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| It comes with dessert. No way. |
Just to note it, I’m reminded that I know something less
than fuck-all about the Western Conference every time I check scores for the USL.
Please get to MLS soon, FC Cincinnati; because ignorance pains me…
To stick with the subject, the general…mien of FC Cincinnati’s
2-1 win over New York Red Bulls II (“RBII” hereafter) also pained me a little:
elegant as an elephant on roller blades, refined as a Salisbury Steak TV dinner,
this game played out as pure bumper cars until around the 40th minute (what? I
feel like “Salisbury Steak” should be capitalized). It slipped in and out of looking
like two teams playing soccer instead of Aussie Rules Football for the rest of
the game, but, full credit to them, Cincinnati did look the better team at the
sharper ends of the field (i.e., defense and offense). The numbers bear me out
on that “slop-fest” theory, btw; I’ve never seen passing accuracy numbers that
low, and holy shit, how did anything positive happen out there with that much
fuck-uppery going on?
To note something else, RBII was the toughest team (per
their record) that FC Cincy has played in a while, and maybe that accounts for
all the gore on the field…am I? Yeah, I’m exaggerating that a bit. All I’m
saying is the game was physical, and I think Blake Smith could easily have been
sent off when he rose from a rough challenge and shoved an RBII player to the
dirt. What would have transpired from there is anyone’s guess, but that didn’t
happen, and that’s a counter-factual, and I don’t deal in that crap. Back to
the factual, RBII came within one wispy whisker of tying the game in stoppage
time (and you can see that, and “the numbers” referred to above, via The Match Center). Cincinnati came within one defender’s mid-section of growing their
lead one minute later, so the galactic wheels of virtue continue to spin true.
In fewer words, this game was close, but it wasn’t. RBII
attacked relentlessly, while FC Cincy attacked ruthlessly, and won the game as
a result. The only place Cincinnati came out clearly ahead was the score-line,
and that means why is at least one of the questions in play. Having been
introduced to RBII just now, I can’t address their side of things - though I
will say that Andrew Tinari, Amando Moreno and (especially) Lucas Stauffer
showed up for them throughout the game. As for Cincinnati, they flipped a chunk
of their line-up in the midst of a busy week and futzed with the formation (not
a big fan of that 4-3-3), and part of me blames the inelegance of the close
result for that. On the flipside of that, seeing the players who stuck to the
roster - e.g., your Manny Ledesmas, your Blake Smiths, your Forrest Lassos - could
say something about who FC Cincy views as useful, if not indispensable. (Hold
up: I neither watched nor checked on FC Cincinnati’s midweek win over Charlotte
Independence; that said, just did and just confirmed the noteworthy rotations.)
