GM Chris Albright sheds light on future for FC Cincinnati
Damon Gumbert
“Oh we still have a lot of work to do,” Chris Albright said in his off-season press conference. He was talking about adding player in the winter, but the same could be said about the team in general after this season’s disappointing end.
The team suffered a lot of set backs this season, from injuries to Matt Miazga, Nick Hagglund, and Luciano Acosta to suspensions and the eventual termination of Aaron Boupendza’s contract. Cincinnati fans were on a roller coaster of emotions throughout the season, culminating in a gut wrenching loss to New York City FC in the first round of the MLS Playoffs after penalty kicks.
A day after FC Cincinnati was bounced from the playoffs reports began to surface that Albright and his team were close to terms with Togolese striker Kevin Denkey on a league record transfer deal from Cercle Brugge in Belgium. A few days later the contract was signed and The FC have, seemingly, found their replacement of Boupendza, and to some extent Brenner before him.
We Need To Talk About Lucho
Even with that signing, FC Cincinnati has a lot of questions going into free agency and the upcoming winter transfer window. Former MLS MVP Luciano Acosta made comments after the club’s early exit from the playoffs about his time in Cincinnati possibly coming to an end. He has stoked speculation of his coming departure by mentioning how much he wants to play for his boyhood club, Boca Juniors, even traveling to Argentina to watch a match.
“Lucho had a difficult year in some ways,” Albright said. “Outside of the incredible production, some injuries and things that he’s spoken about. We’ve continued to support him, like we do all of our players, on and off the field and we’ll continue to do that. As far as his future with FC Cincinnati; Those conversations are still ongoing.”
He elaborated, “We want to obviously do what’s best for us but also make sure that he and his family are in a good place and comfortable.”
Many people, including MLS commentator Taylor Twellman, questioned the remarks Acosta made and whether they had an impact on his relationship with his teammates and his captaincy of the team. “We have a really strong group, really strong personalities, strong character throughout our coaching staff… We feel pretty comfortable that we’ll be able to absorb this should Lucho be with us next year.”
Everybody Has A Plan (But Especially Chris)
Lucho wasn’t the only Argentinian that Albright was asked about. On Monday, the club announced their end of year roster decisions and two things stood out to most people, Alvaro Barreal, who has been on loan with Cruzeiro Esporte Clube in Brazil, had his club option exercised while Yamil Asad did not.
Many people were wondering if picking up Barreal’s club option was a strategic financial move or if there was a possible reunion in the future. “Nothing’s out of the question,” Albright said when asked about Barreal’s future with FC Cincinnati. “If we’re looking to sell a player we have to retain his rights, so to speak. We are still in conversations with Cruzerio, even though their deadline has passed, about a permanent transfer… As far as him playing for FC Cincinnati; You can’t take it off the table, probably more unlikely than not.” When asked for clarification on whether Cruzerio had declined the purchase option or it had expired, Albright clarified, “Their deadline passed to trigger the option. Everything after that is sort of a new negotiation.”
Barreal has amounted to very little in his 2024 campaign with Cruzerio. The winger has only managed to score two goals and notch four assists in just shy of 1500 minutes in 28 matches with 17 starts. His replacement on FC Cincinnati, Luca Orellano, started 30 of his 33 matches, surpassing 2900 minutes and finishing with 11 goals and seven assists.
When The Post Cincy asked Albright about the decision to not pick up Yamil Asad’s option but remain in negotiations with him on a return, the GM displayed some of the salary cap wizardry that he has become known for in the fan base. “Just trying to be creative with the salary cap,” Albright said. “Yamil is a player we want back, he is a person we want back…Effectively the option was going to put him on the senior roster and he would count against the salary cap and so we’re trying to be creative and keep him on the supplemental roster.”
Asad joined the club in March of 2024, making his first appearance for the senior team in June. His minutes were low at first, but during and following the Leagues Cup break, Asad found his way onto the regular starting squad at left wingback. The Argentinian ended the season with four goals and five assists, outscoring forwards Corey Baird, Sergio Santos, and Boupendza.
The Return of the Defenders
One thing that has come into focus since the club announced their end of year roster decisions has been the excess of centerbacks. What once was deemed a problem in the middle of the season has now become a different kind of issue. With Miazga returning from injury and the seemingly innevitable return of Nick Hagglund from injury and free agency, the club will have six centerbacks signed to the roster: Miazga, Hagglund, Miles Robinson (who had his contract option exercised), Ian Murphy, Teenage Hadebe, and Chidozie Awaziem.
“I think the good teams have starters on their bench,” Albright explained when asked about the logjam at centerback. “(We) challenged the coaching staff, which they’ve taken the challenge, of it’s okay to have a senior guy on your bench that you’re going to have to manage, but you want to look down the bench and have a starting quality player, opposed to one that’s not.”
When asked by The Post Cincy about whether any centerbacks could or would try out at a different position Albright said, “Alvas (Powell) is a wingback who has played centerback for us, DeAndre (Yedlin) I would say is a wingback that has played centerback for us, I think the other players there are centerbacks.”
“There’s less flexibility there.”
Cirque Du Cincinnati
When it comes to flexibility, Yuya Kubo and Luca Orellano have it in spades. Both players started at wingback, striker, and in the midfield at various points in 2024. When it comes to Orellano and where he slots in on the pitch Alrbight said, “It speaks to the type of kid he is that he embraced playing as a wingback…I think Pat (Noonan)’s preference would be having him further up the field, as a forward or as a second 10 (attacking midfielder). That’s the beauty of his qualities.”
The Post Cincy asked Albright about how hard it is to fill positions of need when you have players with such flexibility and could fit in anywhere on the pitch. He said, “We spent a lot of the last few weeks as a staff…trying to have soccer art conversations really around what we want to look like, informed by the coaches, all in the same room, because the scouts need to have an idea on where we focus our data, where we focus our eye.”
“What I would say, the players referenced give you more flexibility.”
Too Many Games!
In late November, Ernst Tanner, GM of the Philadelphia Union, was doing his end of the year presser and mentioned the congested schedule that MLS teams have been facing over the last few years. MLS took action on this when they limited the amount of teams participating in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, a decision that was not well received by MLS and FC Cincinnati fans. Some teams, like FC Cincinnati, have to factor in the CONCACAF Champions Cup to their schedule as well.
Tanner was speaking to Jose Roberto Nunez about the ideal roster size with such a demanding schedule when Tanner stated, “But in recent seasons where we had less tournaments, and by the way, this will be the case in this season as well because we all know we don’t play in the Champions Cup, but we are also out of the Leagues Cup.”
This was the first anyone outside of MLS had heard anything about being able to potentially opt out of the League’s Cup. When The Post Cincy asked Albright about this development, Albright said, “Ernst spilled the beans? I’m going to remain quiet on that. I won’t take the bait.”
What that means for the future of the Leagues Cup, and a possible switch to a winter schedule for MLS, is yet to be decided. In the past FC Cincinnati has stated that they want to win as many trophies as they can, so seeing them opt out of a cup would be shocking to say the least.
