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| Or am I getting carried away? |
I can think of a dozen ways that FC Cincinnati’s 1-1 road draw at the Philadelphia Union would have left me feeling more relieved than happy - most of which involve Cincinnati scoring first and leaving their fans biting their nails bloody to the end.
The actual game reversed those scenarios, almost exactly. If either team made their fans sweat, it was Philly. And who saw that coming?
The draw boosted Cincy back over the playoff line - wherefore I know not why; what the weird hell is MLS using for tie-breakers this season? – but I got a bigger boost out of, 1) seeing them both manage a game that 90% of neutrals would call tricky-on-paper, and 2) doing it with a juggled line-up. Pat Noonan gave several regular starters – e.g., Luciano Acosta, Junior Moreno, Ian Murphy(?), and Dominique Badji(?) – the afternoon off for reasons I missed and that hardly matter now, but that lone detail raises possibilities and expectations at the same time. That’s so say, holy shit, does FC Cincinnati have actual depth?
Geoff Cameron plugged in for Murphy, Haris Medunjanin for Moreno, Alvaro Barreal for Acosta and Brenner for Badji and that make-shift line-up did more than hold up: it grew into the game. Cincinnati was the better team for fair chunks of it, as well as by most of the numbers, and they had the Union misfiring on passes and movement for 50+ of the game’s 90 minutes. The pessimist in me (trust me; that fucker talks loud) wants to temper my expectations with arguments like, “Pat Noonan knows Philly’s system like the back of his hand”; my wee cowering optimist mutters back, “true, but it’s up to the players to execute, and they did.”
In other words, for all the “there but for the grace of” – e.g., the Union’s fairly-hot Daniel Gazdag missing at least two looks he often sees into the goal or Nick Hagglund dodging a red card for his flying demolition of Kai Wagner’s right(?) leg – Cincinnati has good reason to feel like they could have won this game. For perspective, how many people think “that’s three points” right after hearing “Philadelphia on the road”?
They had the necessary first step of answering Alejandro Bedoya’s opening goal, and everything surrounding it. For one, it was a fairly soft goal, if built on admirably hard work from Julian Carranza, but the greater struggle was getting past a Union defense that’s allowing close to half the league average for goals (i.e., they’ve allowed 11 goals, the MLS average is 20.5). Brandon Vazquez – upon whom Philly’s broadcast team heaped superlative praise throughout – paid for Cincy’s equalizer with a blow to the face and it’s hard to think of a better metaphor for player or team in 2022. Doing what’s necessary, getting it done, etc.: if FC Cincinnati ends the season as the worst team in MLS, I have no idea how I’ll handle the shock, but expect it will take an unhealthy share of time alone.
A grand narrative lurks in the above, even if I haven’t mentioned specific timing – i.e., the Union had the upper hand early and down the stretch, while Cincinnati controlled the game in between – and Cincy fired more shots than Philly, and just as many good ones. The video intern who put together the highlights represented all that pretty well in four short minutes, so hats off to him/her/them.
I don’t have anything more than that long-form exclamation of happy surprise beyond a handful of talking points – and those start with a happy surprise.
Vazquez
I never thought he could be this player. That is all.
Brenner, Past & Future
I don’t know what Cincy’s big brains have planned for Brenner, but suspect two things: 1) that he could stand to do something to rebuild his value, and 2) he’s as surplus to actual requirements as he’s proved to be this season. For all that, Brenner looked fairly handy dropping back to help the ball forward – handier, certainly, than he ever looked leading the attack. Make of that what you will, but sometimes watching a player do something he usually doesn’t makes a guy wonder about what he actually does well, as opposed to what a coach or two (or is it three now?) asks him to do. Maybe he’s a better winger than he is a forward? I mainly hope all involved figure it out before he spends down the credit he built on that initial transfer fee...and imagine what it feels like to pay $13 million (right?) for a player who has returned so little.
The Most Satisfying Thing
Cincinnati looked strong on both sides of the ball – i.e., this was a complete performance on the road and against a team nearly all observers rate...despite this being Philly’s sixth draw in seven games (fucking Timbers, man), and, fun fact, their fourth 1-1 draw over that same stretch. Defensively, Cincy’s press excelled at forcing early passes and picking off anything that strayed more than a couple inches off true and, offensively, the releases on passes and movement clicked pretty consistently after some early sequences that looked certain, but labored. Both aspects improved as the game went on, which points to what I mean by “growing into the game.”
Barreal, the Understudy
To answer a question I don’t think anyone asked, no, I don’t think Barreal can step in cleanly for Acosta. I’d give Obinna Nwobodo a better shot at that role if he didn’t feel so necessary in this day job.
All in all, only a win could have left me feeling better about yesterday. Cincinnati accomplished their primary collective mission of standing up to Philly, and then they did one better. The opposition doesn’t get much easier over the next several games – it goes v ORL, v NYC, @ NE, v RBNY and v VAN – but at least they get four of those five at home. If they can salt away some points from that stretch – something they haven’t done at home (2-4-0? srsly?) – they’ll have given fans every reason to stop thinking about the worst and to start dreaming about the places they could go.
