PHOTOS: FC Cincinnati players meet with media before heading to spring training

Pat Brennan | Cincinnati Enquirer

The same phrase was uttered innumerable times by FC Cincinnati players, both new and old.

"No excuses."

Those two words encapsulated and defined the general spirit of the club as it gathered formally on Saturday at the Mercy Health Training Center for the first time in 2020.

The club departed Sunday for the first leg of its preseason, an 18-day stay in Tucson, Arizona. Training commences Monday, and so begins FC Cincinnati's second Major League Soccer campaign.

Seven new players will be in-tow for the new look Orange and Blue. It's almost a certainty the club will add more in the coming days and weeks.

The team also broke in its brand new training facility in Milford for the first time after using temporary facilities last year that have since been knocked down.

Albert Cesare / The Enquirer

All these factors combined with what many players described as a restful offseason led many to conclude FC Cincinnati is in for a better season than its inaugural tour through MLS.

“We cannot have any excuses anymore. Everything is top level, so we can’t say ‘we don’t have this, we don’t have that.’ Everything is here," midfielder Haris Medunjanin said of the training center. "The pitches are great. It’s now up to us to show on the field.

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"I think everybody needs to be humble right now because last year there was not a lot of success over here so nobody can say, like, he’s was the best guy and this. Everybody is at zero, so we can only improve. That’s the thing for me here. Everybody starts from zero, you know? And everybody can improve themselves."

FC Cincinnati carries with it into 2020 the weight taken on during a tumultuous 2019 season on the field.

Three head coaches and 22 losses defined the campaign.

"It's tough. You go through that first year being somewhat of a lab rat. This whole club and this organization, from the get-go, is an ongoing process of becoming a big club," veteran defender Greg Garza said. "I do believe that it still has a lot of stepping stones to get through... but hopefully we can try to skip a couple of years in that process with how things look from the get-go (now).

The task of erasing the 2019 season and restoring confidence in the fan base has already started.

Deviating slightly from its so-called "three-year plan" of ramping up player investment going into the 2021 season, the first in the West End Stadium, Cincinnati made noticeable acquisitions and has pursued big players this offseason.

Medunjanin's acquisition was met with excitement around the club.

Head coach Ron Jans has said 21-year-old forward Brandon Vazquez could surprise pundits this season.

Yuya Kubo, the first Japanese designated player in MLS history, projects as an offensive-minded midfielder and winger with a nose for goal.

Friday's announcement that the club had waived forward Fanendo Adi was viewed by many as an addition to the club via subtraction, so to speak.

The decision to end negotiations with fan-favorite goal-scorer Emmanuel Ledesma also signaled the club's brass isn't beholden to nostalgia.

Defensive reinforcements have arrived in numbers for a team that conceded the most goals in MLS history last year.

And Cincinnati isn't done tweaking the roster yet.

A certain caliber of player, like Gaston Pereiro of PSV Eindhoven, wasn't expected to be in FCC's sight-lines until 2021, but the club wants to win now and has taken steps to pursue Gaston and others of his ilk.