FC Cincinnati split points with the New England Revolution on a rainy Saturday night in Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The 1-1 draw sees the Orange and Blue remain second in the Eastern Conference and tied with the Revolution for the Supporters' Shield lead, as results stand.
Two of the league’s best sides saw to a relatively quiet opening 25 minutes before the Orange and Blue were awarded a penalty in the 27th minute. New England forward Justin Rennicks was forced into a moment of defending near the top of the box, coming out to challenge Álvaro Barreal who lined up a shot from an out-swinging corner.
An awkward bounce clipped Rennicks hand just inside the box, and the call was confirmed after a moment of review. Luciano Acosta stepped to the spot for FC Cincinnati, but Djordje Petrovic rose to the occasion, denying FCC’s captain with a confident save.
The penalty brought the match to life, with FC Cincinnati finding the opening goal one minute following Petrovic’s save. Yerson Mosquera would head home his second of the year, getting on the end of a Barreal corner and redirecting the cross past Petrovic at the far post.
The Revolution, however, were undeterred and created several dangerous scoring chances over the next few minutes of play. Brandon Bye and Noel Buck nearly drew things level, and the hosts would find a first half equalizer in the third minute of stoppage time through Emmanuel Boateng, who scored his first goal of the year.
The chance was created by Bye, who found himself on the end of a well-played pass ending inside the Cincinnati box. Bye was able to hold off Barreal, who attempted to win the ball without fouling, and slid a perfect ball across the face of goal to the back-post run of Boateng for the goal.
Sergio Santos had a golden chance to restore FC Cincinnati’s lead five minutes into first-half stoppage time, receiving of a wonderful through ball from Acosta. The Brazilian connected well on his attempt inside the box, but he sent his shot right into the catching hands of Petrovic.
Petrovic kept New England in the match making four saves over the opening 45 minutes, and Roman Celentano stepped up in a big moment to keep New England from finding a second as he made his lone save of the first half in what proved to be the final action before halftime.
The second half picked up right where the first left off as the rain continued to pour down at Gillette Stadium. DeJuan Jones looked to put the hosts ahead, but Celentano made a strong save from a few yards out to put Cincinnati back on the counter.
Brandon Vazquez led the charge as the forward danced around the top of the box, attempting to find space for a shot. Vazquez ultimately deferred to Barreal who crossed into the box, finding Acosta. The captain did well to control it and looked for an angle to attack. A foul on Acosta looked a second penalty of the night for the Orange and Blue but a VAR review overturned the initial call.
Nick Hagglund almost stole three points for the Orange and Blue in the dying seconds of the match as the defender got free inside the box for a six-yard header that went just wide of the post.
FC Cincinnati return home to TQL Stadium next Saturday, May 6 to take on D.C. United. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET, and tickets are available now at FCCincinnati.com/Tickets or by calling (513) 977-5425 (KICK). The game can be streamed live via MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app and fans can also listen to the match locally on ESPN 1530.
FC CINCINNATI GAME REPORT
FC Cincinnati at New England Revolution
Date: April 29, 2023
Competition: MLS Regular Season
Venue: Gillette Stadium
Kickoff: 7:39 p.m. ET
Weather: 48 degrees, rain
Attendance: 30,080
SCORING SUMMARY: 1-2-F
NE: 1-0-1
CIN: 1-0-1
NE – Emmanuel Boateng 45’+3’ (Brandon Bye)
CIN – Yerson Mosquera 31’ (Álvaro Barreal)
GAME NOTES
- Roman Celentano made four saves on the night, bringing him to 114 for his young career. He is just one save shy of matching the club record for career saves, held by Przemyslaw Tyton (115, 2019-2021)
- FC Cincinnati remained tied atop the Eastern Conference standings with New England at 21 points apiece. New England holds onto the top spot in the conference on goal difference.
- Yerson Mosquera and Obinna Nwobodo continue to lead the league in breaking up play. Mosquera had three more interceptions tonight, bringing his league-leading total to 25. Nwobodo added four more to his total, now at 24. The FC Cincinnati duo are first and second in the league in interceptions.
- Ray Gaddis made his 21st career appearance against the New England Revolution, his most appearances against any opponent.
