 |
| The bar for a bad performance, in green and black. |
I doubt any team in Major League Soccer can make as strong a case that they should “save it for league” as FC Cincinnati. When you’ve got a shot at a record-setting season, I mean, why not?
At the risk of overselling the argument, what happens to Cincy’s chances of winning the Shield (which I covet) if, say, both Matt Miazga and Obinna Nwobodo went down?
Cincinnati fans may or may not have got a glimpse of that in yesterday’s freakishly nervy, overtime, skin-of-their-teeth-and-chinny-chin-chins 3-3, plus 4-2 in PKs win over a Sporting Kansas City team that usually slums in every house they visit. SKC came within a minute of winning the game outright, but, per the recent run of results, they self-sabotage often and with alacrity. Now...the tale of the tape.
The conversation about how much squad rotation hurt the cause starts with Nick Hagglund’s nightmare start, which featured two mistakes so glaring and close enough together as to give aid and comfort to the reigning MLS King of Boner performances, Austin’s Kipp Keller. Hagglund bookended his three-minute nightmare with a net-bursting own-goal on the front end and a blown marking assignment on a set-piece on the back end that gifted SKC’s Danny Rosero a point-blank header – the Mullet of Mistakes, if you will (that’s, uh, business in front, par...never mind).
Cincinnati responded on the field before it showed up on the scoreboard. They worked the historically vulnerable right of SKC’s defense with their own historically (very much) preferred left side of their attack like an early-80s pro wrestler struggling to get into the figure-four leg-lock – and do hold that thought because it became a major theme of the night. SKC punched back harder than expected: in keeping with head coach Peter Vermes’ theory of where they are, Kansas City does, in fact, move the ball quite fluidly; they got from their end of the field to Cincinnati’s well throughout the first half, sometimes artfully. One sequence in particular – e.g., the one that ended with Johnny Russell almost breaking in but-for Yerson Mosquera’s trailing leg – had the broadcast declaring this one of SKC’s best games of the 2023 season. “Vintage Sporting Kansas City” they called it...
...and then Alan Pulido got sent off for a very stupid, very inartful, head-first lunge into Mosquera at the 30th minute. The red card came out immediately and to more apology from than protest by Pulido. Cincinnati pulled one goal back just moments later on a genuinely funny own-goal that Cincy’s Ian Murphy bounced off the post then the back of SKC ‘keeper John Pulskamp’s head (ha, ha, ha!). And then came the weather delay...
...cue the MLS/AppleTV weather-delay jam...
At the risk of overselling the argument, what happens to Cincy’s chances of winning the Shield (which I covet) if, say, both Matt Miazga and Obinna Nwobodo went down?
Cincinnati fans may or may not have got a glimpse of that in yesterday’s freakishly nervy, overtime, skin-of-their-teeth-and-chinny-chin-chins 3-3, plus 4-2 in PKs win over a Sporting Kansas City team that usually slums in every house they visit. SKC came within a minute of winning the game outright, but, per the recent run of results, they self-sabotage often and with alacrity. Now...the tale of the tape.
The conversation about how much squad rotation hurt the cause starts with Nick Hagglund’s nightmare start, which featured two mistakes so glaring and close enough together as to give aid and comfort to the reigning MLS King of Boner performances, Austin’s Kipp Keller. Hagglund bookended his three-minute nightmare with a net-bursting own-goal on the front end and a blown marking assignment on a set-piece on the back end that gifted SKC’s Danny Rosero a point-blank header – the Mullet of Mistakes, if you will (that’s, uh, business in front, par...never mind).
Cincinnati responded on the field before it showed up on the scoreboard. They worked the historically vulnerable right of SKC’s defense with their own historically (very much) preferred left side of their attack like an early-80s pro wrestler struggling to get into the figure-four leg-lock – and do hold that thought because it became a major theme of the night. SKC punched back harder than expected: in keeping with head coach Peter Vermes’ theory of where they are, Kansas City does, in fact, move the ball quite fluidly; they got from their end of the field to Cincinnati’s well throughout the first half, sometimes artfully. One sequence in particular – e.g., the one that ended with Johnny Russell almost breaking in but-for Yerson Mosquera’s trailing leg – had the broadcast declaring this one of SKC’s best games of the 2023 season. “Vintage Sporting Kansas City” they called it...
