Soccer Tejas
Each month, the MLS communications department will conduct an interview with league figures and provide the transcript to the media. This month’s subject of the “Hablando Con” series is FC Cincinnati midfielder Luciano Acosta. The following is that interview, courtesy of MLS Communications.
A frontrunner for the Landon Donovan MLS MVP Award, FC Cincinnati’s Argentine midfielder Luciano “Lucho” Acosta has been an instrumental player on Pat Noonan’s attacking front this season and helped guide the club to its first Supporters’ Shield in club history.
Acosta began his professional career in 2014 at the age of 19 playing for Boca Juniors in Argentina and later joined Club Estudiantes de la Plata in the same country. Following his tenure in Argentina, Acosta arrived in Major League Soccer by signing as a Designated Player with D.C. United in 2016. The crafty midfielder spent four seasons with the club, accumulating 24 goals and 35 assists in 126 matches and earning MLS Best XI honors in 2018.
Following his time with D.C. United, Acosta joined LIGA MX club Atlas for a single season before returning to MLS at the beginning of the 2021 season. FC Cincinnati acquired the Argentine as a Designated Player, and since that moment, Acosta has blossomed into one of the most important players in the club’s history. Across three seasons in Cincinnati, the midfielder has recorded 33 goals and 42 assists, and he is one of only two players with at least 75 goal contributions over the span, joining 2022 MLS MVP Hany Mukhtar. Acosta was named to the MLS Best XI in 2022 and has been selected to two consecutive MLS All-Star Games in 2022 and 2023, including being named captain of the MLS team in the latter.
While Acosta and FC Cincinnati prepare to host their first postseason match in the Audi 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs at TQL Stadium with their opponent yet to be determined, the club is already preparing for the final game of the regular season as it hosts Atlanta United on Saturday, October 21 on Decision Day (7:30 p.m. ET, MLS Season Pass).
Q&A with FC Cincinnati captain Luciano Acosta
1 – What does it mean to be part of the biggest moment in FC Cincinnati’s history with the club winning the Supporters’ Shield?
“It’s very good. I’m very proud to be part of this story. I think it was one of the reasons I came to the club. I made the decision to come here to make history for this club and I think we are doing it.”
2 – When did you feel that this team would be able to win the Supporters’ Shield?
“I think Brandon [Vázquez] mentioned it last year in an interview that we started to see things from this team that we could accomplish together. This year, we set out, as a team, as a group to achieve everything and we are going for that. We have taken the first step by meeting our first objective and we have to go for more.”
3 – Cincinnati has already won the Supporters’ Shield. On a personal level, this has been a fantastic year for you. Do you aspire to win both the Golden Boot and the MVP awards?
“What I first think about are group goals. Individually, if it happens that I do get an award, it’s all thanks to my teammates, the team, and what the whole team is doing. If there is individual recognition, let it be any so long as I can help the team meet the objectives.”
4 – How do you feel that head coach Pat Noonan has motivated the team game after game to play at such a high level?
“I think Pat is a great coach. The motivation is in communication and in how open he is to listen to us, to give his opinion on many things, and I think the biggest motivation for a coach is to arrive and want to make history at a club. With this being his first time as a head coach and achieving all that, it speaks very well of him and to how he is as a person and as a coach.”
5 – With the Supporters’ Shield already secured, how is the club preparing for Playoffs?
“First of all, we finished this season winning most of our games at home. That’s very important in the playoffs. Now that it’s our turn at home, we have to play it as we have been doing all season, with the same calmness, and the same humility of the whole year and knowing that we can achieve many things.”
6 – Why do you think you have managed to score so many goals this year? Was it the product of personal effort, or does the team play in a specific way that allows the 10 to be in position to score so much?
“Well, I don’t know if I set out at the beginning of the year to be the team’s top scorer. It wasn’t in my head. I’m more of an assister, but today it’s time to play a more goalscoring role, to be there, to get to the box, and to score goals. It is also part of football. When others are scoring, it is that person’s turn, or when one is not, it is someone else’s turn. The other day, it was Brandon’s [Vásquez] turn to score two goals. The truth is that we are achieving things, and the individual effort is a result of the group work. I think we’re doing a great job as a team and we’re making that noticeable.”
7 – What attracted you the most to Cincinnati when you made the decision to come back to MLS?
“The first wake-up call was to arrive at a new club, to be able to start from the bottom and grow in the club. They have done it in three years. The club has much more room to grow, and it was one of the motivations that made me get here. The fans as well. I think that was also one of the motivations – to see how fans came to the stadium, a new stadium that was going to open. I think it’s a set of things that made me decide on this city and this club, and I am also very happy to be part of this club.”
8 – In your second season, you were named captain, what were your feelings and as captain, how have you felt that you’ve grown in leadership?
“When I arrived, Jaap [Stam, former coach of FC Cincinnati] gave me the responsibility of being the captain. The truth is that I thanked him very much. At first, I had doubts about what I had to do or how to talk and all these things that captains do. It was a pressure that I did not know much about. It was my first time, but then I began to understand the role more, to understand the teammates more, to know how to act, and how I was going to present myself. I think that’s the same way the team grew. Even as a captain, I’m also learning things and growing. I’ve also had great captains in my career and I’m always trying to remember the advice they gave me.
“I’m going to say it many times about Wayne Rooney. He is one of those who I have identified the most with as a captain and as a person. An excellent person.”
9 – You are not the only Argentine in Cincinnati. How has your relationship with Álvaro Barreal been on and off the field?
“Within the field, we have a chemistry that we use to achieve many things. He is a great player and always helps us a lot, both when defending and attacking. I don’t have many words to say because we make it look on the field like how we get along and how our relationship is.
“Outside, well, everyone also has their life. I have my children that I have to do things with them. He does not have children, but we also try to get together to do things with the whole group of Latinos, who have different cultures, but they are similar. We try to enjoy and have a good time every day, inside the locker room, outside the locker room, outside the house, eating out, having some barbecues, and having a lot of fun.”
10 – The Cincinnati fans have been a big factor in the success of the team this season. What message would you give to those fans who have supported you unconditionally ahead of the playoffs?
“I always said, from the moment we were suffering with the team, they were always there, always supporting and that’s a huge thing. I think the only words you can say to those fans are thank you. I mean, all this that we’re achieving, they’re part of this. They deserve it and enjoy it.”
11 – Why do you think so many number 10s in MLS score so many goals and compete with center forwards across MLS for the Golden Boot presented by Audi, the league’s top-scoring honor?
“I understand the game, how the ten plays, and how to approach the box, and the defenders sometimes deal more with the number nine than the number ten. They leave us a little free and we get chances to score goals.”
