FC Cincinnati face unfamiliar venue, no Luciano Acosta at NYCFC
FC Cincinnati’s playoff race is about to become a sprint.
Thirty-two days separate FCC’s Wednesday match against New York City FC at Citi Field from the Oct. 9 season finale, and FCC once again controls its own fate for the postseason push with six matches remaining.
The club will take the field against NYCFC tied for the seventh and final Eastern Conference playoff spot with New England Revolution, and technically below the current playoff line because of tiebreakers.
But the tiebreakers won’t really be accounted for until the regular season concludes, and FCC has a game in-hand on New England.
A positive result Wednesday at Citi Field could see FC Cincinnati take control of seventh place with just five matches remaining.
Hampering that endeavor will be several key factors, though.
FCC will be without Luciano Acosta due a yellow-card accumulation suspension. The NYCFC match will also be played at an unfamiliar venue, too.
Those are two potential impediments worth keeping an eye on as FCC can scarcely afford dropped points.
The absence of Acosta
Unfortunately, FC Cincinnati is experienced in playing without Acosta, who was once thought of as a Most Valuable Player award front runner.
Wednesday will mark Acosta’s fourth match missed due to suspension, and his sixth game out of the starting lineup in MLS play.
Noonan said during a Monday interview it’s a good thing FCC is experienced in fielding teams without the catalyst.
What he didn’t say – and what was probably implied – was Cincinnati obviously hurts without Acosta, the MLS leader in assists (16).
“Certainly, we want him out there. But the reality is, we've at least seen what it looks like when he's not available,” Noonan said. “We'll have a pretty good idea after the recovery of the group today to know what our strongest group will be able to be out on the field to start the game and who fills that role. So, I guess the good thing is we've seen what it looks like before, and how we can go about being a strong team when Lucho is not available.”
In the past, Alvaro Barreal has stepped into Acosta’s attacking midfield role. Brenner Souza da Silva has also played the position.
Barreal’s time filling in for Acosta was more fruitful than Brenner’s, and it allowed FCC to keep its striker partnership of Brenner and Brandon Vazquez together at the top of the formation.
Acosta came off the bench twice in June (at Philadelphia Union and against Orlando City SC) during his recovery from COVID-19. Later, he was suspended for three matches following a red-card incident in the July 9 match against New York Red Bulls.
Cincinnati hasn’t overwhelmed in its performances with Acosta out of the starting lineup, posting a 1-1-3 record.
In the June matches where Acosta was a member of the supporting cast off the bench, FC Cincinnati earned a come-from-behind draw at Philadelphia’s Subaru Park. In the next match, Acosta put in a longer shift against Orlando and assisted on the game-winning Brenner Souza da Silva goal.
In July, FCC let a near-win against Vancouver Whitecaps deteriorate into a stunning, deflating 2-2 draw. FCC then lost, 2-0, at Columbus Crew before closing out Acosta’s suspension with a come-from-behind 1-1 draw against Nashville SC.
Did you say Citi Field?
FC Cincinnati’s previously played road matches against NYCFC at Yankee Stadium and Red Bull Arena, and on Wednesday FCC will add the New York Mets’ Citi Field to the list of NYCFC “home” venues it’s played in.
The Yankees’ home series in the Bronx against the Minnesota Twins displaced NYCFC on Wednesday,
The games at Red Bull Arena weren’t a problem for FCC (other than the final scores). The Red Bulls’ home boasts one of the top soccer-specific playing surfaces in MLS.
While Yankee Stadium was far from ideal, it was at least a known commodity in the MLS community. Visiting teams knew to anticipate the smaller field dimensions and slow, patchwork turf covering the Yankees’ baseball infield.
The problem Citi Field presents is not as much is known about how the venue and surface play in game action.
“From everything we've gotten, it's shorter dimensions, both width and length,” Noonan said. “So we'll just make adjustments with tomorrow's prep, as far as the size of the field, and go deal with the conditions. It's more just making the players aware of it and being in the right frame of mind to go and play a game and not have excuses about the playing surface or the size.”
The state of the defending champs
NYCFC once appeared comfortably nestled in the top four spots in the Eastern Conference but the defending MLS Cup champions enter Wednesday’s game just three points ahead of fifth-place Orlando.
