FC Cincinnati Beat: Orange and Blue outlast Chicago Fire, now lead Supporter’s Shield race

CINCINNATI — When a player in any sport gets selected to that specific league’s All Star team, that player can either raise his or her level of play or start to play as if they are burdened by heightened expectations and increased national attention.

For FC Cincinnati midfielder Evander, who was named to the MLS All Star Team last Wednesday, he has been on a torrid stretch in the thee matches since his selection. Cincinnati’s co-leading scorer connected on his fifth goal in the last three matches with a 19th minute shot from outside the box. It was the first of two goals for FC Cincinnati Saturday night in a 2-1 over the Chicago Fire, giving them pole positioning in the Supporter’s Shield race.

Evander had two goals (braces) in each of Cincinnati’s previous two matches at CF Montreal and Orlando City. He and forward Kevin Denkey, who both now have 12 goals in the MLS regular-season, each scored in the win for Cincinnati (13-5-3, 42 points) Saturday night.

“There are a lot of influences to why he’s been so impactful recently,” FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan said. “His teammates understand in how and where to find him, the movement off the ball. He's a talented player. He's not one dimensional. There are going to be games where he's productive in certain areas of the field for certain reasons, depending on how teams play and structures defensively.

“He's able to adjust and read the game, and we're trying within our preparation to consistently find ways to make sure he has a strong impact on the game, and those are some of the reasons I think we've seen him really step up on an even bigger scale with this past three-game stretch.”

FC Cincinnati are now on a four-match winning streak, with their last two wins coming against teams currently in the MLS Cup Playoffs if the regular season ended today.

Their win over the Chicago Fire (8-8-4, 28 points) came on a night where they were missing three regular starters.

But that’s when great teams’ stars raise their levels of play and the play of their teammates, which is exactly what Evander and Denkey did Saturday night.

“We try to take the guys that are available and position them in a good way to go and perform, always with the idea that you have to compete the right way, even if there's struggle, even if things aren't going our way,” Noonan said. “Yeah, we lost some bodies, some key pieces, but you see a team where guys are ready for an opportunity and they want to help the team. It's not always perfect, but they have the right approach, and I think that's what allows us to go and play good teams and get results.”

Of course, the focus now shifts to next Saturday night and the “Hell is Real Derby” against the Columbus Crew (10-3-7, 37 points). The Crew are currently in fourth place in the Eastern Confernece and will play at the Seattle Sounders Sunday night.

Cincinnati and Columbus played to a 1-1 draw back on May 17th in Columbus.

“I think what I'm most pleased about is this stretch of wins, we've had really good preparation and guys have done a lot of good things in training that has translated to help us get results,” Noonan said. “Is it always perfect? Like I said, no. There are things we can get better with
but forget about it. Take this good feeling that we have with results, but don't be content with where we're at. Be hungry to go do more good things with our performance, and hopefully a good result.”