FC Cincinnati Beat: Can the Orange and Blue bounce back and regain control of the Eastern Conference?

CINCINNATI — Believe it or not, FC Cincinnati has not won an MLS regular-season match since July 19th. Although they’ve played only two matches in the last three weeks, Cincinnati is still 0-1-1 in that span and hasn’t gained any ground in the Eastern Conference table or the Supporter’s Shield race.

Cincinnati is coming off a tough 1-0 loss to Charlotte on Sunday night, a match that featured a controversial red card for Cincinnati midfielder Tah Brian Anunga in th 70th minute.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow right now, because we lost,” FC Cincinnati defender Matt Miazga said after the match. ” It’s just fresh on our minds, and we all know the implications. It’s a tight table, and we could have jumped to first today with a win. But we got to go again. There’s still eight more games to go, and we’re fully confident continuing to push forward.”

Eight more matches, and FC Cincinnati remains just two points outside of first place Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference.

It doesn’t get any easier for Cincinnati, with its next match at the Portland Timbers Saturday night. Portland is currently in sixth place in the Western Conference.

Cincinnati will then return home to play three straight home matches against Eastern Conference teams currently in the MLS Cup Playoffs if the season ended today: New York City FC, the Philadelphia Union and Nashville SC.

The work is cut out for FC Cincinnati if they are going to win a second Supporter’s Shield in three seasons. They’ve shown their winning fortitude since the calendar flipped to June, with wins over Orlando, Chicago and Miami, but there is still a long way to go towards getting to where this club wants to go.

Winning the home match against Philadelphia is, essentially, a must to win the Eastern Conference. Cincinnati was blown out by Philadelphia 4-1 on the road back on March 1st. They can’t concede three points to Philadelphia again, especially at home.

Cincinnati also lost a road match at New York City FC back on May 4th, but it beat Nashville 2-1 on the road back on March 29th.

Case in point, every match going forward is a must-win towards winning the Eastern Conference, especially against conference opponents. Cincinnati will play five of its last six Eastern Conference opponents at home. Again, that’s an advantage. But only if they stack wins and three points in most of, if not all of, those matches.

The road is still wide open for FC Cincinnati, and the road to the top of the Eastern Conference table essentially runs through them with all of their home matches.

But scoring has to increase, considering Cincinnati hasn’t scored in each of its last two regular-season matches.

“(It was) a frustrating night,” head coach Pat Noonan said after the loss to Charlotte Sunday night. “The score line, how it finishes with just us being down a man. We didn’t take advantage of an opportunity tonight, and that’s disappointing.

“We said at halftime, it was probably going to be one moment, and we couldn’t find it obviously before we go down a man. Even to the end, guys pushed in a good way and almost found one on a set piece there. A tough loss.”

Saturday night will be FC Cincinnati’s first trip to Portland since joining MLS in 2019.