FC Cincinnati 1-0 New York City FC, a Hot Date in Philly & A Saucy Spin 'Round the East

Too heavy for you, FRIEND?!

As I was thinking about everything to what’s on my mind to the late timing of this post, I decided to put up the FC Cincinnati post first. If nothing else, the weekend complicated their shit more than anything in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference affected the Portland Timbers.

This post also counts as my first stab at a new format/concept. On the most basic level, it involves: 1) kicking around (or just kicking) FC Cincy’s most recent result; 2) checking in on the team Cincy plays next, in this case the Philadelphia Union, and 3) taking a quick tour around the relevant parts of the Eastern Conference for perspective on the grand scheme. As for what you can expect, more style than substance, for starters, and leaning into what I’d call, for lack of a better word, riffing. Why? This is supposed to be fun, dammit. Moving on to something that wasn’t fun…

FC Cincinnati 0-1 New York City FC
About the Game, Briefly and Broadly
A classic example of one of those goddamn games where your local team’s stumbles leave the proverbial door open for the opposition. In a game that found too few, NYCFC found/built the better chances – up to and including coming within a touch or two of waking the ball into the back of the net at the 76th minute (has to be in here, right?). Cincy’s attack looked anxious and flummoxed, never looked wholly connected and, in the earliest part of the game, got short-circuited by one too many impatient shots from range by Evander. To his credit, he put a tricky one on goal somewhere in the mid-20s(?), but even that effort didn’t do more than build the pile of hopeful shots on shot higher.

NYC didn’t create much more – neither team did – but they made the most out of their four shots on goal (all arguably bested by Hannes Wolf’s shot off the post). And yet, it still took a defense-wide gaffe by Cincy to clear the path for Alonso Martinez’s winner – e.g., Matt Miazga got pulled miles left (for some goddamn reason), he forced Nick Hagglund to come across when he played a soft pass out of a press, and that opened the entire right half of the field to one of The-Men-Most-Likely-to-Break-a-High-Line in all of MLS. Maybe mistakes were made in the chase, maybe Roman Celentano should have come out (gods only know how many demons live up Miazga’s ass), but the footrace was over before it started and, when you get right down to it, good defending means never having to make hard choices.

I don’t want to oversell either the result or the manner of it. Enough of the gang was there, admittedly, but Cincinnati couldn’t play its best team – no Miles Robinson, Luca Orellano, was trading DeAndre Yedlin was a good idea(?), the new guys aren’t available yet, etc. I don’t know NYC as well, but their starting XI looked close enough to regular and, hey, maybe that made the difference. Good as the result was(/is) for NYCFC, neither team was good. NYCFC benefitted from being sharper, hence the goal. I have a little more on them below, but let’s close this section out with:

Need to get like gray 70s gruel, yesterday, y'all.

A Couple Thoughts on FC Cincinnati
1) Who (or What) Is the Missing Piece?
Cincinnati had its biggest stars, Kevin Denkey and Evander, available for the full 90+ and reasonably healthy too. Whatever connection they had was fleeting. They didn’t have great support in the starting XI – neither Brad Smith nor Alvas Powell excel on the attacking side and Ender Echenique looked lost – but that’s still a lot of trust and investment left on the table. I intend that less as a demand for automatic production from Evander and Denkey (who have both kicked in, plenty), than to return to the question above. To run this game through the counter-factual blender, would starting Gerardo Valenzuela have made a difference? No idea. Is Morellano the answer? Maybe? To state the obvious (hell, this could be me repeating it), whatever next gear Cincinnati has goes through finding the best possible foil for Denkey and Evander in any starting lineup. [UPDATE: I know Brenner is coming and hope he looks less like the player they originally acquired than the man they moved on to bigger pastures, but, after finally reading...well, anything about the summer transfer window (this), I'm more excited about Samuel Gidi.] 

2) Tiers of Nobility, The Defense Edition
With my notes on Powell and Smith already entered into the record, I’d like to turn attention to two players on the bench: Teenage Hadebe and Gilberto Flores. To pull a tangent out of the above, even a wee wrinkle like having Lukas Engel at left back/wingback could have made a difference. And that leaves me asking, are Hadebe and Flores really that bad? Or, maybe where Miazga's concerned, it's smarter to ask how far his leadership goes toward making up for an ever-ebbing pace. I know Brenner’s coming, but I don’t recall where any other new guys may play, so maybe that certain someone I’m forgetting solves the problem, but…yeah, between what I’ve seen from them in the past and the immediate needs of this game, I don’t get why neither player started. Maybe all will be revealed, but, till then…

An Aside on New York City FC
Aside from admiration for a number of players – Justin Haak looks/plays twice the size he had even two seasons ago, Matt Freese is solid, Martinez is a one-trick pony that takes you places, and is Maxi Moralez, like, real real? – my main take on NYCFC goes something like this: they’re a disciplined, technical player, only in team form. Drilled well, improving at what they do – they’re now (I believe) unbeaten in five with four wins in that mix, three of them coming against direct rivals/their alleged betters – in order, at Orlando, versus Nashville, now at Cincinnati. They’re cagey little fuckers, basically, and that makes me feel a litltle smarter for including them in my “Threats to FC Cincinnati Post.” [Ed. – Not even close to its actual name, with regrets.]

