Bucha Brace Powers FC Cincinnati past Vancouver Whitecaps
Damon Gumbert
“Good result against a very good opponent,” a stern Pat Noonan said after his FC Cincinnati side defeated the Vancouver Whitecaps 4-3 on Wednesday.
Cincinnati’s first competitive match in two months was a lot like its matches before the World Cup break. There was a lot of good offensively and not so much good defensively.
The lineup had a backline of Miles Robinson on the right, Matt Miazga in the middle, and Samuel Gidi on the left with Roman Celentano in goal. They were flanked by wingbacks Pavel Bucha on the right and Ender Echenique on the left. The midfield consisted of Obinna Nwobodo, Dado Valenzuela, and Evander, with Kevin Denkey and Kenji Mboma Dem at striker.
While those were the designated positions, no one really stayed in them throughout the evening. This was evidenced in the ninth minute when Gidi dribbled the ball from his centerback position all the way up the pitch and into the opposing third. Gidi would then send a ball to Mboma Dem, but the striker knew he had Bucha behind him and perfectly executed a dummy play, with Bucha receiving the ball and sending it rocketing into goal to open up the scoring.
The ability to switch and get the defenders moving more upfield was good for the offense, it wasn’t always good for the defense. There were times where Robinson ran up the pitch to put pressure on the offense, but no one switched back to help defend, and it put the defense in a bad situation.
Vancouver’s first goal was not one of those times. Instead, it was just a case of good skill from Bruno Caicedo to get around Bucha to find a wide gap where Jeevan Badwal could sneak past Valenzuela and Miazga in the middle of the box to knock in the goal in the 12th minute.
Vancouver’s second goal was a time where the switch, or failure to switch, came back to haunt Cincinnati. Robinson found himself chasing the ball up the pitch, but no one was back to cover him, which caused Miazga to have to come over to block a shot by Brian White. The ball found its way to a Vancouver player. While Robinson had made it back to help, the ball found its way to the top of the box for a completely uncontested shot from Oliver Larraz, which ricocheted off of Ryan Gauld and snuck past Celentano to put The Caps up 2-1 in the 25th minute.
Two minutes later Denkey would return the favor, receiving a heavily deflected pass from Echenique and heading the ball off a defender and into goal to tie things up at 2-2. MLS had a lot of trouble deciding who to credit the goal to, going from Denkey to an own goal on the defender and then back to Denkey, all within five minutes.
Evander tied Denkey for the team lead with his 10th goal of the season. The MLS All-Star received the ball from Valenzuela, ran towards the box, wasn’t closed on at all by defenders, and fired a shot into goal. After a slow start to the season, the Brazilian would sit at 10 goals and six assists through the end of the first half.
The FC came out of the break ahead 3-2 and within 10 minutes would go up another goal. In the 56th minute Evander took a shot that was blocked, and after securing the rebound lobbed a ball over the defenders to a waiting Bucha at the back post for his second goal of the match.
Bucha came into the match with two goals and doubled that total on the night. Evander upped his total goal contributions from 16 to 17 on the play, putting himself in second place behind Lionel Messi for the lead in that category. Bucha himself entered the top ten all-time in goals for FC Cincinnati, passing legends like Djiby Fall, Corbin Bone, and Sean Okoli.
“It’s funny that he’s been playing as a center-mid and now he’s playing as a wingback, he’s been scoring more goals,” Evander joked after the match. “We used to say he’s our joker (card). He can play in every position on the team, he can play all the positions. He does everything he can to help the team the best way possible.”
Vancouver would get a goal back in the 58th minute, with Ryan Gauld taking a wide-open shot at goal from outside the box. The play developed due in part to Echenique chasing an attacking player into the midfield and then seemingly giving up on the play. The attacker was able to find a player close to the box, forcing the defense to move back and try to cover. That left Gauld wide open at the top of the box for the shot and goal.
Echenique would be taken out shortly after, as would Robinson and Mboma Dem, with Bryan Ramirez, Tom Barlow, and Kyle Smith all coming on.
While the scoring was over for the night, that didn’t mean there were some chances. In a moment that wouldn’t have mattered if it had gone differently due to an offside position, Kyle Smith made an incredible play to keep a Brian White ball from going over the goal line in the 86th minute. The Cincinnati native put his running shoes on and recovered to block the ball after White beat Roman Celentano one-on-one.
Another near goal for Vancouver occurred in the 90+3rd minute, a header off a corner nearly went in, but bounced off the crossbar before being sent out of bounds by an FCC player. That was the last hurrah for Vancouver as a few minutes later the referee called full-time and “Mr. Brightside” started playing.
The win moves The FC from seventh in the Eastern Conference standings to fifth, while the loss does nothing for Vancouver, who still sit atop the Western Conference.
While the score line doesn’t flatter the defense, and their play at times was very lacking, they were able to maintain a one-goal lead for 38 minutes to see the match out.
“You see some individual play that helped us to maintain the scoreline,” Noonan said of the defense. “Bryan Ramirez came in and was excellent with being isolated a lot. Box defending was pretty strong, some blocked shots in there.”
“But there were still some transition moments, there were some opportunities for us to put the game away, even with all that pressure that we withstood. Getting those plays right and understanding how to stay in the game with less chaos is something to talk about.”
It was a match that saw a bit of a return to form for some players who have gone through a lot over the last two or three seasons. Neither Matt Miazga nor Obinna Nwobodo have been fully healthy since the 2023 season, both missing significant time and not looking quite like themselves. Wednesday night was different, with both players putting in a full 90-minute shift and looking much more like their old selves.
“Whether we had the break and the second preseason or not, this is just a two-month period that has allowed them to get to this point,” Noonan said when asked how the World Cup break helped bring those players back into form. “So if we were to continue to play through, then you use it through training and games and hope that there’s no setbacks for them.”
“But Obi, you can see the direction he’s moving and looking like himself off of the injury. So he used this period of time wanting to rest, but then when he came back he’s pushed himself really hard. Matt’s gotten to a good place, and then you know we pushed these guys hard over the last month, and it was good for Matt. So he continues to try to push his levels, and it’s still a work in progress.”
“Hopefully it’s not just about speed of the play and power, it’s speed of thought.”
A revitalized Nwobodo would be a game-changer for this FC Cincinnati team. At times during the first half the team really missed having a great defending midfielder who could help keep the ball away from the back line. A retooled Miazga could strengthen a defense that has struggled mightily. It will take the defender making better decisions and using his head more rather than trusting his natural skill to make up for his mental mistakes.
It’s too soon to tell if that will actually be the case, and with Miazga allegedly sitting on four yellow cards, he will be tested over the next several matches.
The first test he’ll see is when FC Cincinnati travels up I-71 to take on the Columbus Crew in the first iteration of this year’s Hell is Real derby. It’s a very different-looking Columbus, after selling Max Arfsten and Diego Rossi over the summer, but still a team that has historically given Cincinnati a lot of trouble.
That match kicks off at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday. If you’re not traveling up for the match you can view it on Apple TV, FS1, or at any one of the participating pub partners.
All photos are courtesy of FC Cincinnati
