San Francisco traveled to Miami and was dominated by Miami FC 7-0. Here are three things we learned:
1) For Miami FC, money can buy you happiness
Miami FC has been the class of the NASL all season long. They showed their quality by humiliating the San Francisco Deltas in a de-facto NASL Spring Season title shot game.
Only a year ago they finished last in the NASL spring season.
“Miami is a team that struggled a lot in their expansion year,” explained Deltas coach Marc Dos Santos. “They invested a lot of money this year. Some of the things they did were actually very high investments even compared with MLS.”
After the 2016 NASL Spring Season, billionaire owner Riccardo Silva opened up the purse strings to bring in quality players.
Miami reportedly spent around one million dollars to acquire midfielders Richie Ryan and Michael Lahoud. They signed former MLS defender and New York Cosmos player Hunter Freeman for a six figure transfer fee.
The South Florida squad also paid a $700,000 transfer fee to MLS side NYCFC for Kwadwo Poku. They reportedly pay him a salary of $500,000 per season.
During the past offseason, Miami FC continued to spend. They offered contracts that few NASL teams, including the San Francisco Deltas, could match.
“They have players I know very well,” Dos Santos said during a recent interview, mentioning Richie Ryan and Mason Trafford who he coached at the Ottawa Fury. “Actually some we tried to get, but we couldn’t compete with how Miami was dealing with things financially.”
In comparison to the money Miami is splashing, the SF Deltas entire team roster is around 1.2 million dollars according to CEO Brian Helmick (possibly a bit more now with the addition of the Brazilian Dagoberto).
Of course, money alone can’t buy a championship team.
Miami FC coach Alessandro Nesta has done an excellent job of melding the signing together while adding other significant pieces like NASL co-goal scoring leaders Vincenzo Rennella and Stéfano Pinho.
As Miami FC enjoy the Spring Season championship and continue their dream run in the US Open Cup, the future looks bright for the South Florida team and an ownership group with deep pockets.
2) The Deltas propensity to start out slow doomed them to the loss
One of the hallmarks of San Francisco has been the team starting matches slowly. They often collectively work their way into the game and play effectively in the final third of the match.
The Deltas have been able to recently fend off bad starts against FC Edmonton and Indy Eleven at home to get favorable results.
But in San Francisco’s two biggest games this year their slow starts have doomed them to defeat.
In the US Open Cup game against the San Jose Earthquakes the Deltas gave up two goals in the opening eight minutes. Against Miami, they fell behind by three goals after fifteen minutes.
It is safe to say that the MLS’ Quakes and Miami FC were the two best teams the Deltas have faced all year. SF withered under their opponents offensive pressure and their typically stout defense fell apart.
Miami’s first three goals were scored on efficient and quick passing behind the Deltas defenders. San Francisco also was never able to effectively install their game plan of high pressure and counterattacking.
Miami controlled the ball 70 percent of the time, and the Deltas only completed a third as many passes as their opponents. San Francisco did not have one shot on target during the game.
Dos Santos attempted to switch the game up with a double substitution in the first half. Michael Stephens and Devon Sandoval came on in place of Pablo Dyego and Tyler Gibson. However a few minutes later defender Reiner Ferreira was shown a straight red card and the players had to cope being a man down.
Hopefully, San Francisco can come out in future games with guns blazing from the opening whistle and not fall behind quickly.
3) How will San Francisco respond?
After a drubbing as bad as Miami FC put on San Francisco it is only natural to wonder how it will affect the psyche of the team. It is an even more urgent question because the two team will meet up again this Saturday.
Throughout the NASL Spring Season, the expansion Deltas have achieved unexpected results and earned valuable points. They scored late away in North Carolina to beat NCFC in May and a week later scored another goal just before the final whistle in Edmonton to steal a combined 6 points.
After a 3-0 defeat against Jacksonville, the Deltas earned a dogged tie away to the New York Cosmos and came back at home to score a draw after falling behind the Indy Eleven by two goals with 10 minutes left to play.
They then earned a maximum twelve points in four games against Puerto Rico FC and FC Edmonton, the bottom two teams in NASL.
Have the results been achieved because of the determination of the squad or has it been luck?
The team has someone who believes in them in coach Dos Santos. “In every moment, I will stand with this group of players,” he said after the Miami game. “This game needs to make us better and grow as a team.”
The Deltas will most likely have to change their formation against Miami. A 3-2-4-1 may clog up the through ball passing lanes that Miami used to carve up San Francisco’s defense. Unfortunately, that will come at the cost of the Deltas usually tactic of pressuring upfield.
It’s imperative for San Francisco to learn how to match up again Miami, especially considering they play three more times in the Fall Season.
Saturday’s game may well determine how realistic SF’s chances are to make the NASL postseason.
