February 27, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – FC Cincinnati News Release
The challenge of the early season is clear and already being felt. FC Cincinnati will play their third game across two competitions in six days when they take on Cavalier FC on Wednesday night. It comes at the beginning of a stretch where The Orange and Blue could play seven matches in 28 days to start the season.
A trial by fire to open the year, and one that comes while FCC are still figuring itself out.
On opening day of the MLS season, FC Cincinnati had five newcomers in their starting 11, meaning half of the outfield players were either competing in their first match as a member of The Orange and Blue, making their TQL Stadium debut, or both. So, on top of playing on short rest, everyone is playing with new faces and figuring out the chemistry around the pitch.
The challenges to that are obvious; entering Wednesday’s return leg, FCC have already had five players log all 180 minutes of the season in the six days since competitive play opened. Now FCC coaches have to decide how to handle those minutes for major contributors (including Luciano Acosta, Miles Robinson, Obinna Nwobodo, Ian Murphy and Roman Celentano), knowing that there is a weekend MLS match on the horizon and more midweek play to factor in for the coming weeks.
On that end, the expectations are clear.
“We educate the players on the schedule,” Pat Noonan said ahead of last Sunday’s Toronto FC matchup over the weekend. “This is what the game schedule looks like, this is what the recovery days look like, this is potentially off days, but be ready. It’s pretty simple. Guys need to be ready.”
Be ready to play. A simple instruction with complicated points of execution but an easy-to-understand mantra.
Noonan has spoken repeatedly this offseason, preseason, and now regular season on the need to be ready. Last year with schedule congestion, part of what made FCC so great was their ability to go to and trust multiple guys on the roster. When players that normally came off the bench got their opportunity, they were ready and performed, leading to positive results for The Orange and Blue.
This season, Noonan suggests, is no different, but it is coming at a different time of the year, and that must be considered. Making decisions particularly on those four outfielders (and Celentano, though he would tell you the challenges he faces are more mental than physical), is even more challenging.
“We’re expecting the same (as last…
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