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| You know the sound it's making... |
After FC Cincinnati’s 0-2 home loss to the Colorado Rapids, I have two competing thoughts in my head:
1) Cincinnati fans are expecting a lot of progress from basically zero in a little time; and
2) can you fucking blame them at this point?
I want to start all this by centering one very important thought: the Rapids are a good team and they’ve started strong to boot. Their players have their roles and they know them well, they’re good at nearly every position and, since Robin Fraser took over, they’ve become damned good at finding the next pass and the one after that. For further perspective: Colorado has the fourth best record in the whole damn league - and with a game or two in hand against every team above them. There’s no shame in losing to a team like that. With Cincinnati dancing on the edge of another missed ceiling, hell, yeah, the circumstances suck - I mean, they suck - and yet there’s nothing to do but play the next game.
That should not, however, dissuade any FC Cincy fans from letting loose their blazing frustration with a team that has spent two and…think that’s one-fifth seasons failing to gett it together. I saw little moral victories all over the place for Cincinnati yesterday - e.g., an early pass from Luciano Acosta to slip Brenner behind, which was as good as anything I’ve seen in open play all season; the way Cincinnati knocked the Rapids off their rhythm between the two goals; Alvaro Barreal turning in one of his most threatening performances so far, quite literally, etc. - and yet…and yet, the second half of the phrase “moral victory” fades with every game that doesn’t end in actual victory. They don't count in the standings, for one. I didn’t fully digest how many quality shots Cincinnati fired at William Yarbrough’s goal until I reviewed the tape (22 shots, for the record, with 7 forcing a save). It’s hard as hell to see a silver lining, especially with yet another three points thrown away.
The deeper question is when you’ll know they’ve turned things around, both collectively and a way that sticks. And that’s a far slippier question to answer.
It hardly helped that Cincinnati went down a goal -and, sadly, they deserved to. Colorado moved the ball really well over the opening 20+ minutes, shifting Cincinnati back and forth, as well as just-plain back. They added value to that foundation by way of the handy (and predictable) exploit of slipping Michael Barrios behind Cincy’s back-line; he pushed them to the breaking point at least one time before that (it might have been two), but Barrios made no mistake when he finally got around Kenneth Vermeer to set up what would become the Rapids' winning goal. Notably, no one in the midfield tracked Diego Rubio’s run straight up the gut. Multiple players own that breakdown, in other words, and that’s just one more thing to correct.
To flip to some positives, I’d say Cincinnati had a solid 50 minutes from there. Again, they stifled Colorado’s ball movement and did better with their own. On the one hand, that took pulling Acosta away from the goal to start the ball moving forward; on the other, at least it happened. To connect that argument to a number, I don’t think the xG lies: Cincy did a lot of the right thing, but they just couldn’t get it over the literal goal-line. Barreal fired a tricky shot and a good free kick (with caveats) - someone else did too, but I keep forgetting who - Isaac Atanga had a pair of encouraging forays, including the one where he got in behind, and they put real pressure on Yarbrough, et. al. And then, for lack of a gentler phrase, the defense fucked up again.
If I’m worried more about either of Colorado’s goals yesterday, I’d point to their second because the warning signs flashed louder and brighter on that one. First, Cincinnati’s midfield let a passer as skilled as Jack Price run loose in a seam on their right, then the defense let Jonathan Lewis get a step on them, then Vermeer 1) showed to much of the far post and 2) couldn’t manage more reaction than a flinch on Lewis’ shot. Nick Hagglund (who was all right otherwise) came close to running it down, but the collective failure to close shop will haunt FC Cincinnati till they exorcise that particular demon.
To their credit, Cincy kept pressing for goals - again, their xG line spiked late for a reason - but we all know how it ended. As much as I know they’ll replace him (because they have to), I’m really starting to wonder what the time between Jurgen Locadia’s departure and his replacement’s arrival will look like. Related, I’m not feeling great about that gap, not with Cincinnati looking up at the rest of the league from its painfully familiar place at the bottom.
To return to that deeper question, the most optimistic thing I can say is, maybe the turn-around doesn’t come against the Colorado Rapids of the league; I mean, what does it say when they can bring competent options like Lewis, Nicolas Benezet and even Nicolas Mezquida off the bench, while Cincinnati can only answer with more questions - e.g., does Brandon Vazquez belong at this level? Haris Medunjanin gets less likely to turn a game with each one that passes and, with all the subs now identified (and with Locadia leaving soon…right?), how does Cincinnati get past a starting eleven forever stalled on the wrong side of so close, and yet so far?
