May 24, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Cincinnati News Release
FC Cincinnati’s DP defensive midfielder Obinna Nwobodo has a very clear, relatively simple philosophy on in-season progress and improving as a player and a team week over week.
Winning makes things easier.
A not so revelatory approach, sure. But the Nigerian star midfielder routinely points to that as the most important ingredient to the team’s success week over week. When you win, training is easier and more fun. Even if the effort remains the same, and it assuredly does, Nwobodo explains that the confidence gained from victory helps make improvements clearer, and looking honestly at the challenges the team faces is easier to address as the team works towards the next week.
So with FC Cincinnati on a six-game winning streak, it makes a lot of sense that Nwobodo is finding the form so many have come to expect from him.
“I feel (best) with how we’ve been playing as a group,” Nwobodo said after the 3-1 victory against St. Louis CITY SC, marking the club’s sixth win in a row. “We fought together, talked together, came in feeling better from the previous game and then kept winning…we’re still keeping it the same mentality. That we can win, move on and and still keep working.”
“I say, it is always (easier) to find the missing pieces while we’re still having success. Everyone works hard and does better after the confidence of a win.”
Nwobodo’s individual success has in no small part fueled the team’s success. In the St. Louis game, the defensive specialist set a personal season high winning all six of six attempted tackles while also earning an interception on the night. Nwobodo was everywhere on the field, winning second balls, finding the perfect outlet pass, cutting off an opponent’s passing lanes and forcing danger away from the FCC goal. It was as complete of a performance from the man who is routinely regarded as one of the most underrated midfielders in the league.
“He opened up a lot in terms of the attack, with and without the ball,” Head Coach Pat Noonan said postgame on Saturday about Nwobodo. “I’m trying to think of a better game that he’s had. We know what he’s capable of defensively, but just reading plays, breaking up plays, second balls that didn’t allow them to consistently put our backline under pressure, he was there and then not only doing that with the ball, I thought he got us out of pressure on the dribble, he found the right passes. Just all around strong performance,…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at OurSports Central Major League Soccer MLS News…