FC Cincinnati don’t often talk about the table or how a match could impact it when they are heading into a game. In fact, they never do. But heading into Wednesday night’s tilt with New York City Football Club at TQL Stadium, it was part of the discussion that Pat Noonan had with his squad.
All that separated The Orange and Blue and NYCFC in the Eastern Conference table was one point, and with the game played in front of their home fans and with playoff positioning potentially coming down to games like these in a few months, Pat Noonan felt it important to communicate the importance of the match to his side.
His squad responded. And while they didn’t have the prettiest game, or perform at their highest possible level, they got the job done.
In the dying minutes of Wednesday night's match, FC Cincinnati sealed the deal with a strike from, who else, but Evander. With stoppage time already begun, Evander delivered three points on a strike from inside the box to give FCC a 2-1 lead and help see out a dramatic victory over an NYCFC side who have gotten the better of The Orange and Blue over the last three years.
“This is the first time before a game that we've talked about where we're at,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said postgame. “There's still so much to play for everybody, but they're a point behind us going into the game, and I wanted guys to recognize the importance of getting three points at home, because it matters and it's tight. " "
“And certainly, you go game by game, but this was an important three points in this particular game with NYC right behind us at the table. So that part, I think, is a huge win for us.”
“We knew that was a game, I would say, a six-point game because we needed to win to get a little bit of distance from them,” the game-winning Evander added. “That was mentioned in training yesterday, and I think that prepared us for the game tonight. For our mindset, for our awareness to be ready to play this kind of game. We know that they are a very good team, but the most important thing was to win. I said that before the game: it doesn't need to be pretty, doesn't need to be fancy, but we need to come out here and win tonight, and we did that.”
The performance, in some respects, left FC Cincinnati members wanting more. Or at the very least acknowledging that it wasn’t their best and that they had more in them. Evander would go on to acknowledge that their win wasn’t pretty or fancy, exactly as he had said. Pat Noonan made sure to think beyond the result and said he would ask his team to do the same, because without a little bit of Evander magic, they could have been looking at a draw or a loss when a win was there the whole time.
“Certainly, the result was good. How we got there, certainly plenty to talk about because I think the end of both halves, we got away from what we were doing, and New York had too much control of those periods, where especially at the end there, the difference of how you feel is a couple saves on one end and Evander being Evander on the other,” Noonan explained. “My tone seems critical because I want more. These guys should want more out of themselves and understand we can be sitting here talking about a draw, talking about a loss.
“Let's not let the result confuse us because we can be better, and that's what we'll talk about. But there was still a lot of good stuff.”
FC Cincinnati took an early lead to start this game off, with Kenji Mboma Dem scoring in the 11’ that, while unassisted on the scoresheet, took a combination of efforts from all FC Cincinnati attackers. Evander lofted a pass through the backline that perfectly timed the runs of both Mboma Dem and Kévin Denkey. Denkey had the first opportunity, but with the defense swarming to him, they left the French University of Dayton alumni open in the box, and the loose ball fell to him for the finish. The goal was Mboma Dem’s fifth of the MLS season and ninth of the year overall in a breakout season for the MLS SuperDraft selection.
But before halftime, NYCFC would level things on a strike from the newly signed Luighi to make the score 1-1. That’s where the score would stay until Evander’s stoppage-time winner, but it was hardly the last time either side had an opportunity to score.
“We had to make a lot of emergency plays again,” Noonan said of the defensive effort on the night. “I think similar to how the Orlando game looked when our decisions were poor, you put a lot of stress on guys behind the ball to defend in space, and we just have to eliminate those moments more."
“You know, Matt's on a yellow, and Obi's on a yellow, and it's a lot of times because they have to take yellows based on the circumstances they're (put) in,” Noonan continued. “Now it changes how you manage a game with decisions. So the guys that had to defend those moments, I think, is what we can applaud, but we shouldn't be putting them in (those situations) as often as we do.”
Roman Celentano made seven saves in the effort, and tidied up any leftover mess caused by the defense – earning himself Man of the Match honors when all was said and done.
“It's always nice to get the three points. I thought we played well in the first half. We gave up maybe more chances than we'd like in the second half, but we stayed in it and we got rewarded with our patience and our intensity,” Celentano said of the team's performance. “We want to always be playing well, we want to always defend well, but all that matters right now is getting wins, stacking wins, and trying to do the best we can. So I think we performed well in Orlando – we didn't get three points – but it's a good step in the right direction today against a team that's close to us on the table. So we're happy with that, and hopefully can get the job done on Saturday again.”
The victory, or at very least the offensive performance, is both expected and unexpected in many ways for FC Cincinnati.
In the unexpected category, FCC have been known this season for their offensive output. They have been one of the highest-firepowered in MLS, and thus o,nly scoring twice on the night and not having a ton of hihigh-qualityhances is a bit off for this team. Especially coming off last weekend, when they also scored just one time in Orlando. Also, whenever only two minutes of added time are shown, it’s unexpected that a goal comes in that time. Not impossible, but unexpected.
That said, Evander scoring an unbelievable goal? Obinna Nwobodo described that as “not exceptional” anymore (with a hint of a laugh while saying it, of course) because of how often he does it. That’s expected at this point. A built-up muscle that has, to this point, earned FCC many points in games from losing or drawn positions after the 80’.
Evander just calls all that instinct.
“Those moments are just instinct. I just turn and shoot, and that's more the muscle memory,” Evander explained. “You know, just thinking, ‘where's the goal, we know (where) the players are in front of you.’ I was just happy to score a late goal and give us the three points tonight that we needed.”
On the team's offensive side of the ball, though, Pat Noonan still sees more than they can do to unlock things beyond Evander magic.
“It's not easy to score. It's not easy when you're this many games into the season to create clear-cut chances game after game. NYC is a strong team, and sure, we've been scoring a lot of goals. But if the chances are still there, I can live with not scoring as many goals as we maybe did in the first 15 games,” Noonan explained. “I want us to be in the positions to make plays, and you could have done that more consistently because I think the first 30 minutes, some of the ideas and how we prepared the guys were recognized and really got us into some favorable moments to attack; I was pleased about that. "
“Then it's more of the final third, this desire to attack quickly all the time,” Noonan continued. “And I think we just have to find the balance because the second goal is a perfect example of finding the right moments when numbers are behind the ball when teams are protecting the middle of the field to use the wide areas to try to problem solve, and we did that. So, we still scored two goals. I wouldn't categorize our group as struggling offensively, but with more patience, I think it's maybe consistent to some more favorable spots more consistently.”
FC Cincinnati now go again on Saturday night to complete a two-match home stand and seek to make it a six-point August week. With the Seattle Sounders visiting TQL Stadium next, The Orange and Blue will look to continue to climb the table and position themselves in the playoff picture. After Wednesday’s victory, FC Cincinnati is now just three points back of fourth place.
For more information on that match and to get information on tickets to attend that match, click here.
