FC Cincinnati will have three weeks to rue its chances against New England Revolution.
Playing in its second home match of the season at TQL Stadium, FC Cincinnati weathered a deluge of New England shots and chances before finally conceding a decisive goal to Adam Buksa in the 70th minute in a 1-0 loss to the Revolution on Saturday.
Cincinnati won't play again until its June 19 home date with the Colorado Rapids.
The loss to Eastern Conference-leading New England (5-1-2) dropped FCC's record to 1-4-1. It also marked the third time FC Cincinnati was held scoreless in six games.
Buksa's goal occurred as Cincinnati head coach Jaap Stam was plotting a substitution that presumably would have seen FC Cincinnati throw numbers forward and go for the win. FCC winger Alvaro Barreal was set to replace center back Caleb Stanko but before the switch could be made, New England won a free kick on the edge of the left side of FC Cincinnati's penalty area.
The resulting play saw Buksa head home the eventual game-winner.
"You're disappointed when you concede, especially in a manner like that," Stam said afterward. "We know that set pieces are very important, so you need to be very determined in what you're doing when you're defending set pieces, and we weren't that enough, so I need to look back at it again in how that goal went in but normally you cannot concede in a situation like that. And by conceding like that, it's a thing that you need to come back into the game and that's disappointing... After that, we still had opportunities to equalize."
FC Cincinnati had shots and chances of its own, although the Revolution attack had more of both and tallied a season-high 26 shots by game's end.
The Revolution came within two shots of matching its previous single-game high of shots (23) by halftime and went close at several moments prior to the break.
FC Cincinnati goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer was pressed into action multiple times and made five saves in the first half. Those saves, along with a goal-line clearance that involved several FCC players, prevented New England from capitalizing on a period of play in which it had a clear advantage.
"The start of the game was a little bit tough. The first 15 to 20 minutes we were just defending but after that we came a little bit better in the game," Vermeer said. "I would say the second half, they (New England) didn't create anything..Only, yeah, that's why it's so disappointing. Off a set piece we concede a goal. After that we still had some chances but couldn't finish it."
Making his second start of 2021, Jürgen Locadia helped tilt a lopsided opening spell for the Revolution back toward the hosts just after the 20-minute mark.
Locadia got on the end of a long ball and skillfully opened up space for himself to get a shot off only to fire it directly at New England goalkeeper Matt Turner.
Moments later, Locadia deftly created space for himself inside the penalty area but clanked his shot off the top of Turner's crossbar.
Mere moments after that, Brenner Souza da Silva forced Turner into a diving save.
However convincing that spell might have been for FC Cincinnati, they ultimately failed to capitalize and went into the break in a scoreless draw.
Playing against a New England team that lost just once so far this season, Cincinnati would have settled for a draw but for the fact that it couldn't find an equalizer in the 20-plus minutes following Buksa's tally.
The best chances for FCC in the second half would arrive in the closing stages of the match as the club pushed for an equalizer.
Brandon Vazquez attempted to beat Turner at his near post but was denied.
Locadia had one more chance in the closing minutes of regular time as he took down an aerial long ball, remained onside but almost seemed surprised to see the ball sit down for him. Turner eventually gathered the ball, ending the threat.
The last chance of the game went to center back Geoff Cameron, who started for the third consecutive match since joining from Queens Park Rangers.
Cameron's header drifted over the goal. It was the last touch of the match.
"We have quality. We have very good players. I think we have a lot of potential," Cameron said. "I think it's fine margins. I mean, the Revs - maybe they spent a little more time with each other, last year's experience and this team coming together and a lot of guys coming in, so I think it's going to take a little bit of time but essentially, I think we're heading in the right direction obviously but the results – you know, it was a great win last week but, you know, we've gotta make our home-field advantage and we've gotta get results at home... we are going in the right direction."
FC Cincinnati's June 19 match against Colorado is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
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