CINCINNATI – FC Cincinnati took an early lead on Allan Cruz’s sixth-minute strike, but fell to Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 2-1, at Nippert Stadium on Saturday night.
FC Cincinnati (5-17-2, 17 pts.) struck first as Cruz recorded his team-leading fourth goal of the season in the minutes into the match. Vancouver Whitecaps FC (5-11-9, 24 pts.) equalized minutes before halftime on Hwang In-Beom’s goal from outside the box, and took the lead on Felipe’s game-winning tally in the 84th minute.
Przemyslaw Tyton made three saves in the loss, while Whitecaps goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau stopped two of FCC’s three shots on target in the victory.
FC Cincinnati returns to the field this Saturday, Aug. 10, when the team travels to Columbus for the first of two #HellIsReal rivalry games in three weekends. First kick from MAPFRE Stadium is set for 7:30 p.m., and the game will be televised live on WSTR 64, streamed on FloFC (in-region) and ESPN+ (out-of-region), carried on the radio on WDJO with an audio stream on TuneIn (WDJO) and fccincinnati.com.
For up-to-the-minute information about FC Cincinnati, visit the team’s official website at fccincinnati.com, or follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @FCCincinnati.Pick-Six mini plans, and individual-game tickets and group options are on sale for all remaining FC Cincinnati games at fccincinnati.com/tickets or by calling 513-977-5425 (KICK).
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2, FC Cincinnati 1
Nippert Stadium | Cincinnati, Ohio
August 3, 2019
SCORING SUMMARY
CIN – Allan Cruz (Darren Mattocks, Mathieu Deplagne) 6’
VAN – Hwang In-Beom (unassisted) 42’
VAN – Felipe (Russell Teibert, Ali Adnan) 84’
FC Cincinnati: Przemysław Tytoń, Mathieu Deplagne, Kendall Waston ©, Maikel van der Werff, Justin Hoyte, Caleb Stanko (Leonardo Bertone 63’), Victor Ulloa, Allan Cruz (Frankie Amaya 67’), Roland Lamah, Emmanuel Ledesma (Kekuta Manneh 72’), Darren Mattocks
Bench: Jimmy Hague, Nick Hagglund, Alvas Powell, Rashawn Dally
Stats: Shots 20, Shots on goal 3, Saves 3, Corner kicks 5, Offsides 3, Fouls 9, Possession 58.7.%, Passes 509 (83.1%)
Vancouver Whitecaps FC: Maxime Crépeau, Derek Cornelius, Erik Godoy, Ali Adnan, Jakob Nerwinski, Hwang In-Beom, Felipe (Andy Rose 86’), Russell Teibert, Fredy Montero ©, Theo Bair (Scott Sutter 74’), Joaquín Ardáiz (Brett Levis 67’)
Bench: Zac MacMath, Victor Giro, Jon Erice, Michael Baldisimo
Stats: Shots 11, Shots on goal 5, Saves 2, Corner kicks 4, Offsides 0, Fouls 12, Possession 41.3%, Passes 363 (76.6%)
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
CIN – Leonardo Bertone (caution) 90’+2’
Referee: Rosendo Mendoza
Assistant Referees: Ian B. Anderson, Matthew S. Nelson
4th Official: Alan Kelly
VAR: Jeff Muschik
Weather: 83 degrees and sunny
Attendance: 27,106
HOW IT HAPPENED
- 2’ | Justin Hoyte volleyed a bouncing ball with the outside his right foot from the outside corner of the 18-yard box and his curling ball barely grazed the far upper corner of the goal and out of play.
- 6’ | CIN GOAL - Mathieu Deplagne crossed in a ball from the left flank of the field, finding Darren Mattocks. Mattocks headed the ball down to Allan Cruz, who collected the ball with his chest and half-volleyed his shot past Maxime Crépeau
- 32’ | Hoyte attempted a headed clearance of a ball atop the 18-yard box, but was only able to clear it to the feet of Theo Bair in Vancouver’s attacking third. Bair slipped a pass into Fredy Montero on the edge of the 18-yard box, where his shot skidded off the turf and into the arms of Przemysław Tytoń
- 42’ | VAN GOAL - Montero sent a free kick into the box from the edge of Vancouver’s attacking third. Kendall Waston headed the ball out of the penalty area, but directly to the feet of Hwang In-Beom. His 25-yard shot found space through traffic and beyond an outstretched Tytoń to level the score line
- 46’ | Roland Lamah sent a cross into the penalty area, where Derek Cornelius attempted to clear the ball, but his effort landed at the feet of Cruz. His volleyed strike hit the crossbar and flew above the net and out of play
- 59’ | Deplagne caught Crépeau off his line and attempted a volleyed shot from just inside the midfield line, but his on-target effort was just high and kissed off the crossbar
- 71’ | Roland Lamah sent a low cross to the middle of the six-yard box from the edge of the penalty area. Crépeau dove and was able to redirect the ball to his left, where Ali Adnan quickly cleared the ball beyond the endline to concede a corner kick as Mattocks was all alone with an open net
- 84’ | VAN GOAL - Adnan played a long through ball to Russell Teibert and the latter was able to catch up to the pass just before it crossed the endline. Teibert sent a backward pass to an oncoming Felipe, who calmly finished with the inside of his left foot to give the visitors the lead
- 87’ | Following a foul on Lamah, Leonardo Bertone stepped up to take a 30-yard free kick in the left-center channel. He attempted to curl his shot inside the near post, but the ball struck the woodwork and crossed the endline for a goal kick
