Saturday night’s draw with second place New England Revolution was a bittersweet feeling for many FC Cincinnati players. While securing points against a quality side is a positive, FCC felt their quality of play was worthy of three points.
Postgame, players and coaches felt the draw left plenty of lessons to take away and improve, though.
One of which was highlighted most by striker Dominique Badji. Badji, who scored both of the Orange and Blue’s goals in the 2-2 draw and was named to the MLS Matchday 22 Team of the Week, felt the match spoke to the need to focus on capitalizing in the attacking third.
“You just got to be cutthroat in front.” Badji said after the draw, “Rarely do you get games where you create this many chances. On the road, you might get one, two, or three chances, and you have to put them away.
“(It is a) game where we created enough chances to win, even with the mistakes we made. So I think we’re being hard on ourselves but that’s the standard we’ve set, we want to win every game at home.”
FC Cincinnati generated 22 shots, 7 of which made it on target, and created plenty of opportunities deep in the attacking zone, including 12 corners and completing 71.6% of passes in the final third.
“We had the opportunity, we had the chance to score,” defender Yerson Mosquera said of the team’s opportunities, “But now we need to continue…This is normal in the football.”
“We have to be a little more ruthless in front of goal and from the back end,” Badji said of potential solutions, “It’s easier said than done. But at the end of the day, that’s what is the difference between a win and a draw or loss.”
Head coach Pat Noonan highlighted the team’s second key takeaway in the postgame press conference, adding that he felt the solution was within the club’s control.
“It’s just our play in front of goal,” Noonan said of his team’s defending. FCC conceded two goals from inside the box, an own goal, and an opportunity created due to a missed clearance. “I think (that’s) what prevented us from walking away with three points… it’s preventable and you kind of have an idea of how you can eliminate those moments.”
The Orange and Blue will now spend the week building up for their next match on Saturday, an away fixture with Charlotte FC at Bank of America Stadium. The consensus among players is that the week of training will be easier to swallow knowing that the performance was quality and the things they need to work on are clear.
“We can rest a little better because there’s a silver lining and that we created a lot of chances… it’s just football, sometimes you’re not going to score every chance you create.” Badji said, headed into training this week, “It’s tougher to watch film when you didn’t create much and you didn’t do well overall, but we did a lot of great things out there.”
