FC Cincinnati beat a lesser opponent Wednesday night to advance in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. A real test now awaits FCC in the tournament.
FC Cincinnati’s quality eventually shone through in its first round Champions Cup series against Cavalier FC of the Jamaica Premier League. FC Cincinnati won the aggregate score series, 6-0, over two matches.
FC Cincinnati will have a quick turnaround before facing Mexican giant, Monterrey FC of Liga MX. Monterrey’s deeper into its season than FCC is in MLS, and Cincinnati is yet to hit its stride whereas Monterrey is an undefeated (5-3-0) in the Liga MX Clausura.
The Monterrey games − one in Cincinnati and one in Monterrey − represent a pair of the biggest matches in club history.
For now, though, FC Cincinnati can savor progressing in its debut Champions Cup appearance. Here are the big takeaways from FCC’s win over Cavalier:
A convincing series win in the end
What FC Cincinnati’s fans saw in the series opener at Independence Park in Kingston, Jamaica, was a shaky FC Cincinnati with a 1-0 lead until Malik Pinto’s late insurance tally for 2-0.
What the fans didn’t see was the wretched condition of playing surface, and the unfamiliar Nike match ball jumping and dancing around on the spotty pitch. FCC couldn’t be blamed for the field conditions, but the bottomline was they still gave Cavalier hope for the second leg of the series at TQL Stadium.
But Cincinnati snuffed out Cavalier’s hope early on Wednesday, scoring in the 19th minute through an Alvas Powell tap-in. By Cavalier manager Rudolph Speid’s own admission prior to the game, a goal for 3-0 would essentially end the series, and it did.
FCC didn’t stop there, though. Aaron Boupendza scored his first competition goal of 2024 late in the first half. FCC’s youngsters piled on late in the contest to close out a series that ultimately revealed these truths: Cavalier was over-matched and served to bolster FCC’s confidence after a shaky first game in the series followed up by Cincinnati with another unconvincing game against Toronto FC (albeit on very short rest and coming off a brutal return flight from Jamaica).
A 6-0 aggregate score win with FC Cincinnati’s big guns on the bench and waiting in reserve for long stretches is a big boost heading into Saturday’s league match at Chicago Fire, and then the big Champions Cup showdown after that.
FC Cincinnati keeping good MLS company in advancing
In the 2023 CONCACAF Champions Cup (formerly Champions “League”), Austin FC was the talk of the first round of the tournament for all the wrong reasons. Austin wasn’t just eliminated by Violette AC of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. They were shellacked and embarrassed by the Haitians, ultimately losing 5-0 on aggregate in a series that foretold a disappointing year all-around in Austin.
What you don’t want is to set the Champions Cup opportunity on fire, which is kind of what Austin did last year. For now, FC Cincinnati’s a long way from claiming regional supremacy, but FCC helped reinforce the league’s supremacy over some of CONCACAF, and the current Jamaica Premier League leaders specifically.
FC Cincinnati pulled its weight in the first round. Now, it can do real damage in the Round of 16 against Monterrey FC (more on Monterrey below). If that happens, then we’re really talking.
Who had a good series against Cavalier for FC Cincinnati?
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Bret Halsey – Two starts, three assists and played his role in two Champions Cup shutouts. That’s ideal production for a player in that position from FC Cincinnati’s point of view. Wing-back is supposed to be an area with some question marks around it, and that’s still true in terms of the starters. The depth sitting just behind the starters, including Halsey, is set and ready to grow.
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Gerardo “Dado” Valenzuela – He had a long run as substitute in the first match of the Cavalier series and started Wednesday’s clincher at TQL Stadium, scoring a goal and earning “Player of the Match” honors. Valenzuela was the subject of positive reviews coming out of preseason and the hype has been justified by his first three performances of the year, including in Sunday’s MLS match against Toronto FC. “Dado’s” late goal for 6-0 also made him the youngest goal-scorer in FCC history at 19 years old. We could be watching the beginnings of a very intriguing 2024 for a very promising player.
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Matt Miazga − Miazga used a start in the first game against Cavalier to keep his fitness levels high ahead of anticipated suspension for FC Cincinnati’s league opener against Toronto FC. After the Friday announcement that the Toronto match would be the last of Miazga’s suspension stemming from the 2023 postseason, the necessity to keep him on the field Wednesday was lessened. He played only the first half. But over the two games, Miazga helped lead FC Cincinnati defensively, and while its worrisome there were any threats posed by Cavalier, Miazga did his job in helping keep the Jamaican side off the scoreboard. And since he was able to get off the field after 45-plus minutes on Wednesday, Miazga should be fresh for Saturday’s road match in league play at Chicago.
What is FC Cincinnati getting in the Round of 16 against Monterrey?
Aside from the obvious of Brandon Vazquez facing the FC Cincinnati team he ascended to stardom with, and later departed this winter, Monterrey is one of the most successful clubs in Mexico, particularly this century.
“Rayados” has eight domestic titles and five CONCACAF Champions Cup trophies (it was still called the “Champions League” when Monterrey won them). Its most recent Champions Cup triumph was in 2021, and it won three in a row in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
FC Cincinnati will host Monterrey March 7 at TQL Stadium. FCC on March 14 will also pay a visit to Estadio BBVA, Monterrey’s 54,000-capacity home stadium that was named a host site for FIFA World Cup matches in 2026. The game is scheduled for March 14.
Monterrey had its first-round Champions Cup matches against Comunicaciones of Guatemala completed before FCC and Cavalier played once. Rayados won the series on aggregate, 7-1, and it was never really in doubt.
Monterrey’s margin of victory was convincing, and Comunicaciones (No. 52-ranked in the region) is held in higher esteem within the CONCACAF region than No. 100 Cavalier is, too.
As for Vazquez, he had five goals across all competitions in less than 400 minutes for Monterrey entering Wednesday’s game against TIjuana. If Monterrey advances past FC Cincinnati, Vazquez figures to have plenty to do with it.
“We get a top club in Liga MX. They’ve been a top club for quite some time, and obviously now with the addition of a former FCC player in Brandon (Vazquez), it adds to a little bit of the excitement and conversation around that game,” Noonan said. “We know it’s going to be a very difficult series… When the time comes and we step on the field on (March 7) at home, we know we need to start in a very sharp way against against a very dangerous opponent.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What we learned from FC Cincinnati’s CONCACAF Champions Cup victory