Just one word to describe Pat Noonan’s second FC Cincinnati team, four matches into the season? How about “resourceful”? The Orange and Blue seem capable of finding multiple ways to get results, even if “dominant” seems too strong a word to sum up their unbeaten status.
“When you’re maybe not at your best, or you’re still trying to get into a consistent rhythm, you’ve got to figure out ways to get points,” Noonan has said. “So far, I’m pleased with that.”
FCC had its collective back to the wall for most of the season opener vs. Houston, getting outshot 19-14 and allowing Dynamo 62.3 percent possession. But the match went in the book as a 2-1 win. Then we have the last two weeks to consider.
On the heels of a tightly buttoned 1-0 home win over Seattle—a club that came in widely hailed as among Major League Soccer’s best—FCC played fast and loose in Chicago on Saturday, with a furious finish. Analysts had been calling it a “trap game,” against a winless and offensively suspect foe, and in the 84th minute, the jaws of steel were nearly slammed shut. Chicago led 3-1 on three unanswered goals and looked increasingly celebratory. But FCC roared back to score in the 84th and 87th minutes (Sergio Santos and Junior Moreno), claiming an “erratic” (Noonan’s word) 3-3 draw that chilled the Fire and a small Soldier Field crowd as much as the 20-degree weather.
Now 2-0-2 (eight points) on the season and alone in third place in the Eastern Conference, just two points behind first-place Atlanta, FCC turns its attention to a contest no one will be calling a trap. Noonan’s road warriors head for Nashville, for a Saturday game against a foe the Orange and Blue have never beaten. And Nashville SC not only is 2-0-2 against FCC all-time, they are once again a power player in the East, standing just a point behind FCC after a 2-1-1 start. That, more than the series history, is what matters to Noonan.
“They’ve been a consistently strong team under (coach) Gary Smith,” Noonan said. “Very organized, very disciplined. They understand how to win. And we saw them in preseason training, and it’s evident they’ve added a different dynamic this year.”
That would be the wing play of Jacob Shaffelberg and Fafà Picault.
“Those guys are providing more speed on the outside, with wider distribution,” Noonan said. “When we saw them in preseason, they were very aggressive in their press and had good speed in transition. Something a little different than what we’ve seen.”
Shaffelburg has two goals, leading the team, to go along with an assist. He leads in shots (10) and shots on target (four). Picault has one assist and four shots to date.
But Nashville isn’t all new, and that’s another part of the challenge for FCC. German-born midfielder Hany Mukhtar, Noonan offered without qualification, is “the top player in the league.”
Gently pressed on that designation, Noonan backtracked only as far to say “maybe he’s top one or two with (Austin FC’s Sebastian) Driussi.”
Mukhtar is in his fourth Nashville season, and perhaps it’s scary for Cincinnati that he has yet to score a goal this year, with just one assist. He was last season’s league MVP and MLS Golden Boot winner, scoring 23 goals and adding 11 assists. He was a Best XI selection in 2021 (as well as last year), and his 62 combined goals and assists (39-23) were tops in the league over the past two season. In a Southern state mad about American football and basketball, Mukhtar managed to earn the 2021 “Tennessee Sportsperson of the Year” award from Nashville’s top newspaper, The Tennessean.
“Obviously,” Noonan said, “we’ve got to be really tuned in to find ways to keep him off the ball. As dangerous as he is himself, he’s very good in bringing teammates into play. He makes passes that put your back line under pressure.”
The Orange and Blue may also need to beware of midfielder Randall Leal, who plagued Cincinnati’s club pre-Noonan in 2021, scoring four goals in addition to two assists in three games. The Costa Rican’s six goal contributions vs. Cincinnati are at least twice his total against any other team. In those three 2021 games, Nashville claimed two lopsided wins (3-0 and 6-3), with one tie.
Leal has missed Nashville’s last three games, due to a hamstring injury, but it has been projected he could return to action against FCC.
Nashville’s only loss was this past Saturday, 1-0 at New England, the second-place team in the East. The 52nd minute goal that proved Nashville’s undoing was the only one the team has allowed this season.
“Defensively, they are tough to break down,” Noonan said. “We have to be patient with the ball and take advantage of opportunities, because if they’re on their game, there aren’t going to be many.”
The result in Chicago extended to eight games Cincinnati’s MLS-best current unbeaten streak on the road (3-0-5). No other team has gone more than its last three road matches without a loss.
At GEODIS Park, the second-year stadium where FCC will make its first visit, the ’23 Nashville edition has posted a pair of 2-0 wins, over New York City FC and Montreal. NYCFC’s loss stands as its only setback of the season.
GEODIS is playing host to its second MLS campaign. Nashville SC previously played in the NFL Tennessee Titans’ Nissan Stadium, a much less intimate atmosphere. Just a bit south of downtown Nashville, the 30,000-seat GEODIS is the largest of the league’s new soccer-specific stadiums, and it has quickly acquired a reputation as one of MLS’s most intense venues.
“It’s loud here,” Philadelphia head coach Jim Curtin said after a Union visit. “It’s as loud as any place we’ve ever been in.”
“It looks like a great atmosphere,” said Noonan. “It helps make for games you want to be a part of. That’s the direction of the league – top stadiums in great markets, great fan bases. That’s what we have ourselves at TQL (Stadium), and I’m looking forward to the experience.”
Though Nashville’s 2-0-2 record against Cincinnati may serve as a burr for Orange and Blue fans, it’s not seen as a motivator by Noonan. Only one of the four games occurred with Noonan in charge, a 1-1 draw at TQL last season.
“I don’t use a whole lot of that stuff,” Noonan said. “I try to focus on ways to have success in this particular game. To me, looking back on problems from the past, of a lack of success, is the wrong mindset.”
The right mindset, Noonan would agree, is that this game presents as an excellent March clash, featuring two teams realistically setting their sights on high seeds and deep playoff runs in the fall.
