FC Cincinnati season review: Was 2023 a success?
In Cincinnati, the 2023 Major League Soccer season is just a memory now. Exactly how it's remembered is a matter locals will likely be grappling with for months.
In 2023, FC Cincinnati tasted true, elite-level soccer for the first time and enjoyed all the trappings that accompanied its consistently dominant play. The club claimed its first major trophy, the Supporters' Shield, sent three players to the MLS All-Star game midseason and raked in further awards and recognition after its 20-win regular-season campaign was finished.
In cup play, FC Cincinnati made big waves but ultimately came up empty-handed over three separate competitions and, most notably, in the MLS Cup playoffs.
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FC Cincinnati is now in the midst of an offseason that will feel a little colder and look a little darker for its fans after the playoffs ended with a stunning defeat to arch-rival Columbus Crew. After winning the Shield but losing to the Crew, as well as in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinal, we weigh the pros and cons of the most memorable season in FCC history.
But was it a success?
2023 by the numbers
46 matches (all competitions)
26 wins (all competitions)
26-6-14 all-competitions record
First Supporters’ Shield (for the best record in MLS) in club history
12 matches in cup competitions (6-1-5 record)
3-2 record in penalty-kicks (all competitions; club record for most PK shootouts in a season)
80 goals scored (all competitions)
53 goals conceded (all competitions)
Five players with at least five goals (Acosta 17, Vazquez 8, Badji 5, Barreal 5, Boupendza 5)
Seven players with at least four goals (Above-mentioned plus Moreno 4, Santos 4).
16 shutouts (all competitions)
Three MLS All-Stars (single-season club record)
Five major MLS postseason individual awards (Luciano Acosta – MVP; Defender of the Year – Matt Miazga; Coach of the Year – Pat Noonan; Best XI - Acosta, Miazga)
Five matches, or almost 11% of FC Cincinnati's entire 2023 schedule, were against New York Red Bulls
The two most important days of 2023: July 15 and Nov. 4
Two days stick out from FC Cincinnati’s 2023 season and we’ll take them in chronological order starting with July 15.
East- and Shield-leading FCC played second-place Nashville SC at TQL Stadium on that date. Cincinnati romped to a 3-1 victory. Newly-acquired, designated-player striker Aaron Boupendza entered the fray in the second half and scored on his debut. It was a party spirit in the West End and FC Cincinnati waltzed into the month-long break for the Leagues Cup competition.
The Nashville win also capped a 9-1-3 stretch for FC Cincinnati, pushing the club’s league record to 15-2-6 and 51 points in the standings. That stretch was FC Cincinnati at its absolute best. It likely was the period that effectively won it the Shield. And beyond that, no trophy seemed out of the club's reach. Cincinnati had a chance to be in the argument for best MLS teams ever assembled.
But FC Cincinnati peaked too soon. July 15 was this club’s high-water mark for 2023.
Through the end of the MLS regular season on Oct. 21, FCC finished 6-3-6 across all competitions. It fell well short in Leagues Cup. The U.S. Open Cup semifinal against Lionel Messi's Inter Miami CF was the first cup semifinal collapse. Cincinnati clinched the Shield but even that was closer than anticipated in the end, and the club didn't look or feel untouchable anymore.
FC Cincinnati never returned to the form it showed on July 15. And that brings us to Nov. 4, which was a night on which FC Cincinnati looked like the best version of itself again − until the night unraveled and irrevocably altered the club’s MLS Cup playoff campaign.
The game at Red Bull Arena that night turned out to be the close-out match of the first round series against New York Red Bulls. New York was bent on making a physical show of the game and FCC was worse for the wear afterward. The price of Cincinnati's win in penalty kicks was steep.
Obinna Nwobodo, one of the club's most important players, exited the match with an injury he wouldn’t fully recover from the rest of the postseason. And after the game, the controversial and still-debated Matt Miazga events occurred.
Afterward, Miazga spoke to The Enquirer about how much he disagreed with the suspension he’d face for yellow-card accumulation, which he triggered that night. But he’d eventually have to serve a second suspension, along with other sanctions, after MLS investigated accusations of him entering the referees’ locker room before FC Cincinnati departed Red Bull Arena.
