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| Because no one wants to look at piles of shit. |
Is there anything more to say than FC Cincinnati got beat comprehensively by a better team? Even with some surprises in the numbers - e.g., Cincinnati nearly tied Nashville SC for total shots (…when?) - but the real-time action and the balance of the numbers (0.3 xG for Cincy) all bear out the final verdict: an easy-breezy 3-0 win for Nashville.
The game started (very) poorly, and with a soft goal, and the only “but for” Cincinnati fans can point to is that time Brenner spun a Nashville defender near the center stripe and ran in alone on Joe Willis…only to see Taylor Washington take it off his toes at the decisive moment. Cincy was just one goal down at that point, so who knows what might have been? Back in the real-world, and outside that, I counted one good attacking move for Cincinnati - Brenner combining with Edgar Castillo and Luciano Acosta somewhere around the 50th minute - but that was the most they troubled Nashville’s defense, aka, certainly more than Joe Gyau’s spazzing raid up the middle or Haris Medunjanin’s free-kick from deep-left in Nashville’s defensive third.
The craziest numbers I see are possession/number of passes, the only area where one can argue Cincinnati ran up the numbers. Literally nothing came of that because Cincinnati struggled mightily to play through what I’d call “in-fill” by Nashville, a spin on the concept of pressing. The basics of the tactic (and it’s something I see against the Portland Timbers a fair amount) seek to clog the passing lanes inside your opponent’s half; it gets pressure to the ball, but without chasing it all over, and it mostly works by getting in the way. For all…wow, 653 passes made (again….when?), Cincinnati couldn’t get much of anywhere, at least not up the field. Nashville reined in the line sometime in the 2nd half, but that only translated to Cincinnati dicking around with the ball in a different part of the field.
To wrap up Nashville, I’ll start by thanking C. J. Sapong for backing up my prediction that he’d factor into the result - though I can’t say I saw a two goal, three assist game when I typed that into twitter….golly, last Wednesday. All in all, this was a pretty straightforward case of a team having a couple more piles of its shit together going against one with their piles a little more scattered and disconnected; Nashville hasn’t lost in seven games for a reason and they’re playing even against some of the best in the Eastern Conference (e.g., a 1-0 home win over the Philadelphia Union and a goal-less road draw at Columbus Crew SC). FC Cincinnati, meanwhile, is not.
Now, on to the 5 Thoughts:
1) Only the First Goal Made Me Angry
That Nashville fired only eight shots and scored on three tells you Cincinnati did some things reasonably well on defense. That said, and as much as I didn’t like seeing Randall Leal and Sapong run through Cincinnati’s whole goddamn left side on their own, that paled to seeing three Cincy players within arm’s reach (or thereabouts) of Hany Mukhtar and all of them still giving him all the time in the world to fire in the cross that lead to Nashville’s first goal. How to undo good work in the blink of an eye. I don’t want to say the game was over after Cincinnati went down two - because the Montreal game - but no one does themselves any favors by starting in the hole.
2) An Experiment(?) That Failed
As someone who has called for a stouter defensive midfield set-up and getting Acosta closer to goal, I’m duty-bound to acknowledge that theory took a big hit yesterday. Jaap Stam putting Caleb Stanko and Yuya Kubo on either side of Medunjanin is pretty much what I had in mind (only with the absent Allan Cruz in for Kubo) and…well, it did not succeed. What Cincy needs as much as anything is one player who combines Cruz’s bite with Medunjanin’s passing range - forward passes, in particular - but that’s just something they have to get….and, to answer the question about how a team that originally built around defensive midfielders failed to find even one of those, I refer you to statements above about shit and having it together. Related…
3) The Difference Between a Problem and a Solution
Joe Gyau isn’t a terrible player - that’s to say, he is not an actual problem on the roster. Sadly, he’s also not a solution. While this isn’t always true, Kubo was both a problem and not a solution yesterday, but he has pretty consistently been a cross between a warm body and (if only in Stam’s mind) the least-bad option for a position of need. Cincinnati has a roster full of players who walk perilously close to this line - e.g., what I've seen from Kamohelo Mokotjo hasn't screamed "solution" (but it does whisper "problem") - and that’s a lot of noise to overcome for any functioning player on the roster...
…and, yeah, that’s it. I’m out of thoughts. A hopeful window opened when Cincinnati beat Chicago Fire FC and Toronto FC in back-to-back away games back in Weeks 8 & 9, but the last five winless games has shut it. It wasn’t an easy stretch by any means (@ HOU, v CLB, @ MTL, v ATL, @ NSH), so when I tweeted that Cincy needed to win that home game against Atlanta, I said that because it looked like their best chance to stay in touch with the playoff pack. Instead, they’re seven points below the playoff line and with what strike me as better teams, both in form and structure, between them and that playoff line. OK, wait, came up with two more thoughts:
4) The Pattern Isn’t Good
See paragraph above. And, finally…
5) Thank God for Inter Miami CF
And do you want this wooden spoon?
