Each week, Sam Polak breaks down the top coaching moves in MLS from the previous week. Here are his top five from Week 17.

5. New England’s game plan

Despite losing 2-0 to Toronto FC on Friday night, the New England Revolution’s performance was absolutely still one of quality. Jay Heaps and his staff created an effective approach to the game that looked to specifically combat two the Reds’ most dangerous strengths: Sebastian Giovinco’s free kicks and the way their midfield five and backline effectively manage space defensively.

Recognizing that the Revs wanted to send a man to the goal line to make Giovinco’s free kick isn’t necessarily that clever. However, disguising it to make it appear Nguyen was going to join the wall and waiting until the last minute to hustle to the goal line was. This combination of events prevented both Jozy Altidore from positioning himself closer to net and stopped TFC from changing the nature of their set piece.

The Revs coaching staff also created a game plan on how to attack the compactness of Toronto’s midfield and defense. The Revs rarely forced a pass in the limited space between those two defensive lines, instead opting for a single pass to eliminate both, like that seen below.

Moreover, the Revolution were equally prepared by the coaching staff to recognize that their attacking effort should not be dictated by the number of red players between them and the goal, but their position on the field.

Though Toronto still had five players behind the ball with two more midfielders closing them down in the sequence above, the Revolution were right to have a go on net as they were well within goal scoring range.

4. Kekuta makes his name

After some non-influential outings, Kekuta Manneh finally made an impact on Saturday for Columbus Crew SC. The former Vancouver Whitecap came on for Justin Meram in the 69th minute and the score went from 1-1 to 3-1 in the span of four minutes as Crew SC would eventually go on to beat the Montreal Impact 4-1.

Manneh's speed was a change for head coach Gregg Berhalter, as Meram had been effective cutting inside and playmaking. Manneh was able to get behind the backline and cause problems.

3. Ortiz' defensive pressure vs. ATL

D.C. United’s 2-1 win against Atlanta United midweek came as a result of a great lineup decision from Ben Olsen: giving Jose Guillermo Ortiz another start up top.

Oddly enough, though a striker, Ortiz’s greatest asset might be his ability to defend. He has a knack for reading opposing defenders’ passes and is deceptive in how he looks to apply pressure in order to force mistakes. D.C. United’s first goal stemmed from Ortiz cleverly luring a pass back to Atlanta’s keeper Alec Kann, who was promptly put under pressure and forced into the turn over that ultimately created the Luciano Acosta goal.

One can argue that this goal should have been stopped with a better decision from Kann to just clear the ball, but that would artificially discredit the fact that you can see Ortiz create the same type of problem for opponents when he started against the LA Galaxy on June 3 and against the Philadelphia Union on June 24.

Moreover, Ben Olsen’s decision to play Ortiz as the No. 9 in a 4-2-3-1 allowed the Costa Rican national team member to work with the three midfielders beneath him to press more effectively than when they come out in a 4-1-4-1 (as DC had mostly played in previous matches).

Ortiz has started just seven games this season, but four of his side’s five total wins have come on such occasions. This isn’t a fluke. It was the right play for D.C. United to continue to play a 4-2-3-1 with Ortiz as the striker against Philadelphia irrespective of that loss. And even when Patrick Mullins makes his return, and the addition of Deshorn Brown, Ortiz should continue to get minutes.

2. Seattle second half adjustments vs. Orlando

The shift in defensive mentality the Seattle Sounders showed from the first to the second half was critical in preserving their clean sheet for 94 minutes during their midweek showdown. Though Orlando City SC did find a way to tie the game up at 1-1 late in stoppage time from a Kaká free kick, head coach Brian Schmetzer successfully kept Kaká from beating his side in the run of play by tweaking his players’ approach to defending the former Ballon d'Or winner for the latter 45.

The Seattle Sounders came out after halftime unwilling to let the No. 10 play any sort of killer pass forward. Earlier in the match, the Orlando City maestro was able to pick out dangerous through balls.

That changed as Seattle decided to concede Kaká more time on the ball in exchange for stopping dangerous direct passes.

Requiring that Kaká have to connect backward or square passes, Seattle (almost successfully) forced Orlando to have to beat them via a heroic play from any of the other 10 Orlando players.

1. Vieira outduels Marsch

The New York Red Bulls, who like to promptly press after losing possession (especially in the final third), were outwitted by New York City FC in the Hudson River Derby as Patrick Vieira exploited this tendency to lead his team to a 2-0 win.

The reasoning behind trying to win the ball back as soon as you lose it, also known as Gegenpressing, is simple. A team that is defending is forced to be more compact to prevent any penetrating passes, dribbles or shots. If this same team is able to force a turnover, they will still be in their compressed defensive shape for a couple seconds before they can reorganize into an attacking shape. And in theory, this is the easiest moment for the team originally in possession to try and retake the ball.

However, if the team on defense can in fact transition to offense quickly enough, they create a great opportunity to go forward. Vieira exposed this exact vulnerability in the Red Bulls’ style of play.

Above, four Red Bulls players come up empty when immediately trying to steal the ball back and NYCFC is able to go the other way putting pressure on the remaining six Red Bulls to have to play stellar defense.

It’s more of the same below.

Although NYCFC did not end up scoring from these types of counterattacks, they were the primary issue the Red Bulls did not have an answer to.