Know Your Enemy: Forward Madison

This week Hearts of Pine will hit the road to visit the 2nd best cheese producing state in the nation (if think this statement is crazy try some of these) to play USL1 side Forward Madison in a league match-up that could decide which team moves up to a coveted playoff spot. The Dirigo Union will be hosting a watch party at the Portland Zoo on Fox St. Kick-off is at 7:00 PM EDT and the match can be streamlined live on ESPN+. Hearts of Pine will also be hosting a watch party at Bissel Brothers Brewery in Portland.

History

Forward Madison are an original member of the USL1 well known across US Soccer for their flamboyant kits. Protagonist Soccer

Forward Madison’s origins date back to early 2018 when Big Top Events, the owners of a local Madison baseball team, announced they were seeking to bring a professional soccer team to Breese Stevens Field. With a partnership between the city and club inked later that year, Madison became one of the founding members of the newly announced USL1. Making its presence known by hiring lower league aficionado Peter Wilt as managing director who had been involved in launching USLC club Indy Eleven. Much like our own Hearts of Pine, a city-wide naming campaign was launched which included entries like “The Holsteins,” and “The Madison Curds.” In the end, the club settled on adapting the Wisconsin state motto – Forward – into the club name to become Forward Madison.

On the field, Madison’s first few years in the USL1 were not exactly class. While they did make the playoffs in the 2019 season, finishing in the semi-finals, they had lackluster performances between 2020-2022. Each season they missed the playoffs (although our own Jake Keegan was their leading scorer in 2021). During this period an often-spoken critique of Madison has been that they had more kit variants for sale in their club shop than wins (the count as of this article is 17 distinct variants currently for sale). Things started to turn around in Matt Glaser’s second year as head coach with the club having a winning record in 2023 and 2024 finishing 3rd last season and making it to the semi-finals once again.

Forward Madison plays their home games at Breese Stevens Stadium, a New Deal-era stadium owned by the City of Madison that was renovated for the club's debut. The 5000-seater has previously had either the first or second-best attendance in the league, competing with rivals Richmond Kickers for the honor. Madison has a plethora of supporter groups ranging from the Flock which acts as the association of supporters groups and an SG itself to the Accessimingos who focus on providing a supporter space for the disabled. Independent media coverage of Forward Madison is provided by Madison 365.

Key Players

Derek Gebhard is the top scorer for the club. Forward Madison

A big question this match will be the status of Forward Madison forward Garrett McLaughlin who has been plagued with injury during his time in Madison. His most recent issues seem to have largely stemmed from an ugly sliding tackle from FC Tusla player Stefan Lukic in the US Open Cup back in early April. The 27-year-old has not been seen since. Prior to that, McLaughlin had been having a good start to the season, developing a good synergy with fellow forward Derek Gebhard and producing 3 assists in the opening 3 games. Without McLaughlin, Derek Gebhard will need to rely on the rest of their teammates to produce chances. The forward has been having quite a season, having scored 4 goals and averaging just about 1 shot on target per game, the 29-year-old seems on track to have a career-high goal-scoring season.

Working the midfield for Forward Madison, expect to see the most work out of Nico Brown and Devin Boyce who each act as the wingers in the Mingos system. Brown’s had an acceptable season so far, succeeding in passing 81% of his passes including 69% in the opposition half (for comparison Ollie Wright has a 70% passing accuracy and 61 in the opposition half). Brown does make runs at the goal as well and averages 1.6 shots per game. Boyce tends to play more as a true attacking midfielder but largely has similar statistics having created 1 big chance this season with 1.4 key passes per game. One thing Boyce cannot do very well is cross accurately so expect him to pass back into the midfield rather than move the ball into the box when trying to create a scoring chance. Holding down the center of the midfield expect to find the serviceable John Murphy and Jose Carrera-Garcia.

Forward Madison has benefited from 2 standout defensive players this season. Serving primarily as a left-back Jacob Crull has shown great control over his side of the pitch. Crull has averaged 1.3 interceptions and 4.3 ball recoveries per game. Important for a somewhat static Forward Madison, Crull has also been responsible for 5 key clearances for the side in league play. That’s not to say Crull doesn’t also play forward occasionally on the wing and has been averaging 1 shot per game. Next to Crull on the back line has been the other defensive standout, center-back Timmy Mhel. Guarding his territory on the pitch well, Mhel has averaged 2.3 tackles per game and has capably shifted the ball about the pitch to his teammates. His accurate passing in his own half is an impressive 90% with total passing accuracy at 84%. Mhel is very technical in the box and not prone to mistakes or errors (unlike Crull who officially had 1 error leading to a goal several weeks ago).

