Playoff pressure peaks in Sunday Night Soccer thriller
Damon Gumbert
I’ve never understood why a team would put city after their city name when it is also not the name of the state/country they are in: Manchester City, St. Louis CITY, Mumbai City, Louisville City. New York City has the excuse of existing within New York state, unlike the New York Red Bulls, who reside in New Jersey. However, none of those other cities really have a reason to add "City" after their name.
Coincidentally, Orlando City SC comes to TQL Stadium for a match against FC Cincinnati Sunday night. While that game will mess with my sleep schedule, it also has the possibility of messing with Cincinnati’s Supporter’s Shield hopes, as well as Orlando’s playoff positioning.
Cincinnati currently sits in second place in the Supporter’s Shield race, two points behind the Philadelphia Union. The likelihood of that changing this weekend is low with Philly taking on DC United, who currently have the second-worst point total in the Eastern Conference, sitting one point ahead of CF Montreal.
Orlando City SC is in a weird spot where a win could see them leapfrog into homefield advantage in the first round, or a loss could see them fall into the play-in game and a meeting with the likely Supporter’s Shield winners in the first round (if they were to win the play-in game).
Obviously, Saturday’s matchups will shed more light on the playoff picture going forward. We’re not here to talk about that, though; we’re here to focus on Sunday’s pivotal match in Cincinnati.
Shining Stars
It wouldn’t be surprising if casual fans did not know who the players on Orlando City are. Why would you? They’re not your team, and it’s truly sicko behaviour to know all the star players for opposing teams. Don’t worry, though, The Post Cincy is filled with sickos who can let you know who will inevitably break your heart during this match.
As much as we love Evander here, and he has been terrific at times this season, Martin Ojeda has kept pace with the Brazilian in goal contributions. Evander sits at 30 goal contributions (17 goals and 13 assists) while Ojeda has the same amount (16 goals and 14 assists).
The Argentinian midfielder joined Orlando in 2023 and is having a breakout season with the Lions of Orlando. Evander joined MLS side Portland Timbers around the same time, but has been an MVP candidate for two seasons now.
While Orlando City is missing Duncan McGuire due to a shoulder injury, they do have five players who have scored 5 or more goals this season: Ojeda, Marco Pasalic, Luis Muriel, Ramiro Enrique, and Alex Freeman. Cincinnati has three: Evander, Kevin Denkey, and Gerardo “Dado” Valenzuela. Brenner may add himself to that list by season’s end, but for how good Cincinnati has been this year, its offense has lacked teeth at times.
That’s Offensive
Orlando City SC has scored more goals than any non-Messi team in MLS this season, with 58. Nothing evidences their offensive strength more than one of their top five scorers being a defender (Freeman).
FCC, on the other hand, has struggled mightily on offense this season. We’re two weeks removed from a 2-1 victory against Nashville SC that saw a streak of not scoring at home. The club sits solidly in the middle of the table in goals scored this season. Players like Yuya Kubo and Luca Orellano, who helped carry the offense last season, have been underperforming while fighting injuries and other things.
What Orellano lacks in goal scoring this season, he has added in assists, notching 6 so far. Some claimed the Argentinian was not a good passer, but he has shown this season that he has that ability in his playbook when he is in the right position. Pavel Bucha, the linchpin and battery of the team, has seven assists this season, doing what many others haven’t been able to do and getting the ball to Evander in a dangerous position.
Evander has been a one-for-one replacement, statistically, for Lucho Acosta, and Kevin Denkey has added an offensive boost that the club didn’t have from a striker all last season, but the lack of help from others has left the club looking for answers.
Enter Brenner. The Brazilian forward, who scored 18 goals for FC Cincinnati in 2022, joined the team and almost immediately had an effect. The striker has scored three goals in three games played this season, jumping ahead of both Kubo and Orellano in goals scored and tying Bucha.
Ender Echenique also joined the club during the summer transfer window and has added a boost of energy that the team had not had previously. Echenique, a natural winger, has mostly slid into the right wingback role since DeAndre Yedlin was traded to Real Salt Lake.
What the 21-year-old lacks in defensive prowess, he excels in dribbling and passing. Yedlin struggled on the offensive side of the ball in his time with the club, but was a revelation on defense. Echenique looks to be the opposite.
The Defense rests
While the offense added quite a few pieces this summer, the defense lost a big player and personality in Yedlin. That, on top of Roman Celentano and Matt Miazga’s injuries, has led to a lapse in defensive stability on the back line.
Head Coach Pat Noonan has a surplus at the wingback position and has recently seen fit to move Lukas Engel to the left centerback position. That decision has had mixed results, with Engel adding speed to a backline that desperately needed it, but also leaving the wingback position lacking a defensive leader.
Despite having more centerbacks on the squad than any other position, Noonan moved a natural fullback into the back three. That leaves the question of where Teenage Hadebe and Gilberto Flores sit on this team.
Flores hasn’t seen the pitch since the club’s loss to Chivas de Guadalajara in this year’s League’s Cup. Hadebe has been a late-game substitution in two of the previous six league matches and hasn’t played in the other four.
Nick Hagglund similarly had not seen the pitch much prior to Matt Miazga’s injury, despite having a stellar early part of the season. The Cincinnati native is in the top four in clearances, only three behind Engel, despite playing in half as many matches, and has fewer fouls than any other centerback on the team.
Evan Louro has taken over goalkeeper duties while Roman Celentano recovers from injury and has done a commendable job. In two league matches, Louro has 10 saves and a passing percentage of 87%. While he has allowed three goals total, that goes against the defense, as they learn to work with less defense on the field going forward.
What about Orlando’s defense? They have given up 43 goals this season, four more than Cincinnati. Despite that, they have a goal differential of 15 this season, while Cincinnati only has an eight. Orlando has eight clean sheets to Cincinnati’s nine. On top of those stats, their defense is anchored by 21-year-old Alex Freeman, who has essentially taken Miles Robinson’s spot on the USMNT starting squad.
Wrap Up
This entire section is going to be completely out of date in like 5 hours so feel free to skip it.
Assuming the team with the better record wins all the games this weekend, Orlando would fall to Cincinnati and drop down to the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference playoff standings. If the opposite happens and Cincinnati falls to Orlando, Cincinnati would drop below Vancouver and San Diego and into a tie with Miami in the Supporter’s Shield standings.
If Cincinnati has any chance of winning the Supporter’s Shield this season, it needs help from opponents of Philadelphia and Miami. Miami sits at 55 points with two games in hand, meaning that if they were to win those two games, they would be in first place in the Eastern Conference and in the Supporter’s Shield race.
Miami has the easiest schedule going forward, only playing one playoff-contending team over its remaining five games (Nashville SC). Philadelphia still has a date with NYCFC and Charlotte FC. After their match with Orlando, FC Cincinnati will travel to Jersey to play the Red Bulls and then come back home to play Wooden Spoon contender CF Montreal on Decision Day.
FC Cincinnati takes on Orlando City SC Sunday night at TQL Stadium. The match kicks off at 7:09 p.m. and you can watch the whole thing in person, at home using MLS Season Pass on AppleTV+, or at any of the clubs’ participating Pub Partners.
