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| It's good up here. |
“It’s like watching a sunset that no one would bother to comment on.”
“And why does Geoff Cameron always looked so fevered when the camera cuts close, like he just killed somebody or something. Is that some kind of resting face?”
“The question of which Minnesota team shows up matters as much as anything, but, so long as Cincy can settle into the game and keep Minnesota generally in front of them, I feel good about them getting a point out of this one. And, unlike past seasons, they’ve improved enough at picking pockets that three points isn’t crazy (even if it remains, in my mind, crazy unlikely)…”
The first two quotes above are tweets I wrote during the second half of FC Cincinnati’s 1-0 great, because it came late, road win over Minnesota United FC. A scheduling conflict caused me to miss the first half - so maybe I wasn’t…fully invested in the game - but the game really did look like a whole lot of half-frantic nothing by that time - i.e., two teams taking chances, but not too many and none of them very big.
The third quote comes from the preview I posted for this game last Friday. I appreciate that only assholes quote themselves (“And I’m quoting myself here” is a legitimate cause for punching a fella), and the thought itself is vague enough to apply to somewhere around 86% of road games in soccer, but, I’d like to think that Brandon Vazquez’s post-90 winner slots nicely into the space in between “isn’t crazy” and “crazy unlikely.” That said, it followed from a remarkable situation, one that broke the mold of taking chances, because Cincy had committed over half the team into Minnesota’s defensive third - again, after the 90th minute. The move started down the left and the Loons defense choked off that avenue, but it took just two passes to get the ball over to Cincinnati’s right where Luciano Acosta suddenly found himself drunk with options. He went with a good one - Calvin Harris’ run around and against the depth of Minnesota’s defense - and, when Bakaye Dibassy and Oniel Fisher failed to track Vazquez’s run (and in somewhat shocking fashion, honestly), that left Cincy’s leading goal-scorer with something close to a tap-in. I, along with Michael Boxall, couldn’t believe it.
I think every FC Cincinnati fan knows they made history yesterday - i.e., three straight wins for the first time in its MLS history. That doesn’t just feel good - though it very much does - those three wins have put Cincy to within four points of their (fucking) total points for 2021, and at just one-third of the way into the 2022 season. People parsing the subtext of the preview could see I kept my guard pretty high going into this game, but I’m just gonna let myself feel good about not just yesterday’s win, but pretty much everything going on around the Orange and Blue this season.
Now, had I watched the first half (just did), the way the game ended would have surprised me a lot less. I didn’t pay close attention to every chance Minnesota had as I watched last night (see quoted tweets, but also making dinner), but, now that I’ve watched the first half, I know Cincy created the better chances all game. That one little scoop Acosta lifted to Dominique Badji in the gap behind Boxall and Dibassy bested anything I saw from Minnesota, with the possible exception of Bongokuhle Hlongwane’s streak up Cincy’s left in the first half. Overall, though, Cincinnati had the better shots and more of them.
The xG graph for this game tells the story as well as all the above, honestly. Minnesota applied heavy, if aimless pressure over the first 15-20 - most of their best stuff played out as corner kicks and free kicks around the area* - but the game largely evened out from there. Basically, Cincinnati settled into the game and, once they got their legs under them, they started to play. * For all the risks posed by the fouls/freekicks combination, I liked seeing Cincy’s defenders…communicate their presence to Minnesota’s attackers early in the game; that set a nice tone, if not the right one, and without crossing over into anything truly reckless. Credit Pat Noonan and the Cincinnati coaching/brain trust as a whole for managing this game, and well.
I don’t have a lot more on this game. If Cincinnati showed any real weakness, it was down Zico Bailey’s side of the field - hence Alvas Powell coming on at the half - but, again, Minnesota didn’t do much damage to the overall edifice: I think Roman Celentano made one good save, but I didn’t note when or against how (Franco Fragapane? maybe?; whoa, the box score shows five saves); Nick Hagglund, who played as strong a game as I’ve seen from him all season, had one of those moments that contained all things when he whiffed on a cross to Adrien Hunou then cleaned up his own mess two strides later with a perfect block. And, once again, Obinna Nwodobo continues to look like the addition FC Cincinnati has waited for since 2018; the man is everywhere, doing everything, all at once - e.g., he’s safe on the ball, so he makes a good outlet, he reads potentialities really well (e.g., the time he positioned himself in Cincy’s area to cut out a likely cut-back), and he bites hard, but not dangerously…at least not overly.
FC Cincinnati finally looks like a team, one with good and useful parts playing where they should be. They’re fifth in the East as I type this, and they’ll stay there by the end of today, even if Toronto FC, the only Eastern Conference team in action today, wins their (frankly sad) game (they’re away to the Vancouver Whitecaps, currently the worst team in MLS). I appreciate such things can be fleeting - not least because they have been in the past - and I don’t know want to jinx it, but the view really does look different from a couple rungs up the ladder. Good shit, man.
