PHILADELPHIA – The feared 10-match stretch fraught with last year's MLS Cup contenders that FC Cincinnati faced to start 2019 has ended.

The road forward isn't getting any easier.

The Orange and Blue went 2-6-2 during the stretch of schedule that included nine teams that qualified for the playoffs in 2018, and it's clear how wide the chasm is between Cincinnati and the league's best.

Chief among the best are Philadelphia Union, which swept the season series from Cincinnati, and Western Conference behemoths Seattle Sounders FC and Los Angeles Football Club, which combined to beat FCC, 6-1.

Game No. 11 doesn't necessarily see FC Cincinnati face a dropoff in quality as the club travels to San Jose Earthquakes, a resurgent team that's lost just once in its last five matches.

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The timing is bad for Cincinnati, but that's been the case for a while as FCC's lost four in a row and five out of six.

The pressure is mounting and FC Cincinnati is facing a match where it needs a result – period. Here are three keys to the match for FCC ahead of the San Jose tilt:

• Listen to the outside noise and let it motivate you. There's talk of FC Cincinnati's players not being good enough and head coach Alan Koch being on the ropes in terms his job security. Normally, the healthy thing for a team under siege would be to block all that noise out. But just this once, maybe they should let the noise in. For one thing, nothing else is working, so you might as well change up certain aspects of the approach. And maybe that's kind of noise is what the players need to hear right now. They're all frustrated and angry, and maybe there'd be some benefit to cracking the door open to the team's dressing room and listening to the yelling outside.

• The offense isn't working, but stick with what's closest to working. That would mean continuing on with Darren Mattocks up top. Mattocks has been painfully close to multiple goals during the team's current rough patch. It simply has to come for him sooner rather than later, plus his work rate is an asset. Mattocks and Allen Cruz up top together wasn't an altogether bad look for FC Cincinnati. The performance against Philadelphia was as convincing as any FC Cincinnati's had since it last won. I'd keep the core pieces intact for San Jose.

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• In the same vein, just stick with Spencer Richey. Przemyslaw Tytoń is a freakish athlete and can contribute at some point, but the more continuity the better for FC Cincinnati right now. And is there anything else Richey needs to show or prove after the wild saves he made against the Union? He made a career-high six steps (and more – a couple were called for offside even though the players didn't react to the stoppage in play) and most of them were absolute stunners. The Philadelphia game plan went sideways, but it wasn't altogether a trainwreck.

PREDICTION: San Jose 3, FC Cincinnati 1. The goalless drought ends because, well, it has to eventually, and FC Cincinnati will play with the desperation demanded of their current situation, but they won't hang with San Jose for more than 60 minutes. The Earthquakes will pour it on thick in the end.