FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts – FC Cincinnati attempted a delicate balancing act of resting key players during one of the busiest stretches of the season while also keeping its Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup hopes alive.
Facing New England Revolution Wednesday in the fourth round of the Open Cup, FCC rested its heavily-taxed players but consequently lacked the firepower to keep up with New England, which took the match, 5-1, at Gillette Stadium.
Major League Soccer's reigning Most Valuable Player, Carlos Gil, scored a hat-trick and Adam Buksa scored two goals for the hosts as they rallied for five unanswered scores after FCC jumped out to a 1-0 lead.
In the 12th minute, Alvaro Barreal scored his third goal of Cincinnati's two-match Open Cup campaign, but the goal was the highwater mark of FC Cincinnati's evening.
"That game got away from us pretty quickly," FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan said afterward. "We had a promising start, you know, getting the lead. I think up until we conceded the (first) goal, we were pretty stable defensively. Didn't have enough going forward but we didn't concede a whole lot and then we make a mistake playing out (of the back), losing the ball in a dangerous area, and they convert.
"I think the remainder of the half, you could see the confidence drop and you find yourself in a deficit going into halftime, which was, I think, a result of the mentality of the group when we conceded the first one. The second half, there's a lot you could point to of it not being good enough, so certainly things that we'll have to take a look at on an individual level and collectively."
Gil evened the game from the penalty spot in the 34th minute after FC Cincinnati's failed attempt to play out from its back line.
Three minutes later, Gil scored on a shot that was deflected on the way in and sent goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer diving in the wrong direction.
Buksa scored just two minutes into the second half, Gil completed his hat-trick seven minutes later, and the rout was on at that point.
With its Open Cup journey now concluded, Cincinnati will refocus on its MLS campaign, where the club is exceeding expectations via a 5-5-1 record and a fifth-place position in the Eastern Conference standings.
The loss dropped FC Cincinnati to 6-6-1 in all competitions in 2022.
"I want us to be playing in as many games as possible. If we're advancing in this competition, it means that guys are stepping up that are getting opportunities," Noonan said. "That wasn't the case. Yes, it's a congested schedule and when you add more games in it can be a challenge at times but... we want to be playing in more games, and so that won't be the case but I'm disappointed that there's not another game there for us at the end of the month.
"I think the main talking point for us is let's not let this result, which is a really poor result, have us lose steam and momentum in league play, which, obviously leading up to this game was a good stretch for us."
New England will learn its fifth-round opponent in Open Cup during a draw conducted Thursday by the U.S. Soccer Federation.
In addition to Gil and Buksa, New England fielded a team of multiple first-choice players against Cincinnati.
By comparison, Geoff Cameron and Zico Bailey were the only holdovers in FC Cincinnati's starting lineup from the starting group that beat Minnesota United FC at Allianz Field on Saturday.
More:Why winning at Minnesota United FC brings FC Cincinnati full circle
The gulf in experience between the two teams was clear when New England head coach and sporting director Bruce Arena's starting lineup was announced on social media.
That lineup contained within it 72 combined appearances in the 2022 MLS season, and 60 combined starts.
FC Cincinnati's starting lineup boasted 61 combined appearances, and just 29 combined starts in league play.
Four FC Cincinnati players had no starts in MLS competition.
Arena's lineup might have surprised some, but that wasn't an excuse for the loss, Noonan indicated.
"Putting the score line and the result aside, this was an opportunity for a lot of players," Noonan said. "It's always going to be tough when you have so many changes to expect the same quality and consistency that maybe we had seen in the stretch leading up to the game, but it's a chance for players to get more minutes and to improve their standing within the group. I don't that happened on a lot of levels tonight but the game tells you a lot and we found out a little bit more today about, maybe, some individual players and just how far we still have to go to get consistent contributions and be a reliable option.
"It was certainly a chance for some guys to recover. What I did appreciate was when things were kind of out of hand at the end, there were players that still wanted to get in that game. Lucho (Acosta) wants to get in the game and those are positives – silver lining of an overall pretty poor evening."
FC Cincinnati won't have much time to stew in the disappointment of Wednesday.
The club flew back to Cincinnati following the match and travels again at the weekend, this time to Chicago Fire.
"The focus turns to Chicago and getting ready for that," Barreal said. "We know that the way we've been playing in the league, we can be prepared to go and get a result in Chicago."
*** ***
*** ***
FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts – Welcome to Cincinnati.com's live coverage of FC Cincinnati versus New England Revolution in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup fourth round at Gillette Stadium. Refresh this page throughout the match for live updates and analysis, and follow Enquirer FC Cincinnati beat reporter Pat Brennan on Twitter (@PBrennanENQ) for further updates.
In-match updates:
• FINAL: New England 5, FC Cincinnati 1.
• 57th minute – GOAL, New England (5-1): Adam Buksa.
• 54th minute – GOAL, New England (4-1): Carlos Gil polished off his hat-trick with a left-footed, top-corner goal for his third tally of the n
• 47th minute – GOAL, New England (3-1): Adam Buksa clanked a header off the underside of Kenneth Vermeer's crossbar and in to give the Revolution a firm grip on the match.
• Halftime: New England 2, FC Cincinnati 1.
• 37th minute – GOAL, New England (2-1): Carlos Gil's shot from the top of the box took a deflection on the way in and caromed past goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer.
• 34th minute – GOAL, New England (1-1): Carlos Gil (penalty kick).
• 12th minute – GOAL, FC Cincinnati (0-1): Alvaro Barreal scored his third goal of FCC's 2022 Open Cup campaign when he got on the end of a Haris Medunjanin ball played over the top of the New England defense.
• Match underway at about 7:04 p.m.
Pre-match updates:
• FC Cincinnati starting XI: Kenneth Vermeer (GK), Zico Bailey, Tyler Blackett, Geoff Cameron, Alvas Powell, Alvaro Barreal, Haris Medunjanin, Harrison Robledo, Isaac Atanga, Nick Markanich, Quimi Ordonez.
• FCC bench: Roman Celentano (GK), Nick Hagglund, Ian Murphy, Luciano Acosta, Junior Moreno, Obinna Nwobodo, Brandon Vazquez.
• New England Revolution starting XI: Djordje Petrovic (GK), DeJuan Jones, Henry Kessler, Andrew Farrell, Brandon Bye, Maciel, Tommy McNamara, Damian Rivera, Carlos Gil (captain), Arnor Traustason, Adam Buksa.
• NE bench: Jacob Jacobson, Omar Gonzalez, Ryan Spaulding, Emmanuel Boateng, Sebastian Lletget, Matt Polster, Justin Rennicks.
Source link
