FC Cincinnati 2-3 Columbus Crew SC: The Tragedy of Alvas Powell

From googling "tickle palace."

I don’t know what to call that besides a game that leaves you muttering, “c’mon, not like this.”

Last night, FC Cincinnati ended the best season in its – and I want fans and pundits to linger on this next word – brief history with a devastated and dizzied 2-3 loss at Tickle Palace against its dread rival, Columbus Crew SC.

First and foremost, nothing hit the gut half as hard as the blunt fact that Columbus deserved the win. Outside 15 minutes somewhere during the first part of the second half (sorry, I work real estate law), Columbus ran at a Cincy defense that toggled between adjectives all night: sturdy grew to heroic, before a quick journey through desperate yielded to a word I slipped into the conversation above, i.e., dizzied. One of the twits in the broadcast booth called the Columbus’ first goal a turning point, but I’d argue that the second pointed to where the game would ultimately end up. The only question was whether Columbus could get there before the final whistle turned the game over to soccer’s infamous tiebreaker, aka, the test of wills we all call a coin-flip, aka, the penalty shoot-out.

Columbus beat the whistle, of course, and Cincy didn’t look any better on the third goal they allowed than they did on the second. Or the first, for that matter. They didn’t just get outplayed last night; Cincy got beat. Thinking about what that does for the rivalry is the only positive I can take from the loss…

…going the other way, how dim that fire burns against what could have been had Cincinnati won ugly on the back of Aaron Boupendza putting a little more mustard on his best shot of the night? Back in the real world, Patrick Schulte came good in that moment and, I think most observers would accept that justice was served. However much it hurt to send Timmy upstate…

On a purely personal, slightly petty level, I have a notepad full of tantalizing questions that just went to waste – e.g., do you start Aaron Boupendza or Dominique Badji in the MLS Cup that will never happen? Or, if Obinna Nwobodo can go, do you start him or do you honor continuity and Yuya Kubo’s (sturdy?) service over the past two, three games? And to what percentage of a Nwobodo does that answer apply.

All those questions just got kicked to 2024.

To return to the theme/pain up top, the whole layout never felt quite right, never mind good. Columbus had Cincy on the back foot from go and some kind of 90-minute version of erosion kicked in from there. The way Cincinnati punched out of it – say it with me, not once, but twice – made it possible to believe that a time would come when they could get some kind of control over the game, whether by slowing it down, pushing it, or imagining bold new worlds.

I want to linger on that word, control, because it cuts a pretty clean line through all the arguments about what opens the most reliable path to victor in the beautiful game. Better still, last night’s second game – i.e., Los Angeles FC's 2-0 win over Houston Dynamo FC – provided a live demonstration of the concept. The same night that Columbus Crew SC ran FCC Cincinnati’s legs off and otherwise put them in the blender, Los Angeles FC looked like contented cows slapping lazy flies away even as Houston Dynamo FC threw…their version of everything they could at them – and that’s despite giving away (an alleged 8%) more of the ball than Cincinnati did to Columbus. Yeah, yeah, I get that Houston is not Cincinnati and in a multiplicity of ways – e.g., no Supporters’ Shield in the cupboard, for one, and Houston doesn’t have the MVP, Corey Baird is their starting “forward,” their (actually fucking incredible) playmaker (Hector Herrera, love that dude) has to stir the shit from the depths – but, to some extent, all that possession made it easier to believe Houston may score one. By way of contrast, both of Cincinnati’s actual goals, and even their two achingly close misses (Boup’s, acknowledged above, plus Barreal’s early in the first half), landed in their laps like the pleasantest of surprises.

And yet, that buried the clearest distinction between both games – i.e., Columbus clawing their way back in because Cincinnati couldn’t gain any consistent control of the game versus LAFC yawning through all that possession because they never really ceded control of the game or its tempo to Houston. LAFC did everything but bless the ball with an ironic “bye-bye” wave when it returned to Houston’s possession. Having control of the game let them do that. On a side note, I can’t (fucking) wait to see what LAFC’s, for lack of a better word, athleticism looks like against Columbus. I mean, the Black and Gold can defend and when those players break out…

That last piece brings up the question of why Cincinnati failed, and to the point of face-planting, when it came to taking the game to Columbus. For all the rushed passes by Brandon Vazquez and for all the shit giveaways by Boupendza, those two didn’t have a ton of foils to riff off of, at least not until somewhere between the 35th and 40th minute. To that point, and again later in the game, Luciano Acosta spent too much time, for me at least, as the middle piece of the three in a 5-3-2 that couldn’t escape its own half, if not defensive third. Too often, Boup and Vazquez had only one another nearly every time they broke loose. And, sure, last night made A case that a team can score a goal or two playing like that - here's your proof - but here’s where I acknowledge, quietly as I can, that Cincy got a couple kinds of lucky on both of their goals. Columbus could have won this game 2-0 in regulation and/or a world where magical things don’t happen, aka, both of Cincinnati’s goals.

The bedeviled, bewitched and bothered question at the heart of last night’s game is whether FC Cincinnati actually failed to execute or whether Columbus simply kept them from doing it. I’m not even sure which answer hurts worse, honestly, but I know which of the two sets me to fretting over how to build an alleged better roster. Related, and as I understand the general consensus, Cincinnati seems poised to loose a piece of two of a truly great Shield-winning side…not to be that guy, but rebuilds always freak me out a little.

The paragraph above brings at least one question to mind – i.e., was Pat Noonan’s game-plan too clever, or even too conservative? – but that’s enough reminiscing about a kick in the balls. And it’ll definitely be interesting to see how well LAFC does in MLS Cup, given that I expect them to try something like the same game-plan.

To finally explain the post’s title, Alvas Powell seemed fitting on a couple levels – the way he stayed in the thick of the action chief among them. There’s the goal he cleared off the line (and curse the highlights for omitting that moment!) after Vazquez’s opener and, of course, the own-goal that bobbled off the side of his foot and into Cincy’s goal. Against the backdrop of another solid outing, Powell got screwed, basically. More than that, Powell, along with Ian Murphy and Yerson Mosquera, bore the final weight of Columbus’s extended periods of pressure and they all held well enough until pressure piled too high for them to carry. It goes without saying that no defense feels great about allowing three goals, but part of me can't stop wondering what might have been had Cincinnati’s midfield and forward players done a better job of taking off some of that burden, whether by some even aimless possession or sharper counterattacks. Just some kind, any kind of time where they could collect thoughts, wits and themselves. Columbus didn’t give them any – good gods, did they excel at regaining possession last night – so I guess that’s a puzzle for Noonan, et al, to solve for 2024.

Hell should burn a little hotter next season. Oh, and if the rumors are true that some racist pigs abused Powell on the socials, fuck those assholes. If those pieces of shit can be found and ostracized that'd take a little sting out of the loss.

Till next season…or whatever weird off-season shit I get to between here and there. Great season, Cincinnati...