After a back-and-forth first half, Republic came out strong in the second half to defeat a very good El Paso side 2-1 and book their place in the Western Conference Final. It was a performance that showcased many of Republic’s best traits: using the wide areas to isolate El Paso’s defenders in attack, while remaining solid through the middle and back to stifle El Paso going the other way.

Perhaps the best part, though, was seeing who found the scoresheet. Jennings, who had scored just once as a Quail since joining the team with high expectations, opened the scoring, hopefully setting himself up for a run of form through the remainder of the playoffs. Benitez then grabbed the game-winner, scoring for the first time since going down with an injury back in June. The assists were just as encouraging, coming from Malango, who had recorded only two all season, and Memo Rodriguez, who missed the previous week's match through injury.

With Republic hitting their stride at just the right time, let's take a look at how the tactics played out on the pitch.

This Republic side is dynamic and avoids relying on any one player to make things happen. Through 2 playoff games, Republic has 3 goals from 5 different contributors. In their last 5 matches, they have scored 8 goals from 7 different goal scorers and 4 different players provided assists. This well-rounded team means that Collins can mix and match to get the best matchups anywhere on the pitch, and isn’t fully hampered by a lack of player availability due to injury.

That being said, even in round 2 of the playoffs, player’s returning from injury has had a similar effect - Collins can tweak the lineup to include the guys returning. In this week's case, compared to last week lineup, we saw just a single change to the starting XI: Memo Rodrigues’ addition in place of Midence. For just the first time since August 8th, when Mark Anthony-Kaye went down injured, Republic was able to utilize both MAK and Memo in the starting XI. The two are easily Republic’s most experienced players, both playing for mainly MLS sides during the last 8 years, and were largely signed to work together in the midfield with Crisostomo. 

What made this match particularly interesting was that Memo was moved from his typical spot of center attacking midfielder and was utilized on the right wing, while Pep Casas played that central location. We’ll get into the tactics of the “why” below, but look how wide Memo (#8) is playing in this 4-2-3-1:

Gurr’s (#2) forward positioning somewhat throws off the positioning groups (we’ll get to that below too), but Memo is undeniably playing a wider role than usual while Casas (#24) stays central.

With this ability to move players around to different roles and positions, such as with Spaulding playing all four of right back, right wing, left back, and left wing this season, Collins commented on how those players effect the team:

Randolph, who Republic signed as a backup keeper this last offseason, has been on the bench for 35 matches without seeing the field. But the buy-in is there from the players, and Collins is aware of how important each player is to the whole.

Last week, we discussed how, with Memo’s absence, Republic had shifted the midfield from 2 holding midfielders and 1 attacking to 1 holding midfielder and 2 attackers, tweaking Republic’s formation from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-1-4-1. It was also a game where Republic dominated 60% of the possession - pushing a second midfielder forward made sense to try and control the game in Tulsa’s half. 

This week, however, Republic returned to that standard midfield formation that we’ve seen all season, with 2 holding midfielders (Crisostomo and MAK) and a single attacking midfielder (Casas) and held just 40% of the possession. The reason? El Paso plays in a 3-4-3 that focuses their attacking play through the middle, and relies on the left and right midfielders to provide the majority of their width. Republic needs the two holding midfielders to counter El Paso’s central movements. Look at El Paso’s average positioning:

The wings are wide open outside of, at the start of the match, #12 and #18, both of whom are the outside midfielders and were El Paso’s lowest rated players on the night, while all 5 attacking players are bunched up in the middle, trying to break through Republic’s midfield with numbers. El Paso’s right back, #21, does end up positioning wider as the match goes on, largely to deal with Malango, but Republic specifically targeted these 2 isolated players when Republic was in the attack.

Let’s look at a few examples. In Republic’s first goal, Malango is given the ball out wide and instantly beats El Paso’s #18 (light blue circle) with ease - which causes there to be miles of space for him to work with: 

This forces El Paso’s #21 (dark blue circle) to press to Malango - but when Malango beats him on the dribble as well, El Paso’s backline disintegrates. At no point in the entire sequence does Malango have to deal with 2 defenders, so he’s able to beat each of them individually with no real trouble.

This occurs on the other side of the pitch as well. I mean, just look how open Gurr and Memo are here:

Casas takes far too long to get the ball across the field, so this fizzles out, but you can really see how wide open the wide areas are for Republic throughout the game. 

