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| Shit, that looks stupid... |
I always expected that FC Cincinnati would weather another blow-out, just not like this. Objectively(?), the team needs to sort out how to come out and play and, had they lost 0-3 to Chicago Fire FC - yes, the undisputed kings of Major League Soccer rebranding and league’s most popular management across two decades by league-wide fan polls, that Chicago - making some attempt to do that, you could write that off getting singed by the learning curve. But to lose like that because you’re down two goals and you’ve got no present style of play outside a compact low-block? I’d call that cause for concern.
First, I’d dismiss any chatter that calls this a home game for Chicago; till further notice, MLS 2020 is a season without home-field advantage. Second - and this is more for me than you - don’t throw away the good from the last…four games. More to the point, it’s like Cincinnati players didn’t have any moments: Yuya Kubo did well to create his own shot after some decent inter-play up the Cincy’s right with Joe Gyau, Kendall Waston remains a solid (if screamingly obvious) threat on set-pieces, and Frankie Amaya looks more willing to put a team on his back every game; for what it’s worth, I liked Siem de Jong playing deeper and more centrally…yes, I know what I just typed and, yes, that only compounds a very persistent problem, but resolving The Midfield Situation (explained herein) will necessarily involve figuring out who fits where best and why. While that’s something that, ideally, the FC Cincy brain-trust will sort out on the training ground, it’s also something that will inevitably bleed onto the playing field until that happy day when The Midfield Situation meets The Midfield Solution and they move to a beautiful and well-appointed ranch-style home behind a white picket fence, amen, and let it come soon…
…but there’s no looking past the reality that tonight’s loss did not have game states, it had a game state - i.e., around 80 non-sequential minutes of Chicago figuring out how to get through Cincinnati’s turtle-on-its-back low-block. The only time I felt even a flicker of hope that Cincinnati would make them game a fight, never mind turn it around, came at the start of the second half. I figured Jaap Stam had gamed out some alternatives as that dreadful first half wound down, some fresh stage direction and inspiration that would give his team a chance to claw back a goal, maybe even make Chicago sweat a little. Instead, Cincinnati played the game they should have - i.e., hunting the ball, if just to force one issue - only during stoppage time of the first half and, fitfully, in the first five minutes of the second. They collapsed back into their defensive shape and treated the midfield stripe as some time-honored Rubicon they could only cross when a Cincinnati player had possession on either side of that, and got the result they deserved out of it.
Basically, I was able to cling to the hope that Cincinnati defaulted to a crouch over the last 15 minutes of the first half because they lacked instruction. The second half suggested a troubling counter-argument - e.g., it happened because they straight-up don't have a Plan B they trust on the defensive side. The deeper, deeply-inter-related issue is the reason why Cincinnati can’t go down a goal: they suck at goal scoring and chance creation generally, so…
Cincinnati made good on the chances they created during their solid streak, but they barely created any tonight. To pit two pieces of evidence against one another - the total absence of cut-out highlights for Cincy versus the box score - I lend more credence to the editorial call on highlights. I saw the Fire carve open Cincinnati twice over five minutes early in the second half, and that was with them already two goals up, and those didn’t make the highlights, so I don’t see where Cincinnati has any room to complain. The box score shows eight shots for Cincinnati, but they only really got through Chicago once or twice over the full 90. At this point in its existence, Cincy mainly scores through the grace of God or chaos theory. Until that improves, this team needs a strong defense…of which.
Any team that can ill-afford to go down a goal should under no circumstances do so in the second minute. And to do it on a pure switch-off goal (and did it follow from confusion over whether Cincy was playing a 4-4-2, a 5-3-2, or a 3-5-2, or was it just a miscommunication on the pass-off between Gyau and Mathieu Deplagne) after giving up just one goal over the previous four games? I think the word is scandalous. Video evidence suggests that Chicago adopted the same long-diagonal strategy of disrupting Cincinnati’s defense through the air instead of trying to play through the low block to score their second goal as well; Cincy survived the first wave, to their credit, and Alvaro Medran scored a goal pretty enough to take some of the sting away. Ignacio Aliseda’s reinsurance goal, on the other hand, should sear like a red-hot poker. The Fire picked through Cincy’s defense in a way that can only happen when players step to neither space nor player. I’d go so far as to call that goal the symbol of Cincinnati’s defeat. Soccer has its share of words and phrases that we all repeat enough and casually enough to deprive them on functional meaning, and urgency is very much one of those words. I guess that means a cliché killed FC Cincinnati tonight.
