San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 FC Cincinnati: A Hopeless Hat Looking for a Hook

Not always productive...

Several key numbers express what happened in FC Cincinnati’s 0-1 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes last night. Among them?

When Major League Soccer’s tech/video stooges condense games, they typically find 20 minutes’ worth of worthwhile footage. The condensed game for San Jose v. Cincinnati ran under 15 minutes.

The ‘Quakes’ Cristian Espinoza got sent off for a (soft) second yellow card (on his part; make it worth the time, son) at the 51st minute. That left FC Cincinnati 40 minutes’ with a man up.

FC Cincinnati put three shots on goal, two of ‘em after Espinoza’s sending off (and both by Fatai Alashe, I believe), so maybe the solution for Cincinnati involves somehow arranging to always play a man up? I’m just saying, have they tried it? Just asking questions over here, people.

For all concerned, it felt like neither progress nor regression, but, by ball that’s holy, ‘twas hideous. My short read goes something like this: when Espinoza left the field, the game went from one team having some capacity to make something happen out there (San Jose) to two teams flailing hopefully forward till the final whistle put fans and observers alike out of their shared misery. To clear up any potential confusion and/or inaccuracies, the ‘Quakes didn’t dictate the match by putting under pressure on or shots up against Cincinnati; they did, however, dominate possession for as long as they had 11 players on the field, and to an extent that made it impossible for the Orange and Blue to do anything with the ball, precisely because they never had the ball.

All it took for the ‘Quakes to collect these three fragile points was Nick Lima’s set-piece precision strike at the 22nd minute. Jackson Yueill’s two “shots” give a fair taste of San Jose’s attacking puissance (Kitten-Level, Unlocked!), and that says something about converting possession into chances or maybe less pathetic shots. All the same, I’ve seen Earthquakes teams look effective and smart with the ball, but I’ve never seen one look that comfortable playing eternal keep-away. It took a lot of movement to make it work – enough to make me wonder whether they’d fade – and it did work, and maybe that's Matias Almeyda's system in action. From the second Cincinnati lost control or turned over the ball, San Jose would take hold and shuttle it around for a few, often as if they had no particular destination in mind (much like drivers in Hillsboro, Oregon, who I hate with the heat of 1,000 suns.)

As for FC Cincinnati, I wish I had more to say about any player on the field, but there’s not much beyond stray notes, connected only by ten players wearing the same jersey: Alashe’s two, genuinely quality headers on goal, or the fact that Frankie Amaya didn’t look out of place out there; seeing Fanendo Adi take the field breathed a little hope into the dying embers, but is there enough fuel on hand to get a fire going again? Even if Alashe had scored one of those headers – hell, even if he’d scored both – I would’ve put that down as a good result, but could I call it a good game? Not really, no.

When I look at the game and the roster for a place to hang my hat, I can only find the same one that’s always been there. FC Cincinnati is hard to break down (well, usually), and that’s per design and specifications. The team is playing as it was built so what else is there to say besides, I want a better hook for my hat, dammit (maybe something closer to the microwave). As much as Cincinnati’s 12 shots says “decent numbers for a road game” – and those are numbers that can get results - none of them looked constructed or like blazing a trail to future goals - e.g., “the left is really working” or “good things happen when they find (say) Darren Mattocks with (say) a long diagonal.” Whether the team’s brain-trust planned it this way, the attacking tactics look a lot like get forward and get in crosses – or at least that’s what happened 21 times yesterday.

I want to close with a confession, even if it puts me in an unflattering light when it comes to both cheering for and commenting on FC Cincinnati. As the minute ticks up during their games and, more often than not, the action gets more circular and less interesting, I find my attention drifting to the team they’re playing – i.e., what they’re doing, both with the ball and without it. With so little to hold my attention last night (“yeah, San Jose’s still got the ball”), I spared a thought to what might cause that drift. The best that I could come up with was the idea that I may as well watch the other team on the grounds they're more likely to do something besides more of the same with the rest of their season. The future that currently extends forward for FC Cincinnati looks like a slow-moving parade of close losses, maybe with the odd draw thrown in to spice up the marriage (couple's therapy!). And, per the law of averages, I’m sure they’ll get a nice, fun win somewhere between here and August, never mind October. What I’m not seeing though is a corner of any kind where Cincinnati makes a turn to a brighter future – not with this roster, and against MLS competition.

I very much want to be wrong about that by the way. On the plus side, spacing out watching San Jose gave me a little more to work with around them. Impressed as I was by all that possession (quite a bit), I didn’t see enough to convince me they’re dangerous.