FC Cincinnati’s Offensive Woes Continue as They Fall 1-0 to Toronto FC
Shawn Behmer
“Another underwhelming performance. The team is not good enough right now, and that's on me," Pat Noonan says shortly before ending the press conference abruptly. Noonan was a man of few words after another offensive no-show against Toronto FC.
FC Cincinnati has suffered its second consecutive loss and just like the defeat against Minnesota, the offense struggled to produce.
Going into this match, Pat Noonan had yet to lose to Toronto FC. Additionally, FC Cincinnati never conceded a goal to Toronto FC at TQL Stadium, which opened in 2021. Those impressive records came to a soul-crushing end as FC Cincinnati fell 1-0 at home for the first time this season.
The starting lineup had a few changes from the Minnesota United match including Gilberto Flores for Teenage Hadebe, Obinna Nwobodo for Samuel Gidi and Tom Barlow for Ayoub Jabbari.
With the addition of Tom Barlow, he and Kévin Denkey finished with a combined 6 touches in Toronto’s box and one shot. Denkey failed to record a single shot the entire night.
“The ideas were not there. We lacked creativity in the final third. For us, I think it’s getting back to training and getting some of those things down and working together and gelling a little bit more,” Tom Barlow said when asked about the lack of ideas and confidence.
FC Cincinnati did win the xG battle 0.99 to 0.73 with just two shots on target to Toronto’s 5. So what went wrong?
“You can't pinpoint one thing, how we progress the ball, how creative we are in 1 v 1 moments, decision making in and around goal. It's all of it. You can see it. You can feel it. So again, that’s on me, because we got to find solutions,” Pat Noonan said.
Ender Echenique who exited the match at the 74th minute, provided some calmness looking ahead and expressed that the season is very long. “This is a team that needs to get their heads together, get to work and figure out a way to get better. We have great players in that locker room and players that are committed to working.”
Dado Valenzuela once again deputized the number 10 role as Evander started on the bench. Dado played 63 minutes and finished with just 4 passes into the final third, one touch in Toronto’s box and won 0/3 duels.
Evander has been sidelined since February 21 where he exited FC Cincinnati’s home opener with a hamstring injury in the 13th minute. It wasn’t until the 74th minute when Evander entered the pitch against Toronto FC, but it was too little too late. Even with Walker Zimmerman leaving the pitch at the 73rd minute due to a head injury he picked up earlier in the match, The FC struggled to find answers.
Dániel Sallói scored the go-ahead goal at the 86th minute for Toronto FC. With 7 additional minutes of stoppage time, The FC could not find a response.
“I think, you know, by the time the attackers were going, the defense didn't see it. I think it's disappointing tonight, but the blame doesn't go on any one person. There's no reason to point fingers at anybody,” Gilberto Flores said.
When asked what can the defensive unit can takeaway from tonight, ahead of a short week, Gilberto said, “We'll have a video session, we'll talk about what we did well and what we didn't do well and that's what we were doing every day – is we're having these meetings, having these video sessions, looking at games, looking at trainings, what are we doing well? What are we not doing well? And again, you know, this is a strong team and a team that's going to continue to work and keep moving forward.”
FC Cincinnati was still without defender Matt Miazga in this tight matchup against Toronto FC. Miazga appears to be trending in the right direction as he started for FC Cincinnati 2 against Philadelphia Union II. Just like old times, he picked up a yellow card in the 8th minute. He played 45 minutes and was subbed off at the start of the second half.
Can Evander singlehandedly save this offense? Can Pat Noonan make systematic adjustments that get the offense clicking? While it was the third match of MLS play, we still saw a lack of production in the final third – a glaring problem dating back to last season.
There is still plenty of time for the players and coaching staff to right the ship, but what will it take?
FC Cincinnati are back at TQL Stadium this Thursday, March 12 for the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16 against Mexican club Tigres UANL. Kickoff is 8 p.m. ET