To close on some finer points:
- Kamohelo Mokotjo can and can’t arrive soon enough. And yet, when I saw that Haris Medunjanin could neither play nor start tonight, I was grateful as I imagine Stam was to have one less thing to think about. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one team that had so many midfield players who do more or less the same thing in my soccer-watching life. In the here and now, only Amaya’s name is written into the XI in pen, and that’s because he earned it. Honestly, I’d love to get Caleb Stanko off the field, but I have no idea how to do it. And I have even less of an idea on how to get the ball to Jurgen Locadia…
- …of whom, how are feeling about him right about now, FC Cincy fans? Does The Midfield Situation make signing him a case of putting the horse before the cart?
- Back to the midfield, if Amaya looks better centrally and a little deeper than he does high and wide, as does de Jong, and Medunjanin, as does Allan Cruz, and then you add Mokotjo to that mix? Taking that a step further, I don’t think Cincy can play without Stanko unless/until Mokotjo shows up and demonstrates No. 6 traits to render him irrelevant. If Cincinnati can get a dynamic No.6 nailed down, they should be able to get a functioning midfield out of what they have. All I see right now is throwing shit and/or two-way midfielders at the wall and seeing what sticks. At any rate, Cincinnati will get the player(s) they need at some point, just hope they do it at a point where they can ship the players they don’t need for either good money or better options.
I’ve written and deleted a couple conclusions by now, and I think that’s important to acknowledge because I don't rightly know whether to take this game as a blip or a warning. It's possible this is just more transition, but that only makes it more likely to be a blip and a warning, if only in the near-term. Going the other way, one could argue that Cincinnati lost track of the one thing that kept them viable in the bubble - strong defense - but without either giving up or gaining anything. I’m choosing to shake the Etch-a-Sketch and start over. Losses happen. It’s what you do after them that matters.
First, I’d dismiss any chatter that calls this a home game for Chicago; till further notice, MLS 2020 is a season without home-field advantage. Second - and this is more for me than you - don’t throw away the good from the last…four games. More to the point, it’s like Cincinnati players didn’t have any moments: Yuya Kubo did well to create his own shot after some decent inter-play up the Cincy’s right with Joe Gyau, Kendall Waston remains a solid (if screamingly obvious) threat on set-pieces, and Frankie Amaya looks more willing to put a team on his back every game; for what it’s worth, I liked Siem de Jong playing deeper and more centrally…yes, I know what I just typed and, yes, that only compounds a very persistent problem, but resolving The Midfield Situation (explained herein) will necessarily involve figuring out who fits where best and why. While that’s something that, ideally, the FC Cincy brain-trust will sort out on the training ground, it’s also something that will inevitably bleed onto the playing field until that happy day when The Midfield Situation meets The Midfield Solution and they move to a beautiful and well-appointed ranch-style home behind a white picket fence, amen, and let it come soon…
…but there’s no looking past the reality that tonight’s loss did not have game states, it had a game state - i.e., around 80 non-sequential minutes of Chicago figuring out how to get through Cincinnati’s turtle-on-its-back low-block. The only time I felt even a flicker of hope that Cincinnati would make them game a fight, never mind turn it around, came at the start of the second half. I figured Jaap Stam had gamed out some alternatives as that dreadful first half wound down, some fresh stage direction and inspiration that would give his team a chance to claw back a goal, maybe even make Chicago sweat a little. Instead, Cincinnati played the game they should have - i.e., hunting the ball, if just to force one issue - only during stoppage time of the first half and, fitfully, in the first five minutes of the second. They collapsed back into their defensive shape and treated the midfield stripe as some time-honored Rubicon they could only cross when a Cincinnati player had possession on either side of that, and got the result they deserved out of it.
