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| See? Already not laughing. |
I’ll start with the confessions: I switched the game off from around the 62nd minute to the 70th and I checked out again before Austin FC scored its fifth goal (I’ve seen it now), but it’s also fair to say I switched off after Austin’s third goal. None of those choice make me feel bad or guilty and, on the plus side, yesterday I learned that I’d rather watch FC Cincinnati play the soccer equivalent of climbing a muddy hill with plastic bags on their feet than FOX’s pregame show. Lord, the fucking “Onside/Offside” segment…
And, to finally put the headline in lights, Cincy lost in Austin 0-5 yesterday. If you want to feel better, stare at The Mothership’s box score for the game for as long as takes for all those numbers and charts to meet closer to the middle. Hell, the MLS in 15 highlights might even cheer you up - e.g., Nicholas Markanich had a couple looks after Austin’s second goal (and hold that thought) and Brandon Vazquez almost made something out of nothing when he chopped the ball across his defender to line up a shot, etc. To get catty about it, the way Vazquez sliced that shot went a little way to explaining how he whiffed on the clearance on the Zan Kolmanic set-piece that led to Austin’s first, second minute goal.
That mishit feels like the right place to start the narrative because, when that first goal went in, chalking it up to some combination of nerves and a bad moment felt like a fair thought to hold, if only for morale’s sake. The happy talk felt a little desperate when yet another defensive blunder left Alex Ring all alone and on-side at the back-post for Austin's second goal, but you could pull it off so long as you smiled till the tears started. Whatever reasonable optimism held the average Cincy fans faith together surely collapsed with the timing and manner of Austin’s third goal, a smooth waltz through an overload that had Cincy’s Tyler Blackett (hold that thought) attempting an unfortunate eenie-meenie-minie-mo and from a step behind throughout the sequence.
From that point forward, the only question that remained was how many more goals Austin would score. Cincy fired a few shots from range early in the second half - a better one by Yuya Kubo (hold that thought) and a worse by Vazquez - but all that filed under keeping up appearances and, if we’re being frank here, that did not happen. Not only did Cincinnati not keep up, it’s not entirely clear that they’ve started moving.
A fourth goal came, crushing in its simplicity, and a fifth, the latter helped along by an over-eager lunge by Zico Bailey that Austin’s Moussa Djitte side-stepped with cartoonish ease. Call the whole thing a comedy of errors, only without the comedy.
The answer of where FC Cincinnati goes from here is painful simple: back home to the Big Tickle where they’ll host a DC United that beat 2022 MLS debutantes, Charlotte FC, 3-0. After that, it’s Orlando City SC away, followed by hosting Inter Miami CF, followed by a road trip to Charlotte, who, like Cincinnati, probably circled that date on their calendar with a note that reads, “if we can’t win this one…”
A second reasonable question: can Cincinnati pick any positives out of the rubble, anything they can build on? If I squint hard/drink enough, I can find enough stray pieces to build the outline of a hopeful idea, but an actual, unsullied positive feels like a stretch. Because I’m the one calling this on a pair of deuces, here those are:
1) I Like the Set-Up
Fairly disastrous execution notwithstanding, I liked Pat Noonan’s structure (Note: Sort of this, but also not quite that?), and that’s whether Cincy set-up in a diamond, per the rumors, or whether they organized around a looser scheme of having Kubo and Allan Cruz play as shuttlers/No. 8s on either side of Junior Moreno who “anchored” the midfield, and with Luciano Acosta playing behind two forwards in what amounts to a three-man attack. I’ll dig into how well that performed below, but the broad idea doesn’t seem crazy.
2) Yuya Kubo Looked Decent
That is my other positive. You can stop picking through the rubble.
Overall, FC Cincinnati slipped off their personal path to redemption on the first step. There is not enough paint in the world to cover that up.
