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| Now picture it non-linear. |
Because I know FC Cincinnati fans have picked apart this game since Friday night, let’s call this a preview for tomorrow night…if without any real nnotes on Chicago Fire FC, who I haven’t watched at all since they shat out that shocker against the Seattle Sounders back during MLS Got Back. And it will be brief. Promise.
All in all, the game lacked in goals, intensity…shots on goal…just lacked really, and ended appropriately goal-less. Worse, this current DC United team is already a bugger to handicap against - and then Cincy played to type on both sides of the equation. Cincinnati didn’t score, but Frederic Brillant, Steve Birnbaum and Bill Hamid put up one hell of a wall for DC week in and out, so that doesn’t give you much. Cincinnati looked easy-breezy in defense and didn’t give DC more than a couple scraps (often with a well-arranged wall between the shooter and the goal to boot), but DC hasn’t generated either reliable or voluminous offense for a couple seasons, and now you have less with which to work. What we had here was a game that played out to expectations and moved no needles.
I think that’ll be a familiar sensation for both these teams for as long as this wonky bastard of a 2020 season limps along to…shit, where will it go? Simple sons-o’-bitches that they are, at least zombies know where they’re going - e.g., toward brains - but the Major League Soccer’s 2020 doesn’t have even that kind of direction. If anything, and for what it’s worth, I’d rather be a Cincinnati fan right now than a DC fan. While both teams labor under a work-in-progress incoherence, Cincinnati continues to integrate and arrange new, upgraded players - they even have someone shiny, new, and, ideally, specifically useful coming into the team - while, from a barely-interested distance, it looks like DC’s still waiting for Edson Flores to come good…or even start regularly.
On that, I worried a little that Flores or Federico Higuian would come in and take over the game, but, odd quality passes here or there (see below), I didn’t see any takers for that whole business of taking over the game.
That’s all I have for general commentary - it’ll specifics from here on out - but, to answer the big question, was this a good result for either team? Was it awful, though, from Cincy’s end (I can’t answer for DC)? Can the answer be no, while also acknowledging vital improvement. So long as one accepts the premise that Cincinnati’s defense left a gasping offense for dead in 2019, any and all clean sheets necessarily count as an upgrade…even if there is a finite, if-as-yet-undefined period after which goal-less draws stop counting as necessary progress and slouch to just plain old stagnation. And that’s the point of the departure for the detail work. In no particular order…
- Frank Amaya finally convinced me (and not just to call him Frank, or whatever he prefers). He posted one of Cincy’s better shots toward goal, for one, but I was more impressed to see him show he can give the team what it needs going both ways - a jail-breaker pass to Jurgen Locadia and a series of scrappy defensive tackles. Regardless of where his career goes from here, Amaya presented as a convincing two-way player for the first time on Friday. I don’t know what it took, but I’m finally seeing what everyone else seems to.
- The midfield “situation” (hereafter, and until it’s resolved, The Midfield Situation), however, remains live. I know - or rather, I take it on faith - that Kamohelo Mokotjo will fill one of the starting midfield spots once he arrives. Because I can’t have an opinion on how or where he’ll fit (“he can play as a defensive midfielder or in more of a box-to-box role”) until I watch him play, I don’t see much point in posing my favorite questions - e.g., whether Mokotjo can play in a way that allows Haris Medunjanin to get on the field that makes him…y’know, work, or who “wins out” between Amaya and Allan Cruz, or what the hell happens with Siem de Jong, and so on. A couple points follow from that…
- 1) I don’t believe that Caleb Stanko has a storied future ahead of him in Cincinnati, but I do believe he’s been one of the more key players in buying them time and helping them find their feet. He deserves a gold star or three, or maybe even something more impressive. Not a contract necessarily, especially if that doesn't make sense for the roster, but the man has done a service.
- 2) I didn’t remember anything about Yuya Kubo playing until I saw him take a shot during today’s MLS-in-15 refresher; the same goes for de Jong, who played a couple decent set-pieces. I’m not seeing Kubo’s role in the line-up at this point, while remaining open to it, and I have no goddamn idea on what they want to do with de Jong. Or Medunjanin. Or Cruz/Amaya. It’s like watching someone refuse to finish a chess move, dammit.
- Last one, and in the same vein, I still don’t know what to make of Locadia beyond acknowledging how much different this whole goddamn post would read had he fired his late, great attempt on goal a couple inches to the right. For what it’s worth (which is all I have right now), Locadia’s mechanics look good, he looks like he has a good shot and he’s getting clean shots, while also thinking that Cincinnati needs to get him closer to goal, and to get players closer to him when he’s closer to goal.
(A) PREVIEW
I want to see Cincinnati try to get after Chicago. The Fire has the kind of numbers (4 goals scored, 11 allowed, -7) that properly invite a team to try shit. I don’t care how they do it - hell, just plant Stanko in front of Waston and [______], keep Mathieu Deplagne home and let Andrew Gutman fly forward - and try get as much dynamism out of whoever else you field, and wherever you feed them. I’m less interested in watching Cincinnati focus on building from the back or keep perfectly tight lines than I am to see them keep an eternally shaky team (e.g., Chicago) under pressure for as long and as often as possible. Chicago has some strong pieces - e.g., Robert Beric looks promising, while Przemyslaw Frankowski have a decent history of causing problems and/or goals - but this feels like a situation of, when you smell chum…
We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I’ll report back same night this time.
