The Chicago Red Stars picked up a 1-0 win away to the Portland Thorns last weekend. Ally Schlegel scored the only goal, her fifth of the season, but stood out mostly for her defensive work. In fact, her defensive work played a big part in the winning goal.

The Situation

Chicago defended in a 4-4-2 with zonal marking. Their front two had to work as a unit to reduce Portland’s angles into midfield. If effective, they would force Portland wide or long, and reduce the influence of their midfielders: Sam Coffey, Olivia Moultrie, Hina Sugita.

This is how Chicago’s (blue) press begins. The front two are trying to reduce Portland’s (red) angles into midfield. Once Portland play sideways, it is vital that the far-side striker stays switched on and shifts over to cover the opponent’s defensive midfielder.

If the far-side striker does not do this, the following situation can happen. As you can see, the opponent’s defensive midfielder is unmarked and has space to receive a pass inside.

Essentially, Chicago’s front two had to shift positions according to the ball’s movement to make sure their central midfielders would not be outnumbered 3-v-2, giving Portland a free player to progress through.

The Film

The first clip comes in the eighth minute of the game.

Schlegel stays switched on and moves across when Portland play sideways and out to the opposite wing. She gets close to Coffey, ensuring Portland do not have a free player to knock the ball inside to and play out.

 

The second clip comes in the 36th minute.

This is just to highlight how consistent Schlegel was in checking her shoulder. She is always on the lookout, trying to position herself between the ball and Coffey, in an attempt to reduce angles into Portland’s key playmaker.

 

Finally, here is the lead-up to Schlegel’s goal. It’s natural to focus on a poor back-pass by Moultrie, but does she even make that pass if Schlegel isn’t so close to Coffey?

 

Schlegel’s defensive positioning adds a level of risk to the pass inside, encouraging Moultrie to go backwards. For Portland, it’s all downhill from there.

The Numbers

Sam Coffey is one of Portland’s most important players. Portland like to play through their midfielders, and she dictates their possession game with her movement, passing accuracy and range. If you can limit her influence, you improve your chances of winning.

The following data is courtesy of FBref. It shows the number of touches Coffey has had in all of her full 90s in the NWSL this season. At the bottom is Portland’s 1-0 loss to Chicago last weekend. This underlines the notion that the defensive work undertaken by Schlegel can have a concrete impact on the opponent’s performance.

According to Wyscout data, Coffey averaged 0.19 received passes per minute in this game. That’s her lowest number of received passes per minute all season.

In total, Coffey received 20 passes in this game. That’s her third-lowest total of the 2024 NWSL season. The only games where she received fewer passes were in the home games against North Carolina Courage (13) and Kansas City Current (11), where she played 35 minutes and 29 minutes respectively.

Schlegel: Defensive Forward

Here is a description of the role of Defensive Forward, from an old Football Manager game:

• Main duty: Put pressure on the defensive line. Chase down the man in possession, loose balls, and generally stop the opposing defence from having time on the ball.
• In attack: Keeps it as simple as possible. Brings others into play rather than create their own chances.
• With ‘attack’ duty: Presses the back line and puts pressure on the centre-backs.
• With ‘support’ duty: Stays a little deeper and puts pressure on the defensive midfielders.

Have we found Schlegel’s role?

Here is her forward profile courtesy of McLachApp. As you can see, she stands out amongst her peers when it comes to tackles + interceptions.

Schlegel is strong in the air, hard-working and her goals tally is on the up this season. Her defensive play is perhaps the strongest part of her game, though. And her performance against Portland showed the impact that a good defensive performance from a forward can have on a game.