We've seen it already in CONCACAF Champions League play: The Colorado Rapids are built to defend deep, then get out and run. They have speed up top and on the wings, and they boast a surfeit of deep-lying midfielders who love to hit long balls into space. The idea with this kind of approach isn't that it gives you a lot of chances; rather, it makes certain the chances you do generate are high-quality.
Think about the typical counterattack. Where is the shot taken from?
The answer is "somewhere inside the box, preferably as close to goal as is possible." Space on the counter begets space inside the 18, and that's how teams built for the counter tend to score.
This is an understandable approach for any team to take, especially in a league that's adding more and more high-pressing sides. Last year's Houston Dynamo rode their counter (and some great work on set pieces) all the way to a Western Conference Championship appearance, and the Rapids are drawing up a similar blueprint.
A well drawn from so often can, however, go dry. Obviously that illustrates a need for goals via possession, but sometimes… sometimes you've gotta just have a hit:
Colorado just didn't threaten, almost at all, from outside the box last year. And to be honest there weren't many indicators in 180 CCL minutes against Toronto that the above would change.
Will that be fatal? Maybe not – the Quakes made the playoffs last year with just two goals from outside the box, and shot discipline is generally a good thing. You don't need to have your own Sebastian Giovinco tossing bombs from 30 yards in order to be a playoff team.
But you do need a viable second option, a Route 2 as it were. The Rapids have a lot of things to work on in the coming weeks and months. Generating looks from the top of the box should be somewhere near the top of the list.
