FC Cincinnati defeated D.C. United, 2-1, Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 25,513 at TQL Stadium. With the win, the Orange and Blue remain perfect at home with an MLS-best 6-0-0 regular season record in the Queen City.
FCC improved to 7-1-3 (24 points) while D.C. dropped to 4-5-2 (14 points). With the loss, D.C.'s four-game winning streak across all competitions was snapped. The win marked Cincinnati’s first-ever win over D.C. United at home.
After a scoreless first half, FC Cincinnati struck first in the 59th minute. FCC earned one of six corners on the night after a moment of nervy defending for D.C. United when Álvaro Barreal slipped under the arm of a United defender before being tackled near the goal line. The Orange and Blue lined up for the set piece with Luciano Acosta at the corner flag.
Acosta proceeded to whip in a dangerous ball that found its way through the crowd at the near post and through the legs of D.C. keeper Tyler Miller for a rare Olimpico – a go-ahead goal directly from the corner kick.
Acosta scored his second goal of the season, and his third goal against his former club.
The Orange and Blue doubled their lead in the 73rd minute as Barreal scored his first goal of the season. Acosta played provider on the move, picking out Barreal down the left side, for his third assist of the year. Barreal charged into the box, sizing up Miller in goal, before launching a rocket with his preferred left foot, nailing the back of the net.
Barreal scored for the first time since September 10, 2022 against the San Jose Earthquakes.
D.C.’s Taxiarchis Fountas scored in the 90th minute off a corner kick, which marked the first goal which FC Cincinnati have conceded this season after the 60th minute.
The late goal did not affect the result, with the Orange and Blue holding on for a 2-1 win. Goalkeeper Roman Celentano made four saves Saturday night to become the club’s all-time leader in career saves (118), surpassing Przemysław Tytoń (115).
FC Cincinnati continue a four-game homestand on Wednesday, May 10 against New York City FC in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Round of 32. Kickoff from TQL Stadium is set for 7 p.m. and tickets can be purchased at FCCincinnati.com/Tickets or by calling (513) 977-5425 (KICK). The match will stream for free on the CBS Sports Golazo Network, which is available to stream free on connected TV and mobile devices through the CBS Sports App and Pluto TV, and on CBSSports.com, as well as on Paramount+.
FC CINCINNATI GAME REPORT
FC Cincinnati vs D.C. United
Date: May 6, 2023
Competition: MLS Regular Season
Venue: TQL Stadium
Attendance: 25,513 (sellout)
Kickoff: 7:39 p.m. ET
Weather: 72degrees, clear
SCORING SUMMARY: 1-2-F
CIN: 0-2-2
DC: 0-1-1
CIN – Luciano Acosta 59’, Álvaro Barreal (Luciano Acosta) 73’
DC – Taxiarchis Fountas 90’
GAME NOTES
- Saturday’s capacity crowd of 25,513 marked the fifth sellout of TQL Stadium in six regular season home games … it was FCC’s 13th sellout of TQL Stadium all-time.
- FC Cincinnati all-time against D.C. United improved to 2-4-3, with wins in consecutive games against D.C. … entering Saturday, FCC in five prior chances at home had never defeated D.C., which was the most home games against any club which FCC had never beaten.
- FC Cincinnati have conceded first just once this season … with LAFC allowing the first goal tonight against San Jose, the Orange and Blue’s one conceded opening goal marks the fewest in MLS.
- Roman Celentano became FC Cincinnati’s all-time leader in career saves, surpassing Przemysław Tytoń’s previous record of 115 … Celentano entered the evening with 114 saves and made four saves against D.C.
- Saturday marked Pat Noonan’s 20th MLS win as head coach of FC Cincinnati … Nick Hagglund has started all 20 of those games.
- Hagglund (99 regular season appearances for FC Cincinnati) and Brandon Vazquez (99 appearances across all competitions for FC Cincinnati) approach milestones for the club.
- Alvas Powell made his first regular season start since Decision Day 2022 at D.C. United last October.
- Saturday’s starting temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit marked the warmest kickoff at home this season for FCC.
LINEUPS
CIN: Roman Celentano, Álvaro Barreal (Ray Gaddis 79’), Yerson Mosquera, Matt Miazga, Nick Hagglund, Alvas Powell (Ian Murphy 88’), Junior Moreno (Yuya Kubo 88’), Obinna Nwobodo, Luciano Acosta (C) (Malik Pinto 87’), Sergio Santos (Brenner 65’), Brandon Vazquez
Substitutes not used: Alec Kann, Joey Akpunonu, Marco Angulo, Dominique Badji
Head Coach: Pat Noonan
DC: Tyler Miller, Derrick Williams, Ruan (Cristian Dajome 64’), Donovan Pines, Jacob Greene (Yamil Asad 88’), Russell Canouse (C) (Chris Durkin 88’), Lewis O’Brien, Mateusz Klich (Ted Ku-DiPietro 88’), Victor Palsson, Taxiarchis Fountas, Christian Benteke
Substitutes not used: Alex Bono, Brendan Hines-Ike, Kristian Fletcher, Matai Akinmboni, Jackson Hopkins
Head Coach: Wayne Rooney
STATS SUMMARY: CIN/DC
Shots: 11 / 13
Shots on Goal: 4 / 5
Saves: 4 / 2
Corner Kicks: 6 / 6
Fouls: 12 / 15
Offside: 0 / 1
Possession: 46 / 54
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
DC – Jacob Greene (Yellow Card) 21’
CIN – Luciano Acosta (Yellow Card) 39’
DC – Christian Benteke (Yellow Card) 60’
CIN – Yerson Mosquera (Yellow Card) 70’
CIN – Yuya Kubo (Yellow Card) 90+5’
CIN – Brenner (Yellow Card) 90+5’
CIN – Roman Celentano (Yellow Card) 90+7’
DC – Lewis O’Brien (Yellow Card) 90+9’
OFFICIALS
Referee: Guido Gonzales Jr.
Ast. Referees: Cameron Blanchard, Brian Dunn
Fourth Official: Pierre-Luc Lauziere
VAR: Jorge Gonzalez
AVAR: Peter Balciunas
POSTGAME QUOTES
FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan
On the win
“A good battle. We played a good team tonight. D.C. you can see is moving in a good direction, difficult to play against. We had a feeling that the chance creation was going to be difficult if we weren't decisive and if we didn't move the ball quickly … It was a hard-fought win and you can see there was really good energy to end that game for different reasons. I thought the crowd was electric.”
On winning tight games
“It's hard to win. Blowing teams out is not easy to do, and I don't think that we're going to step on the field and blow out anybody. You have to be really productive to be able to finish off all your plays and score three, four or five goals. Maybe we saw a couple of those games last year and outside people expect that, but that's hard to do. We're still trying to find ways to be more efficient in the final third and better with our passes in our final shot. But we don't need to validate our positioning by scoring five goals in a game and blowing a team out. I don't feel that way. But we're certainly looking at ways to have better control of games for longer stretches. We keep winning one-goal games and 1-0 games. I'm OK with that. Yeah, we would love to win by multiple goals every game, but that's not going to be the case.
“I think good teams know how to close out games home or away. When you're winning by a goal, what does it look like in being able to close a game out. Now, we were up two goals and so, we can do it in a better way to not concede and make it as interesting as the last 10 or so minutes or with the extra time. Good teams win one-goal games, and I think we've shown that we can do that.”
