Facing Up to the Stretch Run for FC Cincinnati: I've Seen Worse

De nada.

The concept is simple, maybe even pointless. [Ed. – Don’t listen to him.] The post below has the simple, direct purpose of looking backwards and forward for every Major League Soccer team that “poses a threat” to FC Cincinnati’s chances in the very much alive Supporters’ Shield race. As noted/argued in my previous post on Cincy’s win over the (full disclosure, and) my Portland Timbers, Cincy has succeeded in picking up points whilst surviving injury – and to the tune of second/tied on points for Shield-Quest with San Diego (probably?) FC.

Not every team below necessarily belongs in the Shield conversation, but I opted to take a wide view for this post. While I provide a lot of details on each team – e.g., their record over the past 10 games and their remaining schedule, mainly – I’m neither equipped to nor interested in strapping in for much analysis; related, while I acknowledge trades that have happened since the beginning of August, only a handful of the names rang a bell, so I don’t have much to offer beyond their name and the letter that connotes their position on the field. The notes I have will focus on past results, players that seem worth noting, and some informed speculation on the games they have left – and they won’t be lengthy or linky.

As a quick, hopeful editorial note: I intend (emphasis on intend) to spend the rest of the season focusing on the teams either closest to FC Cincinnati, or the one that did something on the past weekend that feels worth flagging. Caveat lector: that’s more concept-in-progress than work-in-progress.

Think that’s everything. Let’s start by framing…

1st) FC Cincinnati
16-7-4, 27 games played; 52 pts., 42 gf, 34 ga (+8); home 7-3-2, away 9-4-2
Last 10 Results: WWWWLWWDLW (7-2-1)
Strength/Location of Schedule
@ NE (1-0 W); @ MTL (3-1 W); @ ORL (2-1 W); v CHI (2-1 W); v CLB (2-4 L); v MIA (3-0 W); @ RSL (1-0 W); @ MIA (0-0 D); v CLT (0-1 L); @ POR (3-2 W)
Remaining Schedule: v NYC; v PHI, v NSH; @ LAG; v ORL; @ RBNY; v MTL
Additions: Ayoub Jabbari (F); Samuel Gidi (M)
Losses: DeAndre Yedlin

Don’t love the Yedlin trade in the here and now – though, to be clear, I’m open to embracing whatever value it ultimately provides – and hope it doesn’t bite ‘em. Ayoub Jabbari and Samuel Gidi are names I have read on the internet. Obligatory “hope they’re good,” and…moving on…

MLS Eastern Conference Check-In, A Word at the One-Third Mark

What I have to work with...

Welcome to this broad and necessarily shallow check-in on where things stand in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference about one-third of the way through the 2025 season. To set expectations a little:

I watch just one Eastern Conference team every week – FC Cincinnati – and most of the additional (somewhat) in-depth watching I’ve done involved teams that they played on the upcoming weekend. So, no, I’m not coming at any of this from some all-knowing, all-absorbing perch.

Against that, I sincerely believe that a lot of the week-to-week global coverage I see from this league (almost all of it from Official Organs) has a pernicious tendency to read too much into the last game played – i.e., Content, particularly the stuff around failure and progress in players, formation shifts, etc., tends to over-value the latest details, often at the expense of considering broader details like, say, did your team look like some hot-rod shit last weekend because they ran over Montreal at home? Basically, all of the everything below looks at the same things, just over a longer arc. That follows for necessity, for sure, but it’s also about patterns, particularly when it comes to results, where they happened and against which teams and in what condition.

Just to note it, I constructed the information boxes that top each section for each team from the (current) Conference Standings (that link will be stale by Sunday), the much-reduc’d Form Guide (still mourning the loss, contemplating egging MLS HQ…so long as that’s not a felony, because I can’t have another), and applying a filter one team at a time to the official stats page. (Just to note it, MLS has gutted its non-app content. Jesus fucking Christ, the home pages for must teams are like shopping malls circa 2022, i.e., tacky little ghost teams haunted by advertisements to no one.)

The teams below are listed in their order in the Eastern Conference standings and whatever comments I provide come from a combination of things I’ve read, both in the Official Organ and strays caught on Bluesky, watching highlights and longer chunks of games when I had to, or told myself I had to, and watching MLS Wrap-Up – which, to the credit of all concerned, has improved now that they have stuff to chew on.

MLS Eastern Conference Reset

Due to the long, long tail below, I’m going for an all-time short preamble for this post, just as I did for the Western Conference Reset. The goal here is simple: remind readers where all the teams in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference left off going into the Leagues Cup break (which I experienced less than I should have; pour one out), pass on short note as to how each Eastern Conference team did in that tournament, flag any (potentially? arguably?) notable comings into and goings out of the roster, and look ahead to the next eight games or so for all involved.

Here are the sources I consulted: the current conference standings, the bless’d and holy Form Guide, the group stage standings and knockout round brackets from the Leagues Cup, as well as the list of results, and the “all transactions” page on MLSSoccer.com.

I believe the rest speaks for itself, so, with no further ado...allez cuisine!

FC Cincinnati
15-2-6, 51 pts., 23 games played; 39 gf, 25 ga (+14); home 11-0-1, away 4-2-5
Last 10 League Results: WWWTWLTTWW
Strength/Location of Schedule
Cincy played six of their past 10 games on the road and, while they took a bit of a hit when they lost some players during the international break, they picked up where their 2023 season left off with a road win over Red Bull and a home win over the occasionally (now newly) impressive Nashville SC.
So, How’d Their Leagues Cup Go?
Wouldn’t ya know, Nashville knocked off Cincy in a penalty kick shoot-out where everyone more or less showed up. That’s a warning shot in my book (as argued here), but Cincy’s 100%-safe for the post-season, so it’s a matter of landing on the infallible winning formula – and that’s more about MLS Cup than the Supporters’ Shield. Barring a face-plant, Cincinnati should get the Shield, but more teams have figured out more things about them since the start of 2023, so...
Fresh Moves
None during the break. Aaron Boupendza arrived prior (though I am still sorting out my feelings...).
Expectations for the Stretch Run
A bit beefy on immediate re-entry – e.g., four of the next six on the road (@ CLB, @ ATL, @ PHI, @ MTL), but they’ve got some padding for the two home games (v NYC (pulling for a thrilla!), v ORL). It’s pretty standard stuff from there, but, with the padding Cincy has fluffed behind their butts (8 points over the Revs; hello down there!), they’d have to face-plant through the floor to lose the Shield...and I hope I didn’t jinx it.