History was made Saturday night at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. For the first time in club history, FC Cincinnati earned points from a match in which they were trailing by multiple goals at halftime.
A milestone like this one requires some pain in the process of accomplishing it. In this case, it required The Orange and Blue to be up against a 2-0 deficit before half an hour of soccer was played.
But after conceding the deficit, a pain which FCC head coach Pat Noonan described as being self-inflicted, FC Cincinnati (13-2-6, 45 pts.) battled back to earn a draw, a result good enough to not only keep them atop the Supporters’ Shield standing, but to pick up a point and increase their lead to seven points with 13 games to play in the regular season.
“The character of this group is pretty strong,” Noonan said of his squad after mounting the comeback, “Us getting a point (shows) just how these guys are capable of responding when things aren’t going their way…the fight’s always there, and when you have a group as talented as this, when you get it right, it’ll look like it did.”
Charlotte FC challenged FCC with early crosses that twice found the home side’s leading scorer, Karol Świderski. The Polish forward put world-class touches on each of the services in the 14th and 24th minutes to secure the goals.
Conceding first has been a rarity for The Orange and Blue this season, only twice before Saturday night’s match, both on the road (at St. Louis City SC and D.C. United). But for the first time, FCC stopped the bleeding there, not allowing another goal for the remainder of the match. In both previous occurrences when FCC fell behind first, three or more goals were scored by the opposition.
“I liked that we found our way back into the game,” Noonan said of his team’s adjustments, “We talked about eliminating the simple things that have cost us, and if we do that, we’ll be able to find our way back into the game.
“The last two weeks we’ve found ourselves in different positions, in terms of trailing… needing to find our way back into games, losing rhythm and not always looking like ourselves. So we’re being challenged in different ways…and the guys are finding ways to get solutions to the challenges that they’re facing.”
Momentum began to build for FCC almost immediately after allowing the second goal, with opportunities and possession coming more freely for the visitors. A goal couldn’t be found before the referee blew the whistle for halftime, but it was clear that the game wasn’t over and FC Cincinnati had the edge needed to turn the match on its head.
“It was intense,” Noonan said of the locker room at halftime as they looked for ways to get back into the match. “How much do we want to battle to get something out of this” was asked before heading back out for the second half, according to the head coach.
Evidently, they wanted to battle a lot.
It took two moments of individual brilliance in the second half to level FC Cincinnati with Charlotte FC. Both were created by Argentine midfielder Álvaro Barreal, who, coincidentally, was playing in his 100th match for FCC.
The first came in the 50th minute when Barreal was fouled in the box while challenging for the ball, prompting the referee to grant FC Cincinnati a penalty kick. Luciano Acosta stepped to the spot and buried the PK opportunity for his 10th goal of the season, halving the deficit.
“The effort that (Barreal) put in on a night where it’s hot, it’s humid, and he’s getting up and down and up and down the field…and you think ‘maybe the legs aren’t there,’ and he makes an impact,” Noonan said of Barreal’s superb level of effort. “Just him being in the box, leads to a moment where he draws a penalty…that stuff matters.”
The second moment of brilliance came 16 minutes later. Acosta’s through ball sprang a streaking Barreal into the box, who controlled the ball and deked past his first defender. Barreal then used his off-foot to poke a shot through the legs of another defender and past a late-reacting Charlotte goalkeeper, equalizing the match and breathing new life into the game.
The coaches had talked to Barreal in the past about being more selfish in moments like that, encouraging him to challenge defenders rather than deferring to a cross or looking for a pass in the box.
“Take guys on,” was a challenge Noonan said he has given the midfielder, “you have that ability…to have an impact or play a role in both goals, on top of just the overall output, is a sign of a strong player that’s got a bright future.”
Second yellow changes the math
The joy of the equalizing goal was short-lived. Seven minutes later, in the 75th minute, FCC defender Ian Murphy put a hard challenge on Kamil Józwiak and was given his second yellow card of the day, sending Murphy off and forcing The Orange and Blue to play a man down for the final 15 minutes plus stoppage time.
Suddenly, the plan went from looking to capitalize on the momentum built from the equalizer to what the head coach called ‘survival mode.’
“The last 15 (minutes) is survival with being down a man, understanding and not taking unnecessary risks to then look for a third goal,” Noonan explained, “But having said that this group isn’t going to settle, they want to keep going, they want to score the third, and I respect that. But we have to do that in a pre-calculated way.”
That calculation was to use the remaining substitutes to supplement their defense to best control play in the defending half of the field. Malik Pinto and Alvas Powell came on as substitutions in the 82nd minute and Ray Gaddis in the 87th, effectively moving The Orange and Blue’s formation to a 5-3-1 to prioritize defense.
“We had to position guys to make sure that when the ball turned over that we weren’t exposed,” Noonan said of the late-game tactical adjustment, “Once we got into a back five, it became a little bit easier to get pressure to the ball, which is what we were concerned about when we were in the back fourth.”