Speaking of Gurr and Memo, the reason that Memo ends up slotting in at right wing as we mentioned in the previous section is specifically to play off of Gurr. Memo, despite his goal scoring, is primarily a goal creator, and his right wing role was much more central than Malango’s left wing role because this allows Gurr to bomb up the sidelines from right back. Take that image from above of Gurr and Memo wide open - Memo tucks inside while Gurr does the overlap outside. The technical term for this is that he’s playing as a “inside winger”. That interplay created a lot of opportunities on the night - Republic’s first shot of the night, an opportunity that Jenning should have put away after rounding the keeper, comes about because of this image: 

All the way back in Republic’s half, Memo collects the ball and holds it, waiting for an overlapping Gurr to sprint up the sidelines. As we talked about earlier, Republic sought to isolate the wide players. Well, look what happens when this pass beats the only wide player on that side of the pitch:

El Paso is left with just 2 central defenders, to deal with 3 incoming players, and Republic is off to the races.

Outside of the tactics, Republic tends to just tire teams out. Lee Desmond talked about this in his post-match press conference:

Speaking of that second half, Republic came out on fire. In the 12 minutes between the start of half and Benitez’s goal, Republic put up 8 shots including 3 shots in just the 49th minute. El Paso really did seem exhausted - Republic went from 39% possession, 1 corner, and 7 shots in the first half to 43% possession, 4 corners, and 10 shots in the second half, despite El Paso chasing the tying goal for 33 minutes. Of Republic’s last 10 goals, 8 of them have been in the second half and 6 of them have been in the final 10 minutes of the match. 

Even so, Republic will need to watch out for complacency late in games going forward. In the 90 + 8 minute, El Paso nearly tied it with a shot that struck the post that was lazily defended. Now, I still think this should have been called offside: 

At the moment of the shot, two El Paso players are in Vitiello’s line of vision. Per law 11.2:

I think this is pretty cut and dry that the offside players obstruct Vitiello’s vision - and Vitiello was calling for offside literally while the ball hits the post, though you’ll have to excuse the broadcast for the poor camera quality:

The officials ignore the call, but blow the whistle to end the match just moments later. If this had gone in… oh man would it have been controversial either way it was called. 

Six
Number of duels won by Cal Jennings on the night, equaling his total of the previous 3 matches combined. He went 6 for 12 on the night compared to 6 for 24 previously.

15 Matches Straight
15 matches undefeated, continuing the club record unbeaten streak and including wins in 4 of the last 5 matches.

52.97%
Republic’s duel win percentage over the last 5 matches, showing their dominance on 50/50 balls.

0.80 xGA
Republic is allowing an average xG against of just 0.80 in their last 5 matches - they themselves are averaging an xG of 1.37 during that same time frame.

22.56mph (36.3km/h)
Lee Desmond’s top speed this season, which is… wait, first on the entire squad? Yes, apparently team captain Lee Desmond, the 31 year old centerback, is Republic’s fastest player.

I had the personal pleasure of actually attending this match in person - I now live in the Portland, Oregon area - and the atmosphere was incredible. Republic’s atmosphere has certainly had its ups and downs over the last several years that I’ve attended matches, but the crowd tonight was on a level that is rarely reached at Heart Heath Park. 

Unfortunately, Republic will be missing that home atmosphere next week, as New Mexico’s 4-0 beat down of Colorado sends Republic out to Isotopes Park, a baseball field. To New Mexico’s credit, I fully expect it to be a 13k+ sell out, but Republic will now have the difficult task of putting up a win against a very good team on a less than ideal field.

We just discussed how Republic played out wide to beat El Paso, but they may struggle with that on Sunday. Isotope Park’s pitch is 110 x 70 yards - exactly USL’s allowed minimum field dimensions. Hearth Health Park, on the other hand, is sized at 120 x 80 yards, giving it ~2,000 sq. yards more of playing area. On the other hand, Republic won in New Mexico just a few weeks ago, beating United 3-2, and that should be fresh in all of the player’s minds. Lee Desmond spoke of playing New Mexico post-match: 

Both teams will also go into the game knowing if they’ll host or travel for the final. Of the 4 remaining teams, Charleston has the #1 hosting priority, but Louisville is #4 in priority and so can’t host. Charleston and Louisville play on Saturday night - and both New Mexico and Sacramento will be rooting for a Louisville win. Should Louisville pull it off, both Western Conference teams will know that a win on Sunday means a final at home.

But first, we’re in for a very good game of football. New Mexico and Republic are two very good and very evenly matched teams. Collins put it this way:

Kick off for the Western Conference Final is Sunday at 4pm PST.