2nd Leg of MLS Western Conference Final Will Be Won in Midfield

When the Seattle Sounders and Colorado Rapids take to the pitch at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Sunday for the second leg of the MLS Western Conference final, all eyes will be on the midfield alignment of both sides. 

Both sides play a similar style of the 4-2-3-1 formation, but the Rapids will be forced to tweak their system for the second leg after the yellow-card suspension of Sam Cronin, who picked up his second caution of the play-offs in Tuesday’s first leg that was won 2-1 by the Sounders. 

Coming up with a replacement is an easy job for Colorado boss Pablo Mastroeni. The front-runner for MLS Coach of the Year will follow the next-man-up mentality his side has had all year, as he’ll bring in Micheal Azira for Cronin. 

“Sam’s been a stalwart for us in the middle all year,” Mastroeni said in a league conference call. “He’s played pretty much every game. He’s an important piece to the group. There’s nothing we can do about the situation. Now it’s about the next man up.”

“I think Azira came into the game last week and did a very good job of getting on the ball,” the Colorado boss continued. “Azira will be a natural replacement for Sam. We’ve had a lot of guys missing and we’ve operated like a team and the next man that steps into whoever’s role comes in and does a fantastic job.” 

The intricacies of Sunday’s tactical game plan are still being sorted out by Mastroeni, but it looks like Jermaine Jones will revive his role in the middle of the park along with either Dillon Powers or Kevin Doyle in the role behind forward Dominique Badji. 

“We definitely have some options out there,” Mastroeni said. “We’ve played with a different look at those three central positions all year. We’re going to have to make one change and how we utilize the other guys will be left to the next couple days.” 

If the midfield trio is Jones, Azira and Doyle, the Rapids may be left a bit open on the counter due to Jones’ tendency to freelance around the pitch. The United States international can be a vital part to the attack at times, but if he gets left too far forward, Seattle has the ability to strike quick with their speed through the middle of the pitch. 

The Rapids have a natural stop gap in Azira in front of the back four, but the technical ability of Nicolas Lodeiro, Cristian Roldan and Jordan Morris could put Azira at risk and put more pressure on the back four …

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