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| That's just to get the song in your head. As a mnemonic. |
Can I even have five thoughts in my head when one big one - e.g., please don’t do that - drowns out the rest? I mean, is there even room for another thought?
After going up 2-0 in the first half, and Columbus Crew SC going down a man during the same period, FC Cincinnati allowed Columbus back in with two of their own. With that, a game that started brightly as any I’ve ever seen Cincinnati play ended in a 2-2 draw that it’s very hard to feel happy about. But, come, let's try.
Circumstances loom large because, one, the first half might have been the best half of soccer I’ve ever seen FC Cincy play. They got the kind of start every team aims for by pouring numbers forward and taking a chance on catching other team off-guard; Luciano Acosta opened up a world of possibilities when he slithered around Columbus’ left and pulled a grass-cutter into the heart of the penalty area: when Edgar Castillo slammed it home after it appeared go astray, it looked like a night for the unlikely. The idea they owed it all to luck slowly evaporated as Cincinnati paced the game with (overly?) patient passing and ball movement and, from about 20 minutes on, discombobulated a normal steady Crew team with an aggressive, targeted press. That pressure forced Columbus to chase backwards too often and scramble, which scrambling let Cincinnati force in a second goal through (again) Acosta after too many wires got crossed in Columbus’ area.
All the above also caused Columbus to lose their heads a little with Jonathan Mensah, in particular, making a couple statements (aka, tackles) that spoke loudly enough for everyone this side of referee Terry Stott to hear. He ultimately sent off a Crew player, but Stott’s worst habit came with dishing too many cards for the wrong reasons - dissent being one of the dumbest. That’s the worst kind of referee: the guy who loses his cool when people point out he’s wrong. I wasn’t dumb enough to think Cincy had it in the bag when Harrison Afful was shown a second yellow for falling over Acosta from behind, but I failed to see several things coming - with Lucas Zelarayan’s first-half goal being the first thing to come to mind.
I came to the second half about five minutes late (burrito run!), but didn’t see cause for alarm when I settled in again: Columbus withdrew deeper than I thought made sense and just absorbed, absorbed and absorbed some more. To paraphrase the famous saying about bankruptcy, Cincy’s collapse happened gradually then suddenly. When the Crew started to push out of the bunker, they found Cincy’s midfield pretty easy to play through and the work of getting from their defensive third to Cincinnati’s surprisingly easy. Zelarayan’s near-equalizer came from one of those, “well-if-you’re-going-to-let-us-play” moves, and Columbus buried the real thing about 10 minutes later. It was a bizarre/semi-inexplicable moment - after Zelarayan rode one tackle, a decision was made to let him run(?), from which trot he found forward Miguel Berry in a gap between Castillo and Gustavo Vallecilla, a situation in which everyone seemed to see him, but somehow still lost him - and Berry made the finish look easy.
And now five thoughts, starting with the obvious one.
1) A lack of maturity?
You hear that phrase sometimes, and bad defending seems like the simpler answer, but whatever game-plan Cincinnati had for the second half, it feel apart completely on the second goal. On the most basic level, Columbus managed the game when Cincinnati failed to, something that shouldn’t seem all that surprising: they have players whose time goes back three years or more; Cincy, meanwhile, can only go back two and two-thirds seasons and with a constantly changing cast over most of that time. While the Crew have seen their share of turnover over the past two years, they have a core of players who, by virtue of doing what they do on the field, shape a kind of collective muscle memory for the team as a whole. And that’s my stab at defining maturity. Shorter: Cincy didn’t know what to do with its one-man advantage, something Columbus might have scrambled further by bunkering through (what I saw of) the early part of the 2nd half. It was veteran savvy, if you will.
2) Midfield. Again.
