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| You beat eight fucking seconds for starters... |
OK, yes, it took reviewing notes from the prior two games to
firm up some context (this is from the win at North Carolina, and this from the
draw at home to Bethlehem Steel FC), but the handle I’ve got on FC Cincinnati’s
performance feels reasonably assured…
…my grasp o the state and standards of the rest of the
United Soccer Leagues, on the other hand…still working on getting the fingers
where they need to go more maximum grip. For instance, I kept hearing comments on the
narrow-shouldered youth of tonight’s home side, Toronto FC II - something that
definitely factored into at least two of Cincy’s goals - but that same
aw-shucks-ma’am gaggle of teenagers came back from two goals down to tie the gameat 3-3 (you should have highlights through that link by tomorrow morning). Moreover, TFC II kept Cincinnati wheezing under pressure for the final
20+ minutes, they generally played the United Soccer League’s Eastern
Conference leaders even, and three or four of those players rather neatly
stood out - that includes players who got regular shouts from the
commentating booth, like Dante Campbell, Lucca Uccello, Ayo Akinola (scored one,
too), and, especially, Malik Johnson - and with an assuredly desperate Greg Vanney and Tim (probably)
Berbashenko (probably) in attendance. Coaches like character a little bit more
than the next professional, and TFC II’s (probably) teens interviewed pretty
nicely this evening.
It makes sense, obviously, to ask where TFC II sits in the
USL East? Dead last, you say? The point FC Cincinnati gave them tonight pushes
them to three big points on the season, one for every draw they rescued from
being another of their 12 losses. That -20 goal differential sort of rounds out
the picture of a game one has to think Cincinnati should have won. They didn’t.
Jordan Hamilton saw to that, along with the rest of his (apparently) young
team, only they didn’t do it with the same dizzying combo of power and finesse
(if/when they get to the highlights, do stick around for Hamilton’s goal).
On Cincinnati’s end of things, how bad is this really? They’re
still 3-0-2 in their last five (they kicked Richmond hard and true while I was
away)), and, at 9-3-4, still atop the Eastern Conference, if with two teams in
reach (Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and Louisville City FC) per games in hand. (Is
that English? Roughly? If not, check the USL standings). In that sense, most
signs point to no. Also, consider that (again, per the broadcast), Cincy has
four of their next five games at home (Nashville SC is their lone road game,
and that’s with Ottawa (woo-hoo!), Tampa Bay Rowdies (um), Charlotte
Independence (uh-oh), and New York Red Bulls II (um) on both sides of that).
More to the point, because I started watching when I did, I don’t know the
9-3-4 team that lives on paper nearly as well as I know the 1-0-2 team I’ve
watched over three games now. That team might have beat North Carolina FC, but
they also suffered hot flashes throughout; the same team should have taken all
three points against Bethlehem Steel FC just as surely as they should have
stolen three points from TFC II today.
They didn’t, again, and now I’m interested. So, what went
wrong?
Things didn’t so much go wrong for Cincinnati as they went
right for TFC II. Akinola’s first goal topped off a ground-shifting sequence of
play by Toronto, and Robert “Mere Boy” Boskovic only had to make the most of a
perfect cross by (the as-yet-unmentioned) Ryan Telfer. Between those goals and
Hamilton’s screamer, TFC II scored three quality goals, and three goals usually
get you somewhere in this game.
That makes for a good pivot to the conversation: Cincinnati
scored three goals of their own, and on the road to boot, and still walked away
with 1/3 of the points they should have. It also looks like they lost Richie
Ryan for at least a few games and, based on commentary, that can’t be good. More than anything else,
though, Cincinnati should squirm at their gradual disappearance from
the game. Some players never quite got started - Russell Cicerone among them, surprisingly,
because he’s been key to the two other Cincy games I’ve so far seen - but other
regulars like Nazmi Albadawi and Emanuel Ledesma showed up strong. Both
of those players found seams to exploit and did well with their chances, but
the bulldozing work of Emery Welshman hangs a better frame on the afternoon. As
much as it’s true that Welshman wrestled through TFC II kids all afternoon, he
always, always had to wrestle through. That’s the real tale of the tape,
Toronto’s never-ending fight. By game’s end, TFC II kept Cincinnati’s best
attacking players at bay by shifting play to their side of the field. It was a
strong offense makes the best defense made manifest. TFC had a good day, maybe even
a great one seeing that they had (I think) six teenagers on the field.
Back to the larger premise of these posts - i.e., the
question of where or how FC Cincinnati would or might stack up in MLS - seeing
a team wanting to make that leap go 1-0-2 in USL play can’t help but warp my perception.
Overall, I still see a team that passes smartly out of pressure, one or two
touches at a time; most of these guys make decent decisions more often than not.
When a team of teenagers cracks that code, on the other hand, and then goes on
to grow into the game, that should raise a question or two - or at least until
the next or the handful of next performances puts things to rest one way or the
other.
To close on the plus side, Ledesma buried a beauty and set
up a sitter; one of Welshman’s runs set up Ledesma’s goal and Albadawi set up
Welshman for another wide-open shots. If nothing else, Cincinnati continues to
produce just crazy wide-open chances, and on a professional level. No, I don’t
get it either…
…I also can’t see that shit flying in MLS, at least not
against teams on the holier side of, say, the San Jose Earthquakes or the
Colorado Rapids.
I can’t imagine panicking about FC Cincinnati, never mind
worrying about them. Alternately, if I do, it’ll come courtesy of bad results
over the next five games. As noted parenthetically above, they face some good
teams over that stretch (see, "ums" and "uh-oh"). They also face them at home (and Ottawa away…who, dig
this, beat TFC II not so long ago, and well). I know that FC Cincinnati hopes to depart
the USL with a trophy in their back pocket, and that’s the kind of goal they should have. I also believe
that every player on the current roster wants to show they belong at the next
level. They can’t do that without dominating USL teams. That can be on a
player-v-player level (Cicerone, on a good day), or by way of a player making
everyone around him a little better (maybe Welshman, definitely Albadawi and Ledesma), but Cincinnati’s season
is as much about proving who belongs in MLS as it is about winning a trophy.
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