NASHVILLE – FC Cincinnati and Nashville SC took turns swapping punishing blows to one another on the opening night of the Major League Soccer season for the clubs.
A 2-2 draw resulted for Cincinnati and Nashville on Saturday at Nissan Stadium before a limited-capacity crowd.
The tie marked the first time in FCC's three seasons in MLS that it took a point from the opening match of the season.
Head coach Jaap Stam also suggested the game was important in the grander scheme of pushing FC Cincinnati forward as a club.
"It is very important because… we’re in a certain process of changing positions, changing players," Stam said. "A point at which we’ve done playing in a certain way but you’re playing against a team that’s already set basically, doing very well, last season as well playing in their ground and then you need to try to get a result. And sometimes that’s football as well. You cannot always play dominant straight away from the first second and then until the last second of the game. That’s what we’ve been trying to do, of course. That’s what you’re looking for but you’ll also see in playing against sides like this with the ability that they’re having, yeah, you need to give certain things away. That’s football. That’s how it works.
"Sometimes you need to fight for that result and that’s what we’ve done today as well and it is very important by getting two-nil up against this team and also keeping, and in the end, winning that point... That’s part of the process of the mentality of the team, the work rate that’s within a team – that every player is putting their shift in and working very hard to get that point and that’s what they’ve shown. By succeeding in doing that, that makes the next step go a little bit faster."
FCC landed a quick one-two punch and led 2-0 less than 13 minutes into the match. Luciano Acosta and Brenner Souza da Silva both scored in their official debuts for FCC, tallying in the eighth and 12th minutes, respectively.
Acosta waltzed in on goal for his opener, dinked the ball over a sprawling Nashville goalkeeper and punched in from close range for 1-0.
Brenner scored on a penalty kick, which was awarded on a video review by match officials after play continued following a foul against him in the Nashville penalty area by goalkeeper Joe Willis.
Nashville halved its deficit on a simple tap-in by Jhonder Cadiz in the 20th minute before Randall Leal's circus shot in the 64th minute beat FCC goalkeeper Przemysław Tytoń.
Tytoń made 11 saves in the game and gave a man-of-the-match quality performance.
"Was a tough game. We start well and then after leading 2-0, we give up the one goal and they (Nashville) start to feel like they came back to the game," Tytoń said. "As a defensive shape, I think we did a (good) job. They were a very physical team, Nashville. We don’t have many tall guys in the team but we have a different quality. We did well. We did well. This point is very important for us. The first game of the season and we have to respect this point. We have to take it and I hope this point, this game will give us power to build something better as a team, so the next games are very important for us.”
Cincinnati dominated the opening 15 minutes but Nashville controlled seemingly everything after Brenner's goal. The hosts nearly won as a result of that imbalance, but FCC took a point that could see the club to early-season success.
Here's what we learned about FC Cincinnati on the opening night of the 2021 season:
• Przemysław Tytoń won the goalkeeping competition for FC Cincinnati coming out of preseason and the best man clearly claimed the job. Tytoń was the man of the match in Saturday's game. His athleticism was on full display and his 11 saves constituted one of the best single-match goalkeeping performance in FC Cincinnati history – and they needed it.
"He’s done very well and there is pressure but that’s why Titi is in goal," Stam said. "He’s a goalkeeper. He’s there to save shots on-target. Not all the shots were even difficult. I think he made one very important one on the rebound that he took and it’s all about OK, sometimes a goalkeeper hasn’t got a lot to do and you’re still losing a game. Now, we got a point. He made a couple of very good saves. We’re very happy with this performance on the day but that’s why Titi, he’s an important man."
We'll talk about the two big goals FC Cincinnati received from two of its newest and biggest stars. We'll also talk about the shaky defending but "Titi" was bigger than all those factors on this night.
• There are some front office staffers and personnel decision makers smiling in the FCC org right now after Acosta and Brenner provided immediate results upon being introduced for their first regular-season appearances at the club. Those two players are paid to produce when the lights are on, and their goals are the ideal start to a very important season – both for the club and the players as individuals.
• Now, for the defending, which I noted many times over recent days could be primed for a step backward early in the 2021 season. Basically, after FC Cincinnati went ahead 2-0, the creativity and flow of the attack went away and they looked like they wanted to defend the 2-0 lead for 78 or so minutes.
Last year, they might have been able to do that and cling to three points. The 2021 team might get to that point eventually but it isn't there yet.
"To get to the level of playing that we eventually want to go to takes time. Not only six weeks of preseason that will solve everything or will make things turn around straightaway," Stam said. "No, it takes a little bit more time and that’s what you’ve seen today as well by seeing good bits, and also bits that look like you need to defend a lot as well and that’s what happened but that means by seeing this today that the players are willing to work for each other. The mentality is there. The grit is there. They stick up for each other and by doing that, by having that positive feeling as a team as well, the process of the team goes quicker."
Cadiz had a free run on his goal. As for Leal's wonder-hit, I don't know if there's anyone to blame for that one but the face that Tytoń has as much work to do as he did was a huge indictment on the total team defense. Nashville ended the game with almost 60 percent of the possession, 13 corners, 12 shots on goal and what seemed like a dozen other close or half-chances.
That FC Cincinnati was able to grind out a result against the run of play is a necessary skill that all playoff-contending teams must demonstrate but there was more desperation about FCC's defending than a final result that indicated this team is today a playoff contender.
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