COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – Kekuta Manneh tallied the equalizing goal in the 72nd minute, but the hosts responded one minute later and added a third goal off a corner kick as the Colorado Rapids claimed a 3-1 win over FC Cincinnati on Saturday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
FC Cincinnati (3-10-2, 11 pts.) controlled play in the first half, but surrendered a late go-ahead goal to Colorado (3-8-3, 12 pts.) through Andre Shinyashiki in the 43rd minute and the Rapids took a 1-0 lead into the intermission. After Manneh leveled in the 72nd minute, Colorado went ahead one minute later off Nicolás Mezquida’s low, angled shot. Colorado tacked on another in the 82nd minute when Diego Rubio’s effort off a corner kick deflected in off a defender.
Cincinnati led the game in possession (60% to 40%), passing accuracy (84.1% to 77.3%) and total passes (548 to 361), but Colorado held a 12-11 edge in shots and a 6-3 lead in shots on target. Both FCC’s Spencer Richey and the Rapids Tim Howard each made three saves in the game.
FC Cincinnati returns to the field on Thursday, June 6, when the team travels to face New York City FC at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York. First kick is set for 7 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised live on WSTR 64, streamed on FloFC (in-region) and ESPN+ (out-of-region), carried on the radio on WDJO with an audio stream on TuneIn (WDJO) and fccincinnati.com.
FCC returns to Nippert Stadium on Wednesday, June 12, when the team hosts USL Championship side Louisville City FC in the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be streamed nationally on ESPN+. Tickets are specially priced to the club’s 2018 pricing levels as a throw-back with a USL opponent coming back to Cincinnati. After the current Season Ticket Member presale ends, tickets for the game will go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 5 at fccincinnati.com/tickets or by calling 513-977-5425 (KICK). The team’s next MLS regular-season home game is against the LA Galaxy on Saturday, June 22. Pick-Six mini plans, and individual-game tickets and group options are on sale for all remaining games.
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.
Colorado Rapids 3, FC Cincinnati 1
Dick’s Sporting Goods Park | Commerce City, Colo.
Saturday, June 1, 2019
SCORING SUMMARY
COL – Andre Shinyashiki (Sam Nicholson, Cole Bassett) 43’
CIN – Kekuta Manneh (Roland Lamah) 72’
COL – Nicolás Mezquida (Diego Rubio) 73’
COL – Diego Rubio (Jack Price) 82’
FC Cincinnati: Spencer Richey, Mathieu Deplagne, Justin Hoyte ©, Nick Hagglund, Alvas Powell, Caleb Stanko, Victor Ulloa, Frankie Amaya (Corben Bone 60’), Allan Cruz (Kekuta Manneh 70’), Roland Lamah Darren Mattocks 84’), Fanendo Adi
Bench: Jimmy Hague, Forrest Lasso, Emmanuel Ledesma, Eric Alexander
Stats: Shots 11, Shots on goal 3, Saves 3, Corner kicks 2, Offsides 1, Fouls 5, Possession 60%, Passes 548(84.1%)
Colorado Rapids: Tim Howard ©, Keegan Rosenberry, Deklan Wynne (Sam Vines 18’), Lalas Abubakar, Tommy Smith, Kellyn Acosta, Cole Bassett (Nicolás Mezquida 60’), Sam Nicholson, Andre Shinyashiki (Diego Rubio 68’), Jack Price, Kei Kamara
Bench: Clint Irwin, Danny Wilson, Dillon Serna, Sebastian Anderson
Stats: Shots 12, Shots on goal 6 , Saves 2, Corner kicks 4, Offsides 2, Fouls 6, Possession 40%, Passes 361(77.3%)
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
COL – None
CIN – None
REF: Ted Unkel
AR: Ian Anderson, Andrew Bigelow
4TH: Farhad Dadkho
VAR: Younes Marrakchi
AVAR: Jozef Batko
Weather: 71 degrees and clear
Attendance: 16,998
HOW IT HAPPENED
- 13’ | Mathieu Deplagne reversed the field to Alvas Powell which led FC Cincinnati to break forward. Powell took two touches before playing the ball up to Roland Lamah on the right flank. Lamah dribbled into the box and played a low cross, however, no FCC player was able to get a foot on the ball in the six-yard box.
- 33’ | Andre Shinyashiki received a throw-in inside the 18-yard box, near the byline. After a couple of feints, Shinyashiki chipped a lofted pass to the far post where Kei Kamara headed the ball down forcing Spencer Richet to make an outstretched save.
- 42’ | Off a Deplagne pass, Fanendo Adi used his body to shield the ball and escape Lalas Abubakar. Once inside the penalty box, Adi attempted to curl a shot to the far-right corner past the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Tim Howard, but the ball was just high and wide of the far upper corner.
- 43’ | COL GOAL -- On the right flank of the field, Cole Bassett flicked the ball over to Sam Nicholson, who then dribbled his way towards goal. As he reached the byline, Nicholson cut a pass back to an unmarked Shinyashiki, who slotted the ball in to give the home team the lead headed into the break.
- 72’ | CIN GOAL -- From behind half field, Lamah sent a lofted ball over the Colorado defense. Kekuta Manneh raced through and beat the two backs to the ball, creating a one-on-one against Howard. Manneh then calmly slotted his right-footed shot past Howard to level the score at 1-1.
- 73’ | COL GOAL -- After Diego Rubio collected the ball outside of the penalty box, he found Nicolás Mezquida in between defenders inside the penalty box. Mezquida was able to sneak his shot under Richey to retake the lead for Colorado.
