Notebook: Brenner available for FC Cincinnati against Montreal

After a disciplinary issue and one-match absence from FC Cincinnati, Brenner Souza da Silva is officially available to play again.

Brenner, who's endured a season maligned by the absence of a preseason, injury, a request to transfer out of the club and most recently a disciplinary issue handled internally by FCC, will be available for selection following a full week of training.

Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan confirmed Brenner's availability during a Thursday news conference.

"These things happen," Noonan said of the disciplinary issue. "It was short term. I said that when it happened and that was the case. You know, he's out here training and available for selection, which is a good thing for our group, so it's case by case when these disciplinary things come about and how you look to handle them in the right way and how you move forward from it in a positive way.

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"We move forward in a way where we have an important player that's available for selection for our group and that's a good thing, so hopefully we get moving in a direction where it's in the past for everybody and he can be helping our team on the field where it matters."

An appearance in Saturday's match at Montreal's Stade Saputo would be Brenner's ninth of the season. He's started in just three matches and has one goal contribution – an assist on a Luciano Acosta goal against Los Angeles FC – on the year.

For all the headlines Brenner's garnered in 2022, he's been most notable on the field for his lack of end product. That's been a cause for concern among fans as Brenner commanded one of the highest transfer fees in MLS history and has the second-highest wage on the club's roster.

Brenner hasn't scored since an Oct. 27 match against Nashville SC, but this weekend marks his return to a venue in Stade Saputo where he scored twice in a wild, 5-4 FC Cincinnati loss in July.

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FC Cincinnati played a similarly up-and-down match with Montreal April 2 at TQL Stadium. It was a match that saw Montreal take all three points in a 4-3 victory. 

FC Cincinnati launches GK programming

Paul Rogers, FC Cincinnati's head of goalkeeping, envisions the Mercy Health Training Center as a regional hub for goalkeeping, and the first steps toward that aim occurred Wednesday.

The doors to FC Cincinnati's Milford training complex were opened to the public, and area coaches specifically, for a free goalkeeping clinic and demonstration administered by Rogers and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim Under-19 Goalkeeping trainer, Philipp Birker.

With decades worth of combined experience to offer, Rogers and Birker pulled back the curtain on their methods and philosophies for local coaches during presentations, entertained a question-and-answer session, and offered tours of FCC's suburban practice center.

A Birker-led goalkeeper training session capped the evening's events.

“I've always thought I was lucky as a coach to be invited into some clubs, whether it be (English) Premier League, Championship, be around higher level coaches," Rogers said prior to Wednesday's clinic. "And with respect, I don't mean higher level as in they're better, but they've had the chance to work at the highest level of the game. And when I was younger and had those opportunities, that's what ... makes you become a better coach makes you question what you do. So I feel like if you can open a door and allow other coaches in, it keeps me thinking. But two, it gives them an opportunity to see what's done at a different level.

"You can pay a lot of money to go to coaching licenses to go to conventions to see the same stuff that you're going to see (Wednesday) for free."

Birker, who also works in the first-team setup for Hoffenheim, of the first-division German Bundesliga, used part of the session to impart his personal goalkeeping philosophy.

“The core points: I want a goalkeeper who's very fast, fast moving and fast in the head to make very good decisions," Birker said. "And you have to be a bit crazy. Yeah, he has to go in one-on-one situation. He has to go to crosses and stuff like this and not going back to the line but he has to go into the crosses. And I think when he's fast in his head, and really fast in his body, and is very brave, and can also be good with his foot. So that's quite a good goalkeeper.”

As part of FC Cincinnati's ongoing strategic partnerships with Hoffenheim, Birker said he planned to stay in the region through the weekend.

Rogers is spearheading what amounts to community outreach in a fashion similar to how he did while working at Houston Dynamo FC, which boasts one of the premier goalkeeping environments in Major League Soccer.

Programming like Wednesday's clinic is part of the recipe Rogers used to build Houston's goalkeeping program, and there's more programming to come in Cincinnati, too.

FC Cincinnati is scheduled to offer free goalkeeper sessions June 12 with a 5 p.m.-6:30 p.m. session for players born between 2011 and 2013, and a second session from 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m. for players born between 2006 and 2010.

Sign-up for the sessions is available at fccincinnati.survey.fm/goalkeeper-programs.

The club is also offering a coaches connection call June 10. Rogers said more information was to come regarding the call.

At the end of all the programming, Rogers said the hope is community members can lean on the club for expertise while the club benefits from having a shot at premier talent in the region.

“I think the dream outcome is developing goalkeepers in the academy here, FCC, you produce them for the first team, maybe you promote one and sell one abroad," Rogers said. "You bring coaches into the club, and you promote them either within the MLS or to wherever you want to be. And that's what you want. I mean, my aim is to be at a club and be successful at the club. So everyone I can bring in around me, whether it's a player or if it's a coach on the goalkeeping side, I want them to push on to where they want to be, hopefully as to strengthen the club. You can strengthen the club by actually leaving the club in a positive manner, or you're here for a long term and we have success at FCC.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Notebook: Brenner available for FC Cincinnati against Montreal