Cincinnati still hasn’t quite shaken its knack for making defeating mistakes, and that’s what killed them tonight. Because both goals allowed came from midfield, let’s call that tonight’s scapegoat. I have seen one thing - a yawning gap between a pressing/attacking midfield and the defense - at least a couple times this season, which points to a structural/rotation issue that needs resolving. Sorting out the exact problem would take staring at the video longer than I want to, so I’ll sum up a theory in a word: rotation. Both of Columbus’ goals tonight happened because no Cincinnati midfield player was in a position to step to the decisive pass/play - something that translates to me that the basic principle of, when [a player] steps forward another player either steps back or cheats to cover the space [a player's] move opened up. About that…
3) Terriers, Upside and Downside
Based on the past…largely successful four games, Stam has decided to go with a two-terrier system and, here, said terriers have been Yuya Kubo and Allan Cruz - only Acosta stepped in for Cruz tonight due to the latter’s absence. It works…reasonably well, but some part of me expects that the nature of it - i.e., hunting the ball in midfield - leads to the kinds of tactical breakdowns described above. Am I sure about that? Nah. Call it something to track.
4) Hmmmm…the press…hmm…
I’ve seen Cincinnati press like they did during the best period tonight - i.e., something like telling the guy closest to the ball to chase it until he gets it, or the ball gets closer to someone else, who then chases the ball, and so on - but I also hadn’t seen it pay off the way it did tonight. They can’t do it all game, obviously, and they have a ways to go with questions of timing, frequency and duration…I don’t know if I’m seeing promise or the delusion of it in the tactic. It also wouldn’t bother me if they kept trying it.
5) I Believe in this Line-up
Not to achieve super-stardom or anything, but to compete week-in, week-out in a way that FC Cincinnati hasn't since joining MLS. That doesn't mean it can't be improve upon - I can think of a couple adjustments I'd like Stam to try - but it....functions. I get the logic of it and the players seem to as well. That's new to me.
Not a great feeling, honestly, but doesn’t the fact that this draw feels like a loss say something positive? You probably expect more from FC Cincinnati by now - I know I do - and that’s because they’ve made that a plausible thought in recent weeks. I know I’m not the first to write this, but FC Cincinnati should have won tonight….
…now, count the number of times you’ve said that since, say, the first quarter of 2019 to the present?
After going up 2-0 in the first half, and Columbus Crew SC going down a man during the same period, FC Cincinnati allowed Columbus back in with two of their own. With that, a game that started brightly as any I’ve ever seen Cincinnati play ended in a 2-2 draw that it’s very hard to feel happy about. But, come, let's try.
Circumstances loom large because, one, the first half might have been the best half of soccer I’ve ever seen FC Cincy play. They got the kind of start every team aims for by pouring numbers forward and taking a chance on catching other team off-guard; Luciano Acosta opened up a world of possibilities when he slithered around Columbus’ left and pulled a grass-cutter into the heart of the penalty area: when Edgar Castillo slammed it home after it appeared go astray, it looked like a night for the unlikely. The idea they owed it all to luck slowly evaporated as Cincinnati paced the game with (overly?) patient passing and ball movement and, from about 20 minutes on, discombobulated a normal steady Crew team with an aggressive, targeted press. That pressure forced Columbus to chase backwards too often and scramble, which scrambling let Cincinnati force in a second goal through (again) Acosta after too many wires got crossed in Columbus’ area.
All the above also caused Columbus to lose their heads a little with Jonathan Mensah, in particular, making a couple statements (aka, tackles) that spoke loudly enough for everyone this side of referee Terry Stott to hear. He ultimately sent off a Crew player, but Stott’s worst habit came with dishing too many cards for the wrong reasons - dissent being one of the dumbest. That’s the worst kind of referee: the guy who loses his cool when people point out he’s wrong. I wasn’t dumb enough to think Cincy had it in the bag when Harrison Afful was shown a second yellow for falling over Acosta from behind, but I failed to see several things coming - with Lucas Zelarayan’s first-half goal being the first thing to come to mind.
