March 3, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – FC Cincinnati News Release
FC Cincinnati earned a victory in their first MLS road match for the first time in club history Saturday night, setting an important tone and taking a metaphorical weight off the team’s shoulders early in the season.
It was also the first time FCC captured a league match in 2024, and while obviously not the first win, or even road win, of the year with their success so far in the Concacaf Champions Cup, getting a victory away from home builds confidence and earns a vital three points.
“It’s important to win games early on, I say it all the time … you don’t want too many games to go by where you’re searching, you know, and chasing that first win,” head coach Pat Noonan said on the meaning of the victory. “So I think that’s just important for the confidence of the group.”
With a victorious 2-1 result against Chicago Fire FC at Soldier Field, The Orange and Blue remained undefeated in 2024 and continued a successful string of games amid a busy opening chapter to the season. Aaron Boupendza made his first MLS start of the year, scoring what is quickly becoming a classic Aaron Boupendza type goal by hitting a strong left footed shot from the top of the box past a helpless diving keeper; and Miles Robinson opened his account with his new club by neatly putting away a corner kick from Luciano Acosta to secure match winner.
For teams in the Concacaf Champions Cup, year-over-year it proves difficult to be successful in both the competition and in MLS play. With midweek matches every week, teams have to rotate lineups and get results to go far in the tournament while maintaining league play standards to remain in the hunt for regular season trophies and preferred playoff seeding. There are countless examples of it going wrong, but the fact remains that through four matches in 2024, four tests, FC Cincinnati has answered the call and got a result in each of them.
“I think through the first four games, I’m pleased with what we’ve seen,” Noonan said. “We go into the next four-game stretch and we’re going to need to be very mindful of the recovery in how we make our rotations when the time’s right. I think tonight was a really strong road performance and hopefully something that will propel us moving forward.”
Robinson’s performance was, in a way, a coming out party for the highly celebrated free agent signing. The center back had featured in two prior matches, but it was the first time that…
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