FC Cincinnati Hosts Colorado Rapids in Return Home After Road Stand

April 26, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Cincinnati News Release

There is an undeniable similarity to the paths FC Cincinnati and their visitors this weekend for match week 11 in the Colorado Rapids have take this season. The starting points couldn’t be any different, but where they are on April 27 at kickoff looks eerily familiar.

Both clubs have brought in significant changes in their lineups, albeit for different reasons, and both clubs have seen up-and-down performances to start the season. The Rapids, coming off a season that saw them finish bottom of the Western Conference, brought in five key additions to essentially turn over their roster and start fresh. FC Cincinnati also turned over their roster with more than five additions, in no small part due to the opposite effect through, as the success of 2023 pushed change due to transfers going out.

However, both clubs enter Saturday’s match with a 4-2-3 record, 15 points, and a place in the top four of their respective conferences despite those (self-admitted) poor performances. They have fought to overcome the lineup changes and integration of new players, and in Cincinnati’s case, they’ve maintained their spot high on the league table, but in Colorado’s case, they’ve rocketed from last place to fourth after just nine matches with the new faces.

“I think in just watching the games and looking at them a little bit closer, defensively, I think they continue to get better,” Noonan said of the Colorado Rapids. “(They are) organized; they do a good job of staying compact and have different ways of going to the ball in different areas of the field, but they are organized.

“Then with the ball, there’s been a balance of the ball on the ground (and) the ball direct. I think in the moments that it goes direct, it’s because they have a willing number nine in [Rafael] Navarro that challenges, uses his body well. [Djordje] Mihailovic, the way he operates underneath and gets on the ball, he reads plays well, obviously a very smart player. And then the last few games with [Kévin] Cabral and [Calvin] Harris primarily as the wingers, two guys with pace that know how to stretch the game that give them an option to threaten behind. So (they’re) effective with the direct play, but they also have players that can move the ball on the ground. So being able to deal with both of those things I think will be important for us. It’s a good challenge, but they’re certainly a team moving in a positive direction.”

FCC is looking…