FC Cincinnati was unable to finish the stoppage time comeback as the team traveled to Harrison, New Jersey for a matchup against New York City FC, picking up a 3-2 defeat.
The half began in an ominous fashion, as FCC defensive midfielder Obinna Nwobodo horribly gave the ball away trying to play it to a center back. Luckily for FCC, in that moment, NYCFC was unable to capitalize on its opportunity.
FCC got a couple of looks at goal following this mistake by Nwobodo, but really wasn’t able to challenge NYCFC in goal.
Unfortunately for the visiting team, NYCFC was able to do so. In the 16th minute, Maxi Moralez had the ball in the middle of the park about 25 yards out. He passed it to Mitja Ilenic on the right side, and he dribbled a bit forward before shooting it through multiple FCC and NYCFC players. The ball was able to sneak its way past every single one of them and nestle in the back corner for the first goal of the contest.
Following the goal, NYCFC ratcheted up the pressure, and nearly had another had it not been for the gloves of Roman Celentano.
FCC had some real trouble getting going on the attack in the middle part of this half, especially. The team was able to start doing a little bit more later, but not much.
The two biggest moments of the half for FCC were when Lucho Acosta started to once again favor that ankle, worrying the FCC faithful that his injury might have significantly returned.
The other moment happened in the 43rd minute, as DeAndre Yedlin crossed the ball beautifully to a waiting Kevin Kelsy who only needed to first-time it near the six-yard spot. Instead, Kelsy decided to take his time, after which the chance was gone.
The second half began in favor of NYCFC but less pronounced than it seemed in the first. It seemed like FCC wasn’t pressuring the ball as much.
However, that was until around the 55-minute mark. FCC turned up the heat around that point and really looked like it was trying to equalize.
NYCFC, though, was the team to get the next goal. The “home” team got the ball as FCC was on the attack, after which Santi Rodriguez passed to Alonso Martinez, who left no doubt on the finish.
Emotions instantly shifted, however, because FCC won a free kick after a high bounce hit an NYCFC defender’s arm. No review was needed and Lucho Acosta stepped up and hit an incredible penalty to cut the lead in half.
Then, almost immediately after that, NYCFC looked to have maybe been fouled in the FCC box. The referee didn’t call it at first and allowed play to continue. After FCC finished its attack, the referee went to the monitor for an unnecessarily long time and gave NYCFC a penalty, which Santi Rodriguez scored easily, due to Celentano diving the wrong way, again.
As the match neared stoppage time, the referee stopped play for an extended period of time due to specific chants by the NYCFC supporters toward Acosta. Both captains and coaches were gathered together to discuss the situation and play resumed.
With around half of the stoppage time gone, a short corner kick was played to Acosta, who just crossed it into the box, and Corey Baird was able to get on the end of it and score for the 3-2 score.
FCC had a couple more chances but was unable to finish any of them, leaving the scoreline a deflating 3-2.
Match #32 – New York City FC vs FC Cincinnati
Red Bull Arena, Harrison, New Jersey
Result: New York City FC 3, FC Cincinnati 2
BOX SCORE
FC Cincinnati Starting XI:
Roman Celentano, Luca Orellano (Corey Baird 81’), Teenage Hadebe (Yamil Asad 46’), Miles Robinson, Alvas Powell (Ian Murphy 61’), DeAndre Yedlin (Kipp Keller 90’+1), Pavel Bucha, Obinna Nwobodo, Luciano Acosta (C), Yuya Kubo (Niko Gioacchini 81’), Kevin Kelsy
Bench: Evan Louro, Bret Halsey, Gerardo Valenzuela, Malik Pinto
New York City FC Starting XI:
Matt Freese, Thiago Martins (C), Kevin O’Toole, Mitja Ilenic (Tayvon Gray 85’), Justin Haak, James Sands, Andres Perea, Maxi Moralez (Birk Risa 85’), Santiago Rodríguez (Strahinja Tanasijevic 90’+9), Alonso Martínez (Mansef Bakrar 76’), Hannes Wolf
Bench: Luis Barranza, Jovan Mijatovic, Julian Fernandez, Christian McFarlane, Agustin Ojeda
Scoring Summary:
NYC – Mitja Ilenic (Moralez) 16’,
NYC – Alonso Martínez (Rodríguez) 65’
CIN – Luciano Acosta (PK) 69’
NYC – Santiago Rodríguez (PK) 75′
CIN – , Corey Baird 90’+6
Discipline:
CIN – Kevin Kelsy 34’
NYC – James Sands 41’
NYC – Thiago Martins 66’
NYC – Andres Perea 84’
NYC – Tayvon Gray 90’+1
NYC – Hannes Wolf 90’+14
Next up:
vs Orlando City SC, 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 5, TQL Stadium (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Recommended for you