- 80’ | Adi crossed the ball to the right flank of the field to Lamah, whose one-touch pass sent the charging Powell inside the 18-yard box. With defenders on his back, Powell ripped a shot towards goal but was bested by Howard on a tight angle.
- 82’ | COL GOAL -- Jack Price crossed in a corner kick to the near post, finding Rubio. Rubio’s header from close range was on target and headed at Richey, but was deflected and found space inside the far post to pad the Rapids’ lead.
GAME NOTES
- With today’s loss, the Orange and Blue fall to 3-10-2 through 15 MLS matches … in addition, FC Cincinnati fall to 1-7-1 in road contests … FC Cincinnati’s all-time record against Colorado Rapids sits at 0-1-0 after finishing their first ever meeting… Cincinnati is now 1-5-1 against Western Conference opponents
- Interim Head Coach Yoann Damet made two changes to the starting lineup from FC Cincinnati’s most recent match against the New York Red Bulls on May 25 … Nick Hagglund and Allan Cruz shifted into the starting lineup, while Kendall Waston and Emmanuel Ledesma were dropped … today’s lineup is FC Cincinnati’s thirteenth unique lineup of the season … the only times this season FCC carried over the same starting XI was on March 10 and March 17
- Justin Hoyte served as FC Cincinnati’s captain for the first time this season … Hoyte is the third player to captain the Orange and Blue this season along with Kendall Waston and Greg Garza
- Roland Lamah made his 75th MLS appearance in tonight’s match … the winger has been a steady presence for the Orange and Blue this season having appeared in all but one of FCC’s 15 matches … Darren Mattocks and Nick Hagglund are the next FC Cincinnati players slated to hit major milestones … Hagglund will make his 100th MLS appearance the next time he enters a match, while Mattocks will make his 175th MLS appearance the next time he takes the pitch
- Kendall Waston was unavailable for selection tonight after receiving a one-match suspension for yellow card accumulation … the center back is FC Cincinnati’s first player to miss a match because of a yellow card suspension
- Fatai Alashe (hamstring), Przemysław Tytoń (illness), Leonardo Bertone (hamstring), Greg Garza (calf), and Kenny Saief (hamstring) were unavailable for selection this evening because of injury
POSTGAME QUOTES
FC Cincinnati Interim Head Coach Yoann Damet
On the match
“Frustrating game. We spoke this week about the urgency, the urgency of implementing our style of play and better content during the games coming together. I think the urgency is also to be more clinical. We created a couple of chances tonight, but unfortunately, we didn’t get rewarded. In the first half, we weren’t clinical enough in our box and we conceded some goals, so it’s frustrating. Again, we have to move on and keep working.”
After Adi missed in the 43rd minute, they went the other way and scored? Was it a correlation between events?
“The game is dynamic. Like I used to say, we know we can be in front of the goal about to score and concede in the same action. It’s frustrating. We need to be clinical in both boxes when we attack but also when we defend. When we become a bit more clinical, we’re going to get some more results. Tonight, again, I was happy with the opportunities we created. I think we need to keep pushing in that direction. We need to keep creating these types of opportunities. We need to keep moving to provide options and get in behind. Now we need to be more clinical and just finish these opportunities.”
Do you think it was a let down or bad luck when it went to 2-1?
“I think we switched off so we conceded on the kickoff. It’s disappointing. Again, maybe a lack of concentration in this moment. We get back into the game. It’s a good goal, I’m happy with the adjustment of Kekuta (Manneh) coming off the bench and scoring. We needed to be more clinical in these moments. When we get back into the game and we equalize, we need to keep the score and make sure we are more compact.”
What are you considering a success at this point?
“The way we play. That’s what I said in the past weeks. I think we want to implement some things in terms of the way we want to play. We have to focus on that. The good thing is when we assess the game, because we want to do the same thing and we want to move the ball and we want to implement the same style, it’s easier to assess and reinforce some messages, but also to correct some mistakes. That what we tried to do moving forward.”
FC Cincinnati Defender Justin Hoyte
On the loss
“It’s just disappointing. First half, we’ve done okay in the first 15, 20 minutes, and then we are not sure what happened. Second half, we gave away some silly goals. It was good to come back one-one, and then to concede a goal straight away after we have scored is not good enough. It is just disappointing. We just have to reflect on our performance and we must do better as a team. As a whole, we are playing a good enough football, and I think we just need to turn these performances into results. Just pick up on disappointment and quickly pick ourselves up. It’s all about confidence. We need to gain confidence quickly, get the results and perform better as a team.”
On whether altitude was a problem.
“Not at all. The altitude wasn’t a problem. Of course it is difficult coming away from home, but it wasn’t a problem. We just have to deal with it whatever is playing against us. You know, they have to deal with it as well. So, we can’t put that into an excuse, because we have done well in spells of the game. We just have to perform better on a full 90 minutes. At the end of the day, we didn’t come away with the victory and we need to start winning more games. ”
FC Cincinnati Midfielder Corben Bone
On returning after injury …
“(Getting back on the field) felt good. I was out for a bit, so to be back on the field, it always feels good. Like you said, the result didn’t go our way. Not the result we wanted. But for me, personally, to be on the field and then to try and contribute, it felt good.”
How frustrating has it been?
“It’s tough. But you’ve got to persevere through it. That’s part of the job and that's’ what we’re going to try to do. We have another game coming up, so that’s what you look for. Put it behind you and you move forward.”
Where would you measure where the team is right now?
“You can still work on things. Obviously, we can get better. Every team can be better. So long as we remain positive, I think we’re going in the right direction.”
