So far in 2022, FC Cincinnati's made a living off of bucking the trends of the past, but some trends die harder and slower than others.
Case in point: New England Revolution's visit Saturday to TQL Stadium, where the visitors won their fifth consecutive game against Cincinnati dating back to 2019.
FC Cincinnati twice came back from down a goal to tie the game, but New England, which got off to a slow start in league play this year, scored an 89th-minute winner through Tommy McNamara to take all three points before a crowd of 22,844.
The game was New England's second win against Cincinnati in 10 days. On May 11, the Revolution eliminated FC Cincinnati from the single-elimination Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in a 5-1 rout.
After, FCC head coach Pat Noonan said Cincinnati learned some lessons from the May 11 meeting and applied them successfully, but didn't do so with enough consistency.
"This is a game where we shouldn't be walking off the field without at least a point. This one's on us," Noonan said. "Not executing some of the things we discussed prior to the game. Just defending the box – a couple moments where we don't do that well enough and concede twice in the first half. Took us too long to get into the game with our defensive pressure and shape."
Sebastian Lletget opened the scoring in the 17th minute after FC Cincinnati'd defense was torn wide open.
An initial shot caromed off FCC goalkeeper Roman Celentano's left-hand post but landed at the feet of New England's Brandon Bye, who served the ball back in only for Lletget to spilt FC Cincinnati's center-backs and scissor-kick the ball in for 1-0.
Cincinnati's Brandon Vazquez scored in the 26th minute to pull the hosts level at 1-1. Vazquez's team-leading seventh score cancelled out Lletget's opener.
