I won’t dive too deep into this because I have a feeling it’s going to become an ongoing talking point, but a rewatch of Saturday’s Toronto FC match at Real Salt Lake illustrated Eriq Zavaleta’s contribution towards the Reds’ clean sheet.
In the first half in particular, Zavaleta did pretty much everything right in containing Joao Plata. He stepped out of the back line to make challenges at the right time:
He’s also deceptively quick, especially over the first 10 yards or so, and had few issues keeping up with Plata when he attempted to make runs behind the defence.