I typically close these posts on talking points - and I’m doing that here as well - but I also usually drop in some notes on the other team. The way Cincinnati played yesterday (i.e., very badly) makes that a little tricky, in that Austin looked like a professional soccer team, while Cincy looked like something I wanted to stop looking at, but for the Fox pre-game show - i.e., men versus…that. Without reading too deeply into any of it, Cecilio Dominguez found good spaces and did well with his chances, same for Sebastian Druissi, and Kolmanic serves a decent set-piece. The only weakness I saw was in around the center-backs - e.g., Julio Cascante is good, but danger-prone and Kip Keller looks like a man ready to collect cards. Basically, I’d wait till they play either better or more developed teams before declaring Austin anything but their 2021 edition…
…which brings this just a few of the things FC Cincinnati needs to work on. In the order they come to me…
1) They Don’t Know What They’re Doing, So Start There
Cincy comes into a fourth season haunted by their first three. I get that, I do. They’re learning a new system from a new coach and growing pains have followed like winter follows fall, etc...
…but, my God, was that shocking, and on both sides of the ball. The players with the ball didn’t seem clear on where to pass it and the players without it didn’t seem to know where to go; pretty much every positive moment followed from individual Cincinnati players busting ass to make the most out of the latest idea - and that’s where guys like Acosta, Kubo and, despite his two left feet, even Vazquez stood out. I hate making this comparison, but when you sit through another full 90 minutes of a team you know well (in my case, the Portland Timbers) and they seem to have those basics down, it is fucking hard to avoid making it. There’s a logic to what the Timbers do with ball movement that all the players understand and operate from it. Moreover, it’s resilient - i.e., they can recover it, even when it breaks down for a while. FC Cincinnati has come nearer to and farther from that basic structure through their time in MLS, but yesterday was one of the far ones.
2) The Defense, Jesus Christ, the Defense
I’m going to openly shit on Cincy’s defense because they don’t have as much of that “new system” excuse. Yesterday, they played a flat-four, anchored by Geoff Cameron and Roland Matarrita on the left. An experienced pro, Raymon Gaddis, held down the right side, which left just one comparative FNG (aka, fucking new guy), Blackett, in a set up that should have been familiar for all concerned. And yet, oh, the things they missed. I saw people shitting online shitting on Gaddis (and you do you on that), but Blackett’s fuck-ups stood out for me, not least because he reached for my all-time greatest pet-peeve after each of them: he raised to try to sell the ref on an offside to mask his mistakes. You won’t need to raise that arm, sir, if you keep up with, say, where the defensive line is (2nd goal) or where the attacking players are on a set-piece (1st goal). I’m not writing off any of those players (not that it would matter if I did), but yesterday’s defensive debacle tops my list of concerns with bells on, and bells hanging from those bells. To put that in perspective, Austin was the lowest-scoring team in MLS last season, and the fourth-worst team overall. In other words, it doesn't get easier from here.
3) Notes on the Press
On the one hand, Austin has a reputation as a pretty solid passing team. On the other, Cincinnati struggled to make its press effective. As I understand it, teams use the high press to force turnovers in advantage positions - something I don’t recall Cincy’s press pulling off more than a couple times. Moreover, when a team breaks a press - especially one that pushes into the opposition’s defensive third, as Cincinnati’s did yesterday - they have acres of space to play out of it. I suspect a team well-versed in the dark arts of pressing has a better sense of how to recover, but Cincy has mostly flirted with the press and under a few different coaches (again, that’s a few coaches over three seasons). I’m not so much saying give up on the press - if I have to credit anything for the blush-saving box score, I’d go with the press - but your players have to know where to go and what to do when it falls apart. And that goes double for the far side of the field. Austin found wide-open paths to escape and victory just by switching the ball at least a half dozen times.
4) Was It Structural?
One thing about the 4-4-2 diamond - which assumes, of course, that Cincy played one - is the enormous amount of work the wide, shuttling players have to do in that set-up, in this case Cruz and Kubo. And this is one of areas where I’m inclined to write-off major problems against the arduous work of learning a new system. If I had to fault Kubo and Cruz for anything, it would be playing too narrow defensively. If I had to point to a reason why, 1) Austin killed Cincy with width and 2) why I was never entirely sure Junior Moreno played yesterday (I only know because they subbed him late), I’d go with a failure to get all the things that hold together the 4-4-2 diamond in place. Austin played around Moreno, basically, often in spaces that created a dilemma between Kubo and Cruz on one side and Gaddis and Matarrita on the other - i.e., who's job was it to step to the attacking player who received the ball wide outside one of the midfielders, but some yards in front of the fullback. That's something that can be navigated, but you have to chart it first.
