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February 18, 2025 15 mins
FC Cincinnati opens up its 2025 slate with a tilt Wednesday night against Motagua in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. The orange and blue will then come home to host the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night.

Head Coach Pat Noonan joined us from Honduras, on ESPN1530.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
A man who is at a very busy day, a
very busy last couple of weeks. His team is getting
set to play tomorrow against Matagua and Honduras and the
Conka CAF Champions Cup before coming home to play the
New York Red Bulls on Saturday night at TQL Stadium.
A man who's always kind enough to give us a
few minutes, even on a daylight today when he is
being pulled in a thousand different directions. The head coach

(00:21):
of FC Cincinnati, Pat Noon and Pat Mowagger and Cincinnati.
Good afternoon. I appreciate the time.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
How are you. I'm good, mo. It's been a while here,
It has been a while.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
So let me get this straight. Two press conferences today
and they make you talk to me.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I know this is the icing on the cake. I
appreciate uh, I appreciate your time as always. Well, I
appreciate you doing this.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
And you know we've we've been watching the preseason unfold
and we've even talked here about you know, you have
a little bit of a unique challenge where there's a
lot of stuff swirling around the team, and yet you've
got to get your guys ready to play. How would
you describe the last four or five weeks in preseason.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, it's part of the job. Unfortunately, I would say this,
you know, preseason was more challenging than most just with
the moving parts, you know, and obviously some of those
that have been you know, well documented and you know,
unfortunate in terms of what we're you know, trying to
accomplish and starting off the season you know, in a

(01:25):
strong way. So for me as a coach, it's how
do we get our staff and the players here in
the right frame of mind, day by data to get better.
And you know, while there might have been some absences,
it helps you get answers with maybe some players that
otherwise you wouldn't you know, see them in training or

(01:47):
in in some of these preseason games. So I've really
enjoyed the on field work. I've enjoyed the progress. You know.
It started off slow, just with I would say our
first two games and the performances, but the last two games,
especially on the attacking side, has been really promising for me.

(02:07):
And every year it starts like this, you don't, you
don't look your best, but with a group that has
a lot of returning pieces and guys that have been here.
You know that I've worked with and our staff has
worked with for years. Now, you know you can you
can get past some of those early struggles with high
expectations and with you know, the leadership we have to

(02:29):
help these new faces come in and understand, uh, what
we're trying to accomplish. So we put our head down
and try to move forward. And you know, I think
we have a group that's ready to step on the
field tomorrow and compete in a good way. But we're
also realistic. We know we have the ways to go
to hit our you know, our top form.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Let's let's talk about what's next in a second. As
you look back at just maybe the second half of
preseason training, what do you feel like your group did
accomplish well?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Fitness excuse me, fitness was much improved. You know, the
as the temperatures in Priest, you know, for some new faces,
I think that was challenging. You know, you got guys
like Lucas Engel who comes in and hasn't experienced you know,
heat or humidity like this, and so you know guys

(03:22):
will struggle in those ways. But our fitness improved. I
think if I look back at previous preseasons. We didn't
get as many guys to ninety minutes prior to our
first competitive game because we did this preseason. And then,
like I just said, I think the progress of some
of the attacking ideas that we've been working on, we

(03:43):
saw that come out in a lot of good ways
against the Union and against Atlanta. And you know, I
think defensively the guys were pretty strong all preseason, but
now that we got a little bit of both that
that certainly was something I was looking for to close
out the preseason and hopefully we see more of that tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Your club acquires Vander This is a massive transaction. This
is a terrific player. You have coached and been around
a lot of players of his ilk. What makes him.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Special his ability to find a game and create space
for himself and his teammates, his vision. You know, he
can score and assist at a very high level, and
so you know he's in the MVP discussions for a reason.
He can control the tempo of the game and make

(04:40):
plays that many can. And so he's only been with us,
you know, less than a week, and you can already
see it with him not really knowing his teammates outside
of maybe you know, starting to watch us as these
conversations began with the recruitment process. When you don't know
your teammates tendencies, times you see a lack of rhythm

(05:01):
or you see you know, more mistakes. It was almost
the opposite where when he's on the ball, the runs
that he's able to see of his teammates and the
way he can create separation and open up the game
and now we get attacking movements off of that creativity.

