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| The Dream, circa June 2025. |
…a normal fan/person would have been utterly enrapt in the 2023 Supporters' Shield run, but that just meant less to write about for me. I ran out of ways to say, “still killin’ it, full-time and every day.”
After what looked like a complicated 2024 season – i.e., they looked genuinely competitive until the middle of July and/or the defense broke – I decided to reconnect with Cincinnati as my main East Conference squeeze. If nothing else, it felt like a good anchor for keeping an eye on the East, but it came with the added bonus of watching a team that went through at least two ambitious changes in personnel – e.g., the signing of forward Kevin Denkey and swapping Luciano Acosta for recent Portland Timbers transplant, Evander. Both moves speak to the “not-fucking-around” mentality that Cincy’s front office has embraced after those searing, worst seasons.
Part of the work of getting back into the swing with FC Cincy comes with humbly accepting that I’ll need some time to get to know the latest iteration; the first eight-to-ten games of season will be more about learning than dropping judgments from the mountain top (also, not my style). The goal is to be in full, limbs-swinging double-Dutch mode and capable of seeing what's up with clear, perhaps even cold, eyes by mid-summer. We'll see how that goes, but let's start with (the wild guesswork) and...
About the Game
Nine games out of every ten against Red Bull New York follow a fairly reliable plot: aggressive defending begets a disjointed, often ugly, game that begets few, sometimes no, goals. Cincy’s 1-0 home win over Red Bull yesterday stuck to the same script, more or less, but the hosts won by turning the balance of aggression against the visitors. Despite a tight game, and with Obinna Nwobodo leading the way – at times, personally (has anyone checked on Daniel Edelman?) – Cincinnati tilted the field toward Red Bull over the ~100 minutes. That leant them a kind of dominance on the field, but Red Bull made more of the odd chances they scratched out – i.e., the balance showing in the official stats don’t lie. Their shots weren’t always high-percentage – I’d call Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting’s backheel from six yards out to the capper to their cleanest build (has to be somewhere in the highlights, right?) – but the Red Bull attack found more clean looks before Cincy got their legs under ‘em and running in the same direction. A couple back-post efforts by DeAndre Yedlin got them back into it, but they never looked all that dangerous until Evander and Denkey found their way into the game. With both defenses playing strong, it felt like either team could only win it on a either a perfect play or a fluke and Cincinnati got theirs when Yedlin’s hit a hopeful ball over the top so perfect that it bounced back into Denkey’s stride and about a yard further away from an on-rushing, yet late Carlos Coronel. But for the 25 minutes left on the clock, the game looked over the second after his header rolled into the net. To their credit, Cincinnati put the game to sleep with relative ease.
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| With the fear of Nwobodo nipping at his heels. |
In just about every facet of the game, they looked pretty damn good. The offense improved, as noted above, but the defense rarely looked unsettled in any real way. Cincy defended aggressively all over and high often enough; while it didn’t create many fatal errors, it did plenty to keep Red Bull contained in their half and to limit their best chances to solo runs over the top. Yedlin and Lucas Engel provided effective outlets in wide spaces and Cincy was reliably able to get the ball out of the back even through Nwobodo and Pavel Bucha (i.e., centrally). Finding the ball before the final ball took a lot more work, but Red Bull mastered that game over the second half of 2024, even if it deserted them in the opening minutes of MLS Cup, so it wasn’t so surprising to see them replicate it at Cincinnati yesterday. The fact they got there, however graspingly, against a team so adept at frustrating the opposition says good things about where Cincy are right now.
General Notes About Red Bull New York
Even as it revives creeping questions about just how good MLS 2025/4.0 really is, color me pretty dang impressed by what I saw from Choupo-Moting. The breakdown in the (presumed) game-plan pulled him away from the front line and into wide spaces in a way that might have Hurt the Effort a bit, but the 35-year-old proved he can move the attack forward from those spaces. If anything hurt Red Bull today, it was Emil Forsberg’s inability to get into the game, paired with Cincy’s dominance in the middle of the field; it was mostly Morgan who found the half-chances (think Cameron Harper got one too), but all that amounted to trying to make a meal out of a nibble. Now also feels like a good time to remind people that Red Bull drew a fuck-ton of games last season and often won by close margins when they did. Seeing them struggle against an historically strong Cincy defense shouldn’t surprise anyone enormously. Even with Choupo-Moting in the attack and looking comfortable, I don’t see the overall, tough-to-beat-yet-limited profile changing.
And now, and in closing…
1) The Calm, Cool Center
I remember the good things Matt Miazga brought to the defense, and that came with a massive side of head games, but I spent most of the day marveling at Miles Robinson’s composed omnipresence in the heart of Cincinnati’s defense. He has to be one of the most complete defenders in MLS and opposing attacks should rightly tremble at what they’ll have to play through upon Miazga’s return.
2) Kubo and His Many Strings
While I know and appreciate that Yuya Kubo has played a lot of roles under Pat Noonan, I was surprised at seeing him, quite literally, all over the field today. Does he always have that much license to roam, or…? He had (at least?) one glaring gaffe on Saturday, but Kubo seems to have become a Brad-Evans level Swiss-Army-knife kind of player for Cincy and those guys are useful!
3) Notes on the New (and New to Me) Guys
a) Gilberto Flores
He looked all right, thought he timed his interventions pretty well and so on. My only real concern comes with how high Noonan wants to play his defensive line. He doesn’t look up to shutting down the spaces behind.
b) Lukas Engel
I notice he’s balding early (because I’m bald) and it’s wild he’s from Catsup, Denmark (I know; doing a bit), but he looks good, rangy, and intense based on today, and he came within a foot of finishing off a good play – and from the opposite channel of the side he plays on. Nice to have that flexibility.
c) Stanky Denkey (“stanky” used in the same spirit as “bad” once meaning “fucking awesome”)
He was a different player in the second 45 minutes than he was over the first 45, and that’s all it took for his upside to step forward. Comfortable operating in small spaces, good at using the ball and the space around him in one-v-one situations, and possessed of a subtle touch when he needs it, Denkey improved as a high-possession hub as the minutes wore on. His game-winner wasn’t spectacular, but he did the good goal-scorer thing of remaining fairly anonymous until the game handed him his chance to stick his brand onto it.
d) Evander
As a Timbers fan, I’ve watched Evander as many times as an MLS fan came and have been delighted and frustrated by him over as many games. After watching him in orange and blue for the first time, the main thing I’d say is, expect an amplified version of more of the same. To flag one particular play, think of the time he nutmegged (that poor bastard) Edelman and carried the ball toward the penalty area until the Red Bulls’ Alexander Hack had no choice but to foul him/give him a free-kick opportunity from a dangerous place. The main thing I'm wondering now is whether Cincy can find a way to make his life easier.
And that’s it for this one. Speaking as someone who watched Cincy for the first time since the 2024 playoffs, and not much of 2024 before that, I saw a lot of promise in today’s game. We’ll see how that holds up in the weeks ahead.
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