By deciding to play through the FIFA break—clubs are obliged to release their players called up by national teams—this is apparently the annual weekend where the MLS decides to shoot itself in the foot.
The rationale is it’s counterproductive to the league’s ambitious plans of growing its business (and selling Apple TV+ subscriptions) when it willingly puts out a product devoid of its best-selling stars.
About 90 MLS players left their teams last week for international duty, yet the regular season chugged along. On top of injuries, that meant nearly every team entered the recent matchday missing entire chunks of their rosters.
Here’s how Bob Bradley, one of the legends of American soccer, now manager at another one of the league’s flagship teams, Toronto FC, described it.
“Games that are scheduled over international breaks create problems,” Bradley told Canadian journalist John Molinaro ahead of Saturday’s eventual 0-0 draw against the San Jose Earthquakes. “Our international players shake their heads and look at us like: ‘How is this possible? This wouldn’t happen anywhere else.’ ”
Toronto came to California missing everything and everyone that had made them feared in the Eastern Conference again. Mark-Anthony Kaye, Jonathan Osorio, Ayo Akinola, and Richie Laryea were all with Canada playing in the CONCACAF Nations League. While Italian superstar and MLS’s highest-paid player Lorenzo Insigne was still out with injury, and so was veteran striker Adama Diomande.
But they did have their other superstar, former Juventus winger Federico Bernardeschi, to count on. The Italian rose to the occasion at PayPal park—serving as Toronto’s focal point in the attack while still tracking back to defend, breaking the stereotype of the superstar diva unwilling to graft during the doldrums of the regular season.
Fears that the international break would reduce the MLS weekend to some glorified youth tournament were also partially assuaged when Toronto dusted off their 2017 MLS Cup-winning midfield of Michael Bradley and Victor Vazquez to deputize for the aforementioned Canadians. Behind them, former MLS Cup MVP and US national team keeper Sean Johnson put in a poised and confident performance in goal, helping preserve a crucial clean sheet.
San Jose, for their part, still had all of their starting forwards to call upon. But new Quakes manager Luchi Gonzalez was without his preferred three-man midfield, which he said, upon its construction in the preseason, would “compete with the best in the league” and was the engine of their attack.
Had designated players Carlos Gruezo (injury) and Jamiro Monteiro (international duty) both been in the squad, the Quakes probably would have lined up similarly to Bradley’s Toronto, in a 4-3-3 or 4-5-1, as they had been before the break.
Instead, Gonzalez was forced to pivot to a formation he had never used before with this group— a 4-4-2, featuring an untested midfield partnership of Jackson Yueill and Michael Baldisimo. Benji Kikanovic was brought in as an extra forward.
“We wanted to use Benji and Cade [Cowell’s] verticality and high energy,” Gonzalez explained after the game. “They have such high ceilings, and we believe in their ability. I’m satisfied with the volume of chances and runs. We just have to keep working.”
Indeed, San Jose did create the better of the chances between the two sides, and justifiably so, they were left feeling hard done that they didn’t come away with all three points at home.
But the more undermanned visitors were savvy with their game plan. Bradley, who Gonzalez credits with being a coaching idol for his generation and a personal mentor, countered his mentee’s tactical switch by deploying his own “box midfield,” which gave Toronto constant numerical advantages while in possession.
While time of possession can be overrated, it kept Bradley’s men in the game this time, as all three of his substitutes from the bench were born after 2003.
“Bob [Bradley] is great at putting a lot of technical footballers together,” Gonzalez said of the former US national team manager. He himself just wrapped a stint as an assistant on Gregg Berhalter’s staff during the World Cup in Qatar.
“They make it difficult for you to defend when they connect passes and put sequences together the way they do,” Gonzalez said. “They break pressure so well. I thought it was a nice back and forth.”
In lieu of goals from the attacking players, newly signed/promoted defenders from both sides shined. Quakes center-back Rodrigues, from Brazil, broke forward on multiple occasions playing at times as San Jose’s much-needed third midfielder or target forward. Meanwhile, for Toronto, the Norwegian Sigurd Rosted and homegrown forward-turned-fullback Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty answered key 1:1 battles with timely tackles.
The best chance of the game came in the 92nd minute when Jeremy Ebobisse laid a ball gently to the feet of Yueill, who fired in a powerful shot from outside the box that forced a big diving save from Johnson. The ball was parried only as far as Quakes substitute Tommy Thompson, who lost his footing on what would’ve been an easy tap-in.
The draw means San Jose remains undefeated at home. They host the Houston Dynamo next Saturday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m.
Official Attendance at PayPal Park: 12,434
About the Author: Kevin V. Nguyen has covered soccer for The Guardian, The Sacramento Bee, and The San Francisco Standard. Follow him on Twitter @KevinNguyen_89
