FC Cincinnati suffered its first loss of the season following a 5-1 drubbing by home side St. Louis CITY SC.
While the match doesn’t look good on paper, the statistics show that the side didn’t play as badly as advertised. It was still a drubbing, but the scoreline should not have been as bad as it was.
city didn't create five goals worth of shots but FCC really didn't do much outside of the one tap-in. Need Lucho (and Brenner) back ASAP. pic.twitter.com/WZ2FarKqLm
— Nate (@nrgilman) April 16, 2023
As the above statistics show, FCC created the same amount of xG as the opposition, who scored five goals on the night. FCC was not without looks at goal on the night, however, as the stats show, one chance catapulted the xG, with that being the one the side scored.
But that is not the xG of a side that scored five goals off of chance creation alone. Two set-piece goals and an own-goal off the head of Roman Celentano do not lead to a match that feels like a domination, and the feeling during the match reflected that.
The match started exactly how CITY would have scripted it, with a goal following a free kick. FCC failed to adequately clear the ball following the attempt and Jared Stroud, new FCC fan favorite, obviously no sarcasm there, scored the opener.
This very early goal played right into the CITY hands, as this allowed the side to play how it wanted and not have to chase a goal. And FCC, without two of its three big attacking options was not equipped to be in a shootout.
Following the goal, FCC did look to get into the match, with a couple of attempts looking decent enough and should have been scored.
During this time, Obinna Nwobodo looked to have picked up a knock, and then in a separate incident, got a yellow card. These two maneuvers hampered one of the side’s most important players, allowing CITY to take more control of the middle of the park.
Soon after the yellow card, CITY doubled its lead and things fell apart for the visitors. Multiple players seemed to begin to take umbrage with the officiating and the way CITY were playing, with Santos picking up a yellow for dissent.
During this time, CITY tallied its third goal of the night, and the match appeared to be over before it even really started.
Following the beginning of the second half, FCC was certainly the stronger side, controlling the ball and getting some attempts, but as was the theme of the night, CITY ran down the field following a chance and scored a goal against the run of play, well and truly ending the match.
The most humiliating sequence of the night was still to happen, however, as after a long-range effort by CITY, the ball careened off the post, hit Roman Celentano in the head and bounced into the back of the net. If you needed one highlight from the night to get the theme, this would be it.
A 62nd-minute goal from Santos following a great squared ball from Dom Badji was the only noteworthy highlight from the rest of the night.
Match 8 – St. Louis CITY SC vs FC Cincinnati
CityPARK, St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 22,423
Result: St. Louis CITY SC 5, FC Cincinnati 1
BOX SCORE
FC Cincinnati Starting XI:
Roman Celentano, Álvaro Barreal, Yerson Mosquera, Matt Miazga (C), Nick Hagglund (Marco Angulo 46’), Santiago Arias (Ray Gaddis 87’), Junior Moreno, Obinna Nwobodo (Malik Pinto 59’), Arquimides Ordoñez (Dominique Badji 46’), Brandon Vazquez, Sergio Santos (Alvas Powell 77’)
Bench: Alec Kann, Joey Akpunonu, Ian Murphy, Isaiah Foster
St. Louis CITY SC Starting XI:
Roman Bürki (C), Jake Nerwinski, John Nelson (Seimir Pidro 61’), Kyle Hiebert, Tim Parker, Jared Stroud (Celio Pompeu 82’), Eduard Löwen, Indiana Vassilev (Akil Watts 75’), Rasmus Alm (Isak Jensen 61’), João Klauss, Nicholas Gioacchini (Tomáš Ostrák 74’)
Bench: Ben Lundt, Josh Yaro, Lucas Bartlett, Miguel Perez
Discipline:
CIN – Obinna Nwobodo 27’
CIN – Sergio Santos 43’
STL – Tomáš Ostrák 76’
STL – Jared Stroud 80’
Next up:
vs Portland Timbers, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 22, TQL Stadium (Cincinnati, Ohio)
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