MONTREAL – FC Cincinnati fell in the highest scoring match in club history, 5-4, to the hosts CF Montréal Saturday night at Stade Saputo.
For the fourth straight match, the Orange and Blue scored in the opening 10 minutes. Haris Medunjanin’s 6th minute goal was his second career strike for FC Cincinnati, his first of the season, assisted by Luciano Acosta and Brenner.
Brenner’s hustling run doubled the lead in the 14th minute, capitalizing on slow play from Montreal goalkeeper James Pantemis to give FCC a 2-0 lead.
With the score knotted at 2, Gustavo Vallecilla’s 42nd minute goal, taken off a deflection on a free kick, gave FC Cincinnati a 3-2 halftime lead. Vallecilla scored his second goal of the season, both on set pieces against Montreal. FCC’s three goals by halftime were the most in any half in club history.
Brenner scored the first brace in club history when his goal in the 46th minute gave FCC a 4-2 lead right after halftime, assisted by Álvaro Barreal. The Brazilian is tied for the team-lead in goals with Luciano Acosta and Barreal.
The lead would not stand as CF Montréal scored three unanswered goals, including the first penalty kick goal against FCC of the season, to take the 5-4 win.
FC Cincinnati is back in action Wednesday when the club takes on Atlanta United FC. Fans are encouraged to wear orange for the team’s annual “Orange Out” match, and the first 20,000 fans in the door will receive a TQL Stadium Inaugural Season collectable flag.
The game will be televised nationally on FS1 and ESPN Deportes, carried on the radio on ESPN 1530, while an audio stream will be available via the iHeartRadio app.
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.
**CF Montréal 5, FC Cincinnati 4
Stade Saputo | Montreal, Quebec, Canada
July 17, 2021
SCORING SUMMARY
**CIN – Haris Medunjanin (Luciano Acosta, Brenner) – 6’
CIN – Brenner (unassisted) – 14’
MTL – Mason Toye (Lassi Lappalainen, Victor Wanyama) – 21’
MTL – Joaquin Torres (unassisted) – 34’
CIN – Gustavo Vallecilla (unassisted) – 42’
CIN – Brenner (Álvaro Barreal) – 46’
MTL – Mason Toye (PK) – 72’
MTL – Ahmed Hamdi (Joaquin Torres) – 74’
MTL – Ahmed Hamdi (unassisted) – 87’
FC Cincinnati: Kenneth Vermeer, Tom Pettersson (Isaac Atanga 90+2’), Nick Hagglund, Gustavo Vallecilla, Edgar Castillo, Yuya Kubo, Joseph-Claude Gyau, Luciano Acosta, Haris Medunjanin, Brenner, Álvaro Barreal (Brandon Vazquez 76’)
Bench: Przemyslaw Tyton, Ben Mines, Franko Kovacevic, Avionne Flanagan, Beckham Sunderland, Arquimides Ordonez
Stats: Shots 7, Shots on Goal 5, Saves 5, Corners 0, Offside 2, Fouls 12, Possession 32.9%, Passes 265 (74.0%)
CF Montréal: James Pantemis, Zohran Ludovic Bassong, Rudy Camacho, Mathieu Choiniere (Zachary Brault-Guillard 72’), Joel Waterman, Mason Toye (Bjorn Johnsen 90+4’), Djordje Mihailovic, Emanuel Maciel (Ahmed Hamdi 57’), Lassi Lappalainen (Sunusi Ibrahim 72’), Victor Wanyama, Joaquin Torres (Clement Bayiha 90+4’)
Bench: Sebastian Breza, Mustafa Kizza
Stats: Shots 17, Shots on Goal 10, Saves 1, Corners 13, Offside 0, Fouls 15, Possession 67.1%, Passes 528 (87.5%)
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
CIN – Yuya Kubo (caution) 28’
CIN – Gustavo Vallecilla (caution) 31’
MTL – Joel Waterman (caution) 41’
CIN – Brenner (caution) 45+1’
CIN – Kenneth Vermeer (caution) 67’
CIN – Luciano Acosta (caution) 84’
MTL – Zachary Brault-Guillard (caution) 90’
Referee: Silviu Petrescu*
Ast. Referees: Adam Garner, Kevin Klinger
4th official: Malik Badawi
VAR: Carol Anne Chenard
AVAR: *TJ Zablocki
Weather: 77 degrees and cloudy
Attendance: 25,701 (sellout)
GAME NOTES
- FC Cincinnati’s four match unbeaten run, tied for the longest in club history, ended with the loss.
- Brenner’s brace is the first two-goal performance from an FC Cincinnati player in team history. With his assist on Haris Medunjanin’s goal, his three points are the most in a game in club history.
- Medunjanin (36 yrs., 131 days) is the oldest player to score a goal for FC Cincinnati.
- The Orange and Blue conceded a penalty kick goal for the first time since 11/1/20 at Atlanta (Marcelino Moreno).
- The four goals scored were the most in club history (3/17/19 vs POR; 7/6/19 vs HOU).
- Yuya Kubo will miss Wednesday night’s match due to yellow card accumulation
POSTGAME QUOTES
FC Cincinnati Head Coach Jaap Stam
On losing a 4-2 lead
“When you’re 4-2 up, not that you expect it to be an easy game, but to keep that 4-2 [advantage] and not give it away. But we gave away space and not enough at times. In all these goals we conceded you’re talking about the quality of your opposition because they have it. It’s a good side, they have very good players and have good depth to the squad. But still, you need to defend and you don’t need to concede, you’re 4-2 up, can’t give up three goals. That makes it hard to believe at times and you want to take something out of this game. It would’ve been very good to have three points out of this particular game.”
FC Cincinnati midfielder Haris Medunjanin
On the result
“We scored four goals away, it’s a good thing. But when we score four goals away against a team that is doing well in the Eastern Conference, you need to keep the lead. It’s the second game we gave up a two goal lead, it cannot happen. I think we made [progress], but when we play today against a good team and you score four goals, I think you need to secure three points to Cincinnati, but we didn’t do that. I think that is a little bit frustrating.”
On striking early/early goals
``When you play away you try to pressure the team the opposite team, and we did it well. We stepped out we pressured good, we got the ball, Lucho passed me the ball, it was just a quick reaction to control and shoot. I think the goal keeper didn’t expect I’d shoot that quick. Luckily it went in. But it was nice to score the goal.
But like I said before the frustrating thing is that you don’t take three points away. But the positive thing is we have a game in three days we can recover from this. We have to show that we are a good team, and recover from this and take three points in Cincinnati on Wednesday.’’
FC Cincinnati striker Brenner
On the result
`` So we had everything to win this game and everything was going well, and we scored four goals which is great away but then we let five goals in which is unacceptable. So right now it’s really about reviewing game play, preparing for Wednesday because we don’t have a lot of training left until the next game. But it’s all about focusing on the next game.’’
