

But his time here was a blessing, and MLS needs more like him — he brought experience at the highest level and got the best out of everyone, from David Villa to SuperDraft picks. He created an entertaining and productive style that made people want to watch his team. He is a thinking manager, increasingly able to adapt to new styles and situations.

Vieira generated tactical chess matches and went toe-to-toe with Jesse Marsch, Gregg Berhalter, Tata Martino and Greg Vanney, even if he didn’t always come out on top. When he goes and manages Arsenal or Real Madrid or the French national team in the future, he’ll win some major trophies. I’ll be rooting for him.

Let’s take one last opportunity to admire something he did well with in New York: managing the small dimensions of Yankee Stadium and turning what once was a weakness into a huge advantage.

NYCFC rely on width in possession. They set each full back on the touchline and draw out the opposing press, using the center-backs to pass through it into the midfield. If the opponent’s line of initiation is deeper, they do the same thing, just with Alex Ring passing through it instead of Alex Callens.

The common denominator is the space to pass around at the back and then find attackers up the field, whether through the middle to David Villa or out wide. Vieira set the Citizens up to create that space. By having the full backs sit wide and placing the center-backs apart from one another, he forces the other team to spread itself out.

When executed correctly, this is how most Build From The Back teams operate. They stay patient with the ball, able to do so because they’ve created space to pass the ball back and forth, and then they attack once they draw in the opposition:

On the smaller dimensions of Yankee Stadium, NYCFC’s advantage with the ball is partially mitigated. Ben Sweat can stand on the touchline as much as he wants, but the gap between him and the backline is not going to be as big as it would be on a full field. Without that gap, the opposition can cover that passing lane much more easily.

NYC can’t be quite as devoted to possession on those dimensions. Their turnover rate would jump and their passes into David Villa (like the one above) would be more easily crowded out.

There was a time when they struggled to overcome the impediments provided by their baseball stadium. Early in Vieira’s tenure, they were better on the road than at home. They had compiled a 4-1-2 (W-D-L) away record and 2-5-3 home record by July 1 in 2016, the first four months of Vieira’s tenure. Being bad at home but good on the road is not a recipe for success in MLS.

Their home record evened out in the second half of 2016 and turned into more of an advantage in their second-place 2017 campaign, albeit not as much of one as their elite counterparts. This season, though, they’ve been unstoppable in the Big Apple: they are 6-0-1 at home, with their only dropped points coming Saturday against Atlanta.

Vieira adjusted brilliantly. He eschewed, to an extent, longer sequences of passing at the back, moving more directly up the field to avoid the greater chance of turnovers. Per WhoScored data, NYC pass the ball an average of 545.1 times per game at home, 403.9 of which are short passes. On the road, they are at an average of 554.3, with 424.4 short passes a game.

That means 74 percent of their passes at home are considered “short” as opposed to 77 percent away from Yankee Stadium. Not a dramatic difference, but due to the varying disadvantages of playing away in MLS, it’s rare to see a team try to play out of the back more on the road.

They are more willing to hit the ball over the top and play for second balls at home, even if it runs counter to the aesthetic ideals of Building From The Back. Setting up to win second balls in midfield is a tactic — as shown by Gregg Berhalter and Columbus in their win against New England.

With Yangel Herrera acting as a pitbull in the center, NYC were dominant at compressing the middle of the field and suffocating opposing teams’ distribution hubs. They were able to break quickly in the other direction by centering their attention on the midfield.

According to Jamon Moore’s article for American Soccer Analysis, 47 percent of their possessions started in the midfield through Week 14, one of the better percentages in the league. We don’t have home and road splits, but one hallmark of good teams this season has been a high percentage of midfield and attacking third starts (Columbus being the exception). Only three MLS teams started their possessions in midfield more than the Light Blues.

Herrera is out for the season, so they’ll have a bit of a tougher time smothering the midfield. But they did it well enough against Atlanta to dominate the run of play, spending much of the game in the middle and attacking thirds. It’s less a pressing system than it is ball-hounding and winning 50-50 battles. Vieira set up a system that centered numbers in enough places to win a lot of 50-50 battles.

Manchester City assistant Rodolfo Borrell is reportedly the top candidate to replace him. Having not been a first team coach before, he comes from a similar background as Vieira. Maintaining NYCFC’s tactical system as a new coach will be a difficult, and fascinating, task.