My best, most positive answer comes with this: you’ll know they’ve turned it around when they start beating teams like Chicago Fire FC (Wednesday would be good, guys), or maybe even a Toronto FC team at odds with itself, or perhaps a middling-to-low-ceiling Houston Dynamo FC. It sucks that all three of those games are away, but those three teams have real, present weaknesses to exploit. And, when you consider that, loss notwithstanding, Cincinnati made the Rapids sweat, that leaves me feeling marginally optimistic about their chances of finally picking up some points…
…and the failure to get at least four points out of the next nine will see me smashing the shit out of both the panic and despair buttons, something that’s far too plausible for comfort, honestly.
That’s it. Some stray notes:
1) For all the good Barreal did out there, he has got to get better about finding other players. The same goes for Atanga, but that really stood out with Barreal. If there's a general failing in the FC Cincy attack, I'd hang it on this collective, mutual blindness.
2) I’d call that Acosta’s best game, or at least his most influential. Either Jaap Stam gave him license to roam all over in search of the game or Acosta just took it. As much as I’d rather he stayed closer to the attack, Cincinnati did its best working the ball up the field when Acosta dropped back to either play the ball or open up space for others; like it or not, the team needed him in that deeper position. That’s still a problem to solve, certainly, but Acosta isn’t the cause of it. Moreover, he should be the beneficiary.
3) Yuya Kubo has embraced the aggression side of his adopted position - a good thing on the whole - but he’s gradually evolving into a personal symbol of the fundamental brokenness of Cincinnati’s starting eleven. I may not be doing justice by Allan Cruz, but, take away that time he (fairly) kicked Yarbrough, I lost sight of him on the pitch; if he impacted the game in either direction, I missed it. Putting #2 and #3 together adds up to a draining and distressing argument that Cincinnati still has not constructed a functioning midfield.
4) Between a persistent failure to find him and what he does with the ball once he gets it, it looks like Cincinnati overpaid for Brenner. The question is how much?
5) Geoff Cameron remains one of my main positives. It was fun watching his repeated battles with Barrios.
And, with a sad trombone sound, that’s it. Hoping to have something happier (and shorter) to report come bed-time Wednesday.
1) Cincinnati fans are expecting a lot of progress from basically zero in a little time; and
2) can you fucking blame them at this point?
I want to start all this by centering one very important thought: the Rapids are a good team and they’ve started strong to boot. Their players have their roles and they know them well, they’re good at nearly every position and, since Robin Fraser took over, they’ve become damned good at finding the next pass and the one after that. For further perspective: Colorado has the fourth best record in the whole damn league - and with a game or two in hand against every team above them. There’s no shame in losing to a team like that. With Cincinnati dancing on the edge of another missed ceiling, hell, yeah, the circumstances suck - I mean, they suck - and yet there’s nothing to do but play the next game.
That should not, however, dissuade any FC Cincy fans from letting loose their blazing frustration with a team that has spent two and…think that’s one-fifth seasons failing to gett it together. I saw little moral victories all over the place for Cincinnati yesterday - e.g., an early pass from Luciano Acosta to slip Brenner behind, which was as good as anything I’ve seen in open play all season; the way Cincinnati knocked the Rapids off their rhythm between the two goals; Alvaro Barreal turning in one of his most threatening performances so far, quite literally, etc. - and yet…and yet, the second half of the phrase “moral victory” fades with every game that doesn’t end in actual victory. They don't count in the standings, for one. I didn’t fully digest how many quality shots Cincinnati fired at William Yarbrough’s goal until I reviewed the tape (22 shots, for the record, with 7 forcing a save). It’s hard as hell to see a silver lining, especially with yet another three points thrown away.
The deeper question is when you’ll know they’ve turned things around, both collectively and a way that sticks. And that’s a far slippier question to answer.
It hardly helped that Cincinnati went down a goal -and, sadly, they deserved to. Colorado moved the ball really well over the opening 20+ minutes, shifting Cincinnati back and forth, as well as just-plain back. They added value to that foundation by way of the handy (and predictable) exploit of slipping Michael Barrios behind Cincy’s back-line; he pushed them to the breaking point at least one time before that (it might have been two), but Barrios made no mistake when he finally got around Kenneth Vermeer to set up what would become the Rapids' winning goal. Notably, no one in the midfield tracked Diego Rubio’s run straight up the gut. Multiple players own that breakdown, in other words, and that’s just one more thing to correct.