Well, shit. That went on. Those are far too many words for just one game. What can I say, except that my chest was burdened. It’s lighter now. More later.
And, to finally put the headline in lights, Cincy lost in Austin 0-5 yesterday. If you want to feel better, stare at The Mothership’s box score for the game for as long as takes for all those numbers and charts to meet closer to the middle. Hell, the MLS in 15 highlights might even cheer you up - e.g., Nicholas Markanich had a couple looks after Austin’s second goal (and hold that thought) and Brandon Vazquez almost made something out of nothing when he chopped the ball across his defender to line up a shot, etc. To get catty about it, the way Vazquez sliced that shot went a little way to explaining how he whiffed on the clearance on the Zan Kolmanic set-piece that led to Austin’s first, second minute goal.
That mishit feels like the right place to start the narrative because, when that first goal went in, chalking it up to some combination of nerves and a bad moment felt like a fair thought to hold, if only for morale’s sake. The happy talk felt a little desperate when yet another defensive blunder left Alex Ring all alone and on-side at the back-post for Austin's second goal, but you could pull it off so long as you smiled till the tears started. Whatever reasonable optimism held the average Cincy fans faith together surely collapsed with the timing and manner of Austin’s third goal, a smooth waltz through an overload that had Cincy’s Tyler Blackett (hold that thought) attempting an unfortunate eenie-meenie-minie-mo and from a step behind throughout the sequence.
From that point forward, the only question that remained was how many more goals Austin would score. Cincy fired a few shots from range early in the second half - a better one by Yuya Kubo (hold that thought) and a worse by Vazquez - but all that filed under keeping up appearances and, if we’re being frank here, that did not happen. Not only did Cincinnati not keep up, it’s not entirely clear that they’ve started moving.
A fourth goal came, crushing in its simplicity, and a fifth, the latter helped along by an over-eager lunge by Zico Bailey that Austin’s Moussa Djitte side-stepped with cartoonish ease. Call the whole thing a comedy of errors, only without the comedy.
The answer of where FC Cincinnati goes from here is painful simple: back home to the Big Tickle where they’ll host a DC United that beat 2022 MLS debutantes, Charlotte FC, 3-0. After that, it’s Orlando City SC away, followed by hosting Inter Miami CF, followed by a road trip to Charlotte, who, like Cincinnati, probably circled that date on their calendar with a note that reads, “if we can’t win this one…”
A second reasonable question: can Cincinnati pick any positives out of the rubble, anything they can build on? If I squint hard/drink enough, I can find enough stray pieces to build the outline of a hopeful idea, but an actual, unsullied positive feels like a stretch. Because I’m the one calling this on a pair of deuces, here those are:
1) I Like the Set-Up
Fairly disastrous execution notwithstanding, I liked Pat Noonan’s structure (Note: Sort of this, but also not quite that?), and that’s whether Cincy set-up in a diamond, per the rumors, or whether they organized around a looser scheme of having Kubo and Allan Cruz play as shuttlers/No. 8s on either side of Junior Moreno who “anchored” the midfield, and with Luciano Acosta playing behind two forwards in what amounts to a three-man attack. I’ll dig into how well that performed below, but the broad idea doesn’t seem crazy.
2) Yuya Kubo Looked Decent
That is my other positive. You can stop picking through the rubble.
Overall, FC Cincinnati slipped off their personal path to redemption on the first step. There is not enough paint in the world to cover that up.
I typically close these posts on talking points - and I’m doing that here as well - but I also usually drop in some notes on the other team. The way Cincinnati played yesterday (i.e., very badly) makes that a little tricky, in that Austin looked like a professional soccer team, while Cincy looked like something I wanted to stop looking at, but for the Fox pre-game show - i.e., men versus…that. Without reading too deeply into any of it, Cecilio Dominguez found good spaces and did well with his chances, same for Sebastian Druissi, and Kolmanic serves a decent set-piece. The only weakness I saw was in around the center-backs - e.g., Julio Cascante is good, but danger-prone and Kip Keller looks like a man ready to collect cards. Basically, I’d wait till they play either better or more developed teams before declaring Austin anything but their 2021 edition…
…which brings this just a few of the things FC Cincinnati needs to work on. In the order they come to me…
1) They Don’t Know What They’re Doing, So Start There
Cincy comes into a fourth season haunted by their first three. I get that, I do. They’re learning a new system from a new coach and growing pains have followed like winter follows fall, etc...
