Weeks like this one remind you just how challenging it is to win the Supporters' Shield. They remind you of how, even with 32 or 33 weeks of consistent and top-end performance in an MLS season, a bad week can relentlessly punish you and set you back months.
FC Cincinnati capped off a bad week, perhaps the worst week in the Chris Albright/Pat Noonan era, with a 3-1 defeat on the road at the hands of the New York Red Bulls. The Red Bulls scored three times before FCC had a response, and from whistle to whistle, the New York side controlled the game in one way or another.
There were times, sure, where FCC looked to be building momentum and even looked as though they were going to flip the script and mount a comeback. But even in those good times, FCC was chasing the game as a seventh minute goal (the earliest conceded this season from The Orange and Blue) put FCC on their heels.
Then a second goal came, and shortly after that, a third. Playing on their heels became playing on their ankles in a flash.
The whole match was played on the back foot in one way or another. It was a fitting end to a week in which FC Cincinnati had to strategize and adapt just to put the teams out there that they did.
"I don't think anything tonight surprised us because we prepared the team well for how they play; we all kind of know how the Red Bulls like to play," said coach Dominic Kinnear after the match, acting as Head Coach with Pat Noonan suspended due to a Red Card from Wednesday.
"But you still have to be in the moment; you have to take responsibility for the first and second balls. And quite a few times, they took advantage of that, especially early in the first half and early in the second half.”
"I think we know who we have. We know what we have as far as players go, and we don't want to go back on 'we have a lot of players missing,' but we do. And I mean, it's difficult sometimes to go three games a week when you're missing some very important players."
At some point the water pressure becomes too much and the dam breaks. Or maybe it just overflows. Entering this game FC Cincinnati was without four of its arguably key pieces in the starting lineup; and "arguably" really only extends the conversation to four of its five key pieces unavailable. They were without their Head Coach, who was forced to sit in a box five stories up after taking a Red Card for trying to advocate for his team. One of the more versatile and impactful reserves on the defense was also on Red Card suspension (Alvas Powell), and FCC was facing down the third game in a week while already being down bodies due to all of the injuries and suspensions and international duty.
That's just the way it goes through. That's just how hard it is to win a Supporters' Shield. You must be good, and you have to dodge enough misfortune to give yourself a shot.
"I'm happy for (my) progression," goal scorer Corey Baird said. "But at the end of the day, I'd rather personally not progress and we get three points here. So (scoring) is bittersweet."
"It's just gonna be different with different guys you want in there but can't play," Celentano added. "It's just about trying to step up in certain moments. We just need to do better as a group just to find ways to get through tough moments."
Therein lies the rub of what makes this week so hard to evaluate. At what point is it difficult to judge one week, albeit one very important week, against the data we've been able to collect through the first 24 or so weeks of the season when the data set has changed so dramatically? When you have so many players – and on Saturday night, in New York's case, even coaches – operating outside of the roles or expectations you've asked of them to this point. What is a fair evaluation?
On the one hand, players like Nick Hagglund and Matt Miazga, fundamentally important to the squad not only in their performances but also in their leadership qualities, are not coming back this season. That cannot be changed. But Miles Robinson will be. Once the Summer Olympics are over, Robinson will be back to anchor the back line.
But until then you are asking DeAndre Yedlin to fill in as a center-back. A job he has done, to his credit, admirably. And he has increased his leadership role significantly now, captaining the side twice. But that's a big job for him to fill, and a big job for Ian Murphy and Kipp Keller, tonight's starting center back group, to fill alongside him.
Gerardo "Dado" Valenzuela has proven himself to be a very effective, exciting, young midfield player. At just 19-years-old, he has held himself to account very well. But on a night like this night and in games earlier in the week where he is 'filling in' for 2023 MLS MVP and 2024 MLS All-Star Captain Luciano Acosta, those are tremendously large boots to fill…metaphorically speaking. No one would suggest Dado was expected to fill those shoes. Still, it's hard not to make the comparisons when on the starting XI, it's Valenzuela in Acosta's spot.
Yuya Kubo floating from position-to-position to best serve the club and not truly settling in at any one role. Bret Halsey started for Luca Orellano as the challenges of three-games in eight days piled up.
Can you properly evaluate Celentano's performance, given that his defensive anchors have shifted so much? Can you fairly evaluate players like Keller and Murphy in the context of all that's come before them when entering this season at no point were they expected to be, let alone imagined, as being your number one or two "pure" center back?
At what point does it become a fool's errand to try and judge this team in the broader scope when the seams that have made them great and put them atop the Eastern Conference are stretched so thin.
