All stats from FBref unless otherwise noted
Let’s flash back to March 2022. Pat Noonan is exactly four games into his tenure as FC Cincinnati manager. His (very) short-lived experiment running out a 4-4-2 diamond reminiscent of his and Chris Albright’s time with the Philadelphia Union lasted exactly one disastrous game in Austin before he pivoted to a more defensively solid 3-4-1-2. The team’s roster was largely equipped for this Plan B but it relied on one major wild card: Rónald Matarrita’s health. Ray Gaddis got a start at the position as did rookie Ian Murphy before Matarrita, made his season debut against Inter Miami. He excelled, scoring a goal and providing assists on two Brandon Vazquez goals. However, the Matarrita redemption arc was cut short. He was injured in a midweek World Cup qualifier against Canada forcing Noonan back to the drawing board.1
Enter Álvaro Barreal. The U22 winger made his first start as a wingback against Charlotte FC on March 26, 2022. Despite some bumps in the road, Barreal seized the position, in little time becoming one of the most important attacking pieces on the roster.
The Barreal wingback experiment was such a resounding success because of how Noonan built FCC’s tactical plan around Barreal rather than forcing him into a more conventional tactical structure.
Barreal did some defensive work but he had virtually unlimited freedom to impact the game in the attacking third. When FCC retreated into a defensive block out of possession, Barreal dutifully filled in as the furthest defender on the left side in the Orange and Blue’s back five. Was he the best defender at his position? No, but he was mostly in the right spots and offered at least some defensive resistance. With another centerback on the field to shield him as well as the arrival of Obinna Nwobodo at the end of April, FCC’s defense was solid enough to give Barreal license to join in the attack.
However, when FCC had the ball, either in sustained possession or in transition, Barreal’s contributions with the ball, both in moving it into the attacking third and then doing something dangerous when there, outweighed any defensive deficiencies.
Tilting the Field
In the final third, Barreal’s ability on the ball, paired with Lucho Acosta’s willingness to drift to the left side of the field, tilted the field for the Orange and Blue.
Barreal and Acosta combined to offer too many options to defend comfortably. Here’s Barreal making a distinctly un-fullback run on the break, looking to crash the middle of the box after an Atlanta United turnover. However, after seeing that Acosta is looking to cut in-field, Barreal bends his run back to the left. Atlanta’s defenders, rightfully wary of Acosta’s ability to shoot after cutting inside to his right, look to cut off that option. However, that means no defender tracks Barreal and he’s left with a wide open shot, which unfortunately went over the bar.
When isolated against one or two defenders on the left side, Barreal and Acosta put opponents in a bind. Defenders had to respect both players’ ability to cut inside to either shoot or pass as well as to go wide, either looking to whip a cross in or dribble further into the box. Their technical ability allowed them to play in tight spaces and combination play between Acosta and Barreal would often make opposing defenders wrong, no matter which option they chose to prioritize stopping.
As Barreal’s tenure with FCC ended at the end of the 2023 season,2 Albright seemingly tried to follow the same Argentine winger-to-wingback formula, bringing Luca Orellano to the Queen City.
In progression, Orellano and Barreal played similarly large roles, just in different ways. Whereas Barreal completed more progressive passes, Orellano carried the ball up the field on the dribble.
Also vitally, both players were consistent outlets up the field to pass to, both receiving the second most progressive passes per 90 minutes over the course of the 2023 and 2024 seasons. For context, Orellano had the 16th most progressive pass receptions in MLS in 2024 and Barreal ranked 12th in 2023 per FBref.
In the final third, their contributions diverge a little bit. Barreal provided more of a threat from wide - as well as from the part of the field where cutbacks come from - than Orellano. Untangling why the Orange and Blue lacked that option in 2024 is more complicated to answer.
Some part of the explanation likely comes down to the fact that Orellano seems to prefer operating in the middle of the field, even when cutting inside means going onto his weaker side. In situations where Orellano was deployed on right and could cut inside on his favored left foot, he was very dangerous. Which is why the right seems like the likeliest place for him to start 2025. However, that desire to impact the game centrally also led to congestion and stagnation as the ball would end up in static, relatively easy-to-defend situations.
Another contributing factor must have been the unsettled depth striker depth chart throughout the season. In 2023, while Barreal played with a somewhat rotating cast of players including Brenner, Aaron Boupendza, Sergio Santos, and Dom Badji, he also had a constant in the presence of Brandon Vazquez. Vazquez’s ability to find space in the box, especially off of cutbacks is one of his most dangerous attributes. Add in his ability in the air and he was a perfect fit as the third man in an Acosta-Barreal goal creating trio.
Without a consistent striker making dangerous runs, too many attacking possessions ended in long shots or attempts to do too much. Even in a situation tailor-made to let a wingback like Orellano run rampant, FCC was missing a key ingredient to make the out of it. After all, it takes two to make cutback.
What’s Next
The 2024 season could be the end for the unregulated attacking freedom enjoyed by FCC’s left wingbacks. What seemed to start as a “throw things at the wall and see what sticks” solution to Matarrita’s injury in 2022 has become a core part of the team’s attacking philosophy during the team’s best run in the league.
However, FCC’s options at left wingback for next season remain up in the air. Yamil Asad had a great season in limited minutes, providing the same kind of attacking threat as his Argentinian compatriots but, at the time of writing, he remains out of contract.
Orellano will be back but he’ll almost certainly be starting the season playing higher up the field. So will Bret Halsey after he signed an extension through 2025 with club options for 2026 and 2027 but he’s probably more accurately viewed as a backup to both wingback spots rather than the presumptive starter.
The biggest offseason domino, the status of Acosta, remains, too. If he’s going to be playing elsewhere next season, the Orange and Blue will need to undergo an offensive evolution bigger than tweaking the attacking role of a left wingback. Without an attacking player with the gravity of Acosta, FCC might not be able to overload the left side of the field, putting defenders in bad situations.
Though the infrastructure on the roster still exists for a left wingback in the mold of the last three seasons but with no heir apparent and a bigger offensive shift possible, Albright and the rest of the front office could be looking for a different positional archetype. If that’s the case, I’ll remember this small tactical wrinkle of FCC soccer fondly. It worked really well and more importantly, was a whole lot of fun.
Cool Stuff I read recently soccer related (or not)
Tiotal Football’s piece about the importance of off-ball options in soccer last week. It made me think of FCC’s wingbacks combining with Acosta and resulted in what you just read.
An under-discussed what-if in FCC land. Don’t sleep on how solid Matarrita was at NYCFC before joining the Orange and Blue.
Unless something unforeseen happens this year.