To flip to some positives, I’d say Cincinnati had a solid 50 minutes from there. Again, they stifled Colorado’s ball movement and did better with their own. On the one hand, that took pulling Acosta away from the goal to start the ball moving forward; on the other, at least it happened. To connect that argument to a number, I don’t think the xG lies: Cincy did a lot of the right thing, but they just couldn’t get it over the literal goal-line. Barreal fired a tricky shot and a good free kick (with caveats) - someone else did too, but I keep forgetting who - Isaac Atanga had a pair of encouraging forays, including the one where he got in behind, and they put real pressure on Yarbrough, et. al. And then, for lack of a gentler phrase, the defense fucked up again.
If I’m worried more about either of Colorado’s goals yesterday, I’d point to their second because the warning signs flashed louder and brighter on that one. First, Cincinnati’s midfield let a passer as skilled as Jack Price run loose in a seam on their right, then the defense let Jonathan Lewis get a step on them, then Vermeer 1) showed to much of the far post and 2) couldn’t manage more reaction than a flinch on Lewis’ shot. Nick Hagglund (who was all right otherwise) came close to running it down, but the collective failure to close shop will haunt FC Cincinnati till they exorcise that particular demon.
To their credit, Cincy kept pressing for goals - again, their xG line spiked late for a reason - but we all know how it ended. As much as I know they’ll replace him (because they have to), I’m really starting to wonder what the time between Jurgen Locadia’s departure and his replacement’s arrival will look like. Related, I’m not feeling great about that gap, not with Cincinnati looking up at the rest of the league from its painfully familiar place at the bottom.
To return to that deeper question, the most optimistic thing I can say is, maybe the turn-around doesn’t come against the Colorado Rapids of the league; I mean, what does it say when they can bring competent options like Lewis, Nicolas Benezet and even Nicolas Mezquida off the bench, while Cincinnati can only answer with more questions - e.g., does Brandon Vazquez belong at this level? Haris Medunjanin gets less likely to turn a game with each one that passes and, with all the subs now identified (and with Locadia leaving soon…right?), how does Cincinnati get past a starting eleven forever stalled on the wrong side of so close, and yet so far?
My best, most positive answer comes with this: you’ll know they’ve turned it around when they start beating teams like Chicago Fire FC (Wednesday would be good, guys), or maybe even a Toronto FC team at odds with itself, or perhaps a middling-to-low-ceiling Houston Dynamo FC. It sucks that all three of those games are away, but those three teams have real, present weaknesses to exploit. And, when you consider that, loss notwithstanding, Cincinnati made the Rapids sweat, that leaves me feeling marginally optimistic about their chances of finally picking up some points…
…and the failure to get at least four points out of the next nine will see me smashing the shit out of both the panic and despair buttons, something that’s far too plausible for comfort, honestly.
That’s it. Some stray notes:
1) For all the good Barreal did out there, he has got to get better about finding other players. The same goes for Atanga, but that really stood out with Barreal. If there's a general failing in the FC Cincy attack, I'd hang it on this collective, mutual blindness.
2) I’d call that Acosta’s best game, or at least his most influential. Either Jaap Stam gave him license to roam all over in search of the game or Acosta just took it. As much as I’d rather he stayed closer to the attack, Cincinnati did its best working the ball up the field when Acosta dropped back to either play the ball or open up space for others; like it or not, the team needed him in that deeper position. That’s still a problem to solve, certainly, but Acosta isn’t the cause of it. Moreover, he should be the beneficiary.
3) Yuya Kubo has embraced the aggression side of his adopted position - a good thing on the whole - but he’s gradually evolving into a personal symbol of the fundamental brokenness of Cincinnati’s starting eleven. I may not be doing justice by Allan Cruz, but, take away that time he (fairly) kicked Yarbrough, I lost sight of him on the pitch; if he impacted the game in either direction, I missed it. Putting #2 and #3 together adds up to a draining and distressing argument that Cincinnati still has not constructed a functioning midfield.
4) Between a persistent failure to find him and what he does with the ball once he gets it, it looks like Cincinnati overpaid for Brenner. The question is how much?
5) Geoff Cameron remains one of my main positives. It was fun watching his repeated battles with Barrios.
And, with a sad trombone sound, that’s it. Hoping to have something happier (and shorter) to report come bed-time Wednesday.
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