Let’s begin this week’s column with a few offensive FC Cincinnati offensive numbers, shall we? 0: FCC goals over its past two MLS matches. 2: Total FCC goals in three league matches this season. 137: Seconds that Pat Noonan’s postgame press conference lasted on Sunday evening.
The two minutes and 17 seconds Noonan spent in front of the assembled media following FC Cincinnati’s 1-0 home defeat to Toronto is his shortest pre- or post-match press conference that I was able to access on the club’s website. The skipper was not in the mood Sunday night.
Alarm bells are going off at the Mercy Health Training Center and TQL Stadium, and we haven’t yet reached Reds Opening Day. Noonan’s frustration appears widespread. And the responsibility for lifeless offensive start 2026—13 goals against a wildly overmatched Concacaf opponent notwithstanding—goes beyond Evander’s injury absence. The talisman returned in the 74th minute Sunday after leaving the MLS opener in the 11th minute.
“If you watched the game tonight, and if you watched the game in Minnesota, our ability to attack the goal is pretty far off,” Noonan said. “How we progress the ball, how creative we are in one-v-one moments, decision making in and around goal. It’s all of it. You can see it. You can feel it. There are not a lot of ideas and confidence when we have the ball. So again, that’s on me, because we have to find solutions.”
That this disarray is happening so early and after an unusually normal preseason (by FCC standards) is certainly cause for concern. With Tigres, the Mexican league power that eliminated the Orange and Blue in last season’s Concacaf Champions Cup, coming to town on Thursday, the local vibes and results may get worse before they get better.
I don’t think we’ll see a drastic formation switch or mass personnel changes Thursday, but I do think re-emphasizing Pavel Bucha’s role in initiating the offense will be one of Noonan’s cards to play.
Goalkeeping changes coming?
General Manager Chris Albright was active in the goalkeeping room last week. On Friday, the club announced an extension for backup keeper Evan Louro through June 2027. The 30-year-old went unbeaten (three wins, one draw) in four starts for an injured Roman Celentano in 2025 and has been with the club since August 2022.
A day earlier, FCC announced the acquisition of Liverpool goalkeeper Fabian Mrozek on loan through the end of this season. Mrozek, 22, will occupy a precious international slot—a strange move for what appears to be a third-string netminder. He was on the bench six times for Liverpool’s first team and notched 19 clean sheets in 60 contests for the defending English Premier League Champions’ U18, U19, and U21 sides. And yet his first-team experience consists of 16 combined appearances on loan between the first and fifth tiers of Swedish and English football, respectively. He would seem to be ticketed for time with FC Cincinnati 2.
Celentano, who inked a contract extension through 2027 in September 2023, took over as the Orange and Blue’s No. 1 keeper in April 2022. The 25-year-old has kept a firm grip on the job since and is in the upper echelon of MLS shot stoppers. He’s also been called up to five U.S. men’s national team camps, though he’s yet to make his debut.
This sequence of moves could be Albright preparing for Celentano’s possible departure later this year. I’ve not seen nor heard whispers of such a scenario, but as Celentano enters his prime years a transfer to Europe would be a reasonable career move.
Or perhaps Louro’s signing and Mrozek’s loan acquisition are nothing more than Albright shoring up goalkeeping depth after the retirement of longtime backup Alec Kann and the offseason transfer of FCC2 goalkeeper Paul Walters to Ireland’s first division.
Grant Freking is in his eighth year of FC Cincinnati coverage for Cincinnati Magazine.
Facebook Comments