CHESTER, Pa. – When the final whistle blew, the main thing separating FC Cincinnati from top-seeded Philadelphia Union was a second-half score born of chaos.
Leon Flach, a midfielder with no goals in 2022, scored an unlikely goal in the 59th minute of Thursday's MLS Cup Eastern Conference semifinal at Subaru Park, which quivered in the wake of the goal celebration.
"Kind of just chaos in the box," FC Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano said. "Ian (Murphy) gets a good tackle on a guy who acted like he went down for a penalty, and the ball gets rebounds out and Flach just hits it with the outside of his foot. It just kept going away from me."
Andre Blake, who this week was named Major League Soccer's Goalkeeper of the Year for the third season in a row, was another thing separating the Union from FC Cincinnati.
Blake denied FC Cincinnati's best chances, many of which came in the second half, and notched his 16th shutout of the year as Philadelphia eliminated Cincinnati from the postseason and advanced to host the Eastern Conference final for the second consecutive year.
Cincinnati used a 12-9-13 record, a fifth-place finish in the Eastern Conference and a playoff win against New York Red Bulls to distance itself from three consecutive last-place finishes in the league.
FC Cincinnati gave its fans and city a reason to dream in 2022, but further dreaming will have to be focused on the 2023 season.
"It's tough because the season's over. Regardless of who you're playing, when the season's over, it's tough," FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan said afterward during a press conference. "Our goal wasn't to get to this point. Our goal was to hold a trophy and whether people on the outside felt that way or not, once we got into the playoffs that was our goal. That didn't happen so we're disappointed.
"We were a playoff team. We won a playoff game on the road. We just saw a lot of growth from preseason until now. I think you see a strong character of that team in that locker room who's disappointed because they expected more. There were a lot of good things those guys did to get us to this point. There was a lot of work that players and the staff and the support staff put in to get us to this point, so I'm very pleased with us being in this situation. It's still a tough feeling but the guys still deserve the credit for the year that they had."
How FC Cincinnati's season ended
FC Cincinnati had a draw against Philadelphia in June and beat the Union handily in August. That made Thursday's rematch a tricky proposition for the Union. Philadelphia fans didn't want to see Cincinnati again, and particularly not in a single-game elimination scenario.
But a second win against the Union, which remained undefeated in 18 matches on its homefield in 2022, was too much to ask of Cincinnati in the end.
The match largely went according to plan for FC Cincinnati prior to Flach's goal. Cincinnati took the match to halftime in a scoreless deadlock and withstood the pressure offered by the top-scoring team in Major League Soccer in 2022.
"The first 45 minutes was a good playoff intensity," Noonan said. "There were hard fouls, confrontations... It was scrappy. It wasn't perfect and I think each team had a decent look but once we got into the break, you know it was going to be about continuing to find ways to move the ball into the wide areas."
Even after Flach's goal, Noonan was happy with the club's response as they held possession for long stretches in attempting to tie the match and drag it to extra time.
"I was really pleased with how we responded after going down," Noonan said, "and maybe it took to go down a goal to start to play a little bit more."
One of the best of FCC's chances was a side-footed effort by Junior Moreno from the top of the Philadelphia penalty area in the 50th minute.
Blake punched Moreno’s shot away. Later, in the 83rd minute, Brandon Vazquez broke in on goal and fired off a dangerous shot even though he had a defender draped on him.
Blake was equal as well on that attempt.
"I'm disappointed. I'm sad," Vazquez said. "Hard not to be. Yeah, we fell short and that always sucks."
Blake finished the match with six saves while his opposite number, Celentano, also made six saves to punctuate his promising debut campaign.
FC Cincinnati's formidable attacking triumvirate of Luciano Acosta, Vazquez and Brenner Souza da Silva combined for three on-target shots. Brenner fired off two attempts and neither required saving by Blake.
The Union, which complemented their attack in 2022 by being the stingiest MLS club defensively with only 26 goals allowed on the year, used some desperate defending to hold out for the victory.
"They defend very well, so your time and space on the ball is going to be limited," Noonan said. "It wasn't going to be a game where you get six and seven chances. We needed to be decisive in our two or three chances that we did get and, again, Andre came up big for them."
The 2023 season begins soon, but not yet
In season-ending defeat, some coaches and general managers will immediately look to turn the page. FC Cincinnati will do that soon enough, but not yet.
"I haven't thought that far ahead," Noonan said when asked for a general overview of what the offseason would look like. "We'll get through the weekend, take a couple days off and then we'll reconvene and start to have conversations with players and staff members as far as what 2023 will look like. A lot of that conversation has already been had and it's just a matter of now taking a couple days to get away from things for a bit and we'll have a lot of conversations about the direction of the group at the beginning of the week."
The 2022 season offered progress for FC Cincinnati. It also created a high standard the club will be expected to reach and exceed next season.
General Manager Chris Albright has been in his post at the club for almost 13 months. He was open about the fact FC Cincinnati was ahead of schedule in terms of wins and losses, but the plan he set forth upon being hired won't be deviated from.
The tweaking of the club's roster will continue, although the spine of the team is set in place for years to come with center back Matt Miazga, defensive midfielder Obinna Nwobodo, Acosta, Vazquez and Celentano all in line to return.
But supporters should still expect Albright to trim some of the club's beefier contracts, and use the freed-up assets to attract new talents.
Albright will also need to keep tabs on his highly-rated coaching staff. Noonan isn't going anywhere but the club's roster of talented assistants could get tied up in rumors for managerial openings at other clubs, although no such rumors are circulating at this time.
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