As the final whistle blew on the seventh edition of the Hell is Real derby, two teams met at midfield.
The Columbus Crew stood on the right, with their fanbase squinting behind them from section 223 of TQL Stadium. The team embraced hugs, shared high-fives and from the looks of it, cracked a few smiles. Head coach Caleb Porter directed a brusque "shush" to the FC Cincinnati fan section, with his index finger covering his mouth.
FC Cincinnati stood on the left, just feet away from their opponents, yet portraying an entire different scene. Some players stood still, perhaps stunned, in place. Others buried their heads in their arms both in exhaustion and in an attempt to hide the final score from sight.
For some, Cincinnati's 2-2 draw to the Columbus Crew Friday night, felt more like a loss.
“We had it. We could almost taste it a bit," Joseph-Claude Gyau said postgame.
The first taste was strong, and came with Edgar Castillo's goal in the 25th second of the match. Castillo found the back of the net before the Bailey could wrap up their "Unleash the Demons" tifo, before spectators could take their first bite of popcorn. Castillo's goal was his first in three years and the fastest MLS goal this season.
Then the taste grew stronger, when Luciano Acosta nailed in his third goal of the season in the 24th minute. It was Acosta's second goal in FCC's last three matches, and put the Orange and Blue in an almost too-comfortable 2-nil lead.
"Defensively we did very well first half and not conceding opportunities or goals,” head coach Jaap Stam said. “The you go 2-nil up and of course you’re very happy but you need to be solid, you need to be aware of the quality of the opposition and what they can do."
Columbus' Lucas Zelarayán scored in first half stoppage time to change the conversation heading into the halftime locker room.
Instead of "Hell is Real," this match could have been labeled as "The Tale of Two Halves," in the words of defender Geoff Cameron.
"Little naïve, simple mistakes, kind of undoing of ourselves really," Cameron said. "We had some good opportunities to see the game out and we should have closed shop. It should have been three points but you can’t take anything away from Columbus.”
When asked if there was a feeling of disappointment attached to what was actually FC Cincinnati's first non-losing result at TQL Stadium, Stam shrugged and cracked a grin.
“You can say that," Stam said. "There’s a big disappointment because we’re having a good momentum, you can see that the team is making progress in what they’re doing. They started the game well but if you go 2-nil up it doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to win that game because of course the opposition have quality as well and they’ve got good players who can play in a certain way...When you still concede two goals one in the first half and one in the second half you can understand that there is a big disappointment with players, with ourselves, with everybody.”
The growing momentum of FC Cincinnati, the exhilarating start, the two initially unanswered goals, were all layers to the disappointment. Not to mention, Columbus scored both of their goals with only 10 men on the field.
“We started off on flames essentially, a couple of minutes in, what better start to a derby," Cameron said. "It’s just disappointing but saying that you can take positives out of this. We’re unbeaten, it’s another point. In a positive way essentially, still climbing up the table, not dropping.”
Stam echoed the positives coming from the match, which were shadowed in the initial disappointment of the lack-luster result.
“The only thing that we don’t need to forget is where we’re coming from," Stam said. "We’re still a team that’s humble but we’re working very hard to get success, to get a result. Now for 4 games we have been unbeaten, we’ve been doing very well we’re making progress, the intensity is getting better the way of playing is getting better, we create opportunities every game to score so that’s a very positive one but also in defensive situations we still need to have that click we still need to learn certain things a little bit as well.”
FC Cincinnati will play Montreal on the road next Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
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