CINCINNATI — For every Batman, there’s a Robin.
FC Cincinnati All-Star midfielder Evander may get most of the attention on this club. He was just named a finalist for the Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player, coming off a regular-season where he set a club record with 22 goals across all competitions in the regular season. But Evander, and this club, would not be where they are without forward Kévin Denkey.
Denkey had 15 MLS regular-season goals, only three behind Evander. Monday night, it was his 78th-minute goal that gave Cincinnati a 1-0 lead over the Columbus Crew in Game 1 of the best-of-three First Round playoff series. It was one of five shots on goal and one of 12 shots Cincinnati had on the night, and Dénkey finally got Cincinnati on the board. Denkey’s goal was the only goal of the night, and it gives FC Cincinnati a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-three series.
“I thought it was a pretty balanced game,” FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan said. “Maybe we had a few more chances or moments to get in front of the goal and score, but I think with the ball, there was just a good understanding of some of the rotation to find space along our back line, the movement ahead of the ball.
“There was a good balance there and then, defensively, you have to be strong. You have to be organized or they can play through you. That’s why I feel like the game felt in control, even when we didn’t have the ball, because we had our organization right because our attack moved us up the field in a pretty connected way. We were able to eliminate some immediate transition moments and then the moments where we couldn’t, I
thought we got behind the ball very well. Those are some of the things we saw.”
Cincinnati was aggressive all night offensively, making 479 total passes and putting pressure on Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte and his defense throught the match. Playing against a Crew club that can score in bunches, inclduing four goals in the last match between the two in-state rivals in mid-July, Cincinnati rose to the occassion and set the tone with its offensive intensity and unyielding defense.
Goalkeeper Roman Celentano, playing in just his second match back from injury, made three saves for fifth playoff clean sheet in his career. Celentano had 10 clean sheets in the regular season.
“[Celentano] made a couple really key saves, and so that, for me, is always the most important thing,” Noonan said. “Can you keep the ball out of the net in the moments where things have broken down and your team needs you to make a play? That’s the No. 1 priority, and he did that in a really good way tonight. He was a big part of our clean sheet tonight.”
FC Cincinnati went 0-1-1 against the Crew in the regular season, including a disappointing 4-2 loss at home in mid-July. They scored two goals in the first five minutes of that match, and then their defense opened the floodgates.
Now, they take a 1-0 lead into Columbus Sunday night for Game 2, where FC Cincinnati can win the series in a two-game sweep.
Cincinnati led its First Round series last year 1-0, and Pat Noonan was direct when asked what he learned from that series against NYCFC with a 1-0 lead this season.
“Win Game 2,” Noonan said. “That’s it. We put ourselves in a good position. I want us to be able to look at this game and find all the good, all the things that are going to challenge us again in the second game and see if we can avoid a third. But that’s the focus.
“Go and have a good week of preparation and know that it’s not going to get any easier. We have to put our heads down and continue to work. I think if we do that, we put ourselves in a good position.”
The Orange and Blue are now 90 minutes away from avenging their devastating loss to the Crew in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals.