...and then Alan Pulido got sent off for a very stupid, very inartful, head-first lunge into Mosquera at the 30th minute. The red card came out immediately and to more apology from than protest by Pulido. Cincinnati pulled one goal back just moments later on a genuinely funny own-goal that Cincy’s Ian Murphy bounced off the post then the back of SKC ‘keeper John Pulskamp’s head (ha, ha, ha!). And then came the weather delay...
...cue the MLS/AppleTV weather-delay jam...
 |
| Consider the possibility you don't got this... |
....and we’re back. Sort of. The second half opened with the score still stuck at 1-2 in SKC’s favor, the visitors defending deep, and Cincy coach Pat Noonan returning Miazga and Nwobodo to the field. A siege of SKC’s goal commenced from that point to the final whistle - and here’s where I pick up that thought put on hold earlier. Led by the newly-arrived Aaron Boupendza and a visibly frustrated (and quite fussy) Luciano Acosta, Cincinnati pressed hard and close against Kansas City’s compacted defense. A lot of it – maybe even too much of it – took the form of dribbles, gives-and-goes (wait...give-and-goes?), through whatever tight spaces, cracks and slivers those two could find in SKC’s area. Whenever the ball popped out, another Cincy player – and Nwobodo gets pride of place here – would either tee up Acosta for another attempt (almost always on the left) or try to force the ball into the still-compacted channels.
All that copy masks the reality that Cincinnati found their equalizer just 11 minutes into the siege. But that’s also just one pivot-point in the second half. Taking them in turn....
First, when Cincinnati finally broke through – and, here, “finally” references the long barren stretches on either side of that equalizer – they did the one thing they steadfastly refused to do for most of the game: play the ball to the left side of the attacking third, as opposed to starting the attack on the left side. Mosquera’s long diagonal from the back (again, finally) isolated SKC’s right back, Jacob Davis, against both Acosta and Barreal; the ball never reached Barreal, but Davis knocked it to Acosta, who (again, finally) had space and time to pull it back to space left open for Brandon Vazquez after SKC’s Andreu Fontas over-ran the play. Basically, Cincy’s attack labored for the length of the second half due to their insistence of playing through SKC’s overloaded left with an overload of their own. Now, the other pivot....
Was it just me or was Cincinnati defending with just seven behind the ball when SKC’s scored their third goal? I understand that no siege can go on forever, but, when SKC decided to break out of the block and hunt for the winner, they didn’t meet much resistance until they hit Cincy’s defensive third; by way of contrast, the decision to press played no small role in Cincy’s equalizer. Credit to Kansas City, they took the space Cincinnati gave them and committed real numbers forward – and that’s how they regained the lead. They kept the ball high and knocked it around long enough to Alvas Powell to forget he’s not a goalkeeper and – voila! – penalty, Sporting Kansas City. Gadi Kinda, SKC's best player all game for me, stepped up and...did the job.
FC Cincinnati rescued the result in the end, thereby picking up two points to SKC’s one: Acosta’s super-late shot hit Rosero’s “chicken-winged“ left arm, the ref rightly called a super-late penalty kick, and Acosta stepped up to knock in not just the super-late equalizer, but also the first PK of the deciding shoot-out. Alec Kann made the one save he had to and Felipe Gutierrez hit the post for the second time and that ended the struggle...
...but it’s worth going back to the first time Gutierrez hit the post. That happened just a minute or two before Acosta's penalty kick and, if memory serves, even that happened just a minute or two after SKC’s Khiry Shelton fired straight at Kann from point-blank range. In fewer words, Sporting KC had two chances to put the game behind Cincy’s reach and they came within a post and a well-placed goalkeeper from doing it. Ooops. Just checked my notes and saw that Logan Ndenbe almost scored as well. FC Cincinnati dodged a bullet yesterday. I’ll leave it to readers to decide how close it came, but, as you think it over, do keep in mind how bad Sporting Kansas City has been both this season and on the road.
