CINCINNATI - It was the kind of night where short answers were all FC Cincinnati personnel had to offer. The mistakes were glaring and clear enough that nuisance and detail wasn’t all that needed.
For example: Pat Noonan, who is not typically prone to extensive monologue, but usually has some details to add and thoughts to share, was short and clear about his opinion on his side's performance.
“A disappointing result that I think stemmed from the poor start to the game,” Pat Noonan said to open his press conference. “Our passing was terrible for 35 minutes. There was no attacking or defensive structure because the way we passed the ball was, was really, really poor.”
FC Cincinnati came out as flat as they have in a long time and shot themselves in the foot for most of the first half of the match despite any advantages they had. There was credit to be given to LAFC. hey were coming off a midweek match where they played 120 minutes then flew cross country to play in FC Cincinnati’s home in the middle of a Tropical Storm where it rained for every minute of the match. They did their part.
But the resounding feeling from FC Cincinnati players and coaches was that they didn’t perform up to their standards, and if they had,the game would have been FCC’s by the end of the night.
“There was enough out there for us to find another goal,” Noonan continued in the press conference. “I think we let up a pretty soft second goal, from the beginning of the play and how they're able to get down the flank. So, a couple naive plays that lead to that second goal, and that's disappointing. But we'll move on.”
“I don't think we were sharp enough defensively and it cost us,” Miles Robinson added from the locker room. “There's no excuses. In reality, I think we just weren't sharp enough on the ball in that first half, and I think that caused us to lose possession easily. Then they run on the front foot…and we're under pressure for a bit.
“But, obviously, I think we should have had more from this game.”
Even the answers about why the team started to look better towards the end of the first half and into the second half were blunt and simple.
“We passed better,” Noonan said in a complete answer.
Fair enough.
Noonan told broadcasters prior to the match that he felt this is the best roster FC Cincinnati had at their disposal, so it is obviously disappointing they didn’t get more from this game. It has been at the very least a talking point in Pat Noonan press conferences of the past that this stretch of games leading into the playoffs were to be about FC Cincinnati finding its best form and getting itself ready for the MLS Cup Playoffs. It’s obviously frustrating, and that frustration was made clear by Noonan’s general demeanor, that this feels like a step back rather than a step forward.
But there is something interesting to that three-word answer that bubbles just below the surface.
FC Cincinnati played some of its worst soccer of the year in that opening 35 minutes, but there was a direct corollary to that performance. “Our passing was terrible.” When that turned into “we passed better.” The game opened up and FC Cincinnati looked to be on the front foot and was goal dangerous.
It may be an obvious statement (and I know as a writer I’m prone to that on occasion), but on a night where all Pat Noonan could point to was the direct and obvious, it seems like it’s just as simple as that. If FC Cincinnati performs, specifically in that department, the game opens up for them. If they don’t, they look like they did in the first half-hour of the match.
The question then becomes why did the first 30 minutes look the way they did? That may need a little more nuisance and self reflection.
“I can't quite get my finger on it right now. I think we were just…This is, yeah… this is just just one of those games,” DeAndre Yedlin said, struggling to find the exact reason for the slow start. “We just couldn't get to the ball. We were pretty poor on the ball. I think that didn't help as well, then we turned the ball over and we weren't in good spots defensively to be able to stop the counter.
“I just haven't quite put my finger on the match. We will just have to watch film and kind of see where we made the mistakes here.”
It is not encouraging that at this point in the season FC Cincinnati is still having trouble putting their finger on problems like these. If the self assessed issue was tactical or personnel issues, that’s one thing; you’d hope by this point in the season those things would be largely ironed out. But that’s the challenge this team faces, and has done so with resilience. Once again FC Cincinnati started a unique starting lineup – the 39th of 39 games this season.
Leaders at FC Cincinnati would never themselves point to that as an excuse. That’s just not how they approach things. But it’s easy to see how that cohesion and consistency hasn’t melded together. And when playing some of the best teams in the league, that sliver of detail can be the difference.
“Every team I’ve played on have had moments like today. The key is just that you learn from those moments. You don't let it keep happening and happening and happening,” Yedlin added as to how the team can progress forward. “Every team goes through adversity. It’s how you respond (and)I thought we responded really well.”
To Yedlin’s point, FC Cincinnati did look objectively better in the final 55 minutes than the first 35. A goal was scored on them and that shock to the system seemed to unlock whatever mental block was blanketing them. When LAFC scored its first goal of the night, it had accrued 0.72 xG (expected goals) to FCC’s zero xG. From that moment on FCC out xG’d LAFC 2.1 to 0.88.
xG is an imperfect stat, for sure. Luca Orellano’s equalizer came and registered just 0.02 xG, Denis Bouanga’s game winner tallied just 0.03 xG. So sometimes goals come from spectacular moments, but in terms of general chance creation as a team, FCC was the clear and dominant favorite. And really all they did to do that was…be themselves.
“I think the main thing we have to take from this game is, we can't get too down. We have to look at how we responded which I think, like I said, was a good response. It was more like us,” Yedlin added. “We have to learn. We have the playoffs coming up…we have to use these next three games to learn and really build momentum and throw it into the playoffs.”
At the end of the night FC Cincinnati has work to do. And an unfortunate side story of the night was injuries introducing even more question marks to the lineups. Chidozie Awaziem grabbed at his leg and fell to the grass after stretching out to win a tackle and collect the ball. He was substituted in the 34th minute and needed the assistance of medical staff to help him walk off the field and into the tunnel. Later, Sergio Santos went up for a header with LAFC’s Ilie Sanchez, knocked heads with the Spaniard, and appeared to be unconscious on the ground before jerking awake. He too was substituted out and went directly to the locker room for evaluation.
In a season of question marks and instability, FCC finds themselves with even more. Pat Noonan said postgame there was no information yet as to the status of either player's health.
But this is nothing new to FCC. Miles Robinson said the team was resilient and in a year where it seems like there’s always some roadblock around every turn he has complete faith in the group and trusts the guys around him to come together.
Pat Noonan also made clear in his press conference that he wasn’t concerned about the effort or mentality of the group. He sees the fire in the group and believes all is still correctable. That the fixes are technical and performance oriented, not mentally or from the heart.
“Of course it's correctable. Everything for the most part that (we) struggle with can improve,” Noonan said in closing of his press conference. “The intensity part, I don't have issues with a lot of these guys in their effort. I think they played the game the right way in terms of that, but sometimes the intensity and how you provide it and at what moments is certainly important. But…it's hard to show that intensity the way we lose the ball because you can't immediately get pressure to the ball and you're taking on pressure. That's what we have to fix.”
FC Cincinnati fortunately don’t have to sit in this feeling for very long. They may not even be able to sit in it for long. The Orange and Blue have to turn the page quickly to prepare for NYCFC, then again turn the page and return home one week from Saturday night for the final home game of the season against Orlando City SC.
The next opportunity to improve is just one kick of a ball away. It’s now on everyone at FC Cincinnati to prove Saturday’s 2-1 loss to LAFC was a bump in the road…and not a harbinger of what is to come.
