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| Blue leg for Saturday, yellow for Tuesday. |
About the Game
Yuya Kubo put a messy opening 30 minutes to rest when he kicked his own rebound off the post into the net behind TFC’s Sean Johnson. The goal didn’t stand – a foul before his first shot erased it – but the moment seemed to settle the nerves of a somewhat-rotated Cincy starting XI and steady them for the push. Toronto effectively pinned themselves into their own half for most of the game with wayward passes, naked giveaways, and a kind of pervasive disconnection that must keep Robin Fraser awake at night as he toys with novel ways to say, “this is not who we are.” The Reds had one shot better than jack-shit to show for (almost exactly) 45 minutes’ worth of soccer (the ref couldn’t watch anymore either), but Cincinnati didn’t have much more. Toronto showed some signs of life early in the second half, with a goal-mouth scramble just after the 50th minute counting as highwater mark (was their one shot on goal somewhere in there?), but “their identity” of hitting passes short ‘n’ wild continued. With their last line of defense keeping them in it, Pat Noonan decided to throw in some fresh ammo – most notably, Evander for Luca Orellano (more later) and DeAndre Yedlin coming in for young balding man, Lukas Engel – and the push resumed. Even if it took the ref four minutes and a trip to the VAR monitor to see, Cincy finally got the break they needed when Evander’s attempted cross quite visibly hit, then ran down the length of Tyrese Spicer’s left arm (see the highlights, somewhere; really wish they'd do pull-out highlights for a penalty call). When, at some length, the penalty was given, Kevin Denkey stepped up and made it look easy. While this can’t be proven conclusively (because what would it even look like?), Toronto was probably pushing for the equalizer when Evander picked the ball off of the try-harding feet of Federico Bernardeschi, dropped the ball to Yedlin, who found Sergio Santos, who found Pavel Bucha, who found Evander loitering wide on Cincy’s left, who clipped the ball to Kubo with nothing immediately between him and Sean Johnson’s goal. The game was over but for the time left after Kubo beat Johnson to the far post.
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| Lorenzo, in the wild, maybe near Toronto. |
A Brief Aside on Toronto FC
They’re bad. Not in a “yes, but” way, just bad. I’m told Toronto has players missing, but I also don’t see an immediate solution on their current roster who isn’t named Lorenzo Insigne, and that’s its own (vaping?) elephant in the room. They improved on last week’s blowout loss at Orlando City SC by not forcing Jonathan Osorio to play at forward, but they struggled to find fresh Norwegian forward Ola Brynhildsen just as much. “Struggle” speaks to so much of what’s going on with this team: I gave up counting the number of times Toronto gave away the first pass in possession after counting to 10 over the opening 25 minutes – and that leaves out all the times they gave away the ball on the second or third pass. The players have worthwhile ideas – switching the field to the weak side of the field has a long and proud tradition in the game! – but repeatedly boned the execution with passes that fell short or to the wrong feet. Even their best forward passes looked like grasping and hoping holding hands as they skip merrily o’er a meadow. Toronto still somehow managed half a dozen shots and, for as long as the game stayed knotted at zeroes, they could dream of stealing a point or three. That dream died with Denkey’s PK. I can’t see how they don’t improve, and any Toronto fan hoping for something to hold onto should note they’ve played all three of their games on the road, but I haven’t seen even an outline for how they improve to even playoff capable.
In fewer words, FC Cincinnati beat a morally, perhaps mortally wounded team yesterday. Between last week’s gutting loss at the Philadelphia Union and trying to keep afloat in the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup, a visit from Toronto couldn’t have come at a better time. Still, mission accomplished, even if it wasn’t much harder than buying donuts and coffee for the morning meeting. With that big picture and opposition out of the way, let’s drill down into…
Some Talking Points re FC Cincinnati
1) Good Points, Good Rest
With the second leg of the CCC battle at Tigres UANL coming up, I was glad to see Cincy get away with resting a couple players. Noonan didn’t get everyone – Denkey and maybe Miles Robinson stand out – but 84 minutes’ worth of rest for Obinna Nwobodo’s legs, plus 60 for Evander and Yedlin should at least give them energy.
2) Most Improved
Even with the contrast between the Union and Toronto apparent to anyone with eyes, seeing Tah Anunga have a strong day as a ground-chewing No. 6 was my feel good story of the day. He kept his passing quick and simple, even if most of them went backwards and sideways, and his recovery runs bailed out both Alvas Powell and Robinson after they’d got drawn to high up the Cincy’s right. Good for morale…
3) All-Purpose Bucha
Between Anunga’s (appropriately) defensive assignment and the players running in front of him, a healthy amount of the work of generating offense and forward passes fell on Bucha and he handled them well! He struggled with finding Denkey, but so did everyone else, and Corey Baird and Kubo provide more work-rate than flair. That didn’t matter a whole lot against opposition that only required Cincy to be good enough, but Bucha was up to it, all the way down the backheel that released Evander for his assist on the insurance goal. But doesn’t all that leave out…
4) Orellano, One Step at a Time
So far as I know, this was Orellano’s first start of 2025 and, while I haven’t watched him to know how much that showed, he did have the look of a player caught between forcing and finding the game. That’s not pure criticism, because forcing the game is the first step in finding out how one can shape it. After a couple cutbacks that got away from him and losing a footrace or two, Orellano called his own number with a run inside from the right that forced Johnson into a fully-stretched save…and now I’m left wondering whether I prefer Orellano on the left (for crosses) or the right (for shots). At any rate, when Orellano comes back to his best, it’ll leave less thinking for Bucha.
