Catch up on everything that happened in MLS Week 6 with FloFC’s column Little Things.

Vancouver, still figuring itself out

We knew it would take some time for this brand-new Vancouver Whitecaps team. With a draw and four losses in five games, it hasn’t been a smooth start. 

They lost 2-0 at home to the Galaxy on Friday night. (Keep the Friday games coming, by the way.) Had it not been for Ali Adnan’s disastrous Panenka attempt early in the game, the ’Caps could have proved more of a challenge for the Fightin’ Zlatans. But Marc Dos Santos was too conservative in his approach. Vancouver sat deep off the ball and focused their entire attention on solidifying the midfield and freeing Lass Bangoura on the counter. The setup conceded too much time on the ball.

As the game went on, the Whitecaps’ exaggerated 4-5-1 formation revealed itself. The line of confrontation was so low that most of Jonathan dos Santos’ passes came in the attacking half.

Jonathan dos Santos pass map from Friday. Caps were too deep — too many dos Santos passes centered in attacking half. pic.twitter.com/U33IZMLnZn

— Harrison Hamm (@harrisonhamm21) April 8, 2019

Vancouver became a stationary blob of nine field players inviting the Galaxy forward. Eventually, a team with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Romain Alessandrini will break that blob down. The Whitecaps’ backline is much improved from last season, but it is not dominant enough to survive an opposing team setting up shop in the final third for long stretches with little trouble.

Joaquin Ardaiz, auditioning for the starting striker job, was often so detached from the rest of his team’s formation that the camera didn’t pick him up. His pressing efforts were depressingly futile, with zero teammates backing him up to any significant degree.

Sitting deep and countering is not an invalid approach, in a vacuum. But you have to actually counter if you’re going to play this way. Bangoura is electric (and should keep starting), but he barely had opportunities to run into space because there were so few ’Caps players running with him to draw defenders away. 

At some point, Vancouver should become more than a bunkering team. Hwang In-beom looks like a skillful genius, a player who wants to be everywhere all the time. He has the Lodeiro instinct of crafting midfield possessions exactly to his liking, bouncing around and inducing movement and combination play out of static teammates. In a more aggressive system, he could be a centerpiece.

We can only hope that Dos Santos is willing to do more with this team. 

Sporting KC has better depth than your team

SKC went to Mexico on Thursday and capitulated in Champions League, losing 5-0 to Monterrey. It was shocking and inexplicable. But their MLS turnaround was quick—they had to travel to Cincinnati on Sunday and face a plucky, well-supported FCC team. Sporting put out a lineup with eight changes, leaving only Ilie Sanchez, Andreu Fontas and Johnny Russell from the shellacking in CCL. The backups had some trouble, but pulled out a 1-1 result and forced Cincy to make defensive subs late in the game.

There was a time that Peter Vermes was criticized for relying too much on a core group of players, and lacking flexibility deeper in the lineup. Vermes has heard those criticisms and rendered them moot. The central midfield featured 16-year-old Gianluca Busio (scorer of SKC’s goal!) and 22-year-old experiment Gedion Zelalem. Kelyn Rowe played on the left flank. Recent left back convert Rodney Wallace and new pickup Nicolas Hasler joined Fontas and Botond Barath on the backline. Adrian Zendejas earned his first league start in goal.

The system—an aggressive, organized, pressing 4-3-3—stayed the same. As mentioned elsewhere, FCC did well early to counter it, but the fact that it was threatening enough to even be countered is impressive. Sporting stayed on the ball and created chances. Not every player filled in admirably—Zelalem was fairly weak in midfield, and Yohan Croizet is not an ideal False 9—but SKC’s second team nearly pulled out a nice road win.

MLS teams are getting better and better at cultivating quality depth. With allocation money, they have the funds to spend on roster spots 11 through 18, and many teams are seeing their youth investments pay off—hence, SKC have Busio out there moving the ball and scoring goals as a high school junior. This means more competition for spots and more tactical flexibility, both big positives.

No one, though, can rival SKC for meaningful depth. They found it within MLS—Rowe, Wallace, Hasler, Erik Hurtado—and everywhere from Europe to their own backyard. 

Adama Diomande is making it work, and Diego Rossi is perfect for a star

Dio went off with an injury after 25 minutes of LAFC’s 4-0 destruction of D.C. United, but this play stuck with me from his performance:

His first touch isn’t ideal, but he understands that if he can position himself on the defender’s left, he can force the goalkeeper to come out and have a chance to get a shot off. Dio puts the ball back in a favorable path and leans into Steve Birnbaum, regaining a position from which he can shoot and challenge the keeper. His right-footed poke didn’t come off, but it was a subtly clever effort.

Less subtle was the rest of LAFC’s effort on Saturday—Diego Rossi and Carlos Vela ran circles around D.C.’s midfield. DCU looked slow, but they had little chance of stopping LA at all. Rossi is MLS’s best scoring winger, and Vela is the league’s best player. Rossi’s assertiveness sprinting into every tiny gap is his best asset.

What a day for Diego Rossi!

The ?? attacker came up BIG for #LAFC this afternoon! pic.twitter.com/qkLd9lKjro

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 6, 2019

The 21-year-old Uruguayan is the perfect player for a high-caliber creator like Vela: Rossi sees the same things Vela sees, and puts himself in position to take advantage of Vela’s magical passes. That skill is going to serve him well when he is eventually transferred to a top-tier European league.

Zlatan makes everything easier

One of the most important benefits Wayne Rooney provides to D.C. United is his calm nuance on the ball, his ability to see the field and make clean plays. For younger players, Rooney is a valuable outlet and teacher, extending his importance beyond scoring.

In LA, Ibrahimovic does what Rooney does, only to a higher and more valuable extent. Center backs are intimidated by his size. Zlatan somehow corrals every ball in the air with karate kick touches. He excels at conjuring a rocket shot attempt out of any vaguely threatening situation.

There is no player more outrightly dominant in MLS than Zlatan, even if Vela seems to have usurped the overall best player title. Ibra is what you get when you combine the nuance and vision of Rooney with a towering figure who has spent years refining world-class foot skills.

No one else in MLS makes this play:

Doneil Henry was basically trying to climb Zlatan’s back as David Bingham’s spot-kick sailed through the air, and three Vancouver midfielders stood within immediate range, expecting to either help Henry or gather a rebound of a bad touch. Zlatan posted up and knew all along he had Rolf Feltscher running up the flank, finding him with a soft touch and well-weighted pass. None of it even looked clean, but Ibra does stuff like this a few times per game. It’s unstoppable.

Zlatan went 90 on the BC Place turf, scoring a goal and picking up an assist. If he stays healthy and continues playing on turf, he’s pretty much guaranteed at least 20 goals and a playoff spot.

FC Cincinnati’s blue-orange combination

FCC probably wore blue shirts over orange shorts because visiting Sporting KC wear all blue, and contrast was necessary. But Cincy’s combo was so good that it should become their regular home uniform. The orange is sharp, and switching the shorts to that color accentuated the existing accents on the jersey. Teams that have solid two-color palettes should use both colors.

Extend this further, and FCC could wear white over blue or white over orange on the road. There is great potential here. In an MLS littered with phoned-in adidas designs, Cincy has the potential to be a wonderful outlier.

Harrison Hamm is a sportswriter who covers American soccer and MLS for FloFC. He also covers sports for FanSided and The Comeback, and has freelanced for the Washington Post.