TUCSON, Ariz. – Following Saturday’s 4-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City, head coach Ron Jans called the game a “hard lesson.”
The good thing, though, is there weren’t any consequences.
FC Cincinnati are using this preseason to implement a new playing style and tactics, which means this is a process and there are learning curves. If last Wednesday’s 3-0 win against Phoenix Rising FC showed promising potential, the loss to SKC showed there’s more work to do.
That’s the mentality FCC brought into Monday morning’s training session, which lasted more than two hours. The session was high-intensity and worked on building from the back, keeping possession and finishing.
“Today we have very hard training session,” goalkeeper Przemysław Tytoń said after practice. “We are looking further. There’s still four weeks to the first competition game and we still have a lot of work to do ahead.”
Following the loss, Jans said Cincinnati made a lot of individual mistakes against Kansas City that directly led to conceded goals. Between now and Wednesday afternoon’s match against El Paso Locomotive FC, those are are the club is looking to improve.
“It’s always good to have setbacks in the preseason and you can learn a lot,” he said. “We will meet Kansas City again and maybe we can let them win in the preseason and we win in the MLS.”
That light-hearted comment summed up the mood from Saturday: it was a deserved loss, but not a devastating one.
Now, the Orange and Blue are moving forward from that loss as they prepare for their final preseason match in Arizona on Wednesday.
