I don’t like losing to Cincinnati. I really don’t. That said, that loss didn’t sting nearly as bad as the one against Toronto a couple weeks ago. The lone Blorange goal came off a bad hop out of a freaking puddle. What are you gonna do? I wish I had xG figures for this game because I think they’d be over one for both teams. City hit the post and Speedy sadly blew a great chance unmarked from the top of the box with about eight minutes to go in the second half. Niall had some good chances in the first half, and the ref might have screwed Morados out of a penalty once or twice during the deluge last Saturday night.

All that said, the second half of this game was one of the better played halves of USL soccer I’ve ever seen. Both teams had spells of possession, both teams had chances to score. Overall, City had a lot more of the ball, but it didn’t seem like they had much of it on the orange side of the field. The passing numbers in the opponent’s half bear that out at a not-very-good 59.2%. Cincy didn’t do any better in that category, 56.1%. Morados threw in a gazillion crosses, which I don’t think was a great idea, but given their inability to pass up the middle was to be expected. Morados also had 13 corners, which I think was pretty good, though not much in the way of chances came from those. That said, they had 20 touches in Cincy’s penalty area, while limiting them to just six. SIX! Granted, Cincy had the lead for most of the game, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t trying to ice the game for an hour. I don’t think they were.

Shots on target: FCC had just one. It’s the one that went in. That bodes well for City’s defense in terms of their ability to lock down one of the most potent offenses in the league this season, and it’s hard for anyone, orange or purple, to argue that the goal wasn’t a least a little fluky. City should rightfully be frustrated that they weren’t able to equalize, as they had 19 shots, though just five were on target. The one that hit the post in the second half really stung.

Tactically, I liked that City kind of adjusted to their counter defense problem and had Paolo play way deeper when Cincy had possession of the ball. Kyle Smith and Oscar still played pretty high up the field for fullbacks in a four man back line, and Alexis and Paco were really, really wide sometimes. I was glad to see Paolo come in and fill that big gap on several occasions. I also thought Alexis had a fantastic game defensively, cutting out ballhandlers consistently and did well in duels. I thought Cuatro had a great match as well, though I think there should have been an adjustment at some point so he wasn’t literally the only person tasked with creating offense or service for Lancaster and later Spencer. He’s not a bad crosser of the ball, but it’s not his strength, it wasn’t really working at all, and it was painfully predictable after a while. Nonetheless, he was my man of the match just for how much hustle he had the entire game. It was impressive.

So the Dirty River Derby is over. There’s a chance we might play them one more time. At least we got them twice in Nippert early in the season to wrap up the last regular season version of the trophy race. Let’s take some positives away from this match because they’re there, figure out some offensive problems, and beat Pittsburgh on Saturday.