Assuming they can make it happen, there’s nothing wrong with making “stop being the worst team in MLS” a goal for your season. Sadly, that’s a far cry from reaching the playoffs for the first time…which will take a miracle with this current FC Cincinnati team.
The game started (very) poorly, and with a soft goal, and the only “but for” Cincinnati fans can point to is that time Brenner spun a Nashville defender near the center stripe and ran in alone on Joe Willis…only to see Taylor Washington take it off his toes at the decisive moment. Cincy was just one goal down at that point, so who knows what might have been? Back in the real-world, and outside that, I counted one good attacking move for Cincinnati - Brenner combining with Edgar Castillo and Luciano Acosta somewhere around the 50th minute - but that was the most they troubled Nashville’s defense, aka, certainly more than Joe Gyau’s spazzing raid up the middle or Haris Medunjanin’s free-kick from deep-left in Nashville’s defensive third.
The craziest numbers I see are possession/number of passes, the only area where one can argue Cincinnati ran up the numbers. Literally nothing came of that because Cincinnati struggled mightily to play through what I’d call “in-fill” by Nashville, a spin on the concept of pressing. The basics of the tactic (and it’s something I see against the Portland Timbers a fair amount) seek to clog the passing lanes inside your opponent’s half; it gets pressure to the ball, but without chasing it all over, and it mostly works by getting in the way. For all…wow, 653 passes made (again….when?), Cincinnati couldn’t get much of anywhere, at least not up the field. Nashville reined in the line sometime in the 2nd half, but that only translated to Cincinnati dicking around with the ball in a different part of the field.
To wrap up Nashville, I’ll start by thanking C. J. Sapong for backing up my prediction that he’d factor into the result - though I can’t say I saw a two goal, three assist game when I typed that into twitter….golly, last Wednesday. All in all, this was a pretty straightforward case of a team having a couple more piles of its shit together going against one with their piles a little more scattered and disconnected; Nashville hasn’t lost in seven games for a reason and they’re playing even against some of the best in the Eastern Conference (e.g., a 1-0 home win over the Philadelphia Union and a goal-less road draw at Columbus Crew SC). FC Cincinnati, meanwhile, is not.
Now, on to the 5 Thoughts:
1) Only the First Goal Made Me Angry
That Nashville fired only eight shots and scored on three tells you Cincinnati did some things reasonably well on defense. That said, and as much as I didn’t like seeing Randall Leal and Sapong run through Cincinnati’s whole goddamn left side on their own, that paled to seeing three Cincy players within arm’s reach (or thereabouts) of Hany Mukhtar and all of them still giving him all the time in the world to fire in the cross that lead to Nashville’s first goal. How to undo good work in the blink of an eye. I don’t want to say the game was over after Cincinnati went down two - because the Montreal game - but no one does themselves any favors by starting in the hole.
2) An Experiment(?) That Failed
As someone who has called for a stouter defensive midfield set-up and getting Acosta closer to goal, I’m duty-bound to acknowledge that theory took a big hit yesterday. Jaap Stam putting Caleb Stanko and Yuya Kubo on either side of Medunjanin is pretty much what I had in mind (only with the absent Allan Cruz in for Kubo) and…well, it did not succeed. What Cincy needs as much as anything is one player who combines Cruz’s bite with Medunjanin’s passing range - forward passes, in particular - but that’s just something they have to get….and, to answer the question about how a team that originally built around defensive midfielders failed to find even one of those, I refer you to statements above about shit and having it together. Related…
3) The Difference Between a Problem and a Solution
Joe Gyau isn’t a terrible player - that’s to say, he is not an actual problem on the roster. Sadly, he’s also not a solution. While this isn’t always true, Kubo was both a problem and not a solution yesterday, but he has pretty consistently been a cross between a warm body and (if only in Stam’s mind) the least-bad option for a position of need. Cincinnati has a roster full of players who walk perilously close to this line - e.g., what I've seen from Kamohelo Mokotjo hasn't screamed "solution" (but it does whisper "problem") - and that’s a lot of noise to overcome for any functioning player on the roster...
…and, yeah, that’s it. I’m out of thoughts. A hopeful window opened when Cincinnati beat Chicago Fire FC and Toronto FC in back-to-back away games back in Weeks 8 & 9, but the last five winless games has shut it. It wasn’t an easy stretch by any means (@ HOU, v CLB, @ MTL, v ATL, @ NSH), so when I tweeted that Cincy needed to win that home game against Atlanta, I said that because it looked like their best chance to stay in touch with the playoff pack. Instead, they’re seven points below the playoff line and with what strike me as better teams, both in form and structure, between them and that playoff line. OK, wait, came up with two more thoughts:
4) The Pattern Isn’t Good
See paragraph above. And, finally…
5) Thank God for Inter Miami CF
And do you want this wooden spoon?
Assuming they can make it happen, there’s nothing wrong with making “stop being the worst team in MLS” a goal for your season. Sadly, that’s a far cry from reaching the playoffs for the first time…which will take a miracle with this current FC Cincinnati team.
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