In goal, Forward Madison signed the 28-year-old son of Seattle, Wallis Lapsley who has previously served as the secondary goalkeeper at Union Omaha. Last year, Lapsley was primarily used as a Cup goalkeeper and made 6 appearances conceding 9 goals with 2 clean sheets. Before his time in Omaha, the UC Davis graduate competed with Tucson and the Seattle Sounders where he was an occasional starting goalkeeper of their reserve squad, the Tacoma Defiance. Lapsley’s most memorable season was his 2020-2021 season with Tucson where he started 28 matches conceding 42 goals with 4 clean sheets. So far this season, Lapsley has conceded on average 1.3 goals per game with a 58% save percentage. 

What to Expect on Match Day

Recent Form: DDDDD

League Standing: 9th

4-2-3-1

From a tactical point of view, a few things are important to keep in mind going into this match. The first honestly comes in Madison’s injury sheet. With Garrett McLaughlin’s status still unknown and the likes of Boyce and others having taken some hefty hits this season, Coach Glaeser is having a hell of a time trying to put out his best XI consistently. That’s not to say the Madison don’t control their half of the pitch, to the contrary, it's in the attacking end where the Flock seem to have a lot of problems. Madison does sit among the 5 clubs with the lowest goals scored against them this season but to date, the club is also tied for last place for goals scored at 6 (we are right alongside them with both statistics with 6 goals scored against and 6 goals scored for our side). Head Coach Glaeser has recently stated the club needs to be more pragmatic to be successful on the pitch given they haven’t been able to play at 100% manpower.

A review of the play-by-play from their last match shows that Madison on attack tries to keep at least 3 players high up the pitch to produce options for their primary striker Juan Galindrez. We saw attempts to get the ball into striking position box by crossing directly into the box from the wings when space presents itself as well as shots from the top of the box – some of which were on target but saved by Westchester. We also saw some impressive play by Gebhard moving the ball through 3 Westchester defenders to get it into the box before taking a blocked shot.

In defense, we do see that Madison likes to compress their wing back and the 2 center backs into a defensive spine as the ball is moved towards the goal, using the other wing back to screen the flank. Josh Drack of Westchester was able to take advantage of this play though when it became apparent that Madison’s defensive spine was moving too slow as a unit to get behind the ball. In a creative move, Drack got behind the flanking wing-back and was able to shoot a very close shot perpendicular to the goal that just missed scoring.

Final Thoughts

Photo Courtesy of Chris Linscott

Last weekend felt like a turning point in many ways. With the debut of Jay Tee Kamara and the arrival of new signing Mo Mohammed, we are finally at a full squad and anyone who has been watching closely would say that the Hearts have clearly been developing cohesion. Strategic thinking from players like Musashi Wada and Michel Poon-Angeron have begun to set up plays that allow the team to score. Meanwhile on the backline we’ve seen incredible leadership out of both Sean Vinberg and Mikey Lopez although we continue to leak some back there.

The biggest thing Hearts need out of this match is to continue build upwards on this trajectory especially as he approach the critical supper months. Having drawn the league leaders and having beaten FC Naples last week that push is well under way. Should we win against Madison and assuming AV Alta lose or draw against Charlotte Independence we would jump into 9th place. If Tormenta also loses to Red Wolves then we are in that coveted 8th place spot with a guaranteed entry into the playoff competition.

To get to the playoffs though, the road this week goes through Madison. The Dirty Birds ain’t anything to sneeze at even if they have struggled with injuries this season. On paper, we are about even if not slight underdogs, but the creativity we’ve seen in the last 2 matches may be too much for Forward Madison’s defenses to hold back. Their game last week against Westchester shows that creativity in the box can lead to goals against the side (even if WSC’s shot was off by the smallest fraction of an inch). If we can stick to that emerging identity, I’m excited to see us move up the table tomorrow night.