BRADENTON, Fla. – Led by Darren Mattocks’ second-half tally, FC Cincinnati played to a 1-1 draw against the Montreal Impact tonight at IMG Academy Stadium. The match was FC Cincinnati’s first preseason game of the 2019 Major League Soccer Preseason presented by Advocare.
After falling behind a goal in the first half, FCC equalized in the 49th minute on its first shot of the second half as Forrest Lasso played a long ball to Darren Mattocks inside the 18-yard box. Mattocks chipped a ball over a charging Clément Diop to level the scoreline.
Ignacio Piatti opened the scoring for the Impact in the 11th minute as he beat FCC goalkeeper Przemysław Tytoń from distance to give Montreal the early edge. Montreal’s captain nearly recorded his second goal of the night in the 40th minute, but his curling shot atop the left side of the 18-yard box rung off the far post.
Cincinnati controlled possession for a majority of the final 20 minutes of the first half, however, was not able to record a goal till after the break.
Following halftime, the two sides made wholesale changes, outside of Tytoń, who remained the only player to return for the second half.
FC Cincinnati will return to IMG Academy Stadium for its second preseason match when it plays the Colorado Rapids at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 2.
FC Cincinnati’s debut MLS game will be at Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday, March 2, at CenturyLink Field. The Orange and Blue will make its home debut as an MLS team at Nippert Stadium on Sunday, March 17, when the team hosts MLS Cup finalist Portland Timbers at 5 p.m. Season tickets, mini plans and individual-game tickets are on sale at fccincinnati.com/tickets or by calling 513-977-5425 (KICK).
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. For more information about FC Cincinnati tickets, call 513-977-KICK (5425) or visit //fccincinnati.com/tickets.
MLS Preseason
FC Cincinnati 1, Montreal Impact 1
IMG Academy Stadium | Bradenton, Fla.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
SCORING SUMMARY
MTL – Ignacio Piatti (unassisted) 11’
CIN – Darren Mattocks (Forrest Lasso) 49’
FC Cincinnati (First Half): Przemysław Tytoń, Blake Smith, Nick Hagglund, Kendall Waston ©, Mathieu Deplagne, Caleb Stanko, Allan Cruz, Leonardo Bertone, Emery Welshman, Fanendo Adi, Roland Lamah
FC Cincinnati (Second Half): Przemysław Tytoń, Justin Hoyte, Forrest Lasso, Hassan Ndam, Alvas Powell, Fatai Alashe, Victor Ulloa ©, Nazmi Albadawi, Corben Bone, Darren Mattocks, Emmanuel Ledesma
Bench: Jimmy Hague, Logan Gdula, Frankie Amaya, Tommy McCabe, Rashawn Dally
Montreal Impact (First Half): Evan Bush, Émile Legault, Zakaria Diallo, Rudy Camacho, Bacary Sagna, Mathieu Choinière, Micheal Azira, Ken Krolicki, Ignacio Piatti ©, Harry Novillo, Maxi Urruti
Montreal Impact (Second Half): Clément Diop, Daniel Kinumbe, Jukka Raitala, Víctor Cabrera, Clément Bayiha, Samuel Piette, Saphir Taïder, Shamit Shome, David Choinière, Chris Wehan, Anthony Jackson-Hamel
Bench: Jonathan Sirois, Mikale Fontaine, Amar Sejdic
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
MTL – Zakaria Diallo (caution) 29’
MTL – Ignacio Piatti (caution) 36’
CIN – Forrest Lasso (caution) 68’
Weather: 56 degrees, partly cloudy
GAME NOTES
- Tonight’s game was FC Cincinnati’s first-ever preseason game as an MLS team and its first preseason game of 2019
- Kendall Waston wore the captain’s armband in the first half, then Victor Ulloa took over as captain in the second half after lineups changed
- Przemysław Tytoń was the only player for either side to play all 90 minutes in tonight’s contest
- Four players were unavailable for precautionary reasons: Eric Alexander, Greg Garza, Ben Lundt and Spencer Richey
- Fanendo Adi, Blake Smith and Emery Welshman were the three players from Cincinnati’s 2018 USL team to start tonight’s contest
POSTGAME QUOTES
FCC Head Coach Alan Koch
On his takeaway from tonight’s match
“[It was] a very useful exercise. Obviously, there’s only so much you can see when you train. I think tonight, there were large spells of the game where it showed that our group hadn’t played together before, which we haven’t played together before, so that was expected. But, also, some good positives in both 45 minutes. There were some good moments in the first 45 minutes and some very good moments in the second 45 minutes. A very, very useful exercise and then obviously, very, very important that we got through the game with no injuries, too.
On if it matters to him how the team is scoring
“Honestly, anytime over the season, I don’t care how we score. You take a goal however it is. If it’s a long ball and Darren uses his speed, his finishing ability to score is just as important as if it’s 25 passes. Of course, from the purist’s perspective, you’d love to see a team play the beautiful game and knock it around, which I think we have the capacity to do, but that’s going to take time. I think it’s probably almost more realistic to see us score a goal tonight like [we did].”
On the objectives between the two halves
“The objectives were the same in the first 45 and the second 45 minutes: Go out there, get comfortable playing with each other, enjoy it, stay disciplined throughout the process, try to focus on our defensive shape. You could see we defended a lot tonight, which is actually a positive because we focused a lot on it.”
FCC Forward Darren Mattocks
On his goal
“As soon as I saw Forrest put his head up, I think his only option was to go long. We had the wind blowing in our favor and I thought as soon as the ball was in the air, this is going to be a goal for the most part, at least a breakaway on goal to get a pretty good job reading it and putting it in the back of the net.”
On if it matters to him how he scores in preseason
“No, not at all. Any striker will tell you anywhere in the world, it doesn’t matter if it’s a PK, it’s a tap in, it’s a header, left foot, right foot, it doesn’t matter, you know? A goal is a goal for a striker, especially this early in preseason it’s pretty good, so hopefully this keeps going.”
On making a quick first impression
“I’ve got to make a quick first impression, especially with an expansion team. We don’t have much time to get acquainted to the league, so everything has got to be quick and sharp right from the start. The earlier we get things going on the field, the better, because in four or five weeks when the [regular season] starts, we’ve got to be ready.”
