If you aren’t familiar with the 18 zones of the soccer pitch, the image to the right may help.

Zone 14 is, for the attacking team, the most dangerous spot on the pitch: a player can pass, dribble, or shoot out of it and have options in front of them -- as well as to their right and left. If you’re defending, you want to keep the ball out of your opponent’s Zone 14, where a lot of bad things can happen. San Jose had not been able to do that as of yet, but they tried something new on Saturday.

It seems the Quakes paid attention to Doyle’s comments, or maybe with the absence of Anibal Godoy and Harold Cummings, who are on their way to the World Cup, San Jose was forced into the MLS Analyst’s recommended single-CDM formation, choosing to go with a brand-new 4-4-2 narrow diamond on Saturday against the Chicago Fire.

The Fire have had their own share of troubles this season, and you could have been forgiven for skipping this Saturday night game on in favor of one of the other matchups, or maybe spending time with loved ones. Chicago didn’t do much at all in Zone 14, choosing instead to play effectively through the wings, which San Jose chose to defend 1v1 with fullbacks Nick Lima and a pressed-out-of-position Florian Jungwirth. Bastian Schweinsteiger started on the left for Chicago, but the Fire got two goals off of the right-hand side and enjoyed a 2-1 win.

Following the Doyle and Warshaw video above, I hastened my analysis and put out my article on a site dedicated to covering the Earthquakes. Prior to Saturday’s games, I tweeted out this chart about the goals and xG for each team defending the opponent Zone 14.