…but, my God, was that shocking, and on both sides of the ball. The players with the ball didn’t seem clear on where to pass it and the players without it didn’t seem to know where to go; pretty much every positive moment followed from individual Cincinnati players busting ass to make the most out of the latest idea - and that’s where guys like Acosta, Kubo and, despite his two left feet, even Vazquez stood out. I hate making this comparison, but when you sit through another full 90 minutes of a team you know well (in my case, the Portland Timbers) and they seem to have those basics down, it is fucking hard to avoid making it. There’s a logic to what the Timbers do with ball movement that all the players understand and operate from it. Moreover, it’s resilient - i.e., they can recover it, even when it breaks down for a while. FC Cincinnati has come nearer to and farther from that basic structure through their time in MLS, but yesterday was one of the far ones.
2) The Defense, Jesus Christ, the Defense
I’m going to openly shit on Cincy’s defense because they don’t have as much of that “new system” excuse. Yesterday, they played a flat-four, anchored by Geoff Cameron and Roland Matarrita on the left. An experienced pro, Raymon Gaddis, held down the right side, which left just one comparative FNG (aka, fucking new guy), Blackett, in a set up that should have been familiar for all concerned. And yet, oh, the things they missed. I saw people shitting online shitting on Gaddis (and you do you on that), but Blackett’s fuck-ups stood out for me, not least because he reached for my all-time greatest pet-peeve after each of them: he raised to try to sell the ref on an offside to mask his mistakes. You won’t need to raise that arm, sir, if you keep up with, say, where the defensive line is (2nd goal) or where the attacking players are on a set-piece (1st goal). I’m not writing off any of those players (not that it would matter if I did), but yesterday’s defensive debacle tops my list of concerns with bells on, and bells hanging from those bells. To put that in perspective, Austin was the lowest-scoring team in MLS last season, and the fourth-worst team overall. In other words, it doesn't get easier from here.
3) Notes on the Press
On the one hand, Austin has a reputation as a pretty solid passing team. On the other, Cincinnati struggled to make its press effective. As I understand it, teams use the high press to force turnovers in advantage positions - something I don’t recall Cincy’s press pulling off more than a couple times. Moreover, when a team breaks a press - especially one that pushes into the opposition’s defensive third, as Cincinnati’s did yesterday - they have acres of space to play out of it. I suspect a team well-versed in the dark arts of pressing has a better sense of how to recover, but Cincy has mostly flirted with the press and under a few different coaches (again, that’s a few coaches over three seasons). I’m not so much saying give up on the press - if I have to credit anything for the blush-saving box score, I’d go with the press - but your players have to know where to go and what to do when it falls apart. And that goes double for the far side of the field. Austin found wide-open paths to escape and victory just by switching the ball at least a half dozen times.
4) Was It Structural?
One thing about the 4-4-2 diamond - which assumes, of course, that Cincy played one - is the enormous amount of work the wide, shuttling players have to do in that set-up, in this case Cruz and Kubo. And this is one of areas where I’m inclined to write-off major problems against the arduous work of learning a new system. If I had to fault Kubo and Cruz for anything, it would be playing too narrow defensively. If I had to point to a reason why, 1) Austin killed Cincy with width and 2) why I was never entirely sure Junior Moreno played yesterday (I only know because they subbed him late), I’d go with a failure to get all the things that hold together the 4-4-2 diamond in place. Austin played around Moreno, basically, often in spaces that created a dilemma between Kubo and Cruz on one side and Gaddis and Matarrita on the other - i.e., who's job was it to step to the attacking player who received the ball wide outside one of the midfielders, but some yards in front of the fullback. That's something that can be navigated, but you have to chart it first.
Well, shit. That went on. Those are far too many words for just one game. What can I say, except that my chest was burdened. It’s lighter now. More later.
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