FC Cincinnati 2-1 Charleston Battery: A First Step to Where...Exactly?

Honestly, the only real cyborg we know.

“Lamah Over Ledesma Should Not Be Automatic,” came very close to being the name for this post. It didn’t work when the line between them blurred.

Earlier tonight, FC Cincinnati topped the Charleston Battery2-1 down in Charleston. It was a good win, not a great one, and, as a game, definitely not one for the ages. I’m glad Cincinnati won, if only because MLS being better than USL is the structural order of things, but it felt more like a battle of capacities – by which I mean, Cincinnati had a means to win this game in the form of higher end players at their top-end - while Charleston did not. FC Cincy fans should feel cheered by how quickly their team reversed Charleston’s equalizer (and how much sustained pressure they piled on), but there’s nothing particularly interesting about a team with MLS resources and reputation beating a team with USL resources and reputation. In other words, Cincinnati did win….but am I alone in wishing the win looked either better or more explicable?

I’m going to set this up in the spirit of a geometry equation – i.e., start with a set of “givens” and see where I can go from there. (Also, I never made better than a “C” in Geometry, probably because my teachers failed me, not the other way around. Monsters, but I digress.) Here are the givens:

1) The line-up Alan Koch trotted out was a plausible starting eleven for FC Cincinnati;

2) There are players on FC Cincinnati’s roster outside those 11 players who can help build a different starting eleven for FC Cincinnati;

3) That win did not send the right kind of chills down your spine; and

4) That’s OK. We’re all OK.

Speaking for myself, this was my first glimpse of the USL/MLS cyborg that FC Cincinnati will enter into the lists for MLS 2019. With tonight solely in mind, I saw a team that defended comfortably by not giving up many good chances; I also saw a team that didn’t create a ton of great chances, but one that created enough of them. The players who came down/over from MLS – e.g., Darren Mattocks, Fanendo Adi, Victor Ulloa, and Alvas Powell – rose above, and I’m going with Mattocks and Ulloa as stand-outs. Adi had several good chances on goal – especially in the first half – and he wrestled for the penalty that led to the game winner, but, and this is the last time I’ll mention it, this came against a USL team. Games will get more challenging for FC Cincinnati, but probably after their next game against the Chicago Fire, because, holy shit, can those guys feel like a substitute USL team more often than they want to (also, their own fans hate them; speaks volumes).

When I look for real bright sides in tonight’s performance, I go with things like Forrest Lasso and Justin Hoyte not looking remotely out of place; hell, Hoyte looked MLS-ready as anyone else. Przemyslaw Tyton, meanwhile, didn’t have enough to do, so I'll have to see what other gears the guy has at some future point.

As for the rest, it's time for some disclosures. First, I struggled to identify a bunch of players in the defense until the end of the match.; it wasn't until after the half that I sorted out where Mathieu Deplagne played versus Nick Hagglund (eh, it's preseason all 'round). It also took a little time to tell who was doing what in defensive midfield, but what I will say is this: when FC Cincinnati put in the players they lifted up from the USL - e.g., Emmanuel Ledesma, Nazmi Albadawi, etc. - the attack made more sense to me. The goals came from the new kids – e.g., mostly Adi and Mattocks - but the Second Unit played higher percentage stuff - for instance, repeatedly finding one or two players in acres of space on the left late in the game. That felt like a bigger breakdown from Charleston’s point of view than, say, Adi bobbling a ball in for a goal or getting hauled down for a PK.

That’s not intended to diminish Adi’s contributions. Arguably, those two plays he made – e.g., scoring the goal and earning the penalty - won the game. That's significant on the grounds that Adi is what the kiddie-pool's worth of pundits I follow expect to carry FC Cincinnati's attack as far as they’ll go in their inaugural, 2019 season. Do I buy that? Ehh. See above.

Ultimately, I believe that some number of the players that FC Cincinnati signed with an eye to giving them a leg up into MLS will get surpassed by some of the USL players the team held onto. It’s in that precise sense that I wouldn’t be surprised to see a player like Albadawi (or Ledesma) supplant a guy like Lamah, or, to get really wacky, to see Fatai Alashe replace Bertone (I said "really wacky"). And I like that; no one should feel safe (even when most of them do, and with reason), but…I don’t know, it’s still a slight mess. For instance, where was Allan Cruz tonight, a player who I assume will start (and if he’s injured or his paperwork is hung up, there’s my answer)? Was Caleb Stanko a stand-in or…? 

For what it’s worth, and barring a statement to the contrary (which I made no effort to find), this slim win against a former USL rival was Koch’s last chance to fully experiment. I guess my first question is, did he? How close is the line-up he fielded tonight to the one he wants to play on March 2^nd, against the Seattle Sounders? (For anyone not tracking them this preseason, don't read much into their results; they've been playing a combination of their bench and their youth players forr most of preseason.) With all the above noted and entered into the record, I’m delighted to see this cyborg of a team play for the first time ever, but I also don’t know that I learned a ton from it. The opposition didn’t match the level, god knows what to make of the line-up, and that win was thin as Twiggy (deep cut to nowhere!).

Happily, we’ve got another couple games to pick apart prior to March 2^nd, when FC Cincy faces the Seattle Sounders. For what it’s worth, and potential for a Seattle-inspired rout aside, that game has too many signs of being boring as watching paint dry.