The Orange and Blue had chances on Saturday night in GEODIS Park. They were fewer and further between than their Nashville SC opponents by the numbers, but they were there. You could, rather confidently even, say that the chances FC Cincinnati ended the night with were of the same or negligible quality to the ones their opponents had on balance. But when the final whistle blew, and FC Cincinnati looked up to the scoreboard, it read 4-0 to the home side, and that was that.
The difference? A few choice moments from the best defense in the league thus far that FC Cincinnati couldn’t replicate, and just a few inches of difference that could have swung the game back their way when it was still in reach. Then, late, when being aggressive in last ditch efforts to swing the game turned on them, Nashville added to the score.
It was, in all and in the words of FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan, a “bad night.”
“Yeah, it was a bad night,” Noonan explained. “We just didn't control the tempo of the game very well and then had to change our defensive structure just to have some stability going into the break.”
“I thought the first half was, overall, underwhelming with some, just the overall play and, duels, moments where our decisions put us into, again, bad moments in transition and they're very good going forward in those moments… beginning of the second half, credit the guys that came on with Ayoub [Jabbari] and Bryan [Ramirez]. They helped change the game immediately and then we had some good actions. That was probably our best stretch of play and of momentum and chance to get back into the game and then we're taking chances, taking risk, and we get exposed there with the two at the end.”
FC Cincinnati fell to Supporters’ Shield leading Nashville SC on Saturday night by an ugly margin that, for most of the night even with a tighter score line, felt ugly. The Orange and Blue had to make changes to their defensive structure early in the match just to regain a semblance of control early in the first half after coming under siege by NSC right out of the gate, all while feebly mustering just one shot in the first half and looking like a team hanging on for dear life rather than keeping up.
To their credit, after a few well deployed substitutes to start the second half, FC Cincinnati saw vast improvement and began to take the game back at Nashville, who by this point had gained a 2-0 lead. Ayoub Jabbari and Bryan Ramirez both came on and instantly made an impact in Noonan’s approximation, but every attacking opportunity they had, every time it felt sure that this is the moment they would put a goal on the board and the tide would turn, the Music City hosts did something amazing on defense and kept the sheet clean.
Twice FC Cincinnati shots were cleared off the line by the keeper with a tremendous save, and twice more FCC even managed to beat the keeper but a well placed and hustling defender was there to make a save or kick the shot away. Kévin Denkey, Ayoub Jabbari, Evander and Gerardo “Dado” Valenzuela had at least one clean look in the second half for FCC. But each time, something more unbelievable than the last intervened.
It was a defensive showcase that stymied the FC Cincinnati attack, an attack that was shut out for the first time since March 8th, over 175 days ago.
“The scoreline was the scoreline…we gave up four goals, but we could have scored a couple and credit to the keeper, he made some big saves,” Noonan said of Nashville SC’s defense. “Keeper made some saves. They made some goal-like clearances. The effort was there and those are big moments where a team that's winning games and played at a higher level, they make those plays, and those are plays that, on the other end, we didn't make.”
What felt true in the building that may not have conveyed through any of the broadcast was that with each defensive stand Nashville made, the momentum built in both the team and the home supporters. When NSC keeper Brian Schweke made the goal line clearance on Denkey’s shot that was so close to going over the goal line that it would have if it was slightly less inflated, the crowd rose to its feet.
By the time Schweke made his eighth save of the night and put a stamp on his 10th clean sheet, GEODIS Park was going ballistic, and the confidence Nashville walked with made them look six inches taller. It felt like no matter how good a chance FC Cincinnati had, no matter how good the look was or open the net was, Nashville was going to be there to snap it up. It was, to an extent, demoralizing.
“I think it would have been a different game if one of those went in,” FC Cincinnati defender Miles Robinson said postgame. “I think we could have pushed for the second and then an equalizer if something goes in but it just doesn’t. Obviously, they're a good team. They had good saves, good moments in the game and they stood strong. But I think also with us, we made some good saves early in the game. It's just understanding that they're a tough team to play against, especially away, and these games, they are decided by small moments, and I don't think we were as sharp as we could have been in those moments.”
With FC Cincinnati pushing late, Nashville tacked on two more goals in the 90’ and 90’+6, putting the game on ice and leaving a particularly sour taste to the evening.
But the reckoning in the aftermath of the match may have been harder to swallow.
FC Cincinnati find themselves at a crossroads of sorts. Not one they’ve never been at before, much the opposite, more so one they’ve been standing at for a while but the context of this loss in specific helps illuminate the way.
With the loss, FCC is now 21 points back of the Supporters’ Shield leaders Nashville SC. It’s been known for a while that dreams of a Shield were farfetched, but losing now, like this, to the leaders helps show how far away the two sides are. It’s also the first time in close to four full years that Head Coach Pat Noonan has had to talk about the regular season in terms that don’t revolve around winning that trophy.
“I'm not worried about the gap,” Noonan explained. “They're at the top of the table. We're not trying to catch Nashville right now. We're trying to improve our play and improve our position in the table with each game, but the goal wasn't, or isn't, to catch them right now. That's, for me, unrealistic with how we're playing.
“So, it's trying to get better and trying to win games and you can't when we defend like that. But it's not to compare the two teams. That's week-to-week, it's how we match up and try to perform against the next opponent. So, the scoreline tonight reflects that they were better than us and I think it's them taking their moments, and the overall play was better, it was more stable and those are the things that I think we still struggle with is, trying to find the right plays, the right decisions that don't have the play become chaotic or just emergency defending situations. So yea, I'm not concerned about the gap as far as us and Nashville. I'm concerned about our consistency of play, and that's what we're going to try to continue to focus on.”
The important thing to keep in mind as FC Cincinnati move forward is that while it may be hard to think of the rest of the year outside the context of competing for the regular season trophy, it is the only path forward. Like Noonan said, the priority had to be getting better, and their focus will be on such.
Next week FC Cincinnati host D.C. United at TQL Stadium, which is another opportunity to show improvement and build towards their next goal.
