The NPSL season has an odd rhythm to it, the usual mid-week/weekend balance of football put slightly off kilter, full of weird caesuras and rushed crescendos, the slowdown of the Monday-Thursday stretch put into stark contrast by the blustery rush of two-games-in-three-days. The wobbly schedule makes the whole enterprise feel ad hoc, improvised, like a game thrown together on the deck of a sailing vessel currently navigating rough water: The footing is treacherous, and the consequences for failure can seem extravagant.
Four games into their NPSL schedule, Le Rouge already have one costly stumble totted up against them – a last-second loss in the regular-season opener at Ann Arbor, which ups the ante dramatically for this weekend’s two matches: Friday’s first-ever visit to FC Columbus, and Sunday’s rivalry slobberknocker with AFC Ann Arbor at Keyworth. This weekend’s opposition seem likely to be in the mix for postseason play. Win both, and Detroit City FC reacquires its rightful place atop the NPSL Great Lakes Region standings. Stumble in either, though, and the route to the postseason starts to narrow considerably; this is the last match against either team this season, meaning the Boys in Rouge simply won’t have an opportunity to pull either back to the pack.
In an effort to understand what City are likely to face over the next two days, I spent some time huddled with Sean Grogan, a friend from Northern Guard who just also happens to be a player/coach/scout whose encyclopedic knowledge of the Michigan soccer scene beggars description. In so doing, I found that the way these two sides play exemplifies a couple of the leading tactical trends in world football. Let’s get into it.
FC Columbus: Making chances from turnovers by filling lanes in transition
There’s plenty of reason to suspect that this game, flying a bit under the radar, might be the toughest of the two. Yes, AFCAA and City have developed a bitter antipathy over the last few years, absolutely, but that antipathy also guarantees that intensity and focus will not be a problem against Ann Arbor. Against Columbus, though? None of those conditions pertain. And FC Columbus gave Le Rouge plenty of reason to worry in their first meeting – City may have won the game 1-0, but the better chances fell to the unheralded visitors.
“I tried looking up their players online, and for some of them, there’s just … nothing!” Grogan said, amazed. “Some of these guys must be, like, rec league guys who’ve been completely under the radar.”
They won’t be unknown long. Columbus plays a patient 4-3-3, ceding ground slowly, all the while looking to pounce on midfield turnovers and break at pace against unsettled defenses. Most of their play comes through the left-sided duo of winger Damani Camara and fullback Ezra Armstrong; Camara’s ability to knife infield opens space for Armstrong to run into. When Camara pinches in, Columbus usually has no less than five lanes involved in the attack – Camara, in the left channel; Armstrong, wide left; striker Alusine Bangura, driving hard to the spot; right winger Limamou Sow, drifitng toward the back post; and mid Hakim Diaw arriving late in the right channel, ready to offer an outlet to Camara or chase down a half-clearance. If you left your television playing the first half of the earlier matchup on repeat, eventually this alignment would be burned into the screen, never quite erasable. Only a top-notch performance from City keeper Fernando Pina kept the game level at halftime.
That said, what Columbus does isn’t unanswerable. First and foremost, Le Rouge will need to treasure la pelota, because midfield turnovers are the fuel to Columbus’ attack. None of the attacks which threatened the City goal started more than five passes before the shot – FCC struggled to make much happen when facing the Detroit defense in a settled posture. Secondly, they’ll have to handle all the weirdness that comes along with road matches in the NPSL.
Long story short: Friday is no kind of sure thing. “Playing entitled,” as DCFC manager Ben Pirmann described their play in the reverse fixture, could be disastrous.
AFC Ann Arbor: Spacing, squeezing play and the group mind
If humans were to ever develop something akin to a hive mind, I would suspect AFC Ann Arbor head coach Eric Rudland’s hand in it. Ann Arbor’s winning record against City is absolutely down to Rudland’s ability to coax selfless, hyper-aware football from his team. Ann Arbor plays a slightly unconventional style, neither pressing with abandon nor sitting back, instead setting up in a ridiculously compact block high in midfield, crushing the space to play upon down to a postage stamp.
What they do is not generally possible. Football is a game where every tactic leaks somewhere. Rudland’s Ann Arbor, though, give little away, their shape betting that NPSL centerbacks can’t pick out a sufficiently telling pass over the top, and that if they somehow do, their extremely athletic centerbacks can spoil it long enough for everyone to get back. But it’s their spacing, their group mind, that’s truly special . Maintaining that kind of discipline is a tough ask, with every player smothering that part of themselves that just wants to run about joyously in favor of a game played mostly with the eyes, which must scan constantly for the movements of teammates. That Ann Arbor could sustain this kind of group discipline in the first competitive match of the season is a staggering accomplishment.
That said, there is plenty of reason for optimism on the City side going into Sunday’s match. Ann Arbor will likely be without three starter-level players, as forward Yuri Farkes, centerback Matt Broehm, and midfielder Hector Morales are all in Seattle, playing for Cascadia in the CONIFA World Cup.
“They’ll miss those guys if they’re not there,” Grogan said. “But they have good depth, at least to fill in for those guys. Maybe it will hurt what they’ve got coming off the bench. We will probably see Alec Lasinski, and we know he’s good.” Lasinski, a former Detroit City forward, scored against Le Rouge in last season’s NPSL Midwest final.
So here it is: If all goes well, Detroit City FC will be atop the NPSL Great Lakes standings, ascendant, their fate entirely in their own hands, leading the league with their best opposition likely in the rear-view. Any slip, though, and we will be left pondering a tense run-in, with the playoffs still more hope than reality. Le Rouge plays at FC Columbus Friday evening, with kickoff slated for 7 p.m., then hosts AFC Ann Arbor Sunday at 5 p.m. Tickets for the Ann Arbor match can be purchased at http://tickets.https://sportsengine-staging.go-vip.net/detcityfc.