“And why does Geoff Cameron always looked so fevered when the camera cuts close, like he just killed somebody or something. Is that some kind of resting face?”
“The question of which Minnesota team shows up matters as much as anything, but, so long as Cincy can settle into the game and keep Minnesota generally in front of them, I feel good about them getting a point out of this one. And, unlike past seasons, they’ve improved enough at picking pockets that three points isn’t crazy (even if it remains, in my mind, crazy unlikely)…”
The first two quotes above are tweets I wrote during the second half of FC Cincinnati’s 1-0 great, because it came late, road win over Minnesota United FC. A scheduling conflict caused me to miss the first half - so maybe I wasn’t…fully invested in the game - but the game really did look like a whole lot of half-frantic nothing by that time - i.e., two teams taking chances, but not too many and none of them very big.
The third quote comes from the preview I posted for this game last Friday. I appreciate that only assholes quote themselves (“And I’m quoting myself here” is a legitimate cause for punching a fella), and the thought itself is vague enough to apply to somewhere around 86% of road games in soccer, but, I’d like to think that Brandon Vazquez’s post-90 winner slots nicely into the space in between “isn’t crazy” and “crazy unlikely.” That said, it followed from a remarkable situation, one that broke the mold of taking chances, because Cincy had committed over half the team into Minnesota’s defensive third - again, after the 90th minute. The move started down the left and the Loons defense choked off that avenue, but it took just two passes to get the ball over to Cincinnati’s right where Luciano Acosta suddenly found himself drunk with options. He went with a good one - Calvin Harris’ run around and against the depth of Minnesota’s defense - and, when Bakaye Dibassy and Oniel Fisher failed to track Vazquez’s run (and in somewhat shocking fashion, honestly), that left Cincy’s leading goal-scorer with something close to a tap-in. I, along with Michael Boxall, couldn’t believe it.
I think every FC Cincinnati fan knows they made history yesterday - i.e., three straight wins for the first time in its MLS history. That doesn’t just feel good - though it very much does - those three wins have put Cincy to within four points of their (fucking) total points for 2021, and at just one-third of the way into the 2022 season. People parsing the subtext of the preview could see I kept my guard pretty high going into this game, but I’m just gonna let myself feel good about not just yesterday’s win, but pretty much everything going on around the Orange and Blue this season.
Now, had I watched the first half (just did), the way the game ended would have surprised me a lot less. I didn’t pay close attention to every chance Minnesota had as I watched last night (see quoted tweets, but also making dinner), but, now that I’ve watched the first half, I know Cincy created the better chances all game. That one little scoop Acosta lifted to Dominique Badji in the gap behind Boxall and Dibassy bested anything I saw from Minnesota, with the possible exception of Bongokuhle Hlongwane’s streak up Cincy’s left in the first half. Overall, though, Cincinnati had the better shots and more of them.
The xG graph for this game tells the story as well as all the above, honestly. Minnesota applied heavy, if aimless pressure over the first 15-20 - most of their best stuff played out as corner kicks and free kicks around the area* - but the game largely evened out from there. Basically, Cincinnati settled into the game and, once they got their legs under them, they started to play. * For all the risks posed by the fouls/freekicks combination, I liked seeing Cincy’s defenders…communicate their presence to Minnesota’s attackers early in the game; that set a nice tone, if not the right one, and without crossing over into anything truly reckless. Credit Pat Noonan and the Cincinnati coaching/brain trust as a whole for managing this game, and well.
I don’t have a lot more on this game. If Cincinnati showed any real weakness, it was down Zico Bailey’s side of the field - hence Alvas Powell coming on at the half - but, again, Minnesota didn’t do much damage to the overall edifice: I think Roman Celentano made one good save, but I didn’t note when or against how (Franco Fragapane? maybe?; whoa, the box score shows five saves); Nick Hagglund, who played as strong a game as I’ve seen from him all season, had one of those moments that contained all things when he whiffed on a cross to Adrien Hunou then cleaned up his own mess two strides later with a perfect block. And, once again, Obinna Nwodobo continues to look like the addition FC Cincinnati has waited for since 2018; the man is everywhere, doing everything, all at once - e.g., he’s safe on the ball, so he makes a good outlet, he reads potentialities really well (e.g., the time he positioned himself in Cincy’s area to cut out a likely cut-back), and he bites hard, but not dangerously…at least not overly.
FC Cincinnati finally looks like a team, one with good and useful parts playing where they should be. They’re fifth in the East as I type this, and they’ll stay there by the end of today, even if Toronto FC, the only Eastern Conference team in action today, wins their (frankly sad) game (they’re away to the Vancouver Whitecaps, currently the worst team in MLS). I appreciate such things can be fleeting - not least because they have been in the past - and I don’t know want to jinx it, but the view really does look different from a couple rungs up the ladder. Good shit, man.
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