August 2, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Cincinnati News Release
Leagues Cup is an opportunity for FC Cincinnati to sort themselves out and get right for not only the tournament’s knockout stages, but the regular season as a whole. One of those opportunities to identify problems and work towards solutions now while time affords for problem solving.
One of those identified problems from Thursday nights Leagues Cup opener against Querétaro, a 1-nil win in regulation yielding FC Cincinnati all three points and securing advancing from the group, was the general fitness of the team and how, in some cases, the lack thereof is creating tactical issues late in the game.
“One of the things that we continue to take away from where we’re at now is we need to improve our fitness,” Pat Noonan said from the podium at his post game press conference. “Too many guys have to come off the field with physical cramps.”
In an ideal world, Noonan is not making adjustments in game based on fitness or health. Fatigue is something to manage, sure, but being forced into changes at nonideal times means making changes that sometimes don’t best suit the team’s needs.
The arrival of newly signed center back Chidozie Awaziem only further highlighted the problem. Awaziem, who due to the nature of the European calendar, has only truly just begun the equivalent of his preseason training after a lengthy offseason break from club play in Portugal, played a full 90 in his debut. An unexpected but welcome contribution as Noonan indicated postgame the plan was to evaluate him after 45 minutes of play, but his performance and fitness level showed he was good to go for the rest of the match.
The feat of fitness and mental toughness was only further stated when teammate Asad informed the world that Awaziem had flown in from Canada earlier that day after securing his work permit. Further adding to the fatigue he must have been feeling as he fought to see out a clean sheet after 90 minutes of pouring rain play.
“I wasn’t supposed to play the 90 minutes so, I guess I have to give myself some credit for staying up to the 90 minutes because I was very tired…but it meant alot to me (to get the clean sheet). But like I said, I was feeling good in the game. I was good to go. It doesn’t matter when I come, today or yesterday, I was feeling good so I was good to go.”
“I thought that the way he controlled his running, the way we were able to control the tempo with the ball at times, we didn’t consistently…
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