The regular season home finale for FC Cincinnati ended in a whimper as the visiting Orlando City SC was able to capitalize on FCC mistakes for the 3-1 defeat.
The match started with both teams lacking that final pass into the attacking third. But a key mistake by FCC in its own third would lead to the match’s opening goal. A mistake by Pavel Bucha on a back pass saw the ball eventually fall to the feet of Orlando player and Cincinnati native Kyle Smith. Smith swung in a near-perfect cross ahead of Ramiro Enrique, who was able to bury the ball into the back of the net.
The Orlando goal seemingly awakened FCC as the next several chances were created by the Orange and Blue. Nico Gioacchini got into good space but had the ball stuck at his feet. Kevin Kelsy did well to find DeAndre Yedlin across goal, but the pace was smoking hot, requiring the ball to be reshuffled. A pair of dangerous free-kick attempts led to the ball failing to be on target. The end product just wasn’t there on the night.
Orlando caught FCC napping defensively in the 40th minute when Enrique slipped behind the backline on a midfield free kick. Enrique was left all alone to face Roman Celentano who made a miraculous save on the shot. Off the following corner kick, Orlando City found the back of the net. But it was laughably obvious that Luis Muriel fouled Celentano on the delivery.
FCC found an answer in the 45th minute from captain Luciano Acosta. Acosta collected the ball at the edge of the box and elected to forgo the moving pieces around him. Acosta ripped a curling shot to the near post. Pedro Gallese was slightly out of position and had no chance as the ball rattled the net.
The match was level going into the locker room. An altercation between the two coaching staffs then erupted in the Orlando technical area. Both club’s goalkeeping coaches, Paul Rogers and Cesar Baena, received a yellow card from the incident.
Typical of an Oscar Pareja side, the second half was muddied up by stalled play, low block defending and physical tackles. Looking to break through the frustrating play, Luca Orellano subbed in and attempted an olympico style corner kick in the 64th minute to no avail.
Orlando City yet again found the back of the net in the 66th minute from a seemingly routine attempt by Ivan Angulo. Angulo’s shot was low and lacked pace, but Celentano inexplicably was unable to make the save while diving to the correct spot. With the lead back in Orlando’s favor, the air was sucked out of the building.
Orlando rubbed salt in the wound in the 73rd minute. An extremely poor back pass from Orellano to Celentano was intercepted by Angulo, who tapped it in front of Enrique for the walk-in goal. If FCC’s players weren’t already checked out this was the final nail. The 3-1 advantage for Orlando City would hold through the final whistle.
Pat Noonan shared his thoughts on the match.
“Yeah, tough loss because I thought we played a good game. And the ways in which we conceded are pretty obvious and certainly deflated the group.” Noonan continued, “But they stepped up in terms of their play and the intensity from the last two games. I know the scoreline is going to be the talking point, as it should be, but there was a lot of good things that happened tonight and it’s unfortunate that we have this feeling based on the performance.”
LINEUPS
CIN- Roman Celentano, Yamil Asad, Teenage Hadebe (Ian Murphy 55’), Miles Robinson, Alvas Powell (Luca Orellano 55’), DeAndre Yedlin, Pavel Bucha (Gerardo Valenzuela 81’), Obinna Nwobodo, Luciano Acosta (C), Kevin Kelsy (Yuya Kubo 46’), Niko Gioacchini (Corey Baird 73’)
Substitutes not used: Evan Louro, Kipp Keller, Bret Halsey, Malik Pinto
ORL- Pedro Gallese, Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson (C), Rodrigo Schlegel, Kyle Smith (Michael Halliday 81’), Wilder Cartagena, Cesar Araújo, Iván Angulo (Felipe Martins 81’), Luis Muriel (Nicolas Lodeiro 73’), Facundo Torres (Martin Ojeda 88’), Ramiro Enrique (Jack Lynn 87’)
Substitutes not used: Javier Otero, Heine Gikling Bruseth, Luca Petrasso, Yutaro Tsukada
GOALS
CIN – Acosta 45’
ORL – Enrigue 10’, Angulo 66’, Enrique 73’
NEXT MATCH
MLS Regular Season: at Philadelphia Union, October 19th, 6:00 p.m. EST; AppleTV+
