The Hell is Real derby has a history in Major League Soccer that is unlike any other, and pits two sides against each other with regional proximity and a developed history of big games with big meanings to either side.
Unfortunately for FC Cincinnati, and particularly the FC Cincinnati faithful who packed a sold out TQL Stadium in Orange and unfurled one of the most spectacular tifos in league memory, the 23rd playing of this historic rivalry had no magic moments for them to remember. It had no new entries in the legend of these games that they can memorialize or think back on fondly.
All it had was disappointment. All it had was frustration. All it had was a continuation of all the things that have frustrated FC Cincinnati coaches, players, fans and staff all season long.
The Orange and Blue outchanced the Columbus Crew on this cool Sunday night in October to the tune of 16 shots to three. They held 65 percent possession, and generated over triple the xG (expected goals) that their in-state rivals had.
And yet, at full time, it was the Columbus Crew who hopped on their bus headed north on I71 with three points in hand, defeating FC Cincinnati for the second time this season and sweeping the season series with a 2-0 result.
The Crew scored on both of their two total shots on target and otherwise absorbed the FC Cincinnati attack with relative ease. They did so while rotating four starters from their last match, and subbing out five key pieces early so as to remain fresh for the US Open Cup Final they have in the coming days.
In essence, FC Cincinnati was not only defeated, but shut out on their home turf, by a Columbus Crew side that willingly didn’t give them their best punch.
“I could talk about a lot of things. Stats, good behaviors. In the end, we lost an important game, and that's what matters. That's what we have to accept and move on,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said to open his postgame press conference Sunday night. “The score is what matters in these moments, and they won the first half and then full time. We pushed. There were opportunities there. We didn't have enough urgency, to feel like we were going to pull something out. We tried, and guys were pushing, and there were opportunities. But the real urgency, belief, and knowing what this game means and what's at stake, I think we still could have given even more.”
“Everyone's disappointed,” FC Cincinnati defender Nick Hagglund said postgame. “The feeling on the field and what we were doing felt good. The scoreline doesn't feel good. There's not a lack of effort or trying. I think we're just frustrated, disappointed. Luck's not on our side. You know, they get three shots and two of them on target and two of them go in. That's the difference in the game. Putting the ball in the back of the net in both boxes, and I think just neither side of the ball is doing well.”
It should be first made abundantly clear that Sunday night’s performance and result was not the byproduct of a lack of care, or a lack of intensity, passion or energy.
“I wouldn't say it's effort related. It's an urgency to create, to attack, to run,” Noonan explained. “Look, you're trying to break down numbers behind the ball, and they scored early, and so down 2-0, they drop deeper. So, it's not going to be easy to break down those numbers. When I say urgency, it's not a lack of effort. It's urgency in attacking certain moments and spaces, and that's where I think maybe we allowed it to be too comfortable.”
FC Cincinnati showed that fight time and time again. In the first half Nick Hagglund earned a yellow in a coming together after Evander was being pushed around and the Cincinnati native felt sticking up for his DP captain was needed.
“It's a rivalry game,” Hagglund explained. “They go and get our DP a couple times and I think we have to stand up for Evander. Can't just let them kick him all the game. So I'll kind of just send a message to both sides. I think that's the gamesmanship of the rivalry, and kind of see if it rattles anyone in the moment. I think it's good to get the competitive juices going, get the guys fired up, get the crowd in behind us. I think that's important in rivalry games.”
“I think tonight specifically we showed some urgency, some attitude,” Evander added. “I think it was a good game for us to regain our confidence and get back in our momentum, but it didn't happen.”
They also continued to push for goals and tried to find the right answers until the end. But postgame Noonan pointed to a lack of urgency in the attack, in the important moments of a rivalry match, that his team just couldn’t rise to.
“But yeah, don't misunderstand the word urgency for poor effort or poor mentality,” Noonan said. “I think it's just a recognition of how to attack and really put them under pressure in ways where I think we could have been even more dangerous.”
“I think we tried everything we could in this game,” FCC midfielder Evander said postgame. “To be honest, I think we had a great first half. We started well, then a set piece goal, then we got back into the game, we had some chances. We started well in the second half, but then another sloppy goal, and then the game was over. But I think we tried everything we could.
