Even though Chris Albright already had the job as FC Cincinnati's general manager, the work that made him an attractive candidate continued to speak for itself as his new club faced and lost to Philadelphia Union, Albright's former employer.
Albright's new club found itself on the wrong side of the fruits of his past labors as a Union team teeming with young, academy-produced talent downed FC Cincinnati, 2-1, on Saturday at TQL Stadium before an announced crowd of 21,674.
Albright's success in emphasizing and helping produce academy talent was one of his calling cards in Philadelphia as the club's now-former technical director. It also helped the Union successfully fill out their starting lineup and bench against FCC on a night when several of the club's established stars were unavailable, mostly due to FIFA World Cup qualifying call-ups.
The Union were absent five starters from the previous week's victory against the Columbus Crew, but the academy players stepped in and they didn't miss a beat.
On the opening goal by noted Union scorer Kacper Przybyłko in first half added time, 20-year-old homegrown defender Nathan Harriel assisted. The second Union goal, which came in the 55th minute, arrived via a header from 18-year-old Paxten Aaronson, another promising academy product and younger brother of former Union star, Brenden Aaronson.
The Union ended up playing most of Saturday's match with five academy-produced homegrowns, all aged 20 and under, and groomed by Albright.
“I haven't just handed out free minutes to the homegrowns," Philadelphia head coach Jim Curtin said afterward. "They really have earned them all. When they step on the field day, they more than deliver.”
Even as a young Philadelphia team delivered on the night, there were some hiccups as a consequences of the roster rotation. FC Cincinnati had plenty of chances in the match but, as usual, labored to make anything of the opportunities.
“First half we had some opportunities and more than one," FCC interim head coach Tyrone Marshall said. "They had one chance to think and shoot, and they put their chance away. Second half we came out trying to find that goal, and they scored again and the guys could’ve put their head down and folded and we didn’t.
"The message for them is to continue going, continue grinding and that’s what we did. Training all week was like that. Our luck will change. The second half was a good indication of what hopefully will be the rest of the season for us. Overall, some good football, I thought at times and moments we played well. Acosta was on the ball a lot tonight, everyone came in tonight and did their part. Just again, it's who finishes and they did and we didn’t put away our chances, and they put theirs away."
Cincinnati finally broke through in the 82nd minute via Haris Medunjanin, whose goal was his third of the season and first against the only other MLS team he'd played for.
Philadelphia (12-7-9) still shone brightly enough with its young lineup to close out the win at the expense of Albright's new club, with players Albright helped develop.
FC Cincinnati fell to 4-16-8 in the 2021 season with the loss.
“Of course they are winners, but they were also fighting for 10 years to be the team they are right now," Medunjanin said. "When I came back in 2017, we were struggling. We didn't make the playoffs but after that we did two years in a row and last year they won the Supporters’ Shield. They are just growing and you see they are missing six or seven players but they have a quality bench that can provide for them.”
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