Damon Gumbert
Wednesday marked FC Cincinnati’s sixth match in 18 days, a pace coming at a tough time as the club tries to solidify its playoff position. After the match, Head Coach Pat Noonan said, “I think you could see the games and the minutes starting to add up.”
Noonan did rotate the squad quite a bit in this match, with Tyrell Malacia being added to the growing injury report, and giving players like Pavel Bucha a much-needed rest. The lineup he trotted out featured Roman Celentano in goal and a backline of Sam Gidi, Nick Hagglund, and Teenage Hadebe, who were flanked by David Doudera and Bryan Robinson at wingback. The midfield consisted of Dado Valenzuela and Obinna Nwobodo, with Evander at the 10. Kevin Denkey started up top with Kenji Mboma Dem.
“A first half that didn’t have too much going on… so it was a little bit more calculated, a little bit slower,” Noonan said. That may be an understatement for the amount of nothingness that happened in the first half. The most notable moments were a missed header from Hadebe on an Evander corner kick in the 11th minute, and Lionel Messi receiving a yellow card for a foul on Gidi in the 44th minute.
We entered the half with a score of 0-0. Noonan decided to substitute out Doudera and put in Tom Barlow instead, moving Mboma Dem to the right wingback position.
While the first half had been quite even in the amount of mediocrity on the pitch from both sides, Miami came out of the break with a little more fire under their ass than FC Cincinnati did. The Herons took six shots in the first 15 minutes following the half compared to Cincinnati’s one.
The scoring finally kicked off in the 61st minute when serial biter/spitter Luis Suarez scored off a Casemiro assist. Suarez was relatively alone when the one-touch pass from Casemiro came to him, and no defenders really stepped up to challenge him before he sent a rocket of a shot into the top right corner of the goal.
Noonan would pull Dado out and put on Kyle Smith in the 62nd minute, and then pull Nwobodo and Hadebe out in the 72nd minute for Brian Anunga and Alvas Powell respectively.
Miami continued to control the game, though Cincinnati did manage to get a couple of shots off. In the 80th minute, a shot finally hit the net for FCC when Mboma Dem scored a beauty of a shot from the top of the box. Evander brought the ball into the attacking third and found Mboma Dem alone on the right side. The 24-year-old dribbled up a defender, cutting inside and taking a left-footed shot that curved perfectly past a diving Dayne St. Clair for the goal.
A mere six minutes later, Tom Barlow would find Sam Gidi just beyond the box for a choppy shot that would bounce its way past St. Clair and put FCC up 2-1. Gidi had moved up to the midfield when Kyle Smith came on earlier in the match and was wide open at the top of the box when Barlow passed the ball to him. It was a relatively unremarkable goal, but it changed the complexion of the game.
If only for a few minutes. Miami would even things up at 2-a-piece in the 90th minute when Riquelme Fillipi scored a wonderful goal from the top of the box. He was picked up by Alvas Powell, who drove him towards the middle of the box, where he was at least kind of picked up by Tom Barlow, who had fallen back to help defend. Fillipi curved a ball around Barlow and past an outstretched diving Celentano for the goal.
Full time would be called after five minutes of added time, and FCC would walk away with a point from the defending MLS Cup champions.
“It’s important to pick up points,” Noonan said afterward. “When you’re up a goal that late, you want to see better closure. But I think fatigue and just the quality of Miami factors into what the end of the game looks like and feels like.”
This is the third straight match where at least half of the scoring was made by non-DP level players. In the home leg against DC United, it was Doudera and Hadebe propelling the team to victory. In the away leg it was Tom Barlow teaming up with Evander for the two goals, and now in this match it was Gidi and Mboma Dem.
“Everybody knows what Kevin and Evander can do,” Noonan said. “There’s going to be attention on them.” It’s important that those supporting players continue to step up if The FC wants to make a deep run in the playoffs.
But they also will need it to even get into the playoffs. Currently, FC Cincinnati is in the first play-in spot, though tied with Orlando City FC at 43 points. Unfortunately, FCC are currently slotted to face the Columbus Crew, who are occupying the final play-in spot, to see who will advance to play Supporter’s Shield winners Nashville SC in the first round of the playoffs.
FCC will need to earn points over their final two matches to stay in the playoff race, and hopefully propel themselves past Orlando and into a guaranteed playoff spot. That means they will have to draw or beat both the Philadelphia Union on Saturday and Nashville SC on Nov. 7. Orlando must take on Charlotte FC and the New England Revolution. Luckily for both Orlando and FCC, all of their opponents have clinched playoff berths. There is still some jockeying for position, so it’s entirely possible that they still play their best XI in these matches.
“It’s still at this stage an important point on the road,” Noonan said about the draw. “And now we go home for two games.”
“I imagine guys are going to be up for it and ready to see out the year in front of our home fans in a positive way.”
All photos and videos are courtesy of FC Cincinnati
