Since MLS moved to its current 18-team postseason configuration (nine from the East, nine from the West) ahead of the 2023 campaign, no team that’s surrendered the most goals in its conference has made the playoffs. Seems like an obvious statement, right? The club with the worst defense is typically jostling for overhead compartment space on flights to Cancun, not playoff positioning.
What about the second-worst defense? Fifty-four teams have reached the playoffs since 2023, and not one owned the first- or second-worst defense in terms of goals allowed in their conference. Surely the third-worst team has done it, though? Correct, but only twice!
In 2024, Montreal yielded 64 goals, third-worst in the East, and qualified as the No. 8 seed. It lost the No.8 vs. No.9 play-in match to Atlanta. Speaking of the Five Stripes, Atlanta’s 53 goals conceded in 2023 was third-most in the East but still good enough for the No. 6 seed. Eventual champions Columbus Crew dispatched Atlanta in the first round.
Following a 5-3 midweek home loss to Inter Miami and a 3-3 draw in San Diego on Saturday night, FC Cincinnati has shipped 35 goals in 14 league matches, the second-worst total not only in the East but in all of MLS. Yet, if the postseason began today, FCC would inch in as the ninth and final seed in the East.
The Orange and Blue are conceding 2.5 goals per match. In 2021, the final season of Cincinnati’s Wooden Spoon three-peat, FCC surrendered 2.2 goals per game. This is the type of defensive ineptitude the 2026 team is flirting with, and it threatens the organization’s four-year playoff run.
The two-month World Cup break that begins after Saturday night’s tussle at TQL Stadium with Orlando—the only defensive team worse than Cincinnati—felt like an afterthought to me at the start of the season. Now the break can serve as Training Camp 2.0, a trial period for players and coaches to diagnose and address their defensive frailty.
Because even with the East’s second-best offense in terms of goals scored—the locals have multiple goals in seven successive games—FC Cincinnati is firmly planted in mediocrity thanks to its defensive woes. Worse yet, Cincinnati’s top earners not named Evander and Kevin Denkey are either defenders or defensive midfielders.
Miles Robinson, who started the season strong but has battled injuries and inconsistency since, is the league’s top-earning defender at nearly $4 million in guaranteed compensation this year. Defensive midfielder Obinna Nwobodo, who hasn’t started a match in two months and has not been the same since tearing his quad last summer, is the team’s fourth-highest-earner at $1.84 million. Next up on the payroll sheet are center backs Matt Miazga and Teenage Hadebe, followed by wingback Bryan Ramirez and midfielder Samuel Gidi.
A defensive overhaul is coming this offseason. FC Cincinnati needs to get younger—Nwobodo and Robinson are 29, while Miazga and Hadebe are 30—and more athletic.
A breath of fresh striker air
For the past month-plus, Cincinnati’s starting second striker has not been MLS veteran Tom Barlow or Ayoub Jabbari, whose purchase option from the French second division was picked up this winter, but little-known Kenji Mboma Dem. The former Dayton Flyer was the No. 56 overall selection in the 2024 SuperDraft and starred for FCC2 prior to inking a first-team contract last July.
After gaining his first MLS start on April 18, the 24-year-old has started each of the past six contests, primarily as the second forward playing off Denkey. Mboma Dem has also logged minutes at left wingback and scored his first goal as a starter in that position Saturday in San Diego. His first MLS goal was a stoppage-time stunner to steal a point in Toronto.
Injuries to Jabbari and Alvas Powell at wingback have opened the door for Mboma Dem to shine, and here’s hoping Pat Noonan continues to give the youngster meaningful minutes.
Grant Freking is in his eighth year of FC Cincinnati coverage for Cincinnati Magazine.
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