I came to the second half about five minutes late (burrito run!), but didn’t see cause for alarm when I settled in again: Columbus withdrew deeper than I thought made sense and just absorbed, absorbed and absorbed some more. To paraphrase the famous saying about bankruptcy, Cincy’s collapse happened gradually then suddenly. When the Crew started to push out of the bunker, they found Cincy’s midfield pretty easy to play through and the work of getting from their defensive third to Cincinnati’s surprisingly easy. Zelarayan’s near-equalizer came from one of those, “well-if-you’re-going-to-let-us-play” moves, and Columbus buried the real thing about 10 minutes later. It was a bizarre/semi-inexplicable moment - after Zelarayan rode one tackle, a decision was made to let him run(?), from which trot he found forward Miguel Berry in a gap between Castillo and Gustavo Vallecilla, a situation in which everyone seemed to see him, but somehow still lost him - and Berry made the finish look easy.
And now five thoughts, starting with the obvious one.
1) A lack of maturity?
You hear that phrase sometimes, and bad defending seems like the simpler answer, but whatever game-plan Cincinnati had for the second half, it feel apart completely on the second goal. On the most basic level, Columbus managed the game when Cincinnati failed to, something that shouldn’t seem all that surprising: they have players whose time goes back three years or more; Cincy, meanwhile, can only go back two and two-thirds seasons and with a constantly changing cast over most of that time. While the Crew have seen their share of turnover over the past two years, they have a core of players who, by virtue of doing what they do on the field, shape a kind of collective muscle memory for the team as a whole. And that’s my stab at defining maturity. Shorter: Cincy didn’t know what to do with its one-man advantage, something Columbus might have scrambled further by bunkering through (what I saw of) the early part of the 2nd half. It was veteran savvy, if you will.
2) Midfield. Again.
Cincinnati still hasn’t quite shaken its knack for making defeating mistakes, and that’s what killed them tonight. Because both goals allowed came from midfield, let’s call that tonight’s scapegoat. I have seen one thing - a yawning gap between a pressing/attacking midfield and the defense - at least a couple times this season, which points to a structural/rotation issue that needs resolving. Sorting out the exact problem would take staring at the video longer than I want to, so I’ll sum up a theory in a word: rotation. Both of Columbus’ goals tonight happened because no Cincinnati midfield player was in a position to step to the decisive pass/play - something that translates to me that the basic principle of, when [a player] steps forward another player either steps back or cheats to cover the space [a player's] move opened up. About that…
3) Terriers, Upside and Downside
Based on the past…largely successful four games, Stam has decided to go with a two-terrier system and, here, said terriers have been Yuya Kubo and Allan Cruz - only Acosta stepped in for Cruz tonight due to the latter’s absence. It works…reasonably well, but some part of me expects that the nature of it - i.e., hunting the ball in midfield - leads to the kinds of tactical breakdowns described above. Am I sure about that? Nah. Call it something to track.
4) Hmmmm…the press…hmm…
I’ve seen Cincinnati press like they did during the best period tonight - i.e., something like telling the guy closest to the ball to chase it until he gets it, or the ball gets closer to someone else, who then chases the ball, and so on - but I also hadn’t seen it pay off the way it did tonight. They can’t do it all game, obviously, and they have a ways to go with questions of timing, frequency and duration…I don’t know if I’m seeing promise or the delusion of it in the tactic. It also wouldn’t bother me if they kept trying it.
5) I Believe in this Line-up
Not to achieve super-stardom or anything, but to compete week-in, week-out in a way that FC Cincinnati hasn't since joining MLS. That doesn't mean it can't be improve upon - I can think of a couple adjustments I'd like Stam to try - but it....functions. I get the logic of it and the players seem to as well. That's new to me.
Not a great feeling, honestly, but doesn’t the fact that this draw feels like a loss say something positive? You probably expect more from FC Cincinnati by now - I know I do - and that’s because they’ve made that a plausible thought in recent weeks. I know I’m not the first to write this, but FC Cincinnati should have won tonight….
…now, count the number of times you’ve said that since, say, the first quarter of 2019 to the present?
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