August 1, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Cincinnati News Release
The break from regular season action came at a welcome time for FC Cincinnati. After a strong first half of the season, a bad week put a sour taste in everyone’s mouth as The Orange and Blue looked to overcome challenges to their health and, therefore, depth. But now the fresh start in Leagues Cup allows for FC Cincinnati to compete and win its mojo back in games that do not impact the clubs regular season.
FC Cincinnati kick off the 2024 Leagues Cup against Querétaro FC, needing only a win to guarantee qualification into the knockout stages. NYCFC (the other team in FCC and Querétaro’s group) defeated Los Gallos Blancos in PK’s in the first match of group play, meaning any winning result over Querétaro guarantees moving on.
“You look at just the structure alone (of the tournament) and a third of the teams are going after group stage play and not playing games for three weeks. So how do you avoid having that gap in the middle of the season will be, I think, a big talking point,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said Wednesday in a pre match press conference. “So we can find some solutions there, but it’s the challenge that all of us are in. And to avoid that, go win games. That’s our approach to it.”
Querétaro FC provides a unique challenge to FC Cincinnati at this point in the season. FCC has never played Querétaro FC and with Liga MX just four games into the regular season, there is very little data to study about their opponents. But with one match played in Leagues Cup and four Liga MX games there is a basis for Pat Noonan to study from and inform his team.
“I think it’s a team that plays direct and does it effectively. When you step up your pressure, I think they’ve taken away risk in terms of trying to play through pressure at times,” Noonan said of his Thursday opponents. “A lot of times you’ll see five guys along that backline ready to compete for duels and cause you problems with not only the space in behind,but when you’re able to win balls or find your midfielders, they do a good job of stepping up and looking to pick up second balls and then attack again.
“They compete very well. I know the league form, and the result in the first game against New York City hasn’t been of their liking, I’m sure. But they compete well, they have individual talent. They have players that we’ve seen from MLS prior, with [Lucas] Rodriguez, with [Ake] Loba, [Ronaldo] Cisneros. There’s…
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