(05:21):
It's he's a special player and you know, it's not
about goals and assists. With every touch, he also knows
how to move the ball in ways where you know
his teammates can help us advance up the field. And
so in a short amount of time, you see a
very talented player. And I know we talk a lot
about the attacking side of the ball, as we should,

(05:43):
that's why he's here, but there's ways we want to,
you know, continue to push him to be engaged on
the defensive side of the ball because it's brought us
a lot of success. And when we have eleven guys
that know how to you know, press the ball, it's
only going to put him in better positions with more
space to make more plays.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
What's specific to the entire process of getting him to
come to Cincinnati, and then obviously there's integrating him into
what you're trying to accomplish here in the short term.
Walk me through your role in the entire process of
acquiring a player of this magnitude.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, Chris, go get this guy. That's how that worked. No,
it's if the name comes available. And and just like
any you know, potential addition, now you start weighing the
pros and the cons and and certainly the pros far
away the cons of does this make sense? You know,

(06:38):
you got the financials, you got you know, style of play,
all these things. The character. The character is a big
part of this and from our you know, meetings with him,
to how he rated in our data, to the ways
that we think he can improve in in our you know, uh,

(07:00):
in our club, on our team, with this the way
we play. It was exciting to think that very quickly,
knowing that you know, we might be losing an important piece,
we could be gaining a huge piece immediately after. And
and that's what we were able to do. So I
know Chris and his team worked diligently on on getting

(07:24):
this done and you know, we're excited. It's big again.
It speaks to the ambition of Carl and our ownership
group to compete for trophies, you know, the investment of
the vander the investment of Kevin Bankey. We want to
continue to be a top team in this league winning trophies,
and not just in the league, but in all of

(07:44):
our you know, cup competitions.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, cup competition tomorrow night CONKCAF Champions Cup. FC Cincinnati
take on taking on Matagua in Honduras. That's where Pat
Nouton is joining us right now. I think back to
this time last year, you played in Jamaica and then
you came home, and I think I think there was
one fewer day in between, but I remember that Sunday
afternoon for that opener against Toronto, and just and being

(08:09):
there and watching it. It felt like you, guys, like
maybe maybe all of that soccer in such a short
amount of time kind of caught up to you, guys,
and you weren't at your best in game one. Are
there lessons you're trying to apply from last year to
this year When you guys get back at home on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Of course you know, similar, similar conditions, similar schedule where
you know, I think this go around too, with you know, injuries,
with you know, pieces coming in, pieces going out. You know,
maybe we're a little behind where we were last year
going into this, into this tournament. But yeah, I know

(08:48):
we came out flat last year against Toronto and that
opener and even against d C the following home game.
We didn't score a goal, we didn't concede a goal,
but we had to to try to, you know, juggle
things with with minutes and knowing you know, with short
recovery at this stage of the season, guys aren't at

(09:09):
their peak in terms of fitness, so you have to
be very mindful of that and try to make changes
game by game where it's not drastic. You know, it's
not two eleven stepping out on the field one in
cup competition and one in league competition. It's finding ways
to change two or three pieces where you still find
consistency within the group and can go out and win games.

(09:32):
And knowing how to make those rotations to keep guys
fresh is important and so hopefully last year's experience can
help guide us a little bit this year, but we
have challenges that will you know, that will make that
I take a little bit more difficult going into this
Red Bull game. And then you know, after the second

(09:53):
leg against the tog let home going, you know, on
the road to Philly. So you've kind of mapped out
plan for the first four games, but the reality of
things change, and hopefully they don't change too much. But
you got to win games, and you've got to be
able to make adjustments after each game. And you know,
I think we're prepared for that one or two more.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
I know you're busy. Hopefully no more press obligations today.
Obviously the season is starting this week, so is the
premiere of On Side on Apple TV. Walk us through
your your part in that, how intrusive it was, whether
you got used to all the cameras being around, what
was that like?