The actual game reversed those scenarios, almost exactly. If either team made their fans sweat, it was Philly. And who saw that coming?
The draw boosted Cincy back over the playoff line - wherefore I know not why; what the weird hell is MLS using for tie-breakers this season? – but I got a bigger boost out of, 1) seeing them both manage a game that 90% of neutrals would call tricky-on-paper, and 2) doing it with a juggled line-up. Pat Noonan gave several regular starters – e.g., Luciano Acosta, Junior Moreno, Ian Murphy(?), and Dominique Badji(?) – the afternoon off for reasons I missed and that hardly matter now, but that lone detail raises possibilities and expectations at the same time. That’s so say, holy shit, does FC Cincinnati have actual depth?
Geoff Cameron plugged in for Murphy, Haris Medunjanin for Moreno, Alvaro Barreal for Acosta and Brenner for Badji and that make-shift line-up did more than hold up: it grew into the game. Cincinnati was the better team for fair chunks of it, as well as by most of the numbers, and they had the Union misfiring on passes and movement for 50+ of the game’s 90 minutes. The pessimist in me (trust me; that fucker talks loud) wants to temper my expectations with arguments like, “Pat Noonan knows Philly’s system like the back of his hand”; my wee cowering optimist mutters back, “true, but it’s up to the players to execute, and they did.”
In other words, for all the “there but for the grace of” – e.g., the Union’s fairly-hot Daniel Gazdag missing at least two looks he often sees into the goal or Nick Hagglund dodging a red card for his flying demolition of Kai Wagner’s right(?) leg – Cincinnati has good reason to feel like they could have won this game. For perspective, how many people think “that’s three points” right after hearing “Philadelphia on the road”?
They had the necessary first step of answering Alejandro Bedoya’s opening goal, and everything surrounding it. For one, it was a fairly soft goal, if built on admirably hard work from Julian Carranza, but the greater struggle was getting past a Union defense that’s allowing close to half the league average for goals (i.e., they’ve allowed 11 goals, the MLS average is 20.5). Brandon Vazquez – upon whom Philly’s broadcast team heaped superlative praise throughout – paid for Cincy’s equalizer with a blow to the face and it’s hard to think of a better metaphor for player or team in 2022. Doing what’s necessary, getting it done, etc.: if FC Cincinnati ends the season as the worst team in MLS, I have no idea how I’ll handle the shock, but expect it will take an unhealthy share of time alone.
A grand narrative lurks in the above, even if I haven’t mentioned specific timing – i.e., the Union had the upper hand early and down the stretch, while Cincinnati controlled the game in between – and Cincy fired more shots than Philly, and just as many good ones. The video intern who put together the highlights represented all that pretty well in four short minutes, so hats off to him/her/them.
I don’t have anything more than that long-form exclamation of happy surprise beyond a handful of talking points – and those start with a happy surprise.
Vazquez
I never thought he could be this player. That is all.
Brenner, Past & Future
I don’t know what Cincy’s big brains have planned for Brenner, but suspect two things: 1) that he could stand to do something to rebuild his value, and 2) he’s as surplus to actual requirements as he’s proved to be this season. For all that, Brenner looked fairly handy dropping back to help the ball forward – handier, certainly, than he ever looked leading the attack. Make of that what you will, but sometimes watching a player do something he usually doesn’t makes a guy wonder about what he actually does well, as opposed to what a coach or two (or is it three now?) asks him to do. Maybe he’s a better winger than he is a forward? I mainly hope all involved figure it out before he spends down the credit he built on that initial transfer fee...and imagine what it feels like to pay $13 million (right?) for a player who has returned so little.
The Most Satisfying Thing
Cincinnati looked strong on both sides of the ball – i.e., this was a complete performance on the road and against a team nearly all observers rate...despite this being Philly’s sixth draw in seven games (fucking Timbers, man), and, fun fact, their fourth 1-1 draw over that same stretch. Defensively, Cincy’s press excelled at forcing early passes and picking off anything that strayed more than a couple inches off true and, offensively, the releases on passes and movement clicked pretty consistently after some early sequences that looked certain, but labored. Both aspects improved as the game went on, which points to what I mean by “growing into the game.”
Barreal, the Understudy
To answer a question I don’t think anyone asked, no, I don’t think Barreal can step in cleanly for Acosta. I’d give Obinna Nwobodo a better shot at that role if he didn’t feel so necessary in this day job.
All in all, only a win could have left me feeling better about yesterday. Cincinnati accomplished their primary collective mission of standing up to Philly, and then they did one better. The opposition doesn’t get much easier over the next several games – it goes v ORL, v NYC, @ NE, v RBNY and v VAN – but at least they get four of those five at home. If they can salt away some points from that stretch – something they haven’t done at home (2-4-0? srsly?) – they’ll have given fans every reason to stop thinking about the worst and to start dreaming about the places they could go.
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