Last night after Canada impressed against the more talented USA at BMO Field last night in a 0-0 friendly draw, several people on the Twitter came out with their “men of the match.” De Guzman was on more than a few lists, which begs the question—why doesn’t he play like this for Toronto FC?
Some mused he was utilized in a different formational role, but there he was playing central defensive mid in a 4-3-3, just like for the Reds. The trite answer is he’s surrounded by (far) more talented players with Canada, but it’s also the correct one. Here’s a brief explanation why.
One of the reasons this season why Toronto FC have been so poor has been their struggle to adapt to Aron Winter’s preferred possession-based 4-3-3. A look at the Opta Chalkboards reveals several telling patterns for the club this season. One is the failure of Ashtone Morgan to match Jeremy Hall’s ability to push up in attack as a full-back. That, coupled with the general lack of impact of JDG’s midfield partners and the preference for the front three wingers to cross the ball rather than cut in, has meant De Guz has been often forced to push up out of position to try and assist in attack, which leaves the two centrebacks exposed.
It’s interesting that in Toronto FC’s 1-0 win against Philadelphia, De Guz moved out to the left, with Frings in the central defensive role. Frings was still forced to come too far forward, but De Guzman’s impact on the left was immediately apparent, and contrasted significantly against that of Luis Silva on the right, who drifted in out of position and posted a negative pass completion rate.
Last night however, De Guzman was paired up with a rampant Will Johnson to his left and relatively durable (and far more positionally disciplined) Nik Ledgerwood on his right. Moreover, he was helped greatly by the fact both De Rosario and Tossaint Ricketts didn’t cross the ball from wide positions, but instead cut in or passed back to maintain possession in the US’s final third. They were able to do so also in part because both fullbacks in David Edgar and Ante Jazic were excellent using the length of the channels and tracking back in defense. That’s the ideal in a 4-3-3.
Canada were far from “perfect.” Ricketts lacked the quality of De Guzman on the right although he was still impressive. Olivier Occean didn’t have the impact on the game some expected (Simeon Jackson looked more threatening when he came on in the 65th minute and improved Canada’s chances). Canada allowed the US far too much time on the ball, maintaining only 38% possession (the US were however, perhaps out of injury concerns, reticent to press Canada in their own half).
Still, you can see the impact on a player of JDG’s quality when he’s surrounded by players a little more comfortable in their prescribed roles.
Ah yes … the all important holding midfielder position that is never sexy yet an important position for a team to function … everyone wants goals … yet a holding midfieder never smells the opposite net when everyone around him dumps their errors on him and he’s left to pick up the slack leaving him spent on the pitch … end result … we the fans dump all of it on the holding midfielder when a team can’t win, ie. TFC.
I was watching a different game where even the 10 and 11 year olds we brought were screaming at De Guz to mark up when we didn’t have the ball, 2 nice US chances were the result of DeGuz directing another CDN player to mark up, then he wanders off into the ether, it literally looked like he was avoiding Dempasey all night.
I wouldn’t necessarily take tactical advice from 11 year olds either. Man-marking is an important skill to learn at the age of 11, but tactics should evolve, especially with an understanding of controlling space. There are lots of videos demonstrating Barcelona’s defensive system at whom your same 11 yearolds would be yelling to ‘mark up’ because they do not play the mark, they play zonal defense. In particular, this has allowed their few tall players to cover the danger zones, and prevent their generally short team from being defeated by aerial attacks.
de Guzman usually gets nit-picked for not covering players directly but one of his advantages has been his off the ball intelligence, meaning he is more likely to cover spaces than players. Some situations a man-marking system would ‘work’ better, of course, but if the whole team is on the same page of what is going on and who is doing what, hopefully such chances will be limited. As many will note, de Guzman is not as fast as he once was – and they call for more man-marking, which is the exact opposite of where his game should evolve, because he will be increasingly be beat by younger faster players. His future hope is continuing to manage spaces.
Since the US did not score a goal, I’d say defensively Canada did as much as could be expected and de Guzman played an important part in that.
I missed the game, but it is hard for people to judge that holding midfielder spot at times. Different cultures have different expectations. Some people are instantly inclined to expect the Gennaro Gattuso battering ram type of player.
JDG has been mostly awful with TFC, but I think people had unrealistic expectations of him coming in, including the clueless coaching staff / Mo Johnston. For Canada, he’s looked a little better I’ve thought and you’re probably right that it does have something to do with the quality of players around him.
The way I see it is TFC and the CMNT both play the 4-3-3 formation, but Aron Winter has the team playing something resembling either a 4-1-2-3 or 5-2-3.
Yesterday, the CMNT vs the USA, were playing something resembling a 4-5-1 and Olivier Occean didnt push too far forward that he was unreachable by the midfielders or wingers. The team played compact and motivated.
I was really impressed with JDG last night, and I agree that the difference in quality of the supporting cast was a huge factor. What really impressed me was how, as the game went along, he became more confident and started making moves to beat US players (generally successfully). He almost never does this when he plays for TFC. And Edgar really impressed me. He’s a much much better player than the last time I saw him on international duty. Burnley’s been good to him.
I had a look at a game tape from 5 years ago and it’s jarring how much JDG’s legs have deserted him. His athleticism and agility were on a different planet. I’m sure age and the knee injury had something to do wtih it but he’s also fatter than he was back then.
Don’t forget pride. Playing or your country usually jacks someone up. TFC is a job. This was a special game, the centenury. The next century looks promising.
Kudos to the crowd.