LINEUPS
CIN: Roman Celentano, Álvaro Barreal, Yerson Mosquera, Matt Miazga, Nick Hagglund, Ray Gaddis (Alvas Powell 84'), Junior Moreno, Obinna Nwobodo (Malik Pinto 90'), Luciano Acosta (C), Brandon Vazquez (Dominique Badji 90'), Sergio Santos (Yuya Kubo 71')
Substitutes not used: Alec Kann, Joey Akpunonu, Marco Angulo, Arquimides Ordoñez, Ian Murphy
Head Coach: Pat Noonan
NE: Djordje Petrovic, Dave Romney, Brandon Bye, DeJuan Jones, Andrew Farrell, Matthew Polster, Carles Gil (C), Emmanuel Boateng, Noel Buck, Dylan Borrero (Esmir Bajraktarevic 22’, Gustavo Bou 69'), Justin Rennicks (Bobby Wood 69')
Substitutes not used: Omar Gonzalez, Christian Makoun, Joshua Bolma, Jack Panayotou, Earl Edwards Jr., Ben Sweat
Head Coach: Bruce Arena
STATS SUMMARY: NE/CIN
Shots: 13 / 10
Shots on Goal: 5 / 5
Saves: 4 / 4
Corner Kicks: 3 / 8
Fouls: 11 / 15
Offside: 1 / 0
Possession: 55.7 / 44.3
MISCONDUCT SUMMARYCIN – Matt Miazga 12’ (Caution)
CIN – Álvaro Barreal 33’ (Caution)
CIN – Sergio Santos 45’+9’ (Caution)
NE – Bobby Wood 89’ (Caution)
OFFICIALS
Referee: Alex Chilowicz
Ast. Referees: Claudiu Badea, Stefan Tanaka-Freundt
Fourth Official: Marcos Deoliveira
VAR: Sorin Stoica
Ast. VAR: Jeff Muschik
POSTGAME QUOTES
FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan
On his thoughts on the result
“Yeah, I would say overall, pretty, it felt like a pretty even game when you look at some of the chances both teams had. I'm looking, I'm thinking back to Sergio—really good chance, Lucho, Nick's header at the end. We had enough looks but so did they. There was a couple moments for them. I know Bou had a little bit of a chance there and a couple of headers with Bye early on. So, little bit of a chaotic game. Good energy, a lot of emotion, but I think it was just chaotic and out of control because it was so poorly officiated.”
On the officiating
“Yeah, usually I don't want to comment on it [the officiating] and make sure I've seen it first. In this case, I just looked at it and I'm struggling to figure out how it's not [a penalty]. I don't know what's not clear about it. So yeah, it was just again, I don't think that was the determining factor of the result, but I'm curious as to why it's not a penalty. It looks pretty obvious, but I think there was a lot of calls on the field today that weren't obvious to the one who needs to see it clearly. I thought our guys, in the second half, did a better job of controlling that emotional component of it. That's what we talked about a halftime, maybe the goal for them came at a time where 'okay, it's a level playing field.' We go out the second half and just play. I thought there was some good things that we did, but on the night, we just we weren't clean enough on the ball. We were really sloppy with our passing. Some was just the way the ball was skipping and the turf, but I think more had to do with just us, technically, being poor on the night.”
On Yerson's goal and his thoughts on the corner kick service
“Yeah, [Álvaro's] definitely improved and given us good service. And there's different looks that we put together in preparation. Some we execute, some we don't, obviously, but it's a matter of the delivery being good and guys hitting their spots. Yerson did that well in the Miami game, and then he did it again well tonight and got us a goal at a good moment too. When you lose a little bit of the momentum when we don't convert on the PK, but I think for him to score and get through that game, you could tell he was affected by the injury. That's it's a countryman. It's, I think, a friend and that's not easy on a player. So I was pleased with just kind of how he was able to try to focus as much as possible in just playing. So, a good well-timed finish.”
Visit HERE for FC Cincinnati’s 2023 home platform match schedule. The full 2023 regular season schedule can be viewed HERE. All matches will air live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. The unprecedented subscription service featuring every MLS regular season, playoff and Leagues Cup match is available now.
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