All in all, the game lacked in goals, intensity…shots on goal…just lacked really, and ended appropriately goal-less. Worse, this current DC United team is already a bugger to handicap against - and then Cincy played to type on both sides of the equation. Cincinnati didn’t score, but Frederic Brillant, Steve Birnbaum and Bill Hamid put up one hell of a wall for DC week in and out, so that doesn’t give you much. Cincinnati looked easy-breezy in defense and didn’t give DC more than a couple scraps (often with a well-arranged wall between the shooter and the goal to boot), but DC hasn’t generated either reliable or voluminous offense for a couple seasons, and now you have less with which to work. What we had here was a game that played out to expectations and moved no needles.
I think that’ll be a familiar sensation for both these teams for as long as this wonky bastard of a 2020 season limps along to…shit, where will it go? Simple sons-o’-bitches that they are, at least zombies know where they’re going - e.g., toward brains - but the Major League Soccer’s 2020 doesn’t have even that kind of direction. If anything, and for what it’s worth, I’d rather be a Cincinnati fan right now than a DC fan. While both teams labor under a work-in-progress incoherence, Cincinnati continues to integrate and arrange new, upgraded players - they even have someone shiny, new, and, ideally, specifically useful coming into the team - while, from a barely-interested distance, it looks like DC’s still waiting for Edson Flores to come good…or even start regularly.
On that, I worried a little that Flores or Federico Higuian would come in and take over the game, but, odd quality passes here or there (see below), I didn’t see any takers for that whole business of taking over the game.
That’s all I have for general commentary - it’ll specifics from here on out - but, to answer the big question, was this a good result for either team? Was it awful, though, from Cincy’s end (I can’t answer for DC)? Can the answer be no, while also acknowledging vital improvement. So long as one accepts the premise that Cincinnati’s defense left a gasping offense for dead in 2019, any and all clean sheets necessarily count as an upgrade…even if there is a finite, if-as-yet-undefined period after which goal-less draws stop counting as necessary progress and slouch to just plain old stagnation. And that’s the point of the departure for the detail work. In no particular order…
- Frank Amaya finally convinced me (and not just to call him Frank, or whatever he prefers). He posted one of Cincy’s better shots toward goal, for one, but I was more impressed to see him show he can give the team what it needs going both ways - a jail-breaker pass to Jurgen Locadia and a series of scrappy defensive tackles. Regardless of where his career goes from here, Amaya presented as a convincing two-way player for the first time on Friday. I don’t know what it took, but I’m finally seeing what everyone else seems to.
- The midfield “situation” (hereafter, and until it’s resolved, The Midfield Situation), however, remains live. I know - or rather, I take it on faith - that Kamohelo Mokotjo will fill one of the starting midfield spots once he arrives. Because I can’t have an opinion on how or where he’ll fit (“he can play as a defensive midfielder or in more of a box-to-box role”) until I watch him play, I don’t see much point in posing my favorite questions - e.g., whether Mokotjo can play in a way that allows Haris Medunjanin to get on the field that makes him…y’know, work, or who “wins out” between Amaya and Allan Cruz, or what the hell happens with Siem de Jong, and so on. A couple points follow from that…
- 1) I don’t believe that Caleb Stanko has a storied future ahead of him in Cincinnati, but I do believe he’s been one of the more key players in buying them time and helping them find their feet. He deserves a gold star or three, or maybe even something more impressive. Not a contract necessarily, especially if that doesn't make sense for the roster, but the man has done a service.
- 2) I didn’t remember anything about Yuya Kubo playing until I saw him take a shot during today’s MLS-in-15 refresher; the same goes for de Jong, who played a couple decent set-pieces. I’m not seeing Kubo’s role in the line-up at this point, while remaining open to it, and I have no goddamn idea on what they want to do with de Jong. Or Medunjanin. Or Cruz/Amaya. It’s like watching someone refuse to finish a chess move, dammit.
- Last one, and in the same vein, I still don’t know what to make of Locadia beyond acknowledging how much different this whole goddamn post would read had he fired his late, great attempt on goal a couple inches to the right. For what it’s worth (which is all I have right now), Locadia’s mechanics look good, he looks like he has a good shot and he’s getting clean shots, while also thinking that Cincinnati needs to get him closer to goal, and to get players closer to him when he’s closer to goal.
(A) PREVIEW
I want to see Cincinnati try to get after Chicago. The Fire has the kind of numbers (4 goals scored, 11 allowed, -7) that properly invite a team to try shit. I don’t care how they do it - hell, just plant Stanko in front of Waston and [______], keep Mathieu Deplagne home and let Andrew Gutman fly forward - and try get as much dynamism out of whoever else you field, and wherever you feed them. I’m less interested in watching Cincinnati focus on building from the back or keep perfectly tight lines than I am to see them keep an eternally shaky team (e.g., Chicago) under pressure for as long and as often as possible. Chicago has some strong pieces - e.g., Robert Beric looks promising, while Przemyslaw Frankowski have a decent history of causing problems and/or goals - but this feels like a situation of, when you smell chum…
We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I’ll report back same night this time.
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