Basically, I was able to cling to the hope that Cincinnati defaulted to a crouch over the last 15 minutes of the first half because they lacked instruction. The second half suggested a troubling counter-argument - e.g., it happened because they straight-up don't have a Plan B they trust on the defensive side. The deeper, deeply-inter-related issue is the reason why Cincinnati can’t go down a goal: they suck at goal scoring and chance creation generally, so…
Cincinnati made good on the chances they created during their solid streak, but they barely created any tonight. To pit two pieces of evidence against one another - the total absence of cut-out highlights for Cincy versus the box score - I lend more credence to the editorial call on highlights. I saw the Fire carve open Cincinnati twice over five minutes early in the second half, and that was with them already two goals up, and those didn’t make the highlights, so I don’t see where Cincinnati has any room to complain. The box score shows eight shots for Cincinnati, but they only really got through Chicago once or twice over the full 90. At this point in its existence, Cincy mainly scores through the grace of God or chaos theory. Until that improves, this team needs a strong defense…of which.
Any team that can ill-afford to go down a goal should under no circumstances do so in the second minute. And to do it on a pure switch-off goal (and did it follow from confusion over whether Cincy was playing a 4-4-2, a 5-3-2, or a 3-5-2, or was it just a miscommunication on the pass-off between Gyau and Mathieu Deplagne) after giving up just one goal over the previous four games? I think the word is scandalous. Video evidence suggests that Chicago adopted the same long-diagonal strategy of disrupting Cincinnati’s defense through the air instead of trying to play through the low block to score their second goal as well; Cincy survived the first wave, to their credit, and Alvaro Medran scored a goal pretty enough to take some of the sting away. Ignacio Aliseda’s reinsurance goal, on the other hand, should sear like a red-hot poker. The Fire picked through Cincy’s defense in a way that can only happen when players step to neither space nor player. I’d go so far as to call that goal the symbol of Cincinnati’s defeat. Soccer has its share of words and phrases that we all repeat enough and casually enough to deprive them on functional meaning, and urgency is very much one of those words. I guess that means a cliché killed FC Cincinnati tonight.
To close on some finer points:
- Kamohelo Mokotjo can and can’t arrive soon enough. And yet, when I saw that Haris Medunjanin could neither play nor start tonight, I was grateful as I imagine Stam was to have one less thing to think about. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one team that had so many midfield players who do more or less the same thing in my soccer-watching life. In the here and now, only Amaya’s name is written into the XI in pen, and that’s because he earned it. Honestly, I’d love to get Caleb Stanko off the field, but I have no idea how to do it. And I have even less of an idea on how to get the ball to Jurgen Locadia…
- …of whom, how are feeling about him right about now, FC Cincy fans? Does The Midfield Situation make signing him a case of putting the horse before the cart?
- Back to the midfield, if Amaya looks better centrally and a little deeper than he does high and wide, as does de Jong, and Medunjanin, as does Allan Cruz, and then you add Mokotjo to that mix? Taking that a step further, I don’t think Cincy can play without Stanko unless/until Mokotjo shows up and demonstrates No. 6 traits to render him irrelevant. If Cincinnati can get a dynamic No.6 nailed down, they should be able to get a functioning midfield out of what they have. All I see right now is throwing shit and/or two-way midfielders at the wall and seeing what sticks. At any rate, Cincinnati will get the player(s) they need at some point, just hope they do it at a point where they can ship the players they don’t need for either good money or better options.
I’ve written and deleted a couple conclusions by now, and I think that’s important to acknowledge because I don't rightly know whether to take this game as a blip or a warning. It's possible this is just more transition, but that only makes it more likely to be a blip and a warning, if only in the near-term. Going the other way, one could argue that Cincinnati lost track of the one thing that kept them viable in the bubble - strong defense - but without either giving up or gaining anything. I’m choosing to shake the Etch-a-Sketch and start over. Losses happen. It’s what you do after them that matters.
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