GAME NOTES
- With today’s loss, the Orange and Blue fall to 5-17-2 through 24 MLS matches … in addition, FC Cincinnati fall to 3-7-1 in home contests … FC Cincinnati’s all-time, all-competition record against Vancouver Whitecaps FC sits at 0-1-0 … Cincinnati is now 2-8-1 against Western Conference opponents
- Allan Cruz scored his team-leading fourth goal of the season in tonight’s match … the goal was Cruz’s third scored within the first seven minutes of a match … the Costa Rican tallied in the seventh minute against Montreal (May 11) and in the first minute against Chicago (July 13)
- Darren Mattocks registered his third assist of the 2019 campaign on Allan Cruz’s sixth-minute strike … Mattocks is now tied with Emmanuel Ledesma and Kekuta Manneh for the team’s lead in assists
- Mattocks’ three assists ties his single-season best, which he twice recorded with Vancouver in 2014 and 2016
- Leonardo Bertone picked up his eighth yellow card of the season in tonight’s match … the midfielder will now be unavailable for selection in FC Cincinnati’s match at Columbus on Aug. 10 because of yellow-card accumulation
- Interim Head Coach Yoann Damet made one change to the starting lineup from FC Cincinnati’s most recent match against Toronto FC on July 27 … Darren Mattocks shifted into the starting lineup, while Rashawn Dally was dropped
- Mattocks made his first FC Cincinnati start since May 19 at Orlando … it was Mattocks’ first start at Nippert Stadium since May 11 against Montreal … the forward recorded a team-high five shots and added a team-high three chances created
- Tonight’s lineup is FC Cincinnati’s 23rd unique lineup of the season … the only two instances FCC have had the same starting XI was on March 10 and March 17
- Spencer Richey (back), Fanendo Adi (calf), Fatai Alashe (hamstring) and Greg Garza (calf) were unavailable for selection because of injury
POSTGAME QUOTES
FC Cincinnati Interim Head Coach Yoann Damet
On the match
“Disappointing night. Disappointing result in a game that we could’ve all been better. I’m very, very disappointed.”
On if the finishing was lacking
“Yeah, we created some opportunities, especially in the second half. Unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize on it. The score speaks for itself. We should’ve been more efficient in the final third, (we) touched the post a couple of times. Disappointing.
On what the team needs to do to start converting on opportunities
“We need to work, we need to come back to the training facility, keep working on that. As everybody knows, in the final third, there is not much space and time. Very difficult to create opportunities, so that is a positive, we have been creating quite a lot. Now, we need to be more efficient, we need to take our chances, maybe finish quicker. We tend to take a touch in the box when sometimes we should finish in one touch, so there is a couple of little details that we need to work on, but for sure the efficiency has been lacking recently.”
On how to address conceding goals prior to halftime
“We 100% need to be sharper. We need to be more consistent. That’s the message I told the guys in the locker room … we are a little too naive at times. Conceding before halftime on the third ball on the set piece is very frustrating because I think that is a little moment where we switched off. We gave the time for the opponent to take a shot and they capitalized on that just before halftime. Again, the focus, the concentration needs to be more consistent over the course of the game.”
On if Allan Cruz exited the match because of injury
“Yeah, he had a little something before halftime. I have to think about the rest of the game, we needed to make some changes. I had some ideas in the midfield. I think at some point we needed to keep a certain balance.”
FC Cincinnati Midfielder Allan Cruz
On the team getting complacent after scoring
“No, seguimos de tratar de llegar al arco rival. Por ahí, están ellos haciendo un bloque, jugando al contragolpe y así nos hicieron daño."
“No, we continued to try to get to our opponent’s goal. They had a defensive block, played on the counter-attack and that’s how they hurt us.”
On hitting the crossbar in the second half
“Bueno, me quedo en el área. No lo pensé dos veces. Remate. Por ahí, el portero la desvía y pega en el palo. Mala suerte. No la concrete.”
“Well the ball came my way inside the penalty box. I didn’t think about it twice. The goalkeeper was able to get a hand on it and it hits the crossbar. Bad luck. I wasn’t able to capitalize.”
On facing in-state rival Columbus Crew SC next
“Tenemos que animarnos nosotros mismos. Ya tenemos varios partidos que perdemos y lo mas enojado es perder en casa y ver a los aficionados que nos vienen a ver a pesar de los resultados que hemos tenido. Se van con este mal sabor.”
“We have to get excited for the match. We’ve had various games now where we lose and the most frustrating part is losing at home and seeing the fans that come see despite the recent results we’ve had. They leave with a sour taste.”
