After Darren Mattocks sent the goalkeeper the wrong way and slotted his 19th-minute penalty to the right post, he jogged toward the fans with his arms spread. Teammates piled behind him.
The moment was FC Cincinnati’s highlight in a 1-1 draw against Sporting Kansas City on Sunday night at Nippert Stadium. But it was also more than that.
Mattocks was arguably the club’s best player during the preseason. At one point, he had three goals through four matches. Yet entering the season, most of the attention focused on Cincinnati’s other forward: Fanendo Adi. Mattocks kept his head down and kept working.
But now Adi is away from the team as MLS continues its investigation into his current legal case. Emmanuel Ledesma, who’s also a forward, has a sore hamstring and wasn’t medically cleared to play on Sunday. FC Cincinnati’s two other forwards, Emery Welshman and Rashawn Dally, are out on loan.
Simply put: Mattocks is the only option at No. 9. But he’s more than that, however.
If previous questions asked how the club could play without Adi, its first Designated Player, Mattocks’ performance Sunday afternoon switched the narrative to how can the team play with him as the lone forward.
“At the end of the day, whoever’s up front, you’ve got a job to do for the team,” Mattocks said after the draw. “That’s anywhere, from up top to midfield to defense and goalkeeper. When your number is called, you’ve got to be ready to take it.”
So far, the Jamaica international has done so.
In the team’s 3-0 win against Portland Timbers in the home opener, Mattocks replaced an injured Adi to start the second half and finished with five chances, which tied an MLS record for most chances created by a substitute since 2010. He produced an assist.
Against Sporting KC on Sunday, he delivered a similar performance. While he buried the penalty – his first goal with Cincinnati – Roland Lamah created the opportunity. Mattocks simply capitalized.
Yet he also consistently challenged SKC’s backline and left them uncomfortable. Using his pace, he pressed out of possession and dribbled at players when he had the ball. He was constantly in the right place at the right time and nearly scored again in the 34th minute when he beat the keeper once more and his shot kissed the back post.
Across his 82 minutes played Sunday, Mattocks produced four shots, three of which on target.
“The performance was pretty good, especially the first half,” he said. “But I think everyone is a little bit disappointed because we think that’s a game we should’ve gotten three points. I think we created a number of chances in the first half and a really good one in the second half to put the game away.”
Unfortunately, FC Cincinnati was unable to do so.
At the hour mark, Kekuta Manneh missed clear-cut chance and the visitors equalized two minutes later. Chances like that could’ve earned Orange and Blue three points, not one.
From that perspective, Sunday was two points dropped. But if looking with a larger lens, the offense creating chances – when there are limited attacking players – is a promising sign for Cincinnati moving forward.
“Even though we’re a bit disappointed, we take a lot of positives from this game because we created so many chances,” Mattocks said. “Maybe the next day we score four, five goals.
“That’s a really big positive takeaway from this game because we come into next week against the best team in the league in LAFC. We are going to need to be confident and create chances.”
