Matt "the Armchair Analyst" Doyle breaks down both of Sunday's second legs of the Conference Championships of the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs. Check them out.
EAST: Columbus-New York | WEST:Portland-Dallas
In this space I spend a lot of time talking about the tactical minutiae that separates the mediocre from the good, the good from the great and so on. I don't spend a ton of time talking about set pieces, and I don't spend a lot of time talking about golazos.
And yet...
In the first 30 seconds of the first leg, we saw both sides of that coin. FCD pushed their fullbacks way up into the attack, and Melano nearly got himself a goal on the counter. Expect a lot of that in leg two.
Dallas have the pieces to make life hell for the Portland defense, especially if Mauro Diaz is allowed to spray balls all over the field as he did in the first leg. The more targets you can give him, the better their chances of overturning the deficit are.
How to solve it: Play direct off of turnovers
That play up there is basically the blueprint. When Dalas get stretched vertically, Portland will be ruthless in driving the ball in the other direction. Wallace and Melano are both excellent in those situations, and in Fanendo Adi they have a true No. 9 who can hold the ball up with his back to goal and then play runners through.
It's a deadly combo.
What's it all mean?
I thought the first leg would be cagey, and couldn't have been more wrong.
So take this with a grain of salt, but I think this game will be wild and wide open. The first 20 minutes should be particularly frantic.
And when the smoke clears, I expect Dallas to win... but not by enough. Portland will go through to their first MLS Cup.
