AUSTIN, Texas – The start of FC Cincinnati's fourth year in Major League Soccer was eerily reminiscent of the low points of the previous three seasons.
On the opening day of the MLS season at Austin FC's Q2 Stadium, FC Cincinnati conceded a goal two minutes into the game, trailed 3-0 at halftime and went on to lose, 5-0.
A crowd of 20,738, which received pre-match encouragement from actor and minority Austin FC owner Matthew McConaughey, attended the game.
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The match marked an unsuccessful managerial debut for Pat Noonan, FC Cincinnati's first-year head coach.
"Certainly disappointing," Noonan said. "We lost the key moments throughout the game and I think the score line is indicative of that. I thought we put ourselves in a big hole early with conceding on a set piece and then they get the second (goal) on the second phase of a set piece. Those are momentum killers.
"They punished us on all of our mistakes. I was pleased with our chance creation. I thought we could have scored multiple goals in the game to kind of get us back into it, get some momentum but we just weren’t able to convert any of them. I can’t really fault the effort but certainly we can talk about the execution and that wasn’t good enough on the night."
Cecilio Dominguez scored twice for the hosts. He book-ended the onslaught with tallies in the second and 61st minutes, respectively. The first goal saw the ball slide all the way through FCC's penalty area after a failed clearance, which allowed an unmarked Dominguez to tap the ball home for a 1-0 lead.
In between the Dominguez goals, Alex Ring scuffed home a looping shot after he was left unmarked from about eight yards out, and Sebastian Driussi overpowered FCC goalkeeper Alec Kann, firing through his legs for a 3-0 lead in the 43rd minute.
After Dominguez essentially scored a second tap-in to make it 4-0, the final blow for FCC came in the closing seconds. A ball fired in from a wide angle on Kann trickled over the line as Kann was credited with an own goal.
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FC Cincinnati created enough chances to stay in the game but the finish lacked potency. Rookie Nick Markanich placed himself in dangerous positions but was unable to convert. The same could be said of Brandon Vazquez.
The two players started alongside one another in a 4-4-2 formation.
"Not the result we were looking for," Markanich said. "I'm happy to make my professional debut and start my first game, get that under my belt. There's some positives we can take away from (tonight)."
FC Cincinnati's closest chance came in the 63rd minute when Luciano Acosta, who Noonan named captain, ripped a shot off the crossbar.
In the end, though, Cincinnati did not have a convincing response to an opportunistic Austin team.
Just two of Cincinnati's 12 shots hit the target as Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver opened the year with a shutout.
"Next game is the home opener. I think we should play well," FC Cincinnati's Yuya Kubo said. "We have to win this game."
'We're not all of a sudden a bad team'
FC Cincinnati will have a week to pick up the pieces from Saturday's loss ahead of the club's home opener against D.C. United at TQL Stadium.
United won, 3-0, in the first-ever match for expansion side Charlotte FC.
The days to come will see FC Cincinnati be able to bring several players along further in their integration into the team. Chief among those that will benefit from another week of training are Brenner Souza da Silva, who didn't see the field in Austin, and newly arrived midfielder Junior Moreno.
Moreno started at the base of what's called a midfield diamond, which is comprised of the four players in the midfield. Noonan was pleased with Moreno's performance after the player arrived last week via a trade.
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"Junior certainly wasn’t the problem tonight," Noonan said. "I applaud his effort and commitment to work out there, especially when things weren’t going our way. You can see his quality and connecting the right pass. You can see his understanding of rotations, and when to release and when to stay. It was a lot for him to step right in and have all the answers, and I was just really pleased with the work that he put in in a difficult situation.
"The reason he’s here is because of his ability to give us something a little bit different in the middle of the field. He reads the game well and can close the ball in ways that we’re asking out of that position, and he’s a good pro. He has a high soccer IQ and it’s just a matter of having him for a longer period of time for it to look a little more cohesive for him individually and for us as a team."
On the whole, Saturday's 5-0 loss was a surprise within and outside the organization. It came after a preseason that seemed to indicate the team was on a positive trajectory.
Even as preseason matches count for very little, that FCC went 1-0-2 against its MLS peers wasn't for nothing.
But whatever development was achieved in preseason didn't carry over to Q2 Stadium.
The game was reminiscent of past struggles for FC Cincinnati, but Noonan said he was confident the club would respond in appropriate fashion for its 2022 home debut.
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"The message to the team is we’re not all of a sudden a bad team because of the score line," Noonan said. "The score hurts. There’s no question about that and that should bother us, and that should hopefully motivate us going into our home opener but we’ll take a look at this in a way where we see the chance creation and the ability for us to go forward but how do we clean up little details to not concede. And make sure that they understand as we prepare for D.C., and as we step out on the field in front of our home fans, make sure that they understand that what they saw tonight isn’t gonna be indicative of what we’re gonna be moving forward."
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