That’s it for this one, but I did want to close with a note on Boupendza, Acosta and how they fit together. First, I like what I see from Boupendza in terms of technical ability – not least because I’m a sucker for close-quarters combination play. He and Acosta vibed all right and that’s good too...only how much room can they have to operate if those two plus Barreal operate on that same side? And finally, finally; Acosta has been real bitchy lately. Part of me loves seeing that kind of hunger (the man’s ravenous by the looks of it), but he is getting on his teammates. It makes you wonder if/when that becomes counter-productive.
And...fin
All that copy masks the reality that Cincinnati found their equalizer just 11 minutes into the siege. But that’s also just one pivot-point in the second half. Taking them in turn....
First, when Cincinnati finally broke through – and, here, “finally” references the long barren stretches on either side of that equalizer – they did the one thing they steadfastly refused to do for most of the game: play the ball to the left side of the attacking third, as opposed to starting the attack on the left side. Mosquera’s long diagonal from the back (again, finally) isolated SKC’s right back, Jacob Davis, against both Acosta and Barreal; the ball never reached Barreal, but Davis knocked it to Acosta, who (again, finally) had space and time to pull it back to space left open for Brandon Vazquez after SKC’s Andreu Fontas over-ran the play. Basically, Cincy’s attack labored for the length of the second half due to their insistence of playing through SKC’s overloaded left with an overload of their own. Now, the other pivot....
Was it just me or was Cincinnati defending with just seven behind the ball when SKC’s scored their third goal? I understand that no siege can go on forever, but, when SKC decided to break out of the block and hunt for the winner, they didn’t meet much resistance until they hit Cincy’s defensive third; by way of contrast, the decision to press played no small role in Cincy’s equalizer. Credit to Kansas City, they took the space Cincinnati gave them and committed real numbers forward – and that’s how they regained the lead. They kept the ball high and knocked it around long enough to Alvas Powell to forget he’s not a goalkeeper and – voila! – penalty, Sporting Kansas City. Gadi Kinda, SKC's best player all game for me, stepped up and...did the job.
FC Cincinnati rescued the result in the end, thereby picking up two points to SKC’s one: Acosta’s super-late shot hit Rosero’s “chicken-winged“ left arm, the ref rightly called a super-late penalty kick, and Acosta stepped up to knock in not just the super-late equalizer, but also the first PK of the deciding shoot-out. Alec Kann made the one save he had to and Felipe Gutierrez hit the post for the second time and that ended the struggle...
...but it’s worth going back to the first time Gutierrez hit the post. That happened just a minute or two before Acosta's penalty kick and, if memory serves, even that happened just a minute or two after SKC’s Khiry Shelton fired straight at Kann from point-blank range. In fewer words, Sporting KC had two chances to put the game behind Cincy’s reach and they came within a post and a well-placed goalkeeper from doing it. Ooops. Just checked my notes and saw that Logan Ndenbe almost scored as well. FC Cincinnati dodged a bullet yesterday. I’ll leave it to readers to decide how close it came, but, as you think it over, do keep in mind how bad Sporting Kansas City has been both this season and on the road.
That’s it for this one, but I did want to close with a note on Boupendza, Acosta and how they fit together. First, I like what I see from Boupendza in terms of technical ability – not least because I’m a sucker for close-quarters combination play. He and Acosta vibed all right and that’s good too...only how much room can they have to operate if those two plus Barreal operate on that same side? And finally, finally; Acosta has been real bitchy lately. Part of me loves seeing that kind of hunger (the man’s ravenous by the looks of it), but he is getting on his teammates. It makes you wonder if/when that becomes counter-productive.
And...fin
No comments:
Post a Comment