HARRISON, N.J. -- Two weeks ago, FC Cincinnati humbly celebrated a dominant win over a depleted Inter Miami CF squad and a rise to the top of the table. Since then, the Orange and Blue have dropped three straight losses in an eight-day span, and now head into the Leagues Cup break welcoming a chance to reset and perhaps searching for some answers.
Injuries and other absences clearly are taking a toll, but Cincinnati overcame those issues against Miami and now suddenly has not been able to replicate that success. The recent struggles carried into a 3-1 loss at New York Red Bulls on Saturday, and FC Cincinnati (15-7-3, 48 points) is on its first three-game losing streak since the 2021 season ended in 12 straight defeats.
FCC goalkeeper Roman Celentano still believes the win over the Herons is a better reflection of what his team is capable, but play has to improve fast. Miami (16-4-5, 53 points) has bounced back to first place with a pair of wins since losing at Cincinnati and now is five points ahead in the Supporters’ Shield standings with nine games left.
“If we want to be at that level we can't have a week like this, so, it's just nice to see what we did wrong and go forward and not have it happen again because we've left ourselves not a lot of room to mess up the rest of the way to the end of the season if we want to compete for the Shield,” Celentano said. “So, we got to dig ourselves out of a little bit of a hole, but I mean, I think we have the group to do it. And then we'll get it right going forward.”
Cincinnati never lost any games back-to-back last year while going 20-5-9, but the Orange and Blue dropped a maximum two straight league games three times in 2022 en route to a fifth-place (12-9-13) finish in the Eastern Conference.
Asked how the team is handling the current situation, Celentano said that will be answered when FCC gets back from the break, but “it’s not good.” He can’t even pin the lack of results on the absences, though season-ending injuries to Matt Miazga and Nick Hagglund, the temporary loss of Miles Robinson to suspension and the Olympics, and now Luciano Acosta’s foot injury make things more challenging.
Acosta played the final 45 minutes but was clearly still fighting pain.
“I mean, it's easy to say that (is to blame), but I mean, we have more than capable guys on the field to go out there compete even with guys hurt or suspended or whatever the case is,” Celentano said. “I feel like we need to go out there and compete and show that we're one of the best in this league, if not the best, so I mean, I don't think it's like, 'Oh, we're missing guys.' We've got to step up and we just haven't been doing that. So we just need to do better as a group.”
FCC has played around with some rotation in the squad the last few games, but most notable on Saturday was Acosta and Luca Orellano starting on the bench. Yamil Asad, who has been starting recently at left wingback, also was on the bench with Bret Halsey replacing him and Yuya Kubo filling in for Orellano on the right, and Dado Valenzuela started at the No. 10 position for Acosta, who missed Wednesday’s match because of a foot issue he picked up the previous match.
The Red Bulls pounced early and were up 3-0 before the 60-minute mark.
Lewis Morgan scored the opening goal in the eighth minute after Elias Manoel found him wide open in the center of the box.
Manoel had received a long ball down from defender Dylan Nealis, but FCC centerback Ian Murphy tried to step in front of it and missed, and as Manoel dribbled down FCC’s right flank, DeAndre Yedlin appeared to be directing Kipp Keller to stay in the middle to cover Morgan. Keller instead slid over to try to stop Manoel, and Yedlin and Murphy couldn’t recover in time to prevent the shot as Celentano tried to cut down Morgan’s angle.
New York had just created a couple of dangerous chances a minute earlier when Keller managed to block a first attempt and a second-chance shot went just wide of the far post. The Orange and Blue settled down a bit after that and managed to go into halftime down just one goal.
FCC made some adjustments to try to get something going offensively in the second half, bringing on Acosta and Orellano for the final 45 minutes.
However, it was the depleted defense that needed bolstered. The Red Bulls doubled their lead in the 52nd minute when Kyle Duncan launched a shot to the upper left corner of the goal from well outside the box after Keller’s header clearance of a long throw-in landed at his feet with plenty of space in front of him.
As the Orange and Blue were trying to bring on more offensive reinforcements to mount a comeback, New York added another punch seven minutes later with Morgan’s second goal on a cross into the box that was re-directed to him for a close-range shot.
“I think if you look at the game from the boxes, that's where they kind of won it,” said assistant Dom Kinnear, who served as head coach for the match while Pat Noonan served a red card suspension. “But obviously, you know, in order to get there, for both teams, we had good possession, we kept the ball pretty well movement side-to-side, but in the end, kind of fizzled out. And then theirs was a lot of transition we got caught on. It's important in those moments that you've got to win that first and expect the runner to run off. So I don't think anything tonight surprised us, because we prepared the team well for how they play, we all kind of know how Red Bulls like to play. But you still have to be in the moment, you have to take responsibility for first balls and second balls. And quite a few times they took advantage of that, especially early in the first half and early in the second half.”
FCC had won three straight games following Hagglund’s injury in a loss to New England – which came a week after Miazga’s injury. But, the Orange and Blue have allowed seven goals in the three losses since then.
