Interim Head Coach Yoann Damet and the rest of the FC Cincinnati staff had three days to prepare before the club hosted the Montreal Impact last Saturday. The Orange and Blue won, 2-1.
But in his post-match remarks, Damet acknowledged three days wasn’t enough time to implement anything beyond a basic structure and style for the team. Against Montreal, that meant building possessions from the back and trying to break the Impact’s high press with quick, side-to-side passes that forced the visitors to shift their shape. That approach was evident in Cincinnati’s first goal.
Now, Damet and the staff have their first full week of preparation before a match – a week that will include a full five days of preparation. On Sunday, the club plays at Orlando City FC.
“It’s good,” Damet said. “We’re going to be able to get into more details in training and take a bit more time, too. We tried to rush a bit more last week and the priorities were less.
“This week we have more time so we can be more detailed in terms of the things we need to improve on, but also we need to keep implementing.”
With more time to train and get comfortable playing and coaching in a new system, that doesn’t mean Cincinnati will spend more time adjusting to face Orlando, however.
“We need to focus on us,” Damet said. “We need to keep preparing ourselves. There is still a lot of things we want to implement and the best way to do it is to look at ourselves and try to find the solution within the team.
“Again, it’s going to be about what we want to put in place more than about Orlando and the way they want to play.”