5) A Low-Key Hero
Alvas Powell could very well be the best bad soccer player I’ve ever watched. I mean this as praise. A player that short on technical polish has to offer something to stick with a team (or three) and still get find minutes: Powell does it with surprisingly-clean wrecking ball defending (the man dominates on shoulder-to-shoulder terms) and wildcat runs out of the back. Even if making good on those wildcat runs actually requires that he doesn’t make the final pass or, gods forbid, the shot…toward goal, those still spook most defenses.
6) A Shout for Santos
I’ve seen people bag on Santos and, unless that’s a salary-driven complaint, I just don’t get it. He’s a strong, fast runner and, as such, a good option for a late sub, even if just to harass the shit out of a backline trying to get their team back in the game.
That’s it for this one. I’ll circle back with a scouting report on (shit) Charlotte FC, aka Cincinnati’s next MLS opponent, later this week. Till then….
They’re bad. Not in a “yes, but” way, just bad. I’m told Toronto has players missing, but I also don’t see an immediate solution on their current roster who isn’t named Lorenzo Insigne, and that’s its own (vaping?) elephant in the room. They improved on last week’s blowout loss at Orlando City SC by not forcing Jonathan Osorio to play at forward, but they struggled to find fresh Norwegian forward Ola Brynhildsen just as much. “Struggle” speaks to so much of what’s going on with this team: I gave up counting the number of times Toronto gave away the first pass in possession after counting to 10 over the opening 25 minutes – and that leaves out all the times they gave away the ball on the second or third pass. The players have worthwhile ideas – switching the field to the weak side of the field has a long and proud tradition in the game! – but repeatedly boned the execution with passes that fell short or to the wrong feet. Even their best forward passes looked like grasping and hoping holding hands as they skip merrily o’er a meadow. Toronto still somehow managed half a dozen shots and, for as long as the game stayed knotted at zeroes, they could dream of stealing a point or three. That dream died with Denkey’s PK. I can’t see how they don’t improve, and any Toronto fan hoping for something to hold onto should note they’ve played all three of their games on the road, but I haven’t seen even an outline for how they improve to even playoff capable.
In fewer words, FC Cincinnati beat a morally, perhaps mortally wounded team yesterday. Between last week’s gutting loss at the Philadelphia Union and trying to keep afloat in the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup, a visit from Toronto couldn’t have come at a better time. Still, mission accomplished, even if it wasn’t much harder than buying donuts and coffee for the morning meeting. With that big picture and opposition out of the way, let’s drill down into…
Some Talking Points re FC Cincinnati
1) Good Points, Good Rest
With the second leg of the CCC battle at Tigres UANL coming up, I was glad to see Cincy get away with resting a couple players. Noonan didn’t get everyone – Denkey and maybe Miles Robinson stand out – but 84 minutes’ worth of rest for Obinna Nwobodo’s legs, plus 60 for Evander and Yedlin should at least give them energy.
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| It's even the right sport! |
Even with the contrast between the Union and Toronto apparent to anyone with eyes, seeing Tah Anunga have a strong day as a ground-chewing No. 6 was my feel good story of the day. He kept his passing quick and simple, even if most of them went backwards and sideways, and his recovery runs bailed out both Alvas Powell and Robinson after they’d got drawn to high up the Cincy’s right. Good for morale…
3) All-Purpose Bucha
Between Anunga’s (appropriately) defensive assignment and the players running in front of him, a healthy amount of the work of generating offense and forward passes fell on Bucha and he handled them well! He struggled with finding Denkey, but so did everyone else, and Corey Baird and Kubo provide more work-rate than flair. That didn’t matter a whole lot against opposition that only required Cincy to be good enough, but Bucha was up to it, all the way down the backheel that released Evander for his assist on the insurance goal. But doesn’t all that leave out…
4) Orellano, One Step at a Time
So far as I know, this was Orellano’s first start of 2025 and, while I haven’t watched him to know how much that showed, he did have the look of a player caught between forcing and finding the game. That’s not pure criticism, because forcing the game is the first step in finding out how one can shape it. After a couple cutbacks that got away from him and losing a footrace or two, Orellano called his own number with a run inside from the right that forced Johnson into a fully-stretched save…and now I’m left wondering whether I prefer Orellano on the left (for crosses) or the right (for shots). At any rate, when Orellano comes back to his best, it’ll leave less thinking for Bucha.
5) A Low-Key Hero
Alvas Powell could very well be the best bad soccer player I’ve ever watched. I mean this as praise. A player that short on technical polish has to offer something to stick with a team (or three) and still get find minutes: Powell does it with surprisingly-clean wrecking ball defending (the man dominates on shoulder-to-shoulder terms) and wildcat runs out of the back. Even if making good on those wildcat runs actually requires that he doesn’t make the final pass or, gods forbid, the shot…toward goal, those still spook most defenses.
6) A Shout for Santos
I’ve seen people bag on Santos and, unless that’s a salary-driven complaint, I just don’t get it. He’s a strong, fast runner and, as such, a good option for a late sub, even if just to harass the shit out of a backline trying to get their team back in the game.
That’s it for this one. I’ll circle back with a scouting report on (shit) Charlotte FC, aka Cincinnati’s next MLS opponent, later this week. Till then….
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