The Philadelphia Union had a middle of the road defense in 2018, which is quite an accomplishment given that their starting central defenders have a combined age of 39. It appears that 20-year-old Auston Trusty and 19-year-old Mark McKenzie have very bright futures, but they were badly exposed by two of MLS’s smartest attackers on Wednedsay night.
NYCFC shows Union that brains beat athleticism
David Villa is old and slow. Maxi Moralez is 5’3”. They made the Union’s physically gifted defenders look very bad.
Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
New York City FC defeated the Union 3-1 to advance in the knockout round of the MLS Cup Playoffs, and they’ll move on to face Atlanta United. NYCFC did it by repeatedly pulling Trusty and McKenzie out of position with simple runs away from goal, then playing the ball into the space that the Union defenders vacated.
It’s easy to blame Ray Gattis for losing Ismael Tajouri-Shradi, but this run is very hard to track, and there’s almost always a center back in the space that Tajouri-Shradi is running into. But Trusty got pulled up the field by Villa, then was rendered useless by Villa’s flick into space.
The second goal featured Trusty and McKenzie aggressively pursuing Moralez, while no one watched his partner in attack. McKenzie had no chance to recover when Moralez played a perfect pass to Villa.
The third goal might have been the most egregious. All of the Union’s defenders stepped up into midfield, then were undone by a very simple long ball.
Villa and Moralez might be lacking in pace these days, but who needs to be fast when you can fool defenders this easily?
After the match, Union manager Jim Curtin admitted that his young team was outsmarted by NYCFC on the counter.
Hopefully Trusty and McKenzie can learn a lot from the tape of this game. This was their first playoff game, and it showed. They’re both likely to become top MLS defenders, but they didn’t look anywhere near ready for Wednesday night’s game.
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