FC Cincinnati drew with Orlando City SC, 1-1, Saturday night in front of 24,113 fans at TQL Stadium.
The Orange and Blue (3-7-7) increase their point total to 16 points. Orlando City (8-4-6) has 30 points in second place in the Eastern Conference.
FC Cincinnati struck first in the 42nd minute with Brenner’s fourth goal of the season. Luciano Acosta found Álvaro Barreal on an overlapping run who centered a pass to the Brazilian forward who buried a right footed shot into the back of the net.
The goal ended a three-match scoring drought for FCC.
Orlando City SC equalized in the 56th minute with a goal from Nani, who entered as a substitute one minute prior.
Kenneth Vermeer’s scoreless streak of 269 minutes ended with the goal. He has the third-longest scoreless streak in club history. Ten minutes later, an injury forced Vermeer out of the match, which led Przemysław Tytoń to entering the contest as a substitute for the first time in his MLS career.
FC Cincinnati have a weekend off and return to action, at home, Wednesday, August 18 at TQL Stadium against CF Montréal. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
For up-to-the-minute information about FC Cincinnati, visit the team’s official website at fccincinnati.com, or follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @FCCincinnati. Additionally, fans are encouraged to download the team’s official mobile app on the Apple App Store or Google Play for instant access to mobile tickets, team content and match notifications.
Information about seating options at the club’s state-of-the-art TQL Stadium is now available at TQLstadium.com. For more information about 2021 Season Ticket Memberships, which are now on sale to the general public, visit TQLstadium.com or the stadium’s social properties on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at @TQLStadium, or by calling the team’s sales and service staff at 513-977-5425.
**FC Cincinnati 1, Orlando City SC 1
TQL Stadium | Cincinnati, Ohio
August 7, 2021
SCORING SUMMARY
**CIN – Brenner (Álvaro Barreal, Luciano Acosta) 42’
ORL – Nani (unassisted) 56’
FC Cincinnati: Kenneth Vermeer (Przemysław Tytoń 65’), Nick Hagglund, Geoff Cameron, Gustavo Vallecilla, Ronald Matarrita, Allan Cruz (Haris Medunjanin 89’), Joseph-Claude Gyau (Florian Valot 90’), Yuya Kubo, Luciano Acosta ©, Álvaro Barreal (Isaac Atanga 83’), Brenner (Brandon Vazquez 89’)
Bench: Edgar Castillo, Kamohelo Mokotjo, Arquimides Ordonez, Caleb Stanko
Stats: Shots 17, Shots on Goal 2, Saves 4, Corners 2, Offside 1, Fouls 7, Possession 46.2%, Passes 446 (84.1%)
Orlando City SC: Mason Stajduhar, Rodrigo Schlegel, Robin Jansson, Emmanuel Mas (Joao Moutinho 55’), Kyle Smith (Ruan 55’), Mauricio Pereyra, Oriol Rossell (Andres Perea 44’), Junior Urso (Joseph Dezart 84’), Tesho Akindele, Benji Michel (Nani 55’)
Bench: Adam Grinwis, Silvester van der Water, David Loera, Alexander Alvarado
Stats: Shots 13, Shots on Goal 5, Saves 1, Corners 6, Offside 0, Fouls 10, Possession 53.8%, Passes 506 (87.0%)
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
CIN – Ronald Matarrita (caution) 53’
ORL – Rodrigo Schlegel (caution) 68’
ORL – Christopher Mueller (caution) 77’
ORL – Joseph Dezart (caution) 84’
Referee: Fotis Bazakos*
Ast. Referees: Peter Balcinus, Peter Manikowski
4th official: Matthrew Franz
VAR: David Gantar
AVAR: *Jeffrey Swartzel
Weather: 85 degrees and clear
Attendance: 24,113
GAME NOTES
- Ronald Matarrita made his 100th career MLS start on Saturday. He is the fifth active FCC player with 100 or more starts (Acosta, Cameron, Hagglund, Medunjanin).
- For the first time this season, Head Coach Jaap Stam deployed the same starting XI for a third consecutive match.
- Przemysław Tytoń made his first appearance since May 1, 2020, at Orlando City SC. Tonight’s match featured the first goalkeeper substitution for FCC since October 11, 2020 vs. Toronto FC. Spencer Richey entered in the 81st minute for Tytoń.
- Tytoń made his 30th career MLS appearance, the first as a substitute.
- Brenner’s fourth goal of the season ties him with Luciano Acosta for the team lead. Acosta recorded his team-high fourth assist on the goal.
POSTGAME QUOTES
FC Cincinnati Head Coach Jaap Stam
On the team's game management in the heat
“I think I managed it very well. You don't have subs to make subs, just to look like okay, you sub players. After this game, we have 10 days there's no game for us. Players need to be able to play three games in a week. If there was a game on Wednesday, then maybe it would've been different. But if players still look fit and they can still bring what you're asking from them, you don't need to make subs.”
“It's not all about you have five subs, so you also need to take that, it's depending on how the game goes and depending on how players are feeling themselves. It depends on how the schedule after this particular game is. So I think we managed it very well, we are very happy with it. At the end of the day, we made five subs, yeah you know, you can see that they are making subs because their coach was not happy in how their players were performing, not because of giving the players he took off in the game a rest because he wasn't happy in how they were performing because we were doing it well.”
On Vermeer’s injury and Tytoń’s play
“Yeah, you know [Tyton] did well when he came in, you know he needed to do what we were asking from him when Kenneth is not playing, so we are very happy with him, but I've told that before as well. Tyty is a real contender for Kenneth, he keeps Kenneth on his toes as well and if Kenneth cannot play and we need to make a different decision then we know that [Tytoń] can deliver the ability that we need so we were very happy with him you know taking over.”
“Kenneth felt his quad. He didn't risk it for the team to stay on because you never know what happens if he needs to kick a ball again or whatever, so that's why we made the decision to take him off. So if Kenneth is not fit enough for next week or after ten days, then yeah, then Tyty needs to step in. That's how it works, but we are happy with Tyty and what he's bringing.”
FC Cincinnati Midfielder Florian Valot
Thoughts on his debut with FC Cincinnati
“It felt great to be finally out there in this stadium. I've been waiting for this the last two or three days, so I'm really happy to be coming in and helping the team secure a point. It was a good game against a really good team. We did our best to get three points. Coming out of this game with one point is good but we could have done a bit better.”
On his first impressions with the team
“We have really good quality players on the ball. I think we need to be a little bit better in the last third. We scored a beautiful goal with [Luciano], Barreal, and Brenner. Really good things tonight. As I said earlier, I need to learn a little bit more, the system and the players, and see if I can add a little bit to this team.”
FC Cincinnati Defender Gustavo Vallecilla
(Translated from Spanish to English)
On his thoughts on the match
“It was a up and down match I think we fought hard for it today and found something in ourselves today. I feel like we have been defending well as of recently with the back line, but errors like this happen in matches so you just and to keep focus and keep defending the next play.”
