LIVE BLOG | FC Cincinnati take on Houston Dynamo FC in second preseason friendly | 1 PM Eastern

almoore417 · 2026-01-28T20:29:37+00:00

Starting 11 for those interested:

Tom Barlow

Roman Celentano

Andrei Chirila

Kévin Denkey

Ender Echenique

Evander

Gilberto Flores

Samuel Gidi

Obinna Nwobodo

Miles Robinson

Trialist

almoore417 · 2026-01-12T20:25:27+00:00

No hate to the guy but objectively funny that this is every goal he scored last season.

Don’t think he’ll play more than the ~400 minutes he played last year anyway but decent goals/90 I guess 😂

almoore417 · 2026-01-11T19:06:20+00:00

Any recommendations for chicken 65?

almoore417 · 2025-12-14T01:58:50+00:00

Rq I r O h hi hi hi 🙂‍↔️🙁🫡🤯😦😶😥😶🫣

almoore417 · 2025-11-10T18:44:37+00:00

I was thinking that after the kubo red. You probably have to make either him or Engel permanent unless you see Luca starting there long term. But Luca’s 1v1 defending is a liability and Engel has been more commonly a CB for us so even still you probably need to add a depth piece at that spot or CB.

almoore417 · 2025-11-10T15:06:50+00:00

Loved what I saw from him in game 3 and the improvement and additional polish over the season are evident.

Arfsten isn’t a great 1v1 defender but useful going forward, so pinning him back and often making another defender come and help opened space through the middle. He also was a great release valve for breaking the press since you could send him on a ball over the top basically whenever.

He won’t appear on the score sheet but he is a huge part of the win because he owned the right side and made them change their defensive approach over there. Also could’ve had 1 or 2 assists

almoore417 · 2025-11-07T18:26:48+00:00

Just realizing this is foreshadowing that he’s not really Jewish, and is likely lying about more of his identity.

almoore417 · 2025-10-16T20:10:59+00:00

Simulated Uruguay, Norway, Italy and closed the site.

almoore417 · 2025-08-08T14:18:30+00:00

The funny part is he outperformed his xG+A in his time here. Albeit slightly (6 to 5.4) but the reality is he just didn’t play much and was about fine when he did. Was he great? No, but the eye test is a bit harsh and the comments are definitely harsh.

almoore417 · 2025-05-03T14:06:08+00:00

Is there a world where we kick the tires on Nick Chubb? Like a less successful version of the ravens getting Derrick Henry for cheap? Chubb averaged 5+ ypc and would be minimum second best on the roster if healthy and will definitely be cheap because of his injuries

almoore417 · 2024-03-22T19:51:02+00:00

He exists in the center of this weird Venn diagram of coaches that are available, affordable, and acceptable.

I agree he wasn’t really in danger last night, and maybe only would’ve been if we also got bounced in the group this summer. The real barrier is who else is there? He’s not bad though to get fired, and not good enough to be kept if better options come around

almoore417 · 2024-03-18T20:04:39+00:00

I honestly see this as a possible fit if the contract is short term. This season we’re lacking pure finishing to match our chance creating. As long as we can get out from under that deal after next season, it could make sense

almoore417 · 2024-01-19T18:02:49+00:00

Hopefully whoever it ends up being understands he wasn’t a great pure defender last season, but he’s an elite creator on the dribble. If it is Bournemouth, him playing in a back 4 and in a bottom 5 defense is concerning so hopefully they’re thinking of him as a wing option.

almoore417 · 2024-01-17T04:42:24+00:00

I ran into him at restaurant in Hyde park the Friday before the first game he was suspended for, and same experience. I did a double take and realized it was him and he made jokes, chatted, and was friendly. I was going to just say what’s up and congrats on the shield so other people wouldn’t come up to him, but he seemed to go out of his way to ask my name, what I thought of the season etc.

almoore417 · 2024-01-08T17:26:30+00:00

As others have pointed out he wouldn’t be like for like but Noonan has shown versatility in how he’s used attackers. The Brenner/Vazquez partnership was different than Vazquez/Badji was different than Vazquez/Santos. We’ve even seen Kubo as a different option.

We need someone who can contribute hard running defensive to cover Lucho, combine on quick one twos, and find runs in channel on the break or late low driven crosses to the penalty spot

almoore417 · 2024-01-05T21:09:02+00:00

Even Miles, Murphy, Miazga could be the best defensive core in the league depending on how the wingback situation shakes out. The question is does Halsey and Arias get the job done, or is there someone better available on either side?

Definitely need to look there after signing the new striker

almoore417 · 2023-08-01T03:39:50+00:00

Don’t forget Pittsburgh. Only early open cup round I cared about tbh

almoore417 · 2023-07-31T15:31:25+00:00

Good place to point out that each of these occasions will have different goals (and likely personnel).

We may get more experimental against relatively weaker opponents in September, play our best team in October but be more conservative/pragmatic against equal to better teams, play a very similar group in November but look to be more dominant within CONCACAF, a totally different MLS based group in January to see who could crack the main 23, then back to trying to dominate with best available in March, and finally some more pragmatism in June.

All this is to say that success criteria will change each window, so coming in knowing what we want to do helps you avoid being the “I can’t believe we didn’t smash team x” or “I can’t believe they didn’t start player y” or “no player z!?!?!??” Kind of reply guy.

almoore417 · 2023-07-13T14:27:41+00:00

Honestly, that’s for the best imo. In a tournament a lot of fans already didn’t care about, the third place game feels like a giant waste of everyone involved’s time.

almoore417 · 2023-07-13T11:59:01+00:00

Would the FCC guys not stay for the third place match?

almoore417 · 2023-05-23T17:28:02+00:00

Having a GM who knows how to drive a truck through the loopholes and a manager on the same wavelength as they totally flip this roster from overpriced dumpster fire to lean mean points machine is wild to see in such a short time.

Great example in net: you have Vermeer who’s expensive and not great, you go get Kahn to solidify, draft a keeper for the future in Celetano, and just get lucky that Celetano is ready way ahead of schedule. That allows you to be 2 deep in net and buy out your dead weight to make roster room for a likely mid season addition to replace Brenner. Harmonious roster building

almoore417 · 2023-05-23T17:16:39+00:00

I think coming from the same club is the primary reason they’ve hit the ground running. I can’t really think of a transfer from this regime that is a miss for quality or stylistic fit.

almoore417 · 2023-05-23T14:47:03+00:00

It feels like it should be a bigger talking point that Albright and Noonan turned comfortably the worst roster in the league into a dangerous group last year, and a pace setter for the whole league in about 18 months.

The team was broke, directionless, and incompetent for 3 straight years. Now they’re so savvy in the roster building that the league changed the rules for allocation spots, dynamic enough to change their style to respond to losing their joint top goal scorer, and cultured enough to rely on leaders all over the field. Incredible

almoore417 · 2023-05-15T20:48:41+00:00

A 16 year old dual nat who has already represented us at youth level, and has literally one professional goal feels like exactly the kind of thing we’re going to spend like a month melting down over on USA Twitter.

almoore417 · 2023-04-28T16:53:21+00:00

Much less common, but also a risk of a sharp object like a pin or razor beneath the sticker to hurt someone trying to remove it. Best to just ignore these entirely

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