The Poutine Hits the Fan
Kevin Nelson looks at the tactical breakdown behind another NYCFC defeat to Montréal.
There are bad losses, and then there are bad losses. New York City Football Club’s 1-0 defeat at CF Montréal would fall into the latter category. Montréal had not won a home game since October, when they last faced NYCFC, and entered the match in the cellar of the Eastern Conference standings. Even considering Major League Soccer’s extreme home-field advantage, New York City should have been able to handle a team with a putrid -8.22 goals added (g+) this season, which ranks fourth-worst in the league.
Nevertheless, Montréal secured three points convincingly. In a matchup featuring two interim head coaches, Montréal’s Marco Donadel outmaneuvered NYCFC with inside fullbacks who confounded Mehdi Ballouchy for the entire match. Left back Lucas Petrasso and right back Dawid Bugaj consistently tucked into the midfield during Montréal’s possession, creating space for wingers Dante Sealy and Tom Pearce to drop deep along the touchline in a 2-2-4-2 buildout shape.
New York City initially defended this tactic by having wingers Hannes Wolf and Agustín Ojeda shift inside to stick with their fullback counterparts. However, outside backs Birk Risa and Strahinja Tanasijević did not come up on the wingers enough for them to feel any defensive pressure. This narrowness gave Montréal’s wingers freedom to exploit the space out wide, leading to successful attacks down Sealy’s right side.
The game’s lone goal originated from Bugaj’s off-ball movement into the left halfspace, which dragged Hannes Wolf out of position. This overload facilitated a switch to Sealy, who attacked Risa in isolation. The Brooklyn-born winger cut inside Risa to create enough space to fire at Tomás Romero, who parried the low shot directly into the path of midfielder Victor Loturi, who hammered home the rebound.
Ballouchy switched his left-side marking assignments soon after the goal, allowing left centerback Justin Haak to push up on Bugaz so Wolf could stay wide on Sealy. However, this plan was short-lived, as it became clear that the winger-to-winger marking would break down during rapid possession changes if Wolf applied any counterpressure. In the 38th minute, Wolf pursued the ball away from Sealy while Haak and Risa maintained their marks. Sealy got lost in the turmoil and found himself in open space once Montréal settled possession, forcing a late recovery from Risa and allowing a simple underlapping box entry to Owen Graham-Roache.
New York City varied their defensive approach to the inside fullbacks throughout the rest of the game, either to keep Montréal guessing or, more likely, in search of a solution. Ballouchy jumped from stretching his backline by marking Sealy with Risa to substituting on Jonny Shore at halftime for midfield reinforcements capable of defending the Montréal fullbacks without compromising the backline. In the 64th minute, Ballouchy introduced Kevin O’Toole and Tayvon Gray in a double substitution aimed at increasing the attacking threat while chasing a goal, but also to pin Donadel’s fullbacks in without the comfort of pushing inside knowing Risa and Tanasijević were non-threats going forward.
As the game progressed, NYCFC became less concerned about Montréal’s buildups as the hosts transitioned to a prevent defense. The Pigeons finished with 67% possession but struggled to establish any offensive flow in the absence of Alonso Martínez, who was away on international duty with Costa Rica at the Gold Cup.
Haak, the original muse for Ballouchy’s defensive tinkering, acted as the pivot point in the variations in New York City’s attacking shape. Nominally the left center back, he bounced between the midfield and backline in possession depending on the aggression of a Montréal press, which caused problems when building up with three at the back. He frequently pushed up and out into the left back’s space to create a pocket for Maxi Moralez to drop into. In the desperate closing minutes, Haak regularly made runs into the box, though doing so left Thiago Martins as the lone centerback to thwart several dangerous Montréal counters.
Haak’s advancements coincided with an increasing frequency of Moralez dropping deep, but the presence of Point Maxi in the final stretch did little to lubricate an inept offensive performance. New York City ultimately finished with 0.84 xG to Montréals 1.57 and seemingly had just as many shots as it did fuck-it-let-me-boot-this-out-of-danger clearances.
Head coach Pascal Jansen missed this match due to personal reasons but was in direct contact with his staff throughout. Whether it be Jansen or Ballouchy, the coaches deserve credit for the diversity of tactics they presented to Donadel. While these attempts may not have unlocked Montréal’s defense, there are limits to how much you can sharpen a blunt attack without Martinez, whose absence the team felt more acutely than Jansen’s.
Finding ways to supplement the attack without Martinez poses a broader challenge for NYCFC. This may require creative solutions beyond simply replacing him with Bakrar. Against Montréal, starting centerbacks as fullbacks exacerbated the problem. Risa and Tanasijević failed to punish Montréal’s fullbacks for being out of position, nor did they elevate an attack missing its best player. O’Toole and Mitja Ilenič could offer that extra bite, and it would have been interesting to see how this chess match could have played out if either fullback had been available to start. ❧
Image: John Trumbull, The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775