I Fall Apart

The number of death-spiralling MLS teams is shockingly high at the moment. The Colorado Rapids have lost nine games in a row in all competitions. The Montreal Impact have dropped 10 of 11. The San Jose Earthquakes have lost four in a row and have won just two games this season.

Arguably, Week 15 was rock bottom for all three. Colorado did not register a single shot on target within 35 yards of the goal over two games (one of which was against a second-tier USL team) en route to two losses. Montreal put up zero fight against FC Dallas.

And San Jose. San Jose put together a performance that, all things considered, is the perfect summation of the post Dom Kinnear experience.

They took an early lead at home against LAFC, then they gave up two goals and lost it. Chris Wondolowski singlehandedly got the lead back with a brace, including a delicate lob over Tyler Miller, but came off sick with the stomach bug shortly after. The 3-2 lead lasted until both of San Jose’s center-backs simultaneously forgot how to defend, giving up a late equalizer to Adama Diomande.

And, of course, things got even crazier in stoppage time. A head-on collision between Nick Lima and Latif Blessing took a chunk out of the three minutes of added time (both were fine), giving debut left-back Kevin Partida a chance to pick up his second yellow card. LA’s rookie left-back, Joao Moutinho, then slotted a recycled set piece into the corner for a 97th minute winner.

I felt the need to recap that solely due to the crazy and wildly entertaining nature of the game, and to show just how bad things got for the poor Quakes. Their local broadcast (which does a great job and is my favorite in MLS) was noticeably dumbfounded and distraught when the final whistle blew.

It’s the same old story. This passage I wrote back on April 27 still very much applies:

“Team defense — i.e., players working together to rotate and cover gaps — is not really a thing that’s happening in northern California.”

Mikhael Stahre tried a 4-4-2 diamond formation against LAFC. That requires an amount of midfield rotation that is not going to happen under Stahre. San Jose remain gappy and incapable of defending Zone 14, and as has been the case for years now, they seem conflicted on how to use Wondolowski. You hate to bench him because he’s been so good, but you also don’t want to force a two-forward formation to accommodate him.

It doesn’t help that they can’t defend to save their lives. Yefferson Quintana needs to not be in the starting lineup.

It feels like their being good is a long way off.

Awards

The best team in the league

That would be Atlanta United, who keep getting results. Josef Martinez is at the top of the Golden Boot race and Miguel Almiron is the operating MVP. If NYC see a drop off without Vieira, Atlanta could grab a stranglehold of the Supporters’ Shield race.

The worst team in the league

I don’t even know what to say about the Rapids anymore. Put simply, their players are not of MLS quality. Manager Anthony Hudson’s experiment of targeting New Zealand internationals, Brits and Scandinavians has flopped, in catastrophic fashion. His 3-5-2, the basis on which he signed most of his players, was finally abandoned in favor of a 5-4-1.

Given Colorado’s tendency to send their center-backs on wandering adventures up the field, the change did not do much good. They have shown an ability to organize themselves behind the ball, but when any level of that breaks down — as in, the ball changes possession in an unexpected way — they give up acres of space.

Predictable result of the week

The Vancouver Whitecaps are good at attacking in transition. Orlando City SC are bad at defending in transition. Those teams met in Vancouver. The ‘Caps won, 5-2.

Most of those goals came in the last five minutes of the game, but this game will forever go down as Alphonso Davies’s coming out party. He registered a goal and three assists in what is by far his best box score performance in a year of significant improvement for him. The 17-year-old is turning his scorching dribbles into productive passes and final balls.

I, for one, can’t wait for Davies to win the Golden Boot at the 2026 World Cup.

Goalkeeper howler(s) of the week

First, Richard Sanchez’s, which gave the New England Revolution a 1-1 result in Chicago:

And second, Tyler Miller’s, although this one can partly be blamed on Dejan Jakovic’s difficult backpass:

Neither of these keepers had a worse week than Columbus’s Logan Ketterer, who started in the Crew’s US Open Cup loss to Chicago on Wednesday. He was mostly fine for 120 minutes of 2-2 soccer, but in PKs, he failed to stop a single of the Fire’s attempts, all the way until his own PK was saved off the post by Sanchez.

With Zack Steffen off in France dominating the World Cup favorites, Jon Kempin started for the Crew on Saturday.