After a victory last weekend in Atlanta that gave reason to spark some optimism, FC Cincinnati have now returned home and lost both games to open their three game home stand. And they’ve done so in some fairly similar ways. Defensive lapses in set pieces, conceded goals in a similar way, a wealth of opportunities in the attack but a lack of conviction in the final moments, a lack of urgency to create and execute in moments they need to, and – however frustrating it may be to acknowledge – some real bad luck.
Columbus Crew score their first goal on a corner kick that FCC had to defend short handed in the 22’. Forward Gonzolo Tapia got wide open at the far post and headed in the opener after Sami Gidi was caught in a pick higher up in the box. Defender Tyrell Malacia was forced to watch the play from the sidelines as he was off the pitch for a head injury evaluation after being body checked on the endline on the opposite end of the pitch, and while he was being checked, the Crew scored.
“Those are the details that need to be more aware of in these kinds of games,”Evander said of the conceded goal. “We knew we had one man down, and we need to be more aware on that corner, especially specific. And we need to be ready for those kinds of moments, because this is a soccer game. It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen at some point, and we need to be ready to adjust those small details when it's necessary.”
Just minutes earlier another newcomer, Julián Malataini, was forced off the field due to an injury and Nick Hagglund was forced into action for him in the 18’. Effectively forcing him to come on out of the bullpen cold and perform immediately.
The second goal Columbus scored was in the second half, on an all too familiar look where the wide flanks were attacked and a centering pass to a shot in the box beat the keeper. So after a positive stretch of play, FCC was all of a sudden behind 2-0 in the 54’. A deficit that proved to be insurmountable.
“When the ball goes in the back of the net, either direction, it changes how the game feels,” Hagglund said. “I think there was, I mean, and again, not for a lack of effort, I think we put a lot into it. I think it felt good, especially the first half felt good. Other than a set piece goal, but again, like two shots on goal, two goals, and that those are what-that's the difference. At the end of the day, we couldn't put one in the back of the net, and we couldn't stop it.”
“We don't need new ideas and strategies…if you look at how the games are being played right now structurally, chance creation, we still concede in almost every big moment that we concede or give up,” Noonan added.
What is perhaps the most frustrating part of Sunday night’s defeat is that aside from those moments, there were large stretches of good actions, and the stats suggest that FC Cincinnati was the better team on the night. Even the eye tests at times showed a team who was threatening, pressing well, defending in a strong way and generally in control of the game.
Yet, they lose. Again. And to all at FC Cincinnati, that’s all that matters. They would trade a lesser performance for three points. Both against Columbus and in every game down the stretch from here on out. But that’s the thing that evades them. They just can’t shake the losing scent that’s on them, and it’s permeating in a way that only makes everything harder.
“You still want to play the game the way we're playing it, but have a little bit more, I would say, game understanding of when you're playing with the league, when you're trailing,” Noonan explained. “How do we make the most out of specific moments in the game to change an outcome? Because there were enough there to finish off some plays, but do, as a game progresses and you're down or you've been losing games and things aren't going your way, how do you approach that mentally to either cave or keep pushing?”
“We're still in a position where it's in our own hands,” Noonan continued. “We can still finish out the season in a way where, who knows, you get in the playoffs and make a run. But yeah, what that message looks and feels like each game, because it's happening so fast, is that we have to forget about it and move on.”
FC Cincinnati have five games left in the regular season to right this ship. To find some answers and some outcomes that can position them for success; which would be simply getting into the playoffs at this point. On the one hand, they have very little time and space to figure that out as they play twice a week basically though the end of the season. Training time will be at a premium.
But on the other hand, a new opportunity to get it right is always around the corner. The Orange and Blue host D.C. United on Wednesday night back at TQL Stadium, then go again next Saturday in the nation's capital for a rematch.
“You have to have a short memory, you have to move on to the next thing,” Hagglund shared in closing. “I think there are some things that you could look at in the first half that were good and positive, and that kind of felt like how we would play. Focus on those things and give everything we got for FCC, and focus on recovery and the next game.”
The window is not yet closed, the playoffs are still there for the taking, even if it feels pretty darn well shut, and as one soccer philosopher once said, and Hagglund just echo’d, “Be a gosh-darn goldfish. Onward. Forward.”
Because there really is no other option.
