So what’s up with Cristian Roldan?

The US-Costa Rica game was a bit rough (from the US perspective, at least) in the first half and pretty enjoyable in the second. I paid close attention to the game (even kept a running diary) and the players that really popped in my opinion were Arriola, Lletget, and Lewis.

Cristian Roldan seemed fairly anonymous. He didn’t play poorly to my eye (other than that one miss), it’s just that he didn’t stand out positively or negatively. As I started reading the post-game stories, listening to podcasts about the game, etc. people were generally positive about him so I wanted to try to understand what I missed and if I even agreed.

I went back and re-watched US-Costa Rica and as much as possible tried to ignore the ball and just watch Roldan. In doing so I think I understand better why Berhalter rates him. (btw – ignoring the ball is hard)

STRENGTHS:

The most obvious answer after viewing for even a short period of time was his positioning. Roldan was almost always available to teammates and in space. This shot is from the first 30 seconds of the game.

Here Roldan has spread wide to make himself available to Zimmerman.



In this shot he has found a pocket of space at the top of the box and gotten wide open for Baird. Baird hesitates and eventually plays the ball backwards out of danger. That’s not Roldan’s fault though, he was in excellent/dangerous position.

Again, Roldan found a pocket of space and made himself available to his teammates.

He did this consistently throughout the game. I can certainly see how this quality of finding space and getting open for his teammates would endear him to Berhalter.

Defense:

Defensively, it was much the same. Whenever the US lost the ball Roldan would hustle into position and cut out passing lanes. The image below shows one of the very few even semi-dangerous situations Costa Rica created. The attacker gets to the endline and tries to cross it, but even if he had gotten through Lovitz (he didn’t), Roldan was in position to snuff out the cutback to two different players. Being good defensively many times comes down to effort (take it from an out of shape guy that walks back on defense regularly for his men’s league) and Roldan definitely gives great effort.

In position to intercept a possible cutback.

Intelligent Runs:

Also on the positive side of the ledger were Roldan’s runs into the box. He didn’t get played in, but with some better passing from the forward (hopefully Altidore or Sargent in the future) he could have been.

Zardes gets the ball at the top of the box and Roldan makes a nice darting run in on goal. Zardes gets the ball stuck in his feet and can’t make the pass, but I’d give Sargent/Altidore a pretty good chance of pulling this off and putting Roldan in on goal.

This is right before Lletget scores the opening goal. Notice who the Costa Rican center back is marking? Roldan’s run frees up Lletget to head home the first goal.

The last shot there is especially eye-opening. Without Roldan’s run, the Costa Rican defender would have been able to mark Lletget and the opening goal probably doesn’t happen.

After this closer viewing it appears that Roldan’s strengths are subtle, not ostentatious tricks, but regularly being in the right place at the right time.

ROOM TO IMPROVE:

This is not to say that the re-watch didn’t reveal any negatives though. For one, he doesn’t “get there” too often. This may be an unfair comparison, but I’ve watched all three of Tyler Adams’ RB Leipzig games and Adams does “get there.” What I mean is that Adams gets a foot in to poke the ball away, manages to cut in front for an interception, etc. A LOT. Now maybe Adams will get sold to Liverpool for 100 mil in a year and a half and this is an unreasonable expectation, but Roldan doesn’t make those type of plays frequently.

Another limitation is that Roldan doesn’t seem to want to take space and drive at the defense when he gets the chance. He played several nice flicks to keep the ball moving, but when presented with a chance to go forward he almost always passed. (btw – credit to Adam Belz here. He brought this up on his pod and I’m not sure I’d have noticed it otherwise)

Went with a weirdly conservative pass here.

In the above image Roldan has intercepted a pass and has a chance to go forward with the ball. Instead, he plays a backwards flick to Trapp. There were a couple instances of this in the game and it looks like an area where Roldan could improve.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Roldan isn’t going to knock Adams or McKennie out of the starting eleven any time soon (shocking conclusion I know). He’s not elite athletically and he’s not going to create many goals, but I think I understand better why Berhalter rates him. If one of the starting 8/10s isn’t able to start for the full team Roldan will be fine, and probably subtly doing good things.