FC Cincinnati went into Saturday night in Atlanta looking for a win. That goal was plain and simple.
It didn’t have to be pretty, but it needed to be a positive result. With eight games left in the regular season The Orange and Blue needed to start stacking results and finding ways to win. Scratch and claw, rip and tear, do anything they can to end their nine-game winless streak that they had brought with them to Mercedes-Benz Stadium
By the end of the night, with the remnants of a hurricane pounding down on them and the city of Atlanta, FC Cincinnati saw the quiet in the eye -- they flew home with three points and so much more.
FC Cincinnati defeated Atlanta United FC 3-1 on Saturday evening, winning on the road for just the second time this season and snapping a stretch where even when the results were technically productive, they were wanting on the performance side. In this game, in 90’ on the turf at ‘The Benz,’ Pat Noonan’s clan put forward a winning result AND a performance they could be proud of.
They defended with poise and they attacked with gusto, they took the lead early in the second half, then when Atlanta found a response, The Orange and Blue didn’t panic. They stuck together, rallied around each other and fought to score not once but twice more for good measure.
They were, in the eyes of Noonan and some of his key contributors that night, a team, and they showed just how good they can be when they play as such.
"It's nice to have the feeling that the group does in the other room there. It's been a while, but it comes at a very important time, and hopefully a win that can help propel us to a good stretch here, but I'm pleased for the guys that they get to experience a win. But I also think it was off of a stronger performance than we've seen recently,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said to open his postgame press conference. "There's a lot of factors that make it feel, special might be drastic, but important. It's the winning on the road, which we haven't done consistently, beating an Atlanta team that's right behind us in the table, and got a lot of new pieces and you can tell improving considerably with Tata [Martino] and what they're doing now, and so a very difficult opponent in this moment for us. So I'm pleased about that. I'm pleased about defensively things are looking better.”
“I think what was most important for us is that we put the team first, because when you put the team first and you fight with everything you have for the team, it pays off,” striker and man of the match Kévin Denkey said postgame. “When you fight as a team, good things happen.”
The FC Cincinnati offense was paced by Denkey and Tom Barlow tonight, who combined for all three goals with Barlow assisting on both of Denkey’s finishes to match a career high three-contribution night. Newcomer David Douděra (making his first start) and Ender Echenique also added assists.
But offense has not been a problem for this team this year. With the three goals on the night FC Cincinnati tied their all-time franchise record of 81 goals across all competitions, equaling their 2018 USL season for their most ever.
What stood out most Saturday night was the defense. The part of the game that Pat Noonan described as their “Achilles Heel’ just two days earlier. While not perfect, the defense kept a surging Atlanta side at bay, cleaning up the box well and keeping Atlanta pinned in their own half for several long stretches of play. With very few exceptions, when ‘The Five Stripes’ pushed up the field with long passes the FC Cincinnati defensive line was there to win their duels and the midfield was there to clean up the second balls. The forwards then contributed even further by pressing their opponents deep into their own halves, cutting off passing lanes and forcing Atlanta to play direct, recirculating the cycle of the defense winning those balls and the midfield cleaning up the knockdowns.
It was, in the simplest way there is to say it, a full team performance.
“It was just, I think, a more connected group tonight, and I, for different reasons, don't think we've been that far off… but I think that looked better,” Noonan explained. “I'm pleased with the center backs for tonight, and Evan (Louro) in goal, I thought he made a couple big saves as well coming off his line, and so it was all around. I'm talking about the defenders and a goalie, but what Kévin and Tom were doing up top to help direct and allow our midfielders with Obi and Pavel specifically to get out and pressure the ball, I thought they did a good job of directing play."
“Everyone was just on the same page,” Evan Louro said of the defensive performance postgame. “Everyone was just running for each other and working for each other, and even when the goal went in, like yeah, obviously everyone was pissed off, but no one put their heads down. We just kept going.”
“I thought we, first of all, did a good job of staying in our shape defensively and staying compact, and then I think we knew chances were going to come,” Tom Barlow added. “I thought we did a good job keeping the press on them. So we saw a few chances in the first half, couldn't put them away, but then it started to open up for us in the second half.”
After a scoreless first half where FC Cincinnati had triple the number of offensive zone entries than their opponents (24 to 8) but had the same xG (0.7), Kévin Denkey got FC Cincinnati on the scoreboard with a technically impressive goal in the 52’ created from a brilliant service in from Douděra and a perfectly executed headed flick from Barlow, that the Togolese star was then able to dribble around two defenders, round the keeper and blast a shot into the open net.