Maybe it's not yet. Maybe there is yet another shoe to drop. One can't imagine another misfortune striking this team at this point, but even as I write this, dear reader, I am searching for a piece of wood somewhere to knock on. It seems reasonable to suggest that what's happened this week, a Noonan-tenure high three-game losing streak, isn't up to snuff with the expectations Pat Noonan has expressed for his club in the past. A change must occur in some way at some point to remain on target. Yet even still, leaders in the locker room still look to each other and find ways they could have been better with the group they went to battle with.
"I don't know. It's another one of those nights. It just starts with our attitude and our willingness to compete," FCC goalkeeper Roman Celentano said. Despite three conceded goals, Celentano was a standout on the night, making five spectacular saves and largely covering for some of the collective's mistakes. "I think in that first 10 to 15 minutes where you set the tone, we didn't come out right again. We came out flat for the most part again.”
"I think it's just about getting our mentality right. The willingness to defend. Because it doesn't matter who's in there, we have a good team. We just have to find ways to compete from the start and not put ourselves in a hole like we've done a couple times this week."
So, The Orange and Blue will now roll into Leagues Cup and the break in regular season play that comes with it as a way of getting right mentally, physically and competitively. Coach Dom Kinnear did not say what the play would be for the international club tournament starting next week for FCC, expressing he felt that was for the Head Coach to speak on not him, but did share how the timing of the break allowed for a chance to reset and (in fewer words) account and correct for some of the hardships that face them and make some of those challenges so hard to evaluate.
"I mean, we're banged up a little bit. We have some guys injured, obviously Miles (Robinson) away with the Olympic team. I think Leagues Cup gives us a chance to see different competition. Different opponents, which is always kind of nice," Kinnear said of the Leagues Cup break. "Then, possibly, some guys (who need minutes) will get some minutes.”
"I don't think anybody likes a break at any time in the season, I think you always like to get back on the field and play meaningful games. Which Leagues Cup is, so I think that part is good."
Goal scorer Corey Baird is an excellent example of a player who could benefit from the break. Which not only represents a break in the MLS regular season calendar, but is literally an extended period off as FCC doesn't take to the field for a match again for another 11 days. A luxury unavailable to FCC in recent weeks as they have played three consecutive sessions of three games in eight days.
"We've been hit pretty hard by injuries lately," Baird, fresh off returning from his own injury, reflected. "(Lucho) is out there and we can tell he's definitely in pain. But I mean, our captain is going to fight through that and he's going to do everything he can to help us… he's going out there fighting through that doing whatever he can for us to the best of his ability and that's definitely the leadership in him. So we have to fight for him. It's like 'okay, we gotta pick it up a little bit for him today.' He was telling me 'I can't really move too much.' So it's like, 'okay, defensively, I gotta try and pick it up and do two guys work and Lucho is someone that you'll do that for."
"I definitely think so," Baird added of if the Leagues Cup break is timely because of this. "So hopefully this gives us some time to reset. You know, Miles (Robinson) will be gone for a bit and we've definitely lost some pretty important pieces lately and Leagues Cup definitely gives us a chance to regroup. Kind of just get the entire group back together, back on track and back to what we demand from ourselves and our high standards."
Baird's path back into active service with FC Cincinnati has been a challenge in its own right; his path back may point to lessons to be learned. Out with an injury initially labeled as a hip pointer problem, Baird spent weeks out of training and rehabbing for an ailment that he and his troubles had trouble identifying. But now he's back and healthy, and the only thing keeping him off the field is the full 90-minute fitness he continues to work towards and coaches' selections.
"I've been away from the team for almost two months," Baird added. "So, just continuing to build my fitness, I’m reintegrated back into the team, and I got another half hour tonight. All of that is helpful."
FC Cincinnati needs the rest and resets in the same way Baird needed it. It stands to reason, in a bizzarro micro-to-macro example kind of way, that if FC Cincinnati gets the luxury of that time, the same sort of 'healing' can happen.
Some of those wounds are just waiting out your star defenders' Olympic dreams until they return to you. Some of those wounds are literal wounds, like in the case of Luciano Acosta, who tonight made what looked to the naked eye a near-heroic return to the pitch to help his team despite clearly still being in significant pain with every step he took. But it is that leadership, that drive, that FCC needed, so the captain pushed on.
Some of the wounds (and here's the elephant in the room) are that new player(s) can come into the group with the transfer window opening. With Miazga and Hagglund out you don't only miss their talent but also their depth. Having two fewer players to train with and rely on makes the job of those around them harder. So, this Leagues Cup competition offers an opportunity to welcome new players in and acclimatize them before regular season games resume.
Rest, reset, and get right for the stretch run. The pieces are still there; it seems that things just need enough time to sort themselves out.
"It's difficult sometimes to go three games a week when you're missing some very important players," Kinnear concluded with. "But we've shown through 25 games that we're one of the better teams in the league and I think we will not step back from that."
