The first goal of Leagues Cup for FC Cincinnati was to win it all, and that dream came to a sharp end Tuesday night at TQL Stadium. After a 15 minute sequence where The Orange and Blue looked like they were going to once again find the magic to come from behind and win, the final 10 minutes of the match left everyone in the building a little stunned.
FCC scored twice to level the score at 2-2 and with 10 minutes remaining seemed to have stolen the momentum and were looking for a victory. But Philadelphia struck back instantly with two of their own to end that hope, and leave FC Cincinnati eliminated from the tournament and waiting 10 days before their next chance at redemption in regular season play.
The change in momentum came so quickly that in the aftermath of the loss, no one really was ready to reckon with how those final 10 minutes unfolded. Was it an emotional let down? Was it a loss of focus? Was it over confidence? Was it Philadelphia just bouncing back? There hadn’t been enough time to really digest the moment. But it was clear that whatever did happen,, it’s not a moment they will look to forget.
“It's little things. It's how you manage the game… we have to learn from that,” DeAndre Yedlin, who served as the FC Cincinnati captain to start the match, said post game. “We ended up getting back into the game, but, you know, after that, I think we just kind of shut down a little bit.”
“Maybe we hadn’t gotten past equalizing at that stage and understanding how to manage the next couple of minutes to keep some momentum,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan added in his segment of the press conference. “We just defended really poorly in that five-minute stretch, and that led to the outcome.”
“You look at it all and try to see what we did well and why things went wrong tonight. We’ll get some answers, but some of those answers come the hard way.”
FC Cincinnati continued to show determination and faith in their performance on Tuesday; an attitude and attribute that had become the signature feature of the Leagues Cup run to this point for FCC. After falling behind in each of the previous two matches in the tournament, The Orange and Blue had stormed back to put themselves back into the game. Proving to themselves and the world that FC Cincinnati is never out of a match. But that celebration only happens when you deliver the comeback. This time there was very little pride, just disappointment.
The first goal of Leagues Cup was to win it. But there were secondary goals in how FC Cincinnati needed to perform in the tournament and how those performances would help support or contribute to the rest of the MLS season. On a three-game losing streak to close league play and enter Leagues Cup play, Noonan and Co. made it clear entering the tournament that playing as many games as possible so as to get the mojo back and not take an extended period of time off while waiting for the next league match. In 2023, FC Cincinnati found themselves out of the tournament one round earlier, had just over two weeks off, and it has been suggested FCC never truly found their groove in the same way again.
The team came up short of playing the maximum number of games, but have cut down on the break between now and their next league match on August 24. So there’s some small success there. But in what is perhaps the larger, more abstract goal of getting right in the wake of that three-game losing streak seems to have gone in the wanted direction.
“Up until tonight, I think the tournament was played in a really good way,” Noonan said of his squad’s performance. “We get a chance to get some guys to recover and hopefully have good preparation when league play resumes.”
“We’re capable of making a strong push down the stretch. We have a little bit of time here to see if it makes sense to improve the roster with some additions, and that’ll obviously be decided tomorrow (with the transfer window closing on Wednesday at midnight). If it remains as is, we have the pieces to be strong down the stretch.”
“I think so…I think we're in a better place,” Yedlin added. “I think obviously how we came into Leagues Cup, losing three games…it wasn't a good run for us. So, I think, we've done better, but there's still a lot of room for improvement from the stretch.”
So in that way, the tournament was in some ways a success. FCC advanced one stage further and better placed themselves for success down the stretch. They also successfully integrated a new center back into the group, got players back into the group, and were able to prioritize health and recovery over this stretch.
That’s a lot of checked boxes.
The biggest question mark left on this roster is the health of Luciano Acosta. That box remains unchecked without a definitive answer but progress was made over this three week stretch as Acosta got some time off to recover and then manage minutes.
When he was available, FC Cincinnati looked like the dynamic and attacking team we know them to be. He directly contributed to both goals scored for FCC in the second half of this match and was goal dangerous in the match against Santos Laguna. But he only played about 75 minutes in the tournament, and without him FCC is missing a part of what makes them truly great. In fairness, that would be mostly true for any team without their MVP. But allowing for Acosta to recover dating as far back as the league play stretch leading into the tournament, then start to rebuild his fitness levels into this game is a very helpful development.
“That’s the goal with all of them, which is to improve their fitness,” Noonan elaborated. “With Lucho, obviously 45 minutes doesn’t come close to the 90, but we’ll be able to manage him in a way where I think when we come out of this and getting ready for Miami that he’ll be in a better place physically.”
“I've been managing that (pain) with the staff, and trying to get right in every way. The goal is to be ready to go for the 24th,” Acosta said of his health situation. “ I don't know exactly what needs to be done. I still have recovery to do. I still have a lot of pain in my feet and was playing with pain tonight. So for me, I’m trying to recover mentally, which I don't think I'm there yet, and recover physically, which I don't think I'm there yet too. So that's the focus.”
FC Cincinnati have a ten day break between matches to learn from what happened Tuesday night at TQL Stadium and ramp themselves up for the final nine games of the MLS season and the MLS Cup Playoffs. FCC players made clear their goals are still the same despite the loss on Tuesday; they want to win the Supporters’ Shield again and lift the MLS Cup trophy at the end of the year.
It’s possible this ten day break between matches sets up The Orange and Blue for whatever comes next and how they handle this break can put them on the path to success.
“It's good to get this experience,” Yedlin said in his closing answers of the press conference. “When we're in the playoffs, because it's a tournament format it’s that sort of pressure where you can't afford to make too many mistakes.”
“We're going to do everything in our power to make sure that we come back into this nine game stretch trying to be as close to perfect as we can.”