Without Miazga and Nwobodo available, a pall was cast over the rest of the playoffs. FC Cincinnati barely survived against Philadelphia Union in the conference semifinal round of the playoffs, which papered over the problems. But with Nwobodo at less than 100% and Miazga serving the first game of a three-game suspension resulting from the MLS investigation, FC Cincinnati just couldn’t make enough plays to slam the door on Columbus in the conference final.
July 15 and Nov. 4 – two nights during the 2023 season that were remarkable and unforgettable. The first date told of the club's full capabilities and what might have been months down the road. Even in victory, Nov. 4 was the beginning of the end of the historic year.
The cup semifinal stumbling block is fixable
By now, you've probably read and heard plenty about the club's blown 2-0 leads in the U.S. Open Cup and in Saturday's Conference final. Many are reducing the perception of FC Cincinnati's 2023 to those two outcomes, and that's fair game.
It's true that FC Cincinnati squandered the two-goal leads. They left trophies on the table as a result. How can you not mourn that? You could even suggest those semifinal losses took some of the shine off the Shield triumph. Fair enough.
But the cup semifinal losses also seemed to leave many with the impression there were deep-rooted problems about the team’s ability to perform, coach, build a team, and brace for the pressure-cooker moments that inevitably arise during any cup competition.
The Enquirer sees the semifinal losses more as growing pains in what should be an ascendant FC Cincinnati that must, and can, improve in all of those capacities for 2024 − on-field performance, management/coaching, roster building, and handling adversity on the biggest stages.
With very little expectation of FC Cincinnati having the kind of year it did in league and cup play, FCC went 6-1-5 and 3-2 in penalty-kicks in cup matches. For practical purposes − penalty-kicks are officially recorded as draws − Cincinnati went 9-3 in cup play.
Aside from Leagues Cup – and be honest, you weren’t too broken up about losing that one – FC Cincinnati was plenty clutch. Even in the Columbus match where FC Cincinnati was hobbled by lingering injuries and a key suspension (and head coach Pat Noonan even conceded he could have managed the club’s late, 2-1 lead better) they were still mere minutes away from hoisting a trophy in front of 25,513 at TQL Stadium that night.
So, what was FC Cincinnati really lacking in the cup semifinals? Luck? Probably.
Against Miami, did the best player in the world finally break through late after FCC kept him quiet for 90-plus minutes? That's a relevant factor.
Did they need another center back, one presumably acquired during the secondary transfer window? GM Chris Albright is a lot of things but he's not a soothsayer. The center back quartet of Miazga-Mosquera-Hagglund-Murphy had earned his trust. No club in MLS is fixed with enough depth to endure the Miazga suspension and Hagglund's season-ending surgery (and both things happened in the span of four days). So, no, it wasn't the lack of center back depth.
In both matches, did a handful of key, late personnel decisions potentially go awry? Yes.
And against Columbus, weren't the Crew clearly better over the 120 minutes anyway? Yes.
Everything that went wrong in the cup semifinals is correctable. The semifinal stumbling block can be fixed, and the losses can be learning moments. The story of 2024 will more than likely be told by how FC Cincinnati grew (or didn't grow) from those two losses.
How FC Cincinnati fits in the 2024 MLS landscape (early outlook)
In 2023, we learned a lot about what FC Cincinnati is capable of, and what a few reasonable steps forward could see it achieve in 2024. With the spine of FC Cincinnati intact and largely under team control through the 2025 season, FC Cincinnati should be entering the heart of a promising championship window.
But what about the rest of MLS? That's as relevant as anything else when weighing FCC's chances in 2024.
Offseason coaching and player acquisitions are going to alter the MLS landscape, and it's already a league of parity. Unexpected contenders emerge each year, kind of like FC Cincinnati did in 2023 as it raced up the standings faster than many anticipated. But we know where the rest of the league stands in relation to FCC today, and most are playing catch-up.
Cincinnati won the Supporters Shield with games to spare. There wasn't even a Western Conference club within 13 points of FCC (St. Louis City SC). So, perhaps FCC has a bit of a head start. But can they protect that lead?
FC Cincinnati will be hunted in 2024, no doubt. A win against FCC could make any club's month a good one. For some lesser teams, it could make their entire season. Given that, you can reasonably suggest 2024 will be a tougher slog over the 34-match regular-season haul.
It's going to be a longer, busier season, too. If you thought playing 46 matches for up to four trophies in 2023 was wild, wait until you see the draw for the CONCACAF Champions Cup. That's a fifth front FC Cincinnati will be battling on in 2024. Expect more wear-and-tear on FCC's entire roster, and a lot more load management as a result.
