It wasn’t hard for FC Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan to explain away a rare one-goal loss on Sunday against New York City FC.

“We just put ourselves in too many difficult spots and (our) composure with the ball was poor,” he said after the 1-0 setback. “So it’s hard to have any rhythm in the game when you don’t do those things well.”

Cincinnati will attempt to make those corrections and get back in the win column Saturday night when Austin FC comes to town.

Cincinnati (7-3-1, 22 points) enters the fixture third in the Eastern Conference despite having a five-match winning streak snapped in New York. It could have salvaged a tie but a stoppage-time goal in the first half was nullified by an offside flag.

Noonan said his team has discussed the improvements they need to make from Sunday’s match.

“What do we need to do better? Our group understands some of the areas that we have to improve if we want to continue to move in the right direction and perform better,” he said.

Austin (5-5-1, 16 points) has weaknesses to improve, too. The sixth-place side in the West is coming off a punchless 3-0 home loss on May 3 to Minnesota. The Verde and Black have managed only seven goals this year, second-worst in the league. Only Montreal has scored fewer goals.

Austin did find its offense Wednesday night in a U.S. Open Cup match at home, scoring three late goals in a seven-minute span to beat El Paso Locomotive FC 3-2.

“This gives us a ton of confidence,” said forward Brandon Vazquez, who contributed a brace to the late rally. “We just need to keep this going.”

Vazquez and Myrto Uzuni — whom, according to online reports, the club shelled out more than $22 million in transfer fees for so as to beef up the attack — have combined for just three goals in 11 MLS matches.

Vazquez played for Cincinnati in 2020-23 and was quite productive, scoring 32 goals and helping it win the 2023 Supporters’ Shield.

–Field Level Media