Managerial regimes changed, players came and went, and tactics were introduced and tossed out, but Frankie Amaya always remained at FC Cincinnati.
For a club of few constants since entering MLS in 2019, Amaya was a reliable commodity for two seasons at FC Cincinnati, which selected him No. 1 overall in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft.
Up until Amaya went public with a trade request this past winter, he seemed likely to be in the picture for FCC for years to come.
The outlook on Amaya changed at the moment he made his trade request public and his status as one of the early heroes of FC Cincinnati's time in MLS changed forever when FCC swapped him in April with New York Red Bulls for $950,000 in general allocation money.
While fans still grapple with Amaya's forced exit, teammates don't begrudge him for it, Joseph-Claue Gyau indicated during a Monday interview.
"There always comes that period in a player's life where he feels like he wants to move on,"Gyau said. "None of us are really in a position to tell a young man how to go about his future. It felt like he wanted something different and he went for it. I don't see too much of a problem with it."
Amaya was brought to Cincinnati with the hope he'd be an on-field pillar for the club, although it can be debated if he was on track to live up to all the lofty expectations set for him.
At the very least, it can be said he was reliable over his two seasons with FC Cincinnati, as well as a fan favorite.
Amaya was also well-liked by head coach Jaap Stam and figured to feature prominently for at least as long Stam was at the club.
Now, Stam is game-planning to make life difficult on the field for Amaya on Wednesday night when FC Cincinnati play against Amaya for the first time at Red Bull Arena.
"He left and he's now at New York. We would have seen him over here. He knows that, we all know that in how I think about him and the quality that he has," Stam said. "Yeah, we're gonna be facing him. You don't know if he's going to be starting, of course... If he does, than we need to make it difficult for him. We know his ability."
Amaya has started nine games and made 14 total appearances for the Red Bulls so far in 2021. He has one goal and one assist this season.
That was preceded by 36 starts in 40 appearances with FC Cincinnati.
Amaya's time in Cincinnati was highlighted by his lone goal, a winner against Atlanta United during the group stage of the MLS Is Back Tournament. He was drafted out of UCLA to provide offense but grew into more of a defensive midfielder, as well as one of the best statistical tacklers in the league in 2020.
Amaya's absence has hindered FC Cincinnati somewhat as Yuya Kubo was tasked with filling the defensive midfield responsibilities. Kubo is one of the leading tacklers in MLS this season, but the transition to that took time.
The "GAM" FCC received from New York is being paid out over three years, so it wasn't as though Cincinnati received a lump-sum payment for close to $1 million when the trade was completed.
New York is also home to former FC Cincinnati defender Andrew Gutman, who FCC was unable to retain this past offseason after his loan period from Celtic FC ended.
Gutman's started in all four matches he's played for New York but has battled injury issues, which has limited his availability.
Revisiting the D.C. draw
Cincinnati enters Wednesday's match at Red Bull Arena following a scoreless draw with D.C. United at TQL Stadium on Saturday. There was loud criticism and scrutiny of the result, which was picked apart on social media throughout the weekend.
Locally, the conversation centered around FC Cincinnati playing against 10 men for most of the second half along with Stam's substitution patterns.
Prior to going down to nine men in the closing minutes of second-half added time, United played in two lines of four players after having a player red-carded in the 52nd minute. From that point on, their posture and tactics were decidedly defensive.
D.C. played for a tie and got one, but for FC Cincinnati, it was the second time in July it failed to score and take maximum points against teams that had been dealt red cards.
On July 9, FC Cincinnati relinquished a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw with 10-man Columbus Crew.
Of the most recent drew against a shorthanded team, Gyau suggested the difficulty of breaking down a compact defensive shape like D.C.'s on Saturday shouldn't be taken for granted.
"Also, we were a man up for a while and we were two men up for a bit but a lot of folks think, like, 'oh yeah, automatically you're a man up, you're supposed to win automatically,'" Gyau said. "It's not that easy. They were still bunkered in there."
As for substitutions, Stam made just one on Saturday. That was noticeable because of his recent and clear statements regarding the club's depth.
Some wondered if the lack of substitutions was a message to the front office, or some kind of statement from Stam.
By Monday, and with some of the dust of the United draw having settled, Stam said he was simply content with how his starters were finishing the game, which resulted in only subbing on Brandon Vazquez for Alvaro Barreal around the 85th minute.
"If you're looking at a game and what do we need to do – do we need to do (anything) basically?," Stam said. "There wasn't the urge or there wasn't a need to make different changes in the system or personnel because other players could keep it up."
With Jurgen Locadia and Franko Kovacevic having departed the club this summer, it can be argued there were no other logical options for substitutions beyond Vazquez.
The draw can be viewed in a couple different ways in terms of how it impacted FCC's standing in the Eastern Conference. The point gained allowed FC Cincinnati's position in the East to improve as they went up to joint-10th place on 14 points (3-7-5).
On the other hand, the FCC's proximity to the bottom of the East also became closer as last-place Inter Miami CF moved to 12 points after defeating CF Montreal.
But the East more or less looks like you'd expect as the halfway point in the season approaches: A lot of movement and jumbling together, and few big gaps between clubs up and down the conference.
MLS is, after all, a league of parity, so is it reallya surprise that a team with just three wins like FC Cincinnati would simultaneously be just eight points out of the last playoff position and just two points ahead of the last-place team?
USMNT down Mexico in Gold Cup final
The United States men's national team defeated Mexico, 1-0, on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to claim the Concacaf Gold Cup title.
The victory made the U.S. the champion nation for FIFA's Concacaf region, which encompasses North and Central America, and the Caribbean.
The match was the final meeting between the U.S. and Mexico prior to their Nov. 12 FIFA World Cup qualifier at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, and the Americans will carry a two-match winning streak – and two trophies – into the match.
The U.S. also defeated Mexico in the Concacaf Nations League final in June.
It's thought that U.S. manager Gregg Berhalter used this edition of the Gold Cup to evaluate the depth of the American player pool, and many of his usual first-choice and Europe-based players weren't called in for the tournament.
Mexico head coach Tata Martino had what was widely viewed as his first-choice group and it still came up short against a younger, less-experienced American team.
Source link
