Training resumed this week following LAFC’s 2-0 victory over San Jose at Banc of California Stadium.
Despite the final product from open play not coming to fruition on countless occasions, Walker Zimmerman bagged a pair of set-piece goals from corner kicks to wrap up all three points. After the match, Bob Bradley said his team’s performance was "good but not perfect."
However, Bradley was pleased with the way his side dictated play to kill off the match in the late stages. And in training this week, he talked a little bit more about what it means to control matches and how the midfield is the genesis of that control.
“The starting point is that if you win battles in the midfield, if you control games in the midfield, certainly it helps you be a good team,” Bradley said after training on Tuesday. “And so, our idea would still be that as we start to play from the back that in so many cases we can find the right pass into the midfield.”
Throughout the season, LAFC’s midfield has been a hot topic of conversation around MLS. Whether it’s pundits trying to figure out the Club’s perceived lack of a destroyer-type defensive midfielder or to pick out just what the Club’s burgeoning style of play is predicated on, there has been lots of articles online dedicated to the subject.
But for Bradley, it’s all about building on ideas that are worked on every day in training.
"This idea of how you find space, teams around the world are organized. MLS teams watch every opponent and try to close down important spaces. You’ve got to work with players to have that ability to find a yard or two. And of course, to be a good enough passing team that when there’s that little bit of space, you’re not afraid to play passes into players, knowing that then the second pass and the third pass can come from that. We work in all those ways," Bradley said of how the midfield drives LAFC foward.
"When the ball turns over, the reactions of those midfielders, they’ve got to all be on the same page positionally. They can’t all be chasing the same ball. Certainly, the idea that as one steps or two steps, the other midfielder provides balance. That is a lot of what Eduard [Atuesta] has done, especially when he has played that deeper role. But it is important that all the midfielders have a really good understanding, and we work every day to keep building in those ways."
With so much emphasis on the right ideas, in the end, Bradley said it's up to the players to execute in their way and its one of the reasons why he his staff are so demanding on the training ground and in matches.
“We try to play football in a way that we can try to see what the situation is asking for. You challenge players to read the game and make good decisions. But we also want players that have personality. And players that in the right moments, when there is an advantage, go forward and try to make something happen. It’s just trying to weigh different factors and get everybody to have a collective understanding.
"It’s our idea of football. And certainly, we’re not the only ones to have ideas like this. You’ll find many good clubs in different leagues where you see something every time they step on the field. We’re always trying to look at our team and work with our players to put those ideas together and play some good football."
News & Notes
- Last week, midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye was cleared to start walking without crutches. Kaye has been working on the anti-gravity treadmill at LAFC's Performance Center, and this week has upped his workout load as he continues his rehab.
- Also making progress is goalkeeper Quillan Roberts. Roberts has been rehabbing a fibular fracture in his right leg and says he should be back to running on the field in three weeks.
- This weekend's match against the Chicago Fire will be a homecoming of sorts for one member of LAFC... of course, I'm talking about Tyler Miller. The LAFC goalkeeper attended Northwestern University and as a junior, he worked in the communications department for the Fire. "It was a funny time there during those four months. I would go work in the offices and then be out there with the team. It was a good experience for me."
