Why FC Cincinnati's Sergio Santos is poised for a breakout 2023 MLS season

Success in 2023 for FC Cincinnati is predicated on two things, according to general manager Chris Albright: Marked improvement on defense and an attacking output comparable to last season’s 64 goals.

Albright’s calculation on the defensive side holds water. The defensive does indeed need to improve after allowing 56 goals in 2022. That was tied for the most among all MLS Cup playoff entrants. The addition of Yerson Mosquera via a loan deal, a full season with center back Matt Miazga and stronger depth pieces in defense than the club had last year should lend to some improvement.

Is FC Cincinnati capable of another 64-goal effort, though? That sum was the fourth-most in all of Major League Soccer in 2022, and second-best in the Eastern Conference. It's a big number to replicate, or even just approach, but Sergio Santos should be able to help there.

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Santos wasn't called upon much in 2022 by FC Cincinnati after he was acquired by the club, but his track record of scoring is unquestioned. After completing his first full preseason camp with FCC last week, Santos should be poised for significant offensive contributions.

Brenner Souza da Silva, Brandon Vazquez and Luciano Acosta, combined for roughly 73% of the club’s goals in 2022. All three have had their names tied to moves away from the club, and the looming possibility of subtracting any of those players, or even simply seeing a dip in form, would seem to make replicating 2022's output a shaky proposition.

Enter Santos, 28, of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Santos was acquired via trade with Philadelphia Union midseason last year. The move was met with skepticism from local fans but this was Albright’s thinking in pulling the trigger on the move: There would be at least one moment where Santos would produce something – a hustle play, a goal, an assist – where everyone would agree the move was worth it.

Albright was right. Santos helped author the most important goal in FC Cincinnati history to date when he assisted on Vazquez’s game-winner late on in the club’s 2-1 playoff win against New York Red Bulls.

On top of that, Santos also figured to be viable insurance policy for FC Cincinnati in the event Vazquez or Brenner transferred out of the club this past offseason after the club exercised its option to retain Santos for 2023.

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Those transfers didn't materialize, but they could later this year, so the insurance-policy aspect of Santos' presence is significant. In the short term, with Brenner coming off a multi-week absence in preseason due to a personal matter, the likelihood of Santos being asked to carry more of the offensive load early in 2023 is increasingly likely.

Santos has high-minded aims for himself, and FC Cincinnati at-large. He conveyed some of them to The Enquirer during a sit-down interview on Clearwater Beach during the Florida-based leg of the club’s preseason.

“I’m training every day because, my last season, I wasn’t happy with it but the new season is good because a I start at zero,” Santos told The Enquirer on Wednesday. “It’s good for me. In the training, every time I’m mad because I want more. I want more. But I understand Pat (Noonan) and the coaches.

“Now, Brenner stays here but he is an important piece for this team. I understand this negotiation with the teams but now Brenner (was) in Brazil for betterment… This guy is very important but personally, every day I’m working for this season. I need a good season now because I like this team. I like the city and I want to stay. I have a story with Philadelphia because I won Supporters Shield. Now, my idea is the same here in Cincinnati. We go to the playoffs, we go to the (Eastern Conference) semifinal. Maybe this season − I have an idea it’s a good season − Cincinnati makes the playoffs and stays in the fight for the first time. Maybe Supporters Shield? And after that, maybe champions? And then next year, go to Champions League?”

That's big talk, but Santos has won MLS silverware before and scored the goals to make it possible. He's one of few FC Cincinnati players that can claim that.

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Santos is, at all times, a disruptor in the attacking third of the field for FC Cincinnati.

He offers blistering speed, physicality that allows him to brush defenders off and create pockets of space, and he's finally scoring for Cincinnati, albeit in preseason, after not registering a goal last year.

Santos demonstrated all of those attributes in Cincinnati’s final three preseason matches. On Feb. 10 against Philadelphia Union, Santos contributed to a Vazquez penalty-kick goal by drawing a foul in Philadelphia penalty area.

He didn't score four days later against New England Revolution but was highly effective in 45 minutes playing up top alongside Vazquez. The two strikers played effectively off one another, and did so again three days later.

Finally, Santos found his scoring touch with two well-taken goals in the preseason finale against Nashville SC on Feb. 17.

There are drawbacks, of course. Santos has a lengthy history of injuries, which is something he's worked to address this offseason.

"I think he's done a good job of pushing his fitness. He's worked hard in the offseason to be healthy to start the season, which is the most important thing,” Pat Noonan, FC Cincinnati’s head coach, said Feb. 10. “I think today you saw the value of his speed and getting in behind that led to the “PK.” I think you know, where he can improve is positionally. Whether it's with or without the ball to be in better spots where he's not always with the ball dealing with pressure or without the ball, being in good defensive positions, to help us defend the ball. His work rate is outstanding, you know, he triples his teammates running numbers a lot of times when you talk about high-speed actions, but it's trying to find the consistency in how he runs to the ball defensively and how he runs to goal.

“He's certainly an effective player. And he's worked really hard to improve his fitness. And now it's just about the details of with and without the ball being more consistent with his positioning and some of the things we're asking."

Drawing penalties, or at least giving referees something to think about when he goes down in the opposition’s penalty area, has been something of a specialty for Santos since he arrived in Cincinnati.

That wasn’t necessarily his calling card when he broke in with the Philadelphia Union at the MLS Is Back Tournament in 2020, but he’s proven himself to be a considerable threat on the ball in the penalty area dating back to FCC’s stretch run in 2022.

“I think you can see where his explosiveness in moments where defenders think that they got a chance at the ball and it's gone like that because he just covers ground so quickly and really does a good job of baiting defenders into thinking they can win the ball in the box and then he gets to touch on it,” Noonan said. “If the timing's not right on that challenge, it's a penalty. So. in those moments, I think he's very effective and certainly an asset in attacking the box. But, you know, now we're seeing signs of his effectiveness in those moments, now how do we get it where he's getting on the end of plays, like we've seen quite often from Brandon?”

As Noonan suggested, the next step for Santos in Cincinnati is more end-product. Concrete contributions to goals − assists and line-breaking movements − as well as scores of his own. Health, too, will be a storyline to monitor with Santos even as Noonan hailed the player's preseason prep work on his body.

If the latter stages of preseason were any indication, Santos has the ingredients to step into a much larger role for FC Cincinnati if called upon.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: FC Cincinnati striker Sergio Santos primed for 2023 MLS breakout