Taken in isolation, there's nothing wrong with FC Cincinnati drawing, 1-1, against Orlando City SC, the No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference standings.
In context, though, Saturday's tie between Cincinnati and Orlando at TQL Stadium was another frustration in a week where Cincinnati tied three games and left plenty to be desired.
FC Cincinnati improved to 3-7-7 with the draw but dropped a spot in the standings, and dropped the points on Saturday from a winning position again.
Brenner Souza da Silva opened the scoring in the 42nd minute with his fourth goal of 2021, and the first Cincinnati goal in the south end of TQL Stadium.
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The lead was squandered carelessly in the 55th minute when an errant no-look pass by Cincinnati's Allan Cruz was intercepted by Orlando's Luis Nani, who dribbled in past Nick Hagglund and scored on goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer for 1-1.
That score held as Orlando (8-4-6) salvaged a point to remain in the No. 2 position in the East.
"At the end of the day, we scored a very good goal at one-nil, and then you want to keep on going. You want to push forward," FC Cincinnati head coach Jaap Stam said. "Also, second half, we tried to do the same thing knowing that they might change something. You see that the game opens up a little bit more in terms of there’s more transition for us going forward but also again then when you lose, spaces become bigger and they come out in transition. They made a couple of subs with their DP’s as well coming in and you see when you’re not careful enough on the ball yourself and you make a mistake yourself, then you give away a goal and that’s harsh because I think we’ve been doing very well."
Nani entered the match about one minute before scoring. He was part of wave of substitutes that revitalized the visitors' attack for a brief period.
Nani's goal was the first FC Cincinnati had conceded since the July 24 match at Nashville SC. It was also the fourth of his career against FCC.
Vermeer was lifted in the 65th minute due to injury. Przemysław Tytoń, who last played May 1 at Orlando, finished the match in net for Cincinnati.
After a shaky aftermath to conceding the game-tying goal, FC Cincinnati steadied itself and closed out the contest on the front foot.
Defensively, FCC was sound.
"I feel like we've been defending very well recently," FC Cincinnati center back Gustavo Vallecilla said. "We did defend well tonight but errors like this happen in a match and, you know, you just have to focus on the next moment and continue to defend well.
There were numerous opportunities in the attack over the final 30 minutes for FCC, including Isaac Atanga's one-on-one opportunity in second-half added time.
Atanga attempted to dribble past Orlando goalkeeper Mason Stajduhar only to see Stajduhar poke the ball away to safety.
"You can see that we could have won it until the end, you know, because we created opportunities," Stam said. "This is all second half. So, there were still a lot opportunities for us to finish off to score goals. Unfortunately, we couldn't. After that 1-1, of course, they've got the ability as well to make it difficult for the opposition. They've shown it not only against us but also against other teams but you need to stay in the game and that's what we've been trying to do. Even after that 1-1, we still had opportunities to make it very difficult for them and to score ourselves and unfortunately that didn't happen.
"Of course then you can say, yeah, you're happy with a point but we also, again, were very close to three (points)."
FC Cincinnati returns to play Aug. 18 against CF Montreal at TQL Stadium. The match is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
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