Yedlin, a natural wingback or fullback, has been filling in at centerback, while Keller, a backup, also has been getting starts. On Saturday, even regular starter Ian Murphy struggled, and another option on the back line was unavailable due to Alvas Powell serving a red card suspension.
Asked if FCC can tactically continue playing with three centerbacks and expect results, Kinnear said that would be a better question for Noonan but acknowledged “it becomes a numbers issue.”
“When you look at the number of defenders we had tonight, with Alvas [Powell] being out with suspension, it made going back to four difficult," Kinnear said. "We talked about it on the bench, it’s like okay, we have some guys here that could maybe go to four, but who’s your left back or who’s your right back, you know? And you don't want to put, say someone like Yuya [Kubo] or Obi [Nwobodo] back there. So I think you could do it. I think tonight would be difficult just because of the personnel that we have, we didn't have a lot of seasoned defenders to pick from.”
After a stretch where FCC was able to produce three goals or more in six of nine matches between May 18 and the 6-1 win over Miami on July 6, the offense has sputtered as well.
The Orange and Blue went to a 3-4-2-1 for that match against the Herons and kept with it in losses to Charlotte and Chicago last week before going back to the 3-4-1-2 on Saturday. Kinnear was hoping the halftime changes would be enough for a comeback, but after the second goal, he made the decision to bring on attackers Aaron Boupendza and Corey Baird – the two forwards that started at the beginning of the season.
New York scored that third goal as they set to come on, replacing Sergio Santos and Kevin Kelsy in the 60th minute, but the two combined on FCC’s lone goal seven minutes after entering.
Boupendza, a designated player who has been relegated to the bench, had only played three minutes in the previous two games, and Baird had just returned last weekend from a two-month absence due to a hip injury.
“We were looking to come on, make an impact, positively affect the game, and we both did that, and we had a couple other chances,” Baird said. “We created some good opportunities. But it wasn't quite enough. Even though I would say Aaron and I probably felt pretty good about the minutes we had on the field. It's just we'd rather play poorly and get the result out of it. So it's kind of bittersweet.”
Kubo started the play that led to the goal when he sent a cross into the box. Acosta chested the ball down and laid it off to Boupendza, whose first touch beat a defender and bounced into the path of Baird. Baird said he was looking for the pass and knew he could get there first so he “just kind of went for it,” and ended up finishing a shot past New York goalkeeper Carlos Coronel.
Originally, Baird was waived offside, but he assumed the call was on Acosta. He knew once they said it was him, he had been even with Boupendza when he touched the ball. A video review showed that to be true, and the goal counted.
Boupendza’s contribution, although unspectacular, seemed to be a long time coming after the team’s most expensive player (salary and transfer fee cost combined) had been so little used since his return from jaw surgery. He hadn’t played more than 14 minutes in any game since April.
“I'm happy about this because I want to just do my job to help the team,” Boupendza said of his contribution. “If I go into the field I want to give everything for the team. But tonight, ... we came here for a win, but the luck was not with us tonight. So we will go back to work. We have maybe 10 days before the next game so I think we'll be fresh, everybody needs rest and recovery too. We focus on coming back strong. ... We know also we have too much injury and these players are out. But for me I feel good. I feel good.”
FCC had brought Boupendza in on a $7 million fee last summer to help with the push for the Supporters’ Shield, and he contributed to that achievement by scoring five goals in 10 games (six starts).
Boupendza has played just 13 games with five starts this season, and he’s been on the bench the last 10 matches he’s been available for, appearing as a substitute in just five of those. He had been pushed to the bench just before an off-field incident led to needing jaw surgery, sidelining him at the end of April and up until he rejoined the matchday roster June 19.
Noonan had previously indicated Boupendza needed to build match fitness, but after his first two appearances back from injury, he went three straight without playing. FCC perhaps could have benefited from a proven goal-scorer these past few games, but Kinnear said match fitness has still been a concern.
“Aaron has been out for a while, we all know that, building back up his fitness and … this Leagues Cup could be a time for him to kind of to get going again, you know, especially fitness wise,” Kinnear said Saturday.
Kinnear indicated Leagues Cup could be an opportunity for some of the reserve players to get minutes, as most would expect for a team battling injuries.
Players said the break from MLS play will be a good time to recover and keep working on ways to improve as a team. FCC opens Leagues Cup group play against Liga MX’s Club Queretaro on Aug. 1.
“It's definitely the toughest moment we've had as a team this year,” Baird said. “We've been pretty unfortunate with injuries over the last two months or so. Even before that, we always had a couple guys down, and so it's kind of about not a full brand-new identity but just integrating guys into more integral pieces. The back line has shuffled around so much. You see Yuya playing three or four positions a game, DeAndre playing multiple positions. Guys are stepping up, and I think we're just still learning exactly how to play the new faces, people playing in different spots. It is always going to be difficult on a team with guys like Matt and Miles not being here.
“I think it just the whole team needs to step up. It was a really tough week for us, especially coming off the high of Miami, so it's everyone looking at themselves in the mirror, and how can I give that little bit more and get us over the line in some of these games?”
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