On a hot holiday weekend in front of a sold-out crowd, the Orange & Blue needed ignition from their two-stage skyrockets to take down a familiar foe.
FC Cincinnati (13-3-5, 42 pts.) rode goals from Evander and Kevin Denkey to edge the Chicago Fire 2-1 at TQL Stadium Saturday night. Philip Zinckernagel’s goal in the second half gave the Fire (8-4-8, 28 pts.) hope, but the patchwork Cincinnati defense held strong for the team’s 13th win of the season.
“Pretty consistent theme as far as guys’ ability to get on top and protect a lead,” head coach Pat Noonan commended afterwards. “We know we can be better in how we go about it, but where we let ourselves down with just moving the ball up the field, we made up for it with some really strong defending. And the end of the game, obviously, is a little bit chaotic with substitutions and us being thin.
“There were a couple challenging moments, but in the end, I think the guys see it out in good way with guys out of position and a lot of fatigue. Credit for the guys for finding one.”
Cincinnati entered the match with three straight road victories in June, the latest being a 2-1 win at Orlando. However, the Orange & Blue struggled their last time home, losing 2-1 to D.C. United in May. Much of the roster was healthier back then, as Cincinnati entered Saturday’s game officially missing five players.
Yuya Kubo, Nick Hagglund, Sergio Santos, Obinna Nwobodo, and Gilberto Flores were ruled out, while Miles Robinson continued international duty with the U.S. Men’s National Team. Cincinnati provided their traditional five-man back line, but with Lukas Engel and Alvas Powell filling the center back spots aside captain Matt Miazga. Teenage Hadebe (ankle) was questionable, but made a late cameo to seal the win.
Chicago also had their issues, despite a mammoth 3-2 victory over Charlotte last Saturday. While eight players missed the match due to injury or other duties, the Starting XI contained ten of the 11 from that win. However, with the midweek U.S. Open Cup match coming up next Tuesday, the question was if the Fire would rest important starters.
First half
Given much of the possession to start, Cincinnati challenged Chicago with longer passes across and around the midfield. The deadlock appeared broken early with a Denkey goal in the ninth minute, only for the offside flag to wipe the shot away.
In the 19th minute, Evander made sure the score counted this time. Chicago let the All-Star representative dribble towards the box, affording him space. The Brazilian midfielder uncorked a shot from outside the box past goalkeeper Jeff Gal to make it 1-0.
Evander’s 12th of the MLS season would last the rest of the half, but not without some challenges.
Chicago slowly gained composure and possession to complete the first half. Their best attempt on net came in the 28th minute with Hugo Cuypers streaking past the back line. His dribble around Roman Celentano only led to a one-handed stuff by the goalkeeper to force out the attempt.
The Fire enjoyed a surplus of the corner kicks (6-1) and equaled Cincinnati on attempts (7-7), while the Orange & Blue had a three-one advantage for shots on goal.
Second half
Cincinnati needed their big signings to appear in the second half, and both capitalized on a breakaway. Evander centered a right-footed cross to Denkey in the 50th minute, and the Togolese striker knocked his 12th goal of the season past Gal to make it 2-0.
The goals from Evander and Denkey made it the sixth time in MLS history that a pair of teammates have had 12 or more goals by this point in the season.
The cliche is that a 2-0 lead is the most dangerous lead in soccer, and Chicago almost immediately put that to the test. In the 55th minute, former FC Cincinnati defender Andrew Gutman fired a cross to Zinckernagel in the Cincinnati box. The Danish winger and MLS All-Star scored his ninth of the season to cut the lead to 2-1.
Much of the remaining time flipped the possession (47-53) and total shots (13-15) in Chicago’s favor, but the remaining shots by the Fire were off their target. The final play of the game featured Hadebe pumping his fist in the air after a clearance and foul, punctuating the match with the final whistle afterward.
Cincinnati find themselves atop the Eastern Conference going into the biggest home match of the season, while Chicago remains in ninth place.
Noonan addressed the importance of a win before Hell is Real after the game. “[It] is always a good factor when you’re playing a good team in front of your home fans, and it’s certainly a very meaningful game. Coming off a win is nice, but tomorrow we forget about this and turn our focus to our next opponent, so hopefully, we can have a good week in preparation.”
“We have a solid team in that guys can play different positions,” Powell commented after the match. “It’s a good team, and we build from guys in different spots. Whether center back or full back, we apply to step in and get the job done. We are grateful to that, so we just keep on, try to be healthy, and make sure the current guys are in the current spots.”
After the game, when asked if he feels the rivalry with Columbus clicks on at a certain point, Roman Celentano considered a wait-and-see approach.
“For most guys tomorrow, we’ll go into the facility, kind of get our bodies right, and then when we come to training on Tuesday, I think that’s when we feel it. We know the big one’s coming up on the weekend, and everyone just has full focus throughout the week before that. Early next week, you’ll start to feel the intensity pick up and guys locking in.”
FC Cincinnati hosts Columbus Crew in the second leg of this season’s Hell Is Real derby on Saturday. The Fire travel to the Gopher State for Tuesday’s Open Cup quarterfinal against Minnesota United.
Major League Soccer, Match #21
FC Cincinnati vs. Chicago Fire FC
TQL Stadium, Cincinnati, OH
Attendance: 25,513
Result: FC Cincinnati 2, Chicago Fire FC 1
BOX SCORE
FC Cincinnati Starting XI (5-3-2):
Roman Celentano (GK); DeAndre Yedlin, Alvas Powell, Matt Miazga (c), Lukas Engel, Luca Orellano (Brad Smith 73′); Tah Brian Anunga, Evander (Teenage Hadebe 90′), Pavel Bucha; Kei Kamara (Gerardo Valenzuela 68′), Kevin Denkey (Corey Baird 90′).
Bench: Evan Louro, Paul Walters, Stefan Chirila, Kenji Mboma Dem, Stiven Jimenez.
Chicago Fire Starting XI (4-3-3):
Jeff Gal (GK); Leonardo Barroso (Johnny Dean 73′), Jack Elliott (c), Sam Rogers, Andrew Gutman; Sergio Oregel (Tom Barlow 83′), Brian Gutierrez (Maren Haile-Selassie 73′), Mauricio Pineda; Philip Zinckernagel (Sam Williams 90+5′), Hugo Cuypers, Jonathan Bamba (Omari Glasgow 84′).
Bench: Bryan Dowd, Omar Gonzalez, Dje D’Avilla, Chase Gasper.
Scoring summary:
CIN – Evander 19′ (Orellano)
CIN – Kevin Denkey 50′ (Evander)
CHI – Philip Zinckernagel 56′ (Gutman)
Discipline:
YC – Kei Kamara 53′ (CIN, foul)
YC – Jonathan Bamba 76′ (CHI, foul)
YC – Matt Miazga 83′ (CIN, foul)
YC – Jack Elliott 90+7′ (CHI, foul)
Next up:
MLS Regular Season: vs. Columbus Crew, 7:30 pm, Saturday July 12th; Apple TV+
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