Luca Orellano stepped up to an otherwise inconspicuous free kick quietly and casually, and turned it into a roaring moment at TQL Stadium/. A foul had been won in the second half of Saturday night’s match with CF Montréal and the young Argentine had been keeping a watchful eye on the French-Canadian keeper.
“I noticed in the first half the goalkeeper had been playing a little farther out,” Orellano said. “So I knew I just had to wait for the right moment. It's so quick, you can't let the goalkeeper see you as you're looking at the goal, or maybe he'll go back. So it really is just a moment of taking your opportunity.”
The right moment came and Orellano delivered on his opportunity, putting the perfect bow on a lovely night in the Queen City by scoring another Goal of the Year contender. A wonderstrike from well beyond midfield marked a celebratory moment for The Orange and Blue when they desperately needed one. On an unprecedented four-game losing streak, FCC wasn’t just in need of a win. They were in need of a statement.
The snapping of the four game losing streak was vitally important, independently and when contextualized by the other goals the club has set for themselves. But moreover, the focus was about the performances and getting back to a standard of play they felt met their internal expectations.
“Really pleased with the response from the last performance and just the overall play from our guys,” Head Coach Pat Noonan said in his opening statement from the post game press conference. “I thought on both sides of the ball they were outstanding – maybe a little bit fortunate on some of those goals – but I do think the way that we attacked the goal and the intensity we brought looked like the group we know and so, very pleased with the outcome and how guys stepped up.”
A 4-1 victory is a statement of a kind. The goals scored to make it a 4-1 win were a bit unconventional, but they brought the fans to their feet all the same. That being said, unconventionality all the same, the success of the night was in how the win came, not by how many goals made up the margin.
Hard conversations were had this week, in the hours after the loss to Inter Miami CF, in the days that followed it, and in the build up to this match. But what got through the most, Noonan believes, was simply watching the games back and seeing what they looked like from the outside peering in.
“When you see that again, it shouldn't take much. I asked the guys to watch the game, and…that's something that's done anyway, but really watch and analyze what it looked like. That was probably enough,” Noonan explained. “I just thought it was a really good response to a really poor performance. We've seen it enough times from these guys to expect it, but I think we needed it tonight.”
From kickoff to final whistle, FC Cincinnati played like a team looking to make a point and prove to the rest of MLS, their supporters, and themselves that the team they watched from last Saturday night was not them.
FCC didn’t concede a shot on target until after the 80th minute and didn’t allow for an “expected goal” percentage to register until that 81st minute goal spoiled what otherwise would have been a well deserved clean sheet. The first goal for The Orange and Blue didn’t come until 36th minute when Kevin Kelsy whipped a volley on frame, but it was a wire to wire victory and as dominant a performance as we’ve seen from the team in a long while.
“We all know that Miami game…that wasn’t how we trained leading up to it,” Orellano said of the desire to respond. “That’s the good thing about football is it gives you a chance to go new again and tonight was another chance to show ourselves.”
“The guys understood that it was important to respond in a game like this,” Miles Robinson added. Robinson served as captain for the first time in his tenure with FC Cincinnati, an assignment he described as being an honor, and a responsibility he took seriously. “We talked about it all week, our response and kind of our work rate throughout the game, and I thought the guys really showed up today.”
Part of the accomplishment Saturday night was doing something they had never done before in MLS play, righting the ship without their captain at the helm. Literally.
Luciano Acosta, serving a yellow card accumulation suspension, was unavailable to start (or appear for that matter) for the fourth consecutive league match. In that stretch FC Cincinnati had lost each of the previous three and historically had never won a match in which Acosta was unavailable for.
To break the losing streak would mean achieving without their MVP, and would need others to step up in major ways.
Enter stage left for some of FC Cincinnati’s younger stars. Hardly understudies, most playing a supporting role when Lucho is top of the marquee, so when they got their opportunities tonight, they proved FCC can perform without their top star. Orellano and Kevin Kelsy proved there are young, offensive threats waiting in the wings to a degree where winning games is achievable.
“We scored four goals tonight without our captain and our leader in the attack and we've shown we can do that. It's hard to do it consistently because he's a very important piece of how we create. I like over the last month or two some of the results, some of the ways that we've created with him off the field. But we want him back on the field. I don't want to be talking too much about what our group looks like without him,” Noonan explained. “Both (Orellano and Kelsy) are talented young players, but they've both been here long enough to know what's expected of them. We're not adding extra pressure for them to go and score goals and carry this team. We want them to do their jobs in the attack and when we defend.”
“The age is the age. Kevin has been here long enough. He scored a couple early goals, maybe had a dip in form, but I think he's had a good couple of weeks and is picking up things in a better way. And it was nice to see him rewarded with the goal tonight. You could see how much that meant to him,” Noonan continued. “Luca makes a play at the end of the game where he's flicking a header on the back post, positions he hasn't always been in. That's a sign of progress. Kevin's figuring out how to run the line, how to play on less touches, both areas that they're going to get better in, but we see little signs of progress in moments outside of the goals. But for a young player to be contributing and scoring meaningful goals, it's going to help their confidence. No question."
The task at hand now turns to rolling this one match after a difficult stretch into a series of performances to close out the season. That’s a challenge considering the circumstances, but one made much, much easier with a significant victory on Saturday night.
FC Cincinnati now pauses match play for a week as the FIFA International Window takes over global soccer. The Orange and Blue will continue to train and work on themselves, but it will be 14 days before they take the field again. When they do, the Columbus Crew will make their trip to Cincinnati in the return match of the Hell is Real derby, one of the most significant games of the season…even if there weren’t playoff and trophy implications at play (and there are).
“A win like this is really important,” Orellano stated plainly. “It continues to give us confidence ahead of an important game against Columbus.”
If confidence is the important factor in the chemistry of FC Cincinnati’s success, the win – both in how it was achieved and that it was achieved – is massively important when considering the alternative. With two weeks of no matches to play, Saturday’s result was only going to further cement the vibe off the teams weekly and yearly progress. A win makes the next two weeks about preparing to be at their best to take on one of hottest teams in MLS, a loss would have made those two weeks about breaking a losing streak.
“It's a big result. I think the fact that it's such a big result kind of brings the good energy, the good vibes with the group,” Robinson highlighted. “We have a great group. There's always great energy. But once you get back in the win column, guys can play with more confidence.”
“We know the challenges that'll be ahead of us,” Noonan said closing his press conference. “The group can go win a game, it'll be a challenging match, but one that you have to be excited about.”
