Here's the latest on FC Cincinnati's Matt Miazga

To watch Matt Miazga during FC Cincinnati's Wednesday training session, it would be difficult to tell he was facing a suspension and an investigation that could result in more discipline.

At one moment, Miazga reacted emotionally to being scored on during the final play of a small-sided scrimmage. His frustration was obvious from 100 yards away. Then, in the next moment, Miazga held court with a handful of local media members in his typically animated and gregarious fashion. He gave colorful, thoughtful responses to questions regarding being voted the 2023 Major League Soccer Defender of the Year.

Before his morning business concluded, Miazga was seen sharing a lighthearted exchange with head coach Pat Noonan as staff members exited the practice fields. With Miazga out of sight, veteran defender Ray Gaddis praised the center back, calling Miazga a great professional and saying "he's kept guys engaged" during the three weeks between playoff games.

The appearances are almost all promising for Miazga but his situation remains uncertain due to the ongoing MLS Disciplinary Committee investigation into allegations lodged against him by the Professional Soccer Referees Association (PSRA) for the Nov. 4 playoff match at Red Bull Arena.

MLS officials confirmed to The Enquirer the investigation was ongoing. Asked Wednesday about missing the club's upcoming playoff match, Miazga declined to comment, likely out of an abundance of caution even though his suspension for the next match is largely separate from the investigation.

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It's been more than a week since the PSRA, the referees' union, put forth on social media its allegations against an unnamed player later confirmed to be Miazga. Wednesday marked eight days since the investigation launched and it remained unclear whether or not additional discipline would result from Nov. 4.

FC Cincinnati used penalty kicks to eliminate and sweep New York Red Bulls out of the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs that night, but Miazga was assessed two yellow cards during the contest, triggering a one-match suspension for postseason yellow card accumulation. One yellow card on Nov. 4 was for dissent and one was for lack of respect for the game.

According to PSRA, Miazga entered the locker room of that night's officiating crew after the match. Miazga was then allegedly forcibly removed by Red Bull Arena stadium security while acting in an "aggressive and hostile manner." In interviews with The Enquirer, sources disputed PSRA's characterization of Miazga during the alleged incident.

Through contact with high-ranking league officials in the days following the Red Bulls match, FC Cincinnati pursued an appeal of the yellow card that triggered Miazga's initial suspension, a source confirmed to The Enquirer. However, that effort was ultimately unsuccessful.

The MLS website now reflects Miazga's suspension for the next match for yellow card accumulation.

The outcome of the investigation remains a focus within the FC Cincinnati community. An MLS official said there is no timetable for resolving the investigation.

No officials for any of the organizations involved have specifically mentioned further suspension as a possibility for Miazga, although PSRA lobbied via a social media thread for Miazga to face discipline for allegedly entering the referees' locker room.

Still, the fear of of suspension is hovering over the fan base, which has three weeks between playoff matches to dwell on the situation.

Cincinnati will face fourth-seeded Philadelphia Union on Nov. 25 in an Eastern Conference semifinal match without Miazga, but the club and fans alike would likely get a boost from knowing they'd definitely get Miazga back if they managed to weather the expected storm they'll face against Philadelphia.

That's no small "if," but it would be a certain boost.

While the MLS investigation has cast something of a cloud over FC Cincinnati and Miazga, the club has gone about honoring its prized acquisition from the 2022 secondary transfer period for being voted the 2023 Defender of the Year.

Miazga took Wednesday as his first opportunity to address the award publicly. He recalled personal and team-wide highlights from the club's trophy-winning 2023 campaign that helped contribute to his individual accolade.

Miazga talks 2023 Defender of the Year award

Miazga indicated during his Wednesday media session that his attention was grabbed by the announcement he was one of three finalists for Defensive Player of the Year, but his concentrations then drifted elsewhere.

"It wasn't on my mind, to be honest. The most important thing is winning trophies as a team," Miazga said. "We've done one already with the Supporters' Shield, which I think obviously summarizes the season we've had. Now, we're fighting for MLS Cup. So, for me, those are the most important (things). Anything else is just extra, cherry on top obviously. I want to give credit to the guys around me. It's a team sport. Individual awards come when the team is successful.

"I've played all around the world. I've had a lot of experience all around the world. I've won around the world and I feel like that was one of my traits, is to come in and kind of be that voice and use that experience and lead and try to make everyone around me better."

While Miazga was voted the league's best individual defender for 2023, he couldn't say definitively if it was his best season-long performance.

