FC Cincinnati: Players fight to stay while playing spoiler

Out of contention for their maiden MLS season, FC Cincinnati players fight to make the 2020 roster by raining on other team’s playoff parades.

This week, FC Cincinnati head coach Ron Jans called on players to start competing for 2020 roster spots now. With that directive, the team recently posted its first win since July against the Montreal Impact, who were fighting for the final playoff spot in Eastern Conference. That makes FC Cincinnati a spoiler.

As the FCC players want to show Jans he can’t plan for better seasons without them, even though Cincinnati is out of contention for this season, there’s still plenty of contention for jobs on the team.

Midfielder Allan Cruz was the first applicant for 2020 work on FC Cincinnati. He got Jans’ attention 30 seconds into the Montreal victory, capturing a pass and quickly firing it into the net. The one goal was enough for FCC to beat Montreal in their own Stade Saputo.

Both Montreal players and supporters had understandably expected to face a defense that’s left the team with fewer points than Vancouver Whitecaps, next to last in the league.

At present, Cincinnati are expected to break the record for goals conceded in an MLS season. They are statistically the worst defense in MLS history. And yet, they surrendered nothing to the Impact. For the previously beleaguered group of would-be-disrupters, FC Cincinnati defenders came to life, with Jans charting which players fit into his plans of future success.

After the first-minute game-winning goal, the Montreal Impact had 17 shots. But only one of them was on target. Cincinnati blocked four of those attempts. Montreal had an 80% passing accuracy, just over 60% possession and six tackles won. But FC Cincinnati stood strong against the formidable Impact attack.

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Cincinnati defenders were led by left and right-backs Greg Garza and Mathieu Deplagne. They stayed on the pitch for the entire 90 minutes. Scouts rated them among the highest in the match, with their touch tackling and combative play crucial to the defensive shut-out.

FC Cincinnati then followed this dogged defensive display up with another embattled performance against Atlanta United. They may have ultimately lost 2-0 to the MLS Cup champions, but if not for the individual brilliance of Josef Martinez, very few chances were conceded. Cincinnati were fighting. Hard.

Jans only has the few remaining games of FC Cincinnati’s first MLS season to finalize his plans. Consequently, for a core of players, only those games remain to make their case that they have the stuff to build a competitive MLS campaign next season.

And if those players make their case, it will be by spoiling opponents’ chances for top playoff spots in MLS.