Those factors suggest a more difficult year ahead, but FC Cincinnati's still frontrunning in the east for now. For instance, I'd argue Cincinnati’s championship window is open wider than Philadelphia Union's at this point. Also, Cincinnati failed to beat Orlando City SC over two matches in 2023, but can Orlando replicate the success it enjoyed as the Shield runner-up? Nashville SC was fantastic out of the gate as a 2020 expansion team but faded late in 2023? Is it still going to be fighting against possibly fading out of the playoff picture in 2024?
If anything, the race atop the east looks today like it should come down to FC Cincinnati and Columbus Crew next season. Isn’t that an enticing idea after what Columbus did at TQL Stadium in the conference final?
Out in the west, Los Angeles FC won the Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup "double" in 2022. They're competing in MLS Cup against Columbus this weekend and are experienced at throwing their weight around in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, previously known as the Champions League.
But does LAFC altogether out-class FC Cincinnati? No. Not yet, anyway.
Bottom line, no club is head and shoulders above Cincinnati today. Even with the expected roster turnover coming FCC's way this winter, it should be as strong as any other contender heading into 2024.
The Enquirer’s final verdict on the 2023 season
The Enquirer spoke with FC Cincinnati General Manager Chris Albright on Clearwater Beach in February for the annual season preview, which published Feb. 24 and was titled: "FC Cincinnati 2023 MLS preview: 'Getting back to the playoffs' would signal FCC's arrival."
The club sure did arrive. It made the playoffs with almost two months to spare in the regular season, and won the Supporters' Shield with weeks still to play. And suffice it to say that parties on both ends of the beachside interview in February sold short what ultimately proved to be possible.
Albright, perhaps in an effort to frame and manage expectations, said the following of the season to come: "I think to show we’ve arrived, so to speak, there’s got to be some consistency, some sustainability, and you do that by getting back to the playoffs.”
As for The Enquirer's preseason take on 2023, we had some loftier goals in mind and called for:
A fourth-place finish in the Eastern Conference (FC Cincinnati won the Supporters' Shield as the top regular-season club in the entire league)
The U.S. Open Cup semifinal (check)
Progressing out of the group stage of Leagues Cup (check)
And ultimately, a loss to Philadelphia Union in the Eastern Conference final (not quite how it played out but elements of that were correct)
Prior to the season, many fans probably would have settled for another playoff berth. Or perhaps one step further in the postseason. Certainly, most fans would have cashed out if the Shield was on the table.
Obviously, there was a great deal more on the table and everyone got a little greedy. And to be clear, that's fine. FC Cincinnati made opportunities for itself, seizing on many and positioning itself for more with moves like the secondary transfer acquisition of Aaron Boupendza, which proved to be effective, albeit a bit rocky.
All of this − the entire 2023 campaign − was uncharted territory for FC Cincinnati. From likely playoff contender to sudden treble hopeful? No club can realistically arm itself when the ascent is so rapid.
The lack of experience showed at times. It was most evident in the cup semifinal losses where FC Cincinnati blew two 2-0 leads. And yet, FC Cincinnati was right on the cusp in both contests. So, look at what FC Cincinnati still accomplished, even without the wealth of experience − experience in building a team deep enough to compete for three trophies, experience in managing the high-leverage, in-game moments all cup competitions produce, and experience in the players to know how to close out the biggest games.
To lose two cup semifinals, especially when one of them was the final match of 2023, felt like the end of something great. But on the contrary, it should be the start of something great. Big picture, 2023 was FC Cincinnati just starting to push its championship window open. They'll be expected to kick the window all the way in next year and in 2025. That won't come easy, but FCC is so much closer to the summit today than it was a year ago.
FC Cincinnati isn't going anywhere, and 2023 was the opening statement after peeking its collective head through that championship window. The entire season was an obvious success. Not only was FC Cincinnati restored to respectability beyond any doubt, casting aside the clouds of three consecutive last place finishes once and for all, but FCC is now a truly elite club in the MLS ranks.
This is what Jeff Berding, Carl Lindner III, Dan McNally and Jeff Smith dreamed FC Cincinnati could be. The table is set for FCC. Please take your seats.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: FC Cincinnati season review: Was 2023 a success?
