FC Cincinnati Head Coach Ron Jans addressed the media for a final time during the regular season on Friday morning when he answered questions ahead of Sunday’s match against D.C. United.
Here were the main talking points ahead of the 2019 season finale:
Jans is disappointed the season is already ending
Remember, he joined the club in August and his first match coaching was Aug. 10 at Columbus Crew SC. He’s basically had two months to coach the club he moved across the world to manage. It’d make sense for him to want more time before the preseason starts.
“It’s … already the last game because I came in late,” Jans said. “But it’s a fact and we have to try to show one more time that we’re capable of getting points and maybe even beat opponents.”
Jans will have the opportunity to work with this team more in the coming weeks, however, as players expected to return in 2020 will take part in three weeks of postseason training.
He isn’t looking beyond Sunday against D.C.
“It’s no different from the games before,” he said. “You don’t run away from hard things or decisions. I said already in the week, sometimes you get news, players about the future, and you have to deal with it. That’s our life. I think it will be alright.”
What players he’ll use in the last match
The team played its final home match last week, which was the goodbye of sorts to supporters who were part of the club’s first MLS season. Now, approaching the final match, most sentimentality is set aside and it’s about delivering one last good performance before the offseason.
“I don’t have (the lineup) in my mind 100 percent, but I think the basics are more to play the players who will be here next season,” the Dutchman said. “But when you’re not here, you’re still under contract and you want to play, you want to play well and you want to win.”
Jans on players knowing their future
“After training, we have the dress list, so some players then will know, and probably some will know before that, they’re not with the 18,” Jans said. “Some know that next season they’re not in Cincinnati anymore.”
Will the team play freely Sunday?
“I don’t like to say ‘play freely’ because then the tactics don’t matter (and players think), I’ll just do what I want to do,” he said. “But if you said we play freely because there’s no pressure, there was never real pressure on us. But we put the pressure on because we said ‘we can’t end the season like’ this after the Toronto game. So, I think we did well, and we have to do it one more time.”