That’s enough about past sorrows. Let’s move on to…

They, like me, sexed it up a bit.

Scouting Memo, Philadelphia Union
Philly is always tough, even when they come to visit, not least because Cincy isn’t so different from a li’l potato bud that grew out of the Union’s system. That whole teacher/pupil dynamic has tilted in your more recent seasons, but it’s neck-and neck as we roll into Saturday. Now, the absolute basics:

Philadelphia Union
16-6-6, 28 games played, 54 pts., 47 gf, 26 ga (+21); home 10-1-4, away 6-5-2
Last 10 Results: WLLWWDWDLW (5-3-2)
Strength/Location of Schedule
@ CHI (1-0 W); @ CLB (0-1 L); @ NSH (0-1 L); v RBNY (2-0 W); v MTL (2-1 W); @ HOU (1-1 D); v COL (3-1 W), v TFC (1-1 D); @ RBNY (0-1 L); v CHI (4-0 W)
Remaining Schedule: @ CIN; @ VAN; @ NSH; v NE; @ DC; v NYC; @ CLT

Can anything really be bad after the weekend you nosed ahead in the Supporters’ Shield race? That alone shouts down whatever softness I see over the Union's past 10 games. They have a home record one result off of damned good, and a better than 50% chance of getting points on the road…and yet, at least a theme runs through losses at Columbus, Nashville, and even Red Bull New York. Maybe there’s a little punching down in Philly’s recent results, maybe it’s coincidence. Just noting it…

To get back in touch with the Union, I spent about 40 minutes on their 4-0 demolition of Chicago Fire FC. The balance of the goals didn’t come until the second half, but the game was over by the numbers with Philly 1-0 up at halftime. On the back of a goal and an assist, Kai Wagner starred in the victory (he's a regular!), but, if I had to flag the goal that shows the Union’s best side in 2025, I’d point reader to Danley Jean Jacques goal. Even if the other share some of the same elements, that one hints at the way Philly plays better than Wagner’s – ever forward, whether on the ball or playing against it. Chicago’s far from the toughest defense in MLS, so I don’t expect Cincy’s defense to get scrambled the way the Fire’s did. The problem actually comes at the other end of the field.

There’s no real shame in losing to NYCFC, good team and all that, but losing a second straight game at home – and in a six-pointer against the aging, blind sensei how betrayed you and your family? – well, that could leave it literal mark. Good as they are/were defensively, Philly has slightly better defensive numbers at time of writing - full-field defense can do that for a team - and, thanks to a couple results around the relevant parts of the Eastern Conference, the mark left by NYCFC may get redder before it gets better. Time for a…

Quick Whip Around the Eastern Conference
The Eastern Conference saw every kind of result this weekend, a double burial (Atlanta 0-0 Toronto), yet more proof of life (Charlotte 1-0 RBNY), a comedy (DC 1-1 Miami), a mystery (CF Montreal 3-2 Austin), and a tragedy (Columbus 1-2 New England; fuck it, ties the bit together).

I gave some of those longer looks than others – e.g., Austin’s loss, for a glimpse at the finer points in how they pissed it away – but don’t see the profit in seeing Charlotte beat the Red Bulls in the most [Both of Them] way for both and the final score from DC’s win over Miami is all I need. Columbus’ loss, on the other hand, makes you stop and look. It checks a couple boxes, for one – the whole “headless” thing still adds up, even with Daniel Gazdag finally scoring (that’s his first, right?), as does the whiff of holding onto a love affair (Wilfried’s Nancy’s system(s)) after the fire burned out. Did the Revs get lucky? I don’t remember, honestly, but it also doesn’t matter. Regardless of what they say, I’m confident that coaches and players count their share of points before they hatch as hopefully as most fans do and, through that lens, these have to count as points dropped for a Columbus team getting consumed by a mob.

Anyway, neat game and good for New England. It didn’t matter, of course, not for New England. And that’s why I made Nashville steaming over Orlando my Eastern Conference Result of the Week. On the one hand, yes, the result comes with its caveats – e.g., the rotation in Orlando’s attacking set up, so as to keep the real beaus shined up for that big date with Miami in the Leagues Cup semis tomorrow night – on the other, I don’t know who this Joran Gerbil…Gerbet, sorry, Gerbet, guy is…and wait, hold on. Maybe Orlando fielded a “resting” defensive midfield as well? Pretty sure Atuesta’s their guy in the beating heart of midfield, but I see that he and Marco Pasalic only came on to stretch their legs, while Martin Ojeda didn’t come on at all. So, yeah, maybe Nashville didn’t get the Epcot Center version of Orlando (that’s the best, right? where you can get shit faced in every country?), but they way that tore through something approximating Orlando’s back five (including Pedro Gallese in that tally)…or maybe three (still including Gallese), sends a signal about the friskiness of Nashville’s attack that borders on pheromonal. The result broke a tie between the teams, if nothing else, and I’m not sure if that makes it harder or easier to sort out the size of the field that’s actually chasing the Supporters’ Shield field. And, in that very specific light, I hate Cincy’s loss this weekend a little more. My primary solace: they won’t be the last team to get shivved by NYCFC.