Speaker 2 (10:33):
They was certainly unfamiliar territory, I think for myself, for
a lot of staff members, even the players, Yeah, on
charged territory and at times uncomfortable. And I give credit
to you know, the Box to Box crew. You know,
johnny's Wick was was kind of the lead guy, and

(10:55):
I want to give him a shout out because he
was excellent. He was really fun to work with. And
tried to be as you know, in the shadows as possible,
you know, with the cameras, with the microphones. But I
think we got more and more comfortable as the days
went on. But that's that's hasn't been a part of

(11:17):
you know, our working environment. And look, we're trying to
grow the brand in the game and specifically I've c Cincinnati,
So hopefully it shines a good light on our club.
I think it will. It certainly helps that we won
that game in the you know, in that rivalry week
heading into that Columbus game. But despite the the maybe

(11:41):
being uncomfortable at times, I think that all the staff
and the players did a good job of remaining focused
at the right time and and trying to be natural
and in their environment to to prepare for for Columbus.
So if it happens again, we're we're going to be
you know, better equipped to handle it. But it was

(12:03):
it was certainly new, and uh, depending on who you ask,
I think there's some guys would probably say I'd like
to not have to do that again, and some that
might say I don't mind the camera that much, I
don't mind the microphone.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
What's Honduras like.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
It is temperature wise pretty good, similar to leave in
clear Water. I think we'll have even better conditions tomorrow.
The field was in good shape. I love these uh
these games. I love the unique environment that a lot
of players aren't accustomed to and the experience you get

(12:39):
from you know, stepping on the field and playing a
you know, relatively unfamiliar opponents. Now, our job in the
lead up is to make sure they understand all aspects
of what the game can look like, from the on
field tactical approach to you know, officiating, to the you know,
the away crowd, all of it. You have to be

(13:01):
able to manage these things and be prepared for them.
So Honduras has welcomed us in a in a very
good way, and we're excited to you know, finally compete
in a meaningful game tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
See you go to Honduras and you work, and you
give me a real serious response, And I think of
Honduras all I think of our cigars. So that's why
we're wired differently.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Coach. There are there are cigars. I did notice that
in the UH, you know, in and around the lobby,
UH and outside there is no shortage of cigars. I'm
not a cigar guy, but I don't mind the smell.
So there you go. Is that your thing? You like cigars?

Speaker 1 (13:40):
I do, yeah. So if you want to bring me
back a box of har Duran cars, I won't say no.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
We'll look to We'll look to bring you back a gift. Hopefully.
I don't forget with our duties to go play a
soccer game, but if anybody's listening, they're gonna be uh
gonna be bringing you back some gifts.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
There you go. I'll I'll take it most importantly, get
a win and come back home and get three points
on Saturday night again. I know today's a busy day.
I can't thank you enough for the time. We love
having you on and hopefully we could do it again soon.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Thanks so much, of course. Thanks Moe pat Noonan.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Head coach FC Cincinnati. They will play tomorrow night KUNKACAFF
Champions Cup against Matagua that is going to air on
Fox Sports thirteen sixty, and then the Orange and Blue
coming home to play the New York Red Bulls on
Saturday night at home. I believe both those matches are
on Fox Sports. In fact, I know tomorrow night's on
Fox Sports thirteen sixty, and I'm almost certain that Saturdays

(14:34):
is as well. We are way late twenty four from
four o'clock sports headlines coming up ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati
Sports station Cincy three sixty with Tony Pike. If we
want to move on for doctor Keith Gordon and Boston Elmore.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
I think you should continue. Let me keep going there
Cincy three sixty Tomorrow, which twelve noons on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
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