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It could have been â maybe should have been â a train wreck.
Pat Noonan had never been a head coach at any level when he was asked to take over a woeful, dysfunctional FC Cincinnati team that had never finished anywhere but last in the MLS standings. The franchise needed a miracle worker, and it hired an apprentice.
Turns out Noonan was a little of both, though, because if his resumĂŠ was lacking, it was hardly thin.
He had been an assistant and player under three of the most successful managers in American soccer history, having worked with Bruce Arena with the Galaxy and the U.S. national team and with Jim Curtin in Philadelphia.
In Columbus and Seattle, he played under Sigi Schmid, the second-winningest coach in league history. Just once in 17 seasons had he played or coached for a losing team in MLS.
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Noonan had never known losing, Cincinnati had never won. Something was going to change.
Less than two seasons into his new job, it has. Not only has Noonan avoided a train wreck in Cincinnati, but he has also put the team on the right track â reaching the postseason for the first time last season, then running away with the Supportersâ Shield this season.
Heading into the regular-season finale Saturday with Atlanta, Noonanâs team has a chance at finishing with the third-best point total in league history while becoming the sixth team in the modern era to win 21 games. Cincinnati won 14 games combined in its first three MLS seasons.
Noonan feigns surprise at the turnabout while crediting others for his teamâs accomplishments.
âIt would be false for me to say I expected us to be in the position weâre in,â he said. âBeing on a job a little over a year and half, your ego tells you youâre going to have success. You get the right people, you get the right players, you use your experiences in the league and youâre going to figure out how to win.â
It was general manager Chris Albright who jump-started the turnaround, joining the franchise 10 weeks before Noonan and making 24 personnel moves in his first 10 months. Among the players he added were U.S. international Matt Miazga and former Premier League defender Yerson Mosquera, who have helped transform the worst defense in MLS â Cincinnati allowed more than two goals a game, a league record, through its first three seasons â into one of the best.
Albright was rewarded with a long-term contract extension last week. Noonan got his Tuesday.
FC Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan, right, speaks with defender Nick Hagglund during a match against Vancouver in July 2022.
(Jeff Dean / Associated Press)
âHe has an idea, he has an approach. Heâs very good at understanding how he wants his team to play.â
— Dominic Kinnear, FC Cincinnati assistant coach, on Pat Noonan
Next, Noonan convinced Kenny Arena and Dominic Kinnear to join his staff as assistants. Noonan had long histories with Arena and Albright, having served on the same coaching staff as Arena with the Galaxy and the national team and playing for the U.S. alongside Albright, a former Galaxy defender who was the technical director when Noonan was an assistant in Philadelphia.
âWhat was important early on was having somebody that I knew, worked with and trusted and really respected,â Noonan said of his holistic hiring procedure, one in which he said he focused on âthe tactical, the philosophical and the human being.â
Add Kinnear, at 56 the most experienced member of the staff, and all four have been winners, combining for nine MLS Cups, six Supportersâ Shields and three U.S. Open Cup titles. The way they continued that success in Cincinnati â humbly and by relying on one another â should become a blueprint for every other club in the league.
âThatâs obviously been a huge part of our success, our staff being able to work well together,â said Kenny Arena, 42, who spent four seasons coaching under Bob Bradley at LAFC after coaching under his father with the Galaxy and USMNT. âEvery day I worry that I might not win, which helps motivate me to do my job. Every game, every day I worry about not having success.
Bruce Arena, who once led the Galaxy to three MLS Cup wins, resigned as New England coach after an MLS investigation found he made insensitive remarks.
âI donât like people that think theyâre the smartest person in the room. I donât like people who boast.â
That chemistry and the culture it has created didnât just remedy a toxic situation in Cincinnati, it also made the team the best in the league this season.
âWhen you boil it down, players want to play for and win for Pat and Dom Kinnear and Kenny Arena and Chris Albright,â said Pat Brennan, who has covered the team for the Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati.com since its USL debut in 2015. âTheyâve fostered probably the healthiest environment Iâve ever seen in high-level sports. Guys get rewarded for things like development and commitment to the club.
âItâs easy to want to win for the people that placed value on those attributes. Especially for the players that saw what it was like before.â
One of those players is Brandon VĂĄzquez, who struggled under the previous coaching staff but scored 18 times last season under the new one, earning a call-up to the national team. This winter, after returning from his first appearance for the U.S., he gifted his kit to Kinnear to thank him for the extra work the coach had put in.
It was a fitting tribute since nobody embodies the staffâs selfless spirit better than Kinnear, who won two MLS Cups and 170 games as a head coach but is content to work as an assistant under Noonan, 13 years his junior.
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âHeâs a great delegator of his staff,â Kinnear said. âEverybody knows what they need to do for him, but everybody knows that heâs the man in charge. He has an idea, he has an approach. Heâs very good at understanding how he wants his team to play.â
Whether this yearâs Supportersâ Shield proves to be the first of many prizes for Cincinnati or the high point of Noonanâs tenure remains to be seen. The MLS salary structure is built to encourage parity, which makes it easy to finish first once, but extremely difficult to do it again.
âThe foundation is good. The only thing with longevity is just, can the team stay together?â said Kinnear, the only manager other than Bruce Arena to win consecutive MLS Cups. âBut itâs not a flash in the pan because flash in the pan means one season. Last year was not a mistake.
âWho knows how weâll go from here. Anything can happen in the playoffs. But I donât think a lot of teams want to come to our place and play us.â
â˝ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this weekâs episode of the Corner of the Galaxy podcast.
