Cincinnati on fire and no, not the Reds or Bengals!
Jun 22, 2023
After yesterday's games the top of the MLS Eastern Conference looks a lot like this ......
| Group E | Overall | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Gdf | Pts | Form | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | W | D | L | F | A | ||||
| 1 | FC Cincinnati | 18 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 30 | 16 | +14 | 43 | WXWW | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 11 | ||
| 2 | Nashville | 19 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 28 | 14 | +14 | 35 | LWXW | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 8 | ||
| 3 | New England Revolution | 18 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 31 | 22 | +9 | 33 | WWOX | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 21 | 8 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 14 | ||
| 4 | Philadelphia Union | 18 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 30 | 19 | +11 | 31 | XLWW | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 14 | ||
| 5 | Atlanta United | 19 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 37 | 31 | +6 | 29 | XWOX | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 24 | 13 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 13 | 18 | ||
My preseason notes included one outright suggestion....
The most expensive transfer in MLS history who did not join Atlanta United, was Brenner, who left Sao Paulo in 2021 to join FC Cincinnati, that was a surprise as FCC had finished 12th and last in 2019, their inaugural MLS season, 13 points behind the team in 11th, then 14th and last in 2020 with just 16 points. In their third season and first with Brenner they finished, yes, you guessed it (!), 14th and last, 8 adrift of the team in 13th. However, last season they finished 5th in their Conference with 49 points and a veritable flood of goals. Brenner settled and scored three hat-tricks (18 total and six assists) and he had two partners in crime goals, Luciano Acosta ( 10 and 12 assists) and Brandon Vasquez ( 18 and 8), a whooping 46 goals and 33 assists (some overlap) between the deadly trio. So they were the stars of the show, the catalyst for turning things around for the franchise, err, not really! Sure they played a big part, but it was the arrival of young head coach Pat Noonan and his GM that really shook things up, early last season I noted........
Brenner scored 8 goals last season, which was decent, but perhaps not quite what they hoped for and he has a fitness delayed start to 2022 (vias issues meant he missed pre season), but has started the last three games, Acosta has 10 goals and 9 assists since his arrival and always seems to perform whenever I watch, so they have the core of a real offensive threat and young striker Brandon Vazquez has five goals this season and will give Brenner competition. They have yet another new GM and head coach and hopefully this pair will be given time to get things right, the new h/c Pat Noonan spent three successful years as assistant under Jim Curtin at Philadelphia Union and will be looking to bring some of the Philly magic with him. They obviously like the Union blueprint, as new GM Chris Albright also came from Philly.
Noonan had his team pressing like their lives depended on it in early season, very aggressively and very much in the style of Union and in pretty much his last preseason talk with the local media he said: "We are attacking with our entire group, we are defending with our entire group, if we do that cohesively, defending from the front, we can be aggressive in how we attack, put teams under pressure and attack again." I think we get the gist! This got fine tuned as the season progressed and became less of a Union high press and a slightly deeper FCC one, this happened once Nigerian DM Obinna Nwobodo arrived from Turkish football, they only lost 4/27 after he signed and three of those games could easily have played out differently. FCC actually only took 7 points from their first seven starts, with those games very much a learning process for players and coaching staff. Nwobodo was the missing link and Noonan spoke about the incredible work rate of the player the day his signing was announced and what it would allow FCC to do, which was a dynamic midfield press (on occasion) and Nwobodo and Junior Moreno, who is a very experienced Venezuelan international, form a very talented double pivot at the base of midfield.
FCC are a very interesting team and whilst 49 points last season was 25 more than they had achieved before, we have really only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Noonan can achieve here. I understand that the team have worked INCREDIBLY hard in preseason and got to a very high level of fitness several weeks ago, so that they could then ease off a little and fine tune things in the final phase of build up. The squad has been added to with the signings of Marco Angulo, Isaiah Foster, Stiven Jimenez, Paul Walters, Malik Pinto, as well as Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee Yerson Mosquera and everyone mentioned above has remained, despite interest in several (Brenner was very close to a move to the EPL apparently, no prizes for guessing that was Forest, who have had a "if he has a pulse sign him" strategy since last summer! ). Those signings greatly increase defensive options which was seen as key and they look as strong as anyone in MLS in DM which we have already discussed with the additions of Angulo and Jimenez and that is a position that Noonan sees as key to success. The head coach feels his team are miles ahead of where they were at this stage last season, that is obvious I suppose, but also that there is much more to come from his team and to me, that is just as obvious.
FCC are circa 20-1/25-1 to win the MLS Cup, they made the playoffs last season where they lost very narrowly away to Union, they should be much stronger this season and ready to hit the ground running and those odds could look very big come the postseason.
Cincy are relentless at the moment and whilst we are only just past half way, they already look good for the #1 seed in the East and the Supporters Shield. 67 points was enough for both of those last season, 73 in 2021 which was the all time record for MLS regular season points, FCC are currently on course for 81+. Which highlights even further just how good they have been and what a fantastic job Pat Noonan (pictured) has done , he is just 42yo, even more amazing is that Jim Curtin, whom Noonan spent three years as #2 to at Union ( see above), is only 43yo and surely both have ambitions beyond MLS , are "modern coaches" and should be on the radar of any club in Europe looking for a head coach.
Union Sporting Director Ernst Tanner, should also be on a lot of short lists for bigger jobs, he and Curtin have worked four full seasons together and Union have finished 3-1-2-1 in their Conference (never higher than 6th in the 7 years prior to that) and the incredible thing is that this have been achieved on a relative shoestring, with a bottom third MLS budget.
Good luck!
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