“Wth Kévin up top, and the two striker system, it's when there's a long ball like that, you're able to kind of flick it on,” Barlow explained. “You know that the other striker will be looking to get in behind and run off that flick. So I thought Kevin did a good job, and I just put it in space for him, he did a good job finishing off the play.”
“I followed the flick,” Denkey said of the goal postgame. “I know Tom, and I believe in his flick. I was like, I need to believe, so I went, and he flicked. But we just put the team first, made hard runs, and that trust paid off.”
Atlanta would equalize on a chaotic moment in front of net that saw FCC’s keeper Evan Louro screened by at least four bodies on the effort, but The Orange and Blue responded quickly.
In the 84’ Tom Barlow slipped through the Atlanta line to receive a pass from Kyle Smith – both of whom were playing in their 200th career MLS matches – and pinged home the finish to give his side the lead. Then in stoppage time, Denkey put away the dagger, finishing off a pass from Ender Echenique on a breakout run that would seal the deal on the result and send FCC home with three points. To that point in stoppage time, where 8 minutes were added, FC Cincinnati was defending for their lives and clearing out serves into the box that risked a change of fortunes for the night. But the defense stood strong and when the moment came to plunge the dagger, FC Cincinnati did not throw away his shot.
“It was obviously a lot of space for us to attack in transition in that moment to get the third goal, and it's an important one because, yeah, there's a few minutes left, and we know how the end of games look when you have a one-goal lead on the road, and to have that insurance goal was certainly meaningful because you saw even after that they were putting us under pressure,” Noonan said. “So the third one was a very good transition moment where you know if you're looking at killing the game, do we go to the corner? But it was an excellent action that Kévin finished off.”
The cherry on top was the three newest members of FC Cincinnati who all made debuts of one kind or another, with Douděra making his first start for FCC and Tyell Malacia and Julián Malatini making their first appearances for the club.
The debutants all played significant roles in the success FCC had Saturday, showing a positive first sign of the impact all three can have on this team.
“It’s good (to) bring those guys up. I thought for Tyrell getting his first start, you can just see the level that he's capable of. Understanding and anticipating plays, how he moves off the ball to create advantages when we have it and when we're moving forward, just timing and anticipation of a switch of play or a forward touch. He just finds himself in really good positions and defensively I thought did a really good job as well,” Noonan said of Malacia. “He really pushed himself in a good way. There were a couple moments where play slowed down and I think that helped him, then coming out of the half, I thought he was really strong as well. So a very good starting point for him.
“With David, I thought on the defensive side of the ball, positionally was good,” Noonan added of Douděra. “Rushed a few of the attacking actions trying to find solutions for him for playing through the middle, and I think all that will improve with time. But his energy and confidence that he instills in others is meaningful, and for a new player to come in and understand when there's an action that doesn't go our way, or he needs to be there and help his teammates, I think he recognizes those moments in a good way.”
“Julián came in and it's harder to see from our vantage point where some of those duels go positively or negatively, but I thought he won a couple really good moments with Brian Anunga closing in from advanced positions in the box,” Noonan said of Malatini. “It's what it looked like, but against a very talented and powerful player in [Breel] Embolo, so I think those minutes are good for him."
The victory gives FC Cincinnati three points, improves their record to 9-9-9 with 36 points, and places The Orange and Blue firmly back above the playoff line with a game in hand yet to play over the rest of the Eastern Conference. The result, and performance, were much needed and, hopefully, a sign of progress to come. But it is, after all, just one result in a stretch over the next month that will ultimately decide the fate of FC Cincinnati in 2026. In order to truly appreciate the victory, FC Cincinnati will need to continue to work to show it wasn’t a flash in the pan against a bottom of the Eastern Conference side. They will need to show it is the start of something more to come.
The team itself will have to turn the page quickly, the career high scorer Tom Barlow already had at his postgame press conference, saying, “It feels good. It's been a long time since we won on the road, so it feels nice. Tough place to win, so it always feels good, but now we're focused on Wednesday,” just 18 minutes after he left the field. The Orange and Blue go again in just four days’ time back at home against the New England Revolution in their first game at TQL Stadium since September 12, so there is very little time for patting yourselves on the back.
“This was an important win. We know how we’ve been doing the last few games and we knew we needed this win, especially before coming back to play at home,” Denkey added. “It's really good from the team as well because we fight until the end, and we are happy to have these three points. Now we just have to continue this for three games at home.”
But for now, for this day, while the good memory is still fresh, relish in it, remember what it feels like, because on this stormy Saturday night in the Peach State, FC Cincinnati looked far more like the side they imagine themselves to be than the one they have been so often this year, and that’s worth celebrating.