On the fan support at Nippert Stadium
“Para nosotros es una motivación extra. Son el jugador 12 para nosotros. Nosotros no los pudimos respaldar con el resultado, pero quiero decirle a toda la afición que nos apoyan en las buenas y en las malas que estamos agradecidos con ellos. Vamos a seguir adelante.”
“For us, they’re an added motivation. They are the player number 12 for us. We weren’t able to back them up with a result, but I want to tell all the fans that come support us in the good times and the bad times that we are grateful for them. We will move forward.”
FC Cincinnati Defender Justin Hoyte
On the match
“Disappointed, really. All the players are disappointed. Having scored the first goal, then getting back into the game, we pushed and pushed and just couldn’t find that goal that we needed. Unfortunately we gave away the second goal and that’s hard to take. We’re disappointed. We pushed and pushed and pushed and tried, and you know the least we should get a draw this game. If not, we should’ve won the game. Being one-nil up, we should see the game out, or score another. We should win these games.”
On the backline’s strong performance
“Yeah I feel it was kind of strong. It’s just disappointing. We conceded two goals. That’s the disappointing thing, but on the whole, we thought we defended well. We started the attacks well and we gave a good platform moving forward. We started a good base that we can attack. So yeah, on the whole, I feel the defense has done okay, but disappointing that we conceded two goals.”
On conceding two goals after an early lead
“It’s a big [disappointment], but at the end of the day we know that we scored once. We have to believe that we can go in and score again. In the second half, you can see we pushed and pushed, we never gave up. We tried to score again, and tonight just wasn’t meant to be, at times, to score a second goal. Just disappointing we didn’t score that second goal or even not concede. Now we’ll keep working hard. We’ll keep pushing hard and try and attack more, and try and create more chances, and we’ll try and put the ball in the back of the net and at the same time stop them from scoring.”
On his shot early in the game
“The ball at that point just took a touch and, I thought I’d just hit it. Why not? It’s not often I get the opportunity to shoot. So I thought, the opportunity was there so I just thought I’d shoot and it was close. It was just disappointing it didn’t go in, but that’s foot one. Hopefully next time if I get the opportunity I can shoot and it’ll go in the back of the net next time.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC Head Coach Marc Dos Santos
On his reflections after the win
“Well I tried to take everything from the month of August out. It hurt us mentally. Just before the Minnesota game, we got together and we believe in the core we have here. We believe that if we stick together and play as a team we can get results all the time. I thought the first 20 minutes were very difficult. Cincinnati came very well into the game and we were not able to cope with some situations and they were switching the point of attack. It created problems and they were up on the score, and deservedly so. Then we were able to mentally react and this is great, we were able to take a little bit more charge of the game and (Hwang) In-Beam gets a very good goal and then when we came back to halftime at 1-1, we had a belief that if we do things right, we would get other chances to win the game. Then the second goal was a very good goal, the runs from midfielders deep in was very important to create that … and after that since (Kendall) Waston came to the middle it became very direct, Kekuta (Manneh) one side and (Roland) Lamah the other, it created problems and that is why we brought in Andy Rose in to help with those areas with the long balls. Look, it was a tie game with a tough place with an incredible environment and a good club that is going to grow for sure in MLS and we overall deserved to win because of what we did on the field.”
On importance of getting the first goal before halftime
“Well I think it started a little bit in Minnesota … that mental toughness and try to grind … right now, nobody from the outside is going to help us and unfortunately we are not going to get help from the outside and we have to stick together, close our locker room, fight together and that’s what we did again today.”
Thoughts on two goals from the midfield
“You work together, you don’t really care where the goals come from. Of course you always wish to have many different players scoring and having an attack that is very very provocative going to goal, but when that doesn’t happen well other people have to come in a help and (Hwang) In-Beom with a great shot from the outside and then the run from Russell (Telbert) and Felipe are aggressive and I am happy for them.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC Midfielder Felipe
On tonight’s match
“I thought the guys have been working so hard, they’ve been working every single day trying to improve our game, trying to get better. It was another fight. I think the most important thing is every game we fight with everything we can for the fans, for this jersey, for this club. That’s what we did tonight. We went down 1-0, but especially in difficult moments when you don’t win a lot of games. We came from behind and we fought them to the end. This group deserves more than we get. We’re going to keep fighting to the end.”
On the midfield chemistry
“I think (Hwang) In-Beom has been fantastic for us, especially at the position. He’s been playing the best all year long, I think because he has more freedom. He dictated the rhythm of the team. Rusty (Teibert) is Rusty. He is always fighting, he is always giving everything. I said it was 50% his goal, but I think it was 99% his goal and 1% for me. He put a great ball in. It means a lot, this goal for me. I dedicate it to all my family, because my wife knows how much I suffer all year long. I think it’s a great moment, especially for the team. I thank every single person that was behind me all year long. Hopefully, we keep going, we keep getting wins.”
On the upcoming match against Portland
“As the coach said, we go game by game. We played well in Minnesota, tonight we didn’t start well. We went down, 1-0, but we keep fighting, we keep strong and then In-Beom scored a great goal and then in the end, Russell (Teibert) put in a great ball and then I score. But, it’s not about one person, it’s about every single one.”
