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| I mean, what does this dog actually look like? |
Just to mention it, ESPN’s broadcast of the game played roughly two minutes behind real-time. That allowed me to catch wind of two of FC Cincinnati’s bigger moments – the penalty call that gave them their first goal, and Nick Hagglund’s late offside goal (um, how is that not in the goddamn highlights? Are you motherfuckers Billy Barring me?) – and now I know that knowing events two minutes in the future would improve nothing in my life. It washes out as existing in a state of suspended animation, really, which I don’t recommend.
As it happens, that’s a pretty good short-hand for the state of FC Cincinnati as a team. Every game they’ve played so far bore some kind of wrinkle. When they played both of 2018’s MLS Cup finalists, they faced shadows of last year’s editions – something that’s only become more apparent since. When they hosted the Philadelphia Union, the rain pouring on the field seemed to weigh on their shoulders just as much. Today’s 1-1 draw against Sporting Kansas City, meanwhile, was lousy with wrinkles. To begin, SKC started a clear second choice team, ignoring general, well-intentioned advice to “focus on the league” after eating five fist-fulls of shit in Mexico mid-week. (Watching SKC’s Johnny Russell at the end of the game, who went the full 90 in Monterrey, makes a solid case that Peter Vermes took the correct approach; poor bastard was gassed.)
The real wrinkles broke into the skin with the unfolding of the match itself; by the end, the oldest, saggiest human being on Earth would have looked at that and thought, “goddamn, get some Oil of Olay up in this thing, stat!”
Where to begin? Players for both teams pissed away perfect chances – Kelyn Rowe for SKC, Kekuta Manneh for Cincy – and on opposite ends of the game. Just….terrible goalkeeping gaffes led to both goals – a bout of confusion by Adrian Zendejas early in the first half (link above), then Spencer Richey reprised something terrifyingly similar early in the second (also, I’m not sure that Greg Garza didn’t poke the ball past Richey when he fell down). With the exception of FC Cincinnati’s first goal – which, as I saw it, came during a time when SKC had recovered from Cincinnati’s strong opening - game-states generally loosely tracked those events. The same goes for Hagglund’s unfortunately offside winner, which capped a late (again, you must release the video), ultimately futile rally by FC Cincy, and that leaves what might have been gasping for life on this game’s cutting room floor.
And that gets to the heart of a problem that really isn’t a problem, but more of a preoccupation, maybe even a purely personal one: how the hell am I supposed to get a read on FC Cincinnati when some kind of asterisk hangs over every moment of its MLS existence? It’s not that I’m uncomfortable with the ambiguity: both of the Portland Timbers’ best seasons (2015 and 2018) looked certain to take the wrong fork on the road until they didn’t. In other words, it’s possible that no one will see what’s coming until after it becomes reality. (Cup or not to Cup?)
All the above acknowledged – and with Darren Mattocks’ shot off the post and general ownership of Nicolas Hasler during the first half entered as evidence – I’d still be inclined to call Sporting KC “B” the better team, at least according to the eye-test (then again, the box score backs that up). Any time they had a handle on the game, SKC looked more certain, better able to turn possession into danger; when they found a rhythm, they could keep Cincinnati on its heels. FC Cincy, meanwhile, used intensity to conjure their better moments. Their press worked well – especially in the first half – but it would take them a while to re-establish it any time SKC broke out of it. The one thing about FC Cincy that whispered “expansion team” showed up on a few breakaways in the first half, when they caught Kansas City too far up the field and created a short-lived succession of 3-v-2s or 4-v-3s. By my memory, they pissed away at least three of these things (not to mention pissing away this opportunity or this one) and those fell apart when the player on the ball taking too long to get a hold of it (twice, I think), or he lingered on the ball too long and let the perfect be the enemy of keeping SKC’s defense unbalanced. The latter scenario will come together later (or it won’t), once the understanding between FC Cincy’s players gets a little deeper.
To get a little counter-intuitive, it’s not always bad to not have a system, some way to play the game. To make a simplistic argument, teams can’t game-plan against something that Cincinnati’s coaching staff hasn’t even figured out yet, and maybe that’s why all those long balls worked – specifically, the one over the top to Roland Lamah that lead to the team’s one goal. Even if they do land on some kind of approach, and even it wasn’t all Route One today, Cincinnati’s direct approach has worked all right for them so far. I wouldn’t do the whole house, kids and two pets thing with that approach, but…it’ll do for the near-term.
Overall, the game ebbed and flowed like that, and enough to make one (or just me) wonder how this would have played with a rested SKC first team. In the here and now, that counter-factual doesn’t matter - both teams walked off the field with one point and more regrets in this stupid timeline – but it does matter when you’re trying to get some bead on Cincinnati’s level against the rest of the league.
To bright side this result, picking up any points from a game that presents as a loss on paper is always a good thing (and, yes, that goes for drawing Atlanta United FC and beating the Portland Timbers as well). In the grand scheme of things, the result still boils down to FC Cincy taking house money, and that is legitimately a good thing. Sure, it would have been better to send the team to Los Angeles to face the undisputed best team in MLS with the shot of confidence that only a win against a legit league power can deliver, but the team had good moments and multiple players had good games. If I have a concern that means anything right now, it hovers near the person of Roland Lamah and him leaving the field at the half amid rumors of an injury. Facing LAFC without Lamah – who I’d name FC Cincinnati’s most effective attacking player so far – that feels like a blow. Drawing Sporting KC at home, on the other hand? I’d call that a good result. It’s not the best of all possible worlds, but it beats a paper cut or a kick in the head.
Right, I’m gonna wrap up with some stray thoughts on the team, or the game. After that, I gotta bowl, getting on top of the MLS-wide stuff, etc. I don’t have weekends, I have a life of self-assigned homework.
And, after Lamah?
I’d call Mattocks Cincinnati’s second most effective attacking player and, for what it’s worth, I’m higher on Allan Cruz than I am on Kenny Saief. It’s not that I don't think Saief is worth it or worthwhile (and was I the only one consciously comparing him against Gedion Zelalem?), but I’m not seeing anything better than “good” and he keeps making the same pass when he gets in the box – e.g., this little toe-pick into space looking for an opening, not directly at goal, but to the side of it. It’s as if he’s more interested in playing to where there’s room instead of looking for danger, or forcing a tough decision. Basically, I’m fine with Saief when I stop thinking of him as a No. 10.
Calling Their Level
For what it’s worth, I think Cincinnati is probably worse than all the teams above them in the Eastern Conference. I’m also not sure they’re better than some of the teams below them, whether now or over time. That’s a massively qualified point, obviously – for one, who isn't wondering when Atlanta and both New Yorks will get their shit together? – but I’m very curious about how Cincy will play against the Montreal Impact, Orlando City SC, if only just in Orlando, and recent results from the Chicago Fire have me wondering whether I wrote them off early. Basically, there’s a lot of mystery knocking around the Eastern Conference cellar, and I’m not seeing all the teams above them falling off, not with Philly, especially, winning a big one at home this weekend, and that’s on top of a good run overall.
On the plus side, I am wholly confident that FC Cincinnati is better than every team in the Western Conference that is currently under the playoff line. That is one fucking sorry bunch, people, something I know too intimately…
All right, all done. I’m going bowling.
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