Coming off a strong finish against Nashville, a high-caliber Eastern Conference opponent, FC Cincinnati travels to Dignity Health Sports Park on the campus of California State University in Carson, California, to face the six-time MLS Cup Champion LA Galaxy. They won the Championship last year, but circumstances have changed.
The Galaxy
The Galaxy’s star has fallen to the bottom of the Western Conference, managing just 4 wins, 21 points, and a -23 goal differential. Cincinnati fans might feel some empathy for the Galaxy, who lost Riqui Puig to a torn ACL and Joseph Paintsil to a quadriceps injury. They also had some key departures, with Dejan Joveljić traded to Sporting Kansas City and Mark Delgado traded to LAFC. Completing the picture, which brings the destruction of Alderaan to mind, Matheus Nascimento, Maya Yoshida, Marco Reus, and now Lucas Sanabria are all battling injury. Despite this, they managed to reach the semi-final of the Leagues Cup, where the eventual champion, Seattle, knocked them out. They followed that with a 2-1 win over Orlando. Notably, their last 7 goals have come from 7 different players.
LA Galaxy’s Last Five:
| Colorado | W | 3 – 0 | Harbor Michael Tarcynski-Miller 7′
Elijah Wynder 55′ Gabriel Pec 75′ |
| Seattle (Leagues) | L | 0 – 2 | |
| Orlando City (Leagues) | W | 2 – 1 | Martin Ojeda 60′ |
| Houston | D | 1 – 1 | Lucas Sanabria 90+9′ |
| Seattle | D | 2 – 2 | Maya Yoshida 44′
Miki Yamane 87′ |
The Orange & Blue
As FC Cincinnati has recently changed its composition and winning formula, they will be traveling to LA uplifted by a spectacular victory over Nashville, won in the 98th minute via a crushing finish by Evander. As Laurel Pfahler reported on Wednesday, Matt Miazga, Lukas Engel, and Roman Celentano remained out of training. Evan Louro put in a great performance against Nashville, however, and new players Marczuk and Jabbari made serviceable starts. Cincinnati’s bench also looks deeper in quality than it ever has. When you have guys like Echenique coming in late and terrorizing tired players with video-game-cheat-code speed, you have a significant advantage. Chris Albright has quite clearly worked some significant magic through his team’s own adversity in acquiring powerful reinforcements.
Pat Noonan disclosed during the pre-match press conference that Matt Miazga will not be available this weekend. Roman Celentano will also be out as he suffered an injury right before the USMNT game. He reflected that they have enough confidence in Evan Luoro, and it creates a situation where they don’t have to rush Roman back.
Players to Watch
Joseph Paintsil started for LA in their last match against Seattle and has 5 goals and an assist this year in 21 games. Miguel Berry, who spent a couple of productive seasons with Columbus and is now a well-travelled veteran of the MLS, is positioned at striker. Rounding out the offense is the 18-year-old Harbor Michael Tarczynski-Miller, who has a single goal in 7 matches played. We can all wave hello to defender John Nelson, who left Cincinnati via St. Louis City’s expansion selection before leaving the club at the end of his contract. He is now at the end of a two-year contract with LA.
The player to watch on Cincinnati’s side might be Kévin Denkey. Although he has 13 goals on the season, he was unable to convert several clear chances over the past few games and hasn’t scored since the 10th minute of the Portland match on August 16th. He does a lot off the ball and is instrumental in hold-up play and maintaining possession in the opponent’s third.
What to Expect
With both the Supporters’ Shield and the conference lead in their grasp, FC Cincinnati should clearly understand the assignment. Conference leader Philadelphia will be taking on the New England Revolution, now without coach Caleb Porter. After rotating to accommodate the US Open Cup match against Nashville, Philly was thumped 7-0 by Vancouver, and then lost 3-1 to Nashville and a Sam Surridge hat trick. A loss to New England would seem highly unlikely. So FC Cincinnati must do the job to remain close. With a bevy of offensive firepower options against an offensively weak opponent, this game should resemble a punctuation mark as they close out their season against opponents they should win handily over, excluding perhaps Orlando. Hopefully, the team found clues to repeatable scoring success with their victory over Nashville.
MATCH INFO
WHERE: Dignity Health Sports Park
WHEN: 10:30 PM EST
WEATHER: 70°F
WATCH: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+
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