"You would like to think the seasons you've had when you won a trophy, those are ultimately the best years because you're obviously performing at a high level," Miazga said. "At (that) position, if you're making mistakes and you're not playing well, your team is losing because you're a central defender. Same as the goalkeeper. That's just the reality of the sport . . . With wins and losses, definitely one of my better years, if not my best, honestly, in terms of the team I'm playing for (and) the record we have. You'll probably have to circle back with me on that one."

Miazga's top moments from 2023

Two things came to mind for Miazga when asked by The Enquirer about a favorite individual moment during this past regular season. Eventually, he called upon his recollections from FCC's busiest stretch of 2023, a period in which the club went undefeated in 10 matches over a 35-day span leading into the FIFA international window in June.

Miazga raved about the club's collective determination during that time, which was vital to moving to the front of the pack in the race for the Supporters' Shield. He said it was the most important stretch of the season.

Miazga also described a colorful, in-game scene from a pivotal match later in the season − during the come-from-behind win Aug. 30 at Atlanta United FC's Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The eventual 2-1 victory truly put the Supporters' Shield within FC Cincinnati's crosshairs. They'd go on to clinch it about a month later.

At the time, the win was the first major accomplishment of 2023 as it clinched an MLS Cup playoff berth, althought FCC started the night with a 1-0 deficit and a disheartening first half against Atlanta.

Eventually, the match became Miazga's favorite from 2023.

"The game that I really enjoyed and, like, you could ask a lot of the guys here, was the second half at Atlanta," Miazga said. "We were down one-nil and it wasn't a great first half from us. We just came in the locker room like 'what are we doing here? Let's level up. You know, we're in first place. Let's show this team who we are.' And then you saw the second half. It was just boom, boom, boom.

"The way we were playing, I think it was Ian (Murphy), me and Nick (Hagglund) versus their front-three the whole second half. It's just transitions and we're just defending the box relentlessly. Every time we go, they (Atlanta) went. Someone had to stop someone because at one point, someone's going to let up. And ultimately they let up and we just kept going and going, and obviously you saw some of our attackers. The plays they made were crazy. That was a fun game to be a part of because that also showed us the Supporters' Shield is in sight. That was a big win at that point."

FC Cincinnati news and notes

• Homegrown goalkeeper Paul Walters had been noticeably absent from the club's training sessions in recent days but not to worry. As part of FC Cincinnati's ongoing strategic partnership with German Bundesliga side TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Walters departed the Cincinnati region recently to train with Hoffenheim for several weeks. And yes, the relationship between FC Cincinnati and Hoffenheim is still alive and well. Walters' training stint with Hoffenheim is the most recent product of the strategic partnership, which was first introduced in September 2020. Goalkeeping is a common theme when the clubs collaborate as their goalkeeping coaches consult back and forth on training methods and best practices. During the Jaap Stam/Gerard Nijkamp era, the partnership also produced the loan acquisition of Croatian forward Franko Kovačević for FC Cincinnati. His loan deal spanned from the 2020 season through July 28, 2021.

• "Employee No. 1," aka Dan McNally, represented FC Cincinnati at the internationally-acclaimed SoccerEx conference in Miami this week. On Tuesday, McNally, FCC's vice president of soccer operations and the Mercy Health Training Center, was the primary speaker during a panel discussion in which he led audience members on an informational session regarding the club's Milford training complex. "The training center − known to many as "MHTC" for short − opened in early 2020 and was already considered best-in-class in many MLS circles. FCC maxed out the original MHTC layout pretty quickly and it underwent several alterations this year. One renovation altered the space utilized by the club's communications department while an entire wing was expanded to accommodate the club's growing needs beyond the first-team.

• FC Cincinnati won't train Thursday but returns for sessions Friday and Saturday. Those will be followed by off-days Sunday and Monday, which will set the club in motion for its preferred four-day approach to matches (that timeline was altered during the regular season for midweek games, obviously). And in this case, the match is the big one: the conference semifinal against Philadelphia.

• SeatGeek is showing a healthy marketplace for tickets to the Cincinnati-Philadelphia game, which is a rematch of last year's narrow, 1-0 victory at the same stage of the playoffs. The "get-in" price for the match was around $80 as of Wednesday afternoon. Some club seats on the west sideline were going for more than $300 but most lower-level postings for ducats were priced at less than $200 per seat. That's plenty steep but not nearly as bad as when the U.S. Open Cup semifinal and Lionel Messi's traveling circus came to town in August.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Here's the latest on FC Cincinnati's Matt Miazga