Even with a rotating list of home venues, NYCFC has played well in home games, posting an 8-3-3 record.
It’s on the road where New York has suffered via a 5-7-3 record. On Sunday, NYCFC dropped a 3-0 decision at New England in a match where Noonan said New York played well despite the unflattering final score.
"I still think there's a lot of things that you would say that was a strong performance," Noonan said. "So, it's easy to look at the score line and think that they played poorly, but they create a lot of good opportunities in that game to score goals. So, the results haven't been there but I can tell you that our group understands the quality of our opponent. When a team's going through a tougher stretch, and you have that quality, you have to be very aware of a team that's hungry to change the results.
"It's going to be a very difficult game, as we saw from our previous matchup. They have ways to break pressure, to go to goal, they have a lot of different players that can finish plays off. So, we'll certainly be mindful of their quality and how they can hurt us despite maybe the results not being in their favor recently.”
The “Cityzens,” or the “Pigeons” as some like to call NYCFC, saw leading goal scorer and 2021 MLS Golden Boot winner Valentin Castellanos transfer abroad midseason. He was in the midst of another legitimate run for the Golden Boot.
Interim manager Nick Cushing was appointed to the position during the June international break following now-former head coach Ronny Deila’s move to manage Standard Liège of Belgium’s top-flight league.
The Game
Kickoff: 8 p.m. Wednesday | Citi Field, New York
TV/Radio/Stream: WSTR Star 64 / ESPN1530 / FCCincinnati.com (in-region); ESPN+ (out of region)
Series history: FC Cincinnati has never beaten NYCFC in eight matches, and has earned only two draws (0-6-2).
Cincinnati.com prediction: New York City FC 2, FC Cincinnati 1.
FC Cincinnati
2022 record: 9-8-11, 38 points; tied for seventh place in MLS Eastern Conference
Goals for: 47
Goals against: 48
Coach: Pat Noonan –- first season at FC Cincinnati
Projected starting lineup:
Roman Celentano, goalkeeper
Alvas Powell, right back
Matt Miazga, center back
Geoff Cameron, center back
Nick Hagglund, center back
John Nelson, left back
Obinna Nwobodo, midfielder
Junior Moreno, midfielder
Alvaro Barreal, midfielder
Brandon Vazquez, forward
Brenner Souza da Silva, forward
FC Cincinnati
2022 record: 13-10-6, 45 points; fourth place in MLS Eastern Conference
Goals for: 50
Goals against: 37
Coach: Nick Cushing –- interim head coach
Projected starting lineup:
Sean Johnson, goalkeeper
Tayvon Gray, left back
Maxime Chanot, center back
Vuk Latinovich, center back
Justin Haak, midfielder
Nicolás Acevedo, midfielder
Thiago Andrade, midfielder/winger
Maximiliano Moralez, attacking midfielder
Santiago Rodríguez, midfielder/winger
Heber, striker
Noteworthy: Heber is an FC Cincinnati killer, and has been since FCC entered MLS. When the clubs played to a thrilling 4-4 draw on July 29, he scored his fifth and sixth career goals against FCC. Heber is up there with Atlanta United's Josef Martinez and Inter Miamii CF's Gonzalo Higuain as one of the most prolific scorers against Cincinnati.
Player to watch: Ronald Matarrita, FC Cincinnati left back − By not dressing Matarrita for Saturday's match against Charlotte FC, FC Cincinnati proved beyond a doubt it had no intention of risking Matarrita's season, which he's missed the vast majority of through injury. Matarrita's also trying to play his way back into the Costa Rican senior men's national team picture for this autumn's FIFA World Cup in Qatar, and FCC wants to help him get there. If Matarrita is healthy enough, Wednesday would be a great moment for him to step back into the starting lineup. For now, The Enquirer projects the perfectly capable John Nelson will start at left back as Barreal seems likely to replace Acosta. But if Matarrita can bring his World Cup-level of talent to the match, which happens to be against his former club, all the better for Noonan and Co.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: FC Cincinnati face unfamiliar venue, no Luciano Acosta at NYCFC
