{"id":373,"date":"2016-09-11T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T14:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2016-09-10T23:51:19","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T03:51:19","slug":"john-harkes-looking-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2016\/09\/11\/john-harkes-looking-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"John Harkes Looking Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Editorial)<\/strong> – Former France international\u00a0striker and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry<\/strong> once said, “sometimes in football you have to score goals.”<\/em> -[Clock End].<\/a>\u00a0FC Cincinnati<\/strong> head coach and\u00a0National Soccer Hall of Fame\u00a0<\/strong>inductee\u00a0John Harkes<\/strong>\u00a0clearly\u00a0agrees. The upstart USL<\/strong> club, who is\u00a0currently\u00a0siting 3rd in USL’s\u00a0Eastern Conference<\/strong>, has\u00a0gone to\u00a0the transfer market to secure more\u00a0offensive firepower.<\/p>\n

John Harkes Looking Forward<\/h2>\n

This\u00a0Thursday, September 8th, FC Cincinnati<\/strong> announced the signing of striker\u00a0Casey Townsend<\/strong> from\u00a0Wilmington Hammerheads FC<\/strong>.\u00a0Townsend<\/strong>\u00a0comes with MLS credentials, having been the fifth overall pick in the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. The Traverse City, Michigan native made\u00a029 appearances for Chivas USA<\/strong> and DC United<\/strong>\u00a0before heading to the lower levels\u00a0of U.S. soccer, plying his trade with 4 different clubs in the USL and NASL.\u00a0In an interesting twist of fate, FC Cincinnati<\/strong> will face the Wilmington Hammerheads<\/strong> this Sunday in North Carolina. As part of the transfer agreement,\u00a0Townsend<\/strong> will not be permitted to play in the\u00a0game.<\/p>\n

It may come as a surprise to those who have followed this\u00a0USL<\/strong> season that FC Cincinnati<\/strong> needs\u00a0attacking\u00a0reinforcements. Sean Okoli<\/strong> is the 2nd leading goalscorer in the league\u00a0with 14 goals this\u00a0season, and is still\u00a0in the hunt for the\u00a0USL’s\u00a0Golden Boot. Further, the Ohio club\u00a0is 7th of 29 teams in goals scored. They also rank 3rd in the Eastern Conference<\/strong> in shots on target. So why the need for more offense?<\/p>\n

One explanation originates from\u00a0the August 24th\u00a0knee injury sustained by veteran striker Omar Cummings<\/strong>. The former Jamaican international and\u00a0MLS<\/strong> standout has been\u00a0a pivotal component of Harkes<\/strong>‘ offense\u00a0this season, featuring on the right side of an\u00a0attacking front three. He has contributed goals and was the team’s\u00a0assist leader (tied) when the\u00a0injury occurred. The club won’t put a timeline on his\u00a0return, but it seems\u00a0unlikely he will suit up for the Orange and Blue again this season.<\/p>\n

A second explanation for this transfer business\u00a0is a recent dip in offensive productivity, which started before the Cummings loss. Over a four game stretch in the month of August, the team averaged a paltry\u00a02.75 shots on target\u00a0per game, less than half of their average over the course of the season. They lost two games and drew two more over that four game stretch. They also lost pace with Eastern Conference leaders New York Red Bulls II<\/strong> and Louisville City FC <\/strong>as a result.<\/p>\n

The final\u00a0explanation\u00a0for this\u00a0dip into the market can be found in the footballing\u00a0philosophy of Harkes<\/strong> himself and the club he is managing. From the day the club was formed he and General Manager Jeff Berding<\/strong>\u00a0have put an emphasis on selling FC Cincinnati<\/strong> as a club that plays an attractive attacking brand of soccer. Prior to the season’s start, Jeff Berding<\/strong> commented in an interview “we want a brand that is very exciting, very energetic, …\u00a0and\u00a0gives ourselves lots of opportunities on the attack. We’re not just looking to be fortified at the back, being hopeful we can win a game 1-0.\u00a0We\u2019re introducing professional soccer at the highest level. We\u2019re looking to create fans.”<\/em>\u00a0– [Cincinnati Soccer Talk]<\/a><\/p>\n

FC Cincinnati<\/b> is looking forward to the playoffs, and they secured their bid to the postseason two weeks ago. Time will tell how the first year club will fare, but\u00a0Harkes<\/strong>\u00a0and the front office are making proactive moves to ensure they have goals in their game and\u00a0lock up\u00a0a seed with\u00a0home field advantage benefits.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Photo Credit: Orange and Blue Press.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Editorial) – Former France international\u00a0striker and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry once said, “sometimes in football you have to score goals.” -[Clock End].\u00a0FC Cincinnati head coach and\u00a0National Soccer Hall of Fame\u00a0inductee\u00a0John Harkes\u00a0clearly\u00a0agrees. The upstart USL club, who is\u00a0currently\u00a0siting 3rd in USL’s\u00a0Eastern Conference, has\u00a0gone to\u00a0the transfer market to secure more\u00a0offensive firepower. John Harkes Looking Forward This\u00a0Thursday, September […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1653,"featured_media":480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,26],"tags":[232,113,249,192,251,188,250],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-usl","tag-casey-townsend","tag-fc-cincinnati","tag-jeff-berding","tag-john-harkes","tag-omar-cummings","tag-sean-okoli","tag-wilmington-hammerheads-fc"],"modified_by":"Matt Pollard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}