And then there were four. It's time to get hyped for the Conference Championships, with the first legs kicking off Sunday. This week, we continued to dive deep into New York Red Bulls vs. Atlanta United and Sporting Kansas City vs. Portland Timbers to see where each side can find an edge. With the help of columnists Matt Doyle and Bobby Warshaw, we parsed all facets of both clashes, one day at a time. Last week, we discussed the goalkeepers, defenders then midfielders. Yesterday we talked about the forwards and today we finish with coach/style.
The two men in the big chairs in the dugouts in the Eastern Conference Championship arrived at their seats in two entirely different ways.
Tata Martino is a highly decorated, highly sought-after manager who is able to list Barcelona, the Argentinian national team, Newell's Old Boys and the Paraguayan national team on his resume. Atlanta United courted and sold him on their project to become the club's first ever manager. He's a big reason why the likes of Miguel Almiron, Josef Martinez and others have joined the club. It has been unbelievably successful for all parties.
It wasn't the same circumstance for Chris Armas. His resume includes just two stops before the New York Red Bulls: Chicago Fire assistant then head women's coach at Adelphi University. In 2015, he joined Jesse Marsch's staff at the Red Bulls and this summer, when Marsch headed for Leipzig, Armas was given the RBNY head coach job without the interim tag. With a new single-season MLS record for points and another Supporters' Shield to show for the regular season, it's difficult to imagine the hire having gone much better.
Oh, and the pair have some history in their lone match opposite each other. This will be fun.
Armas still has the Red Bulls pressing effectively, but not quite as frenetically as under Marsch. For that small tradeoff, he has helped cultivate an improved possession game against teams that sit deep, which had been their Achilles' heel.
It also might be how Atlanta is set up. As Doyle and Warshaw will explain a bit better below, Tata has changed it up at the Benz as well. He started last year with a side that pressed; he dialed that back for most of this year for more possession; and then he dug deep and played scrappy against NYCFC in the Conference Semifinals.
Which manager and style do our experts give the edge to?
DOYLE VERDICT:
NY Red Bulls
I didn’t particularly like what Chris Armas was doing with RBNY when he first arrived, but that shows how much I know. He’s coaxed more dynamic play with the ball out of this defensive juggernaut, and that led them to the Supporters’ Shield and the club’s first-ever come-from-behind series win in the East semis. The Red Bulls were the best pressing team the league had ever seen in the first three months of the season. By the end of the season they were still the best pressing team the league had ever seen, but also one that can use the ball to unbalance you and tear you apart. Good luck.
Atlanta have undergone two major evolutions under Tata. Throughout all of 2017 they were a high-pressing, fast-and-furious 4-2-3-1 team. That lasted all of one game in 2018 before they scrapped the press for middle-block possession. After that sort of unraveled against the Red Bulls in September, they’ve settled into a pretty vicious, low-block counterattacking team. Which just so happens to be the style that gives RBNY the most fits…
WARSHAW VERDICT:
Atlanta
This is the hardest one because there are two divergent possibilities. If Atlanta try to build from the back and possess, as they did in the other matchup on Sept. 30, it’ll be advantage Red Bulls. But given that Atlanta got walloped in that game and must have learned from it by playing a totally different, more conservative style against NYCFC in the Conference Semifinals, I doubt Atlanta will try to build from the back again.
They will bypass the midfield (and thus Red Bulls press), sit deep and try to counter. In which case, this comes down to whether you trust Kaku, Royer and Adams to create chances against a tight 5-3-2 or Almiron/Martinez to score on the counter.
I’ll take Option B.
