Tyrone Marshall's witnessed FC Cincinnati lose in a variety of ways throughout 2021, but the 4-3 defeat against Chicago Fire FC left him absolutely flummoxed.
"Holy cow, man," FC Cincinnati's interim head coach said upon taking his seat at the post-match media lectern at TQL Stadium late Wednesday. "I haven't been part of a game like that in a long, long time."
Marshall witnessed two separate comebacks cancelled out by Chicago Fire FC in stunning fashion.
After FC Cincinnati defender Tyler Blackett's first-ever goal for the club arrived in second half stoppage time for 3-3, Chicago got the final say on a stunning Luka Stojanović half-volley goal that delivered a 4-3 victory for the Fire.
"For me, it's a tough one. It's a really difficult one, to be honest," Marshall said. "Thinking about it now, you're so emotional. Just really emotional, like a roller coaster. We went from being 'eh, we just scored, tied it up' and I'm like hey, let's calm down. We gotta make sure we finish the game out.
"The next thing, it's 'boom' – goal. And I'm like 'ugh.' So, for the average fan watching, it's a great game but for the one's that's entrenched, I think it's a gut-wrenching one and a heart-breaker. My heart goes out to those fans."
The loss dropped FC Cincinnati to 4-18-8 in 2021, 1-9-5 at TQL Stadium this season and winless in five tries since head coach Jaap Stam was fired. .
Like Cincinnati, Chicago entered the match eliminated from MLS Cup playoff contention but improved to 8-16-7 with the victory.
This wasn't just another loss for a team that's essentially only known losing in MLS.
FC Cincinnati defender Ronald Matarrita, who had two assists and was named Man of the Match, shook his head in disapproval constantly throughout his post-game comments.
"I ask the fans to stick with us. We're working hard. We're doing everything we can," Matarrita said. "It's so tough. It's so tough for that to happen. We worked so hard to get it back to 3-3. To score like that, and then for the other team to find it so easy. In those final minutes you have to give everything you can... For the other team to have a goal like that, it just hurts so bad. It just hurts so bad."
The night featured FC Cincinnati's in its most sloppy, imperfect form. It also showed the best the club has to offer.
Cincinnati gave two goals away in the first half and needed two of its own to pull level by halftime. Chicago's Robert Beric's sixth and seventh goals of the season opened the scoring. Both tallies resulted from FCC goalkeeping miscues.
Beric opened the scoring in the 14th minute when he banged home a close-range score after goalkeeper Przemysław Tytoń spilled a rebound off a shot that came through traffic. Less than three minutes later, Beric scored in similar fashion after Tytoń attempted to slap away a shot that still fell to Beric at the far post.
FC Cincinnati responded with an eight-minute span of pressure that produced an equalizer.
First, in the 28th minute, a centering feed from the right wing was pushed to the far post of Chicago's goal by a Brandon Vazquez header. Waiting at the far post for a tap-in of his own was Luciano Acosta, whose score was his joint-team-leading seventh of 2021.
Vazquez was rewarded with a goal of his own in the 38th minute when he got on the end of a Matarrita long ball, took two touches on the run and fired through goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina's legs.
Another comeback would still be required, though. Joseph-Claude Gyau's foul on the edge of his penalty area gave Chicago the menacing look it needed from just beyond 18 yards out.
In the 71st minute, Alvaro Medran whipped in his free-kick to great effect, hammering the ball into the near post and over Tytoń's wall, punishing FCC for the foul in a dangerous area.
The goal was Medran's third of 2021, and it looked to be the decisive blow for Chicago as Cincinnati failed to muster much of response until the 90th minute.
Rookie Calvin Harris offered what looked to be the only meaningful riposte to Medran's goal with his shot in the 90th minute, which forced a diving save by Slonina.
The ensuing corner kick produced the Blackett goal, which marked Blackett's first with FCC and produced one of the loudest roars of the year in TQL Stadium.
The night's fight appeared to have produced a deserved point for FC Cincinnati, but only for a few seconds.
FCC left itself prey to a fourth goal when it didn't deal with the second ball that ended up on the laces of Stojanovic, who scored his ninth goal of 2021 on the game-winner.
The score was enough for Marshall, who was exiting the TQL Stadium interview room at that point, to jokingly suggest the club needed a priest to come and lash the grounds with holy water and a prayer.
“Disappointed, I thought we played great, we fought until the last minute I felt like we deserved it," Vazquez said, "so it hurts seeing the results being what it was. Their first two goals were quick and unexpected so it was frustrating, but we had time and we came back quickly. That shows the character that this team has and that's massive. We just need to keep doing that every single game.”
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