CINCINNATI — It was a wild week for FC Cincinnati with the transfer window bringing about multiple transactions. Those transactions included signing some international players, but they also included the club trading DeAndre Yedlin to Real Salt Lake.
By the time the dust settled, FC Cincinnati took the pitch Saturday night atop the Eastern Conference and tied with San Diego for the Supporters’ Shield. What followed was a disappointing 1-0 loss to New York City FC that dropped FC Cincinnati down to second place in the Eastern Conference.
Worse, this is Cincinnati’s second straight home loss in MLS regular-season competition and third in the last four such matches. After falling to New York City in the First Round of the Eastern Conference MLS Cup Playoffs, including losing Game 3 in penalty kicks at home, this was Cincinnati’s chance to avenge that and a loss to New York City in Queens earlier this season. But just like last year and its 1-0 loss to New York City in May, that was the final score Saturday night at TQL Stadium.
New York City entered Saturday night with the fewest wins of any road team currently in the MLS Cup Playoff Picture. Saturday night, it completed the regular-season sweep of Cincinnati when forward Alonso Martinez scored the game-winning goal in the 55th minute. It was his 14th goal of the season, and it silenced the crowd at TQL Stadium.
“Yeah poor performance, that starts with me,” FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan said. “We weren’t up for it, and for various reasons, the game
looked like it did because of poor play on our end. And credit to New York City, there were the better team and deserved to win.”
New York City FC did an excellent job of controlling the game on both sides of the ball, taking the crowd out of the match early.
It won the possession battle with 52.2 percent of the time and out-passed Cincinnati 528-445. For every scoring opportunity Cincinnati had in the first half, including three shot attempts from All-Star midfielder Evander, New York City matched and eventually broke through with the match’s lone goal 10 minutes into the second half.
“I think we don’t handle pressure particularly well, our passing, our decision making under pressure was poor, careless turnovers that don’t allow you to get into a rhythm with the ball and have you defending in transition,” Noonan said. “And then we defended in those moments pretty well to keep them from, I guess, more goals. But then you have to defend deep. You have to get recovery runs, and it wears you down. And that’s what the game looked like. It was on the ball where we were nowhere close.”
Coming off an emotional win at the Portland Timbers, where Evander faced a raucous crowd in his first game back in the Rose City since being traded to Cincinnati, FC Cincinnati returned home for the start of a crucial three-match homestand against three strong teams in the Eastern Conference.
Even after trading away key players in DeAndre Yedlin and Sergio Santos, there’s still enough talent on this club to get to where it wants to go. But the matches aren’t going to get any easier.
“Every game is important,” Noonan said. “We said it before this one, it’s all going to feel like games that you got to get results, and that wasn’t the case. So it shouldn’t change as far as urgency, it’s just attention to detail, and each game will look different. And hopefully we get a couple pieces back to continue to push the depth and the competition and have a better performance against the next opponent.”
FC Cincinnati faces the team that overtook them for first place in the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia Union, next Saturday night at 7:30 E.T. at TQL Stadium.
