FC Cincinnati Drops Red Bulls After Second Half Collapse

The Red Bulls entered tonight’s match having won just one time in the last eight matches against FCC. (1W4D3L) that includes the early exit in last year’s playoffs and this year’s Gold Cup on penalty kicks.

Red Bull has scored multiple goals in their last four matches while FCC has allowed multiple goals in their last three matches, which they’re also on a winless streak during that period. One thing is for sure the game will be high impact and FCC will not lie down and let the Red Bulls do what they please. Missing Vazquez is big for FCC; however, Acosta has been scoring and diving to help the best he can.

The Acosta diving show is starting early in this match, in the 3′ Hassan Ndam is shown a yellow card after he bumps into Acosta who sells it as a town murder.

Cam Harper comes up big for the Red Bull with a last-second slide tackle in the box, two yards from the goal in the 12′. Red Bulls earn a corner off the counterattack, Dante is under it and thinks about a bicycle kick, he aborts halfway through, and the ball goes sailing through the uprights for a field goal, oops wrong football.

In the 19′ a yellow card is issued to Pinto after the two muggings he committed in ten seconds in front of the center referee, first taking out Harper then Edelman.

The Red Bull get on the board after a gift from the center referee, he called handling on Hagglund in the box, and the ball hit the top of Hagglund’s shoulder and bounced away, it never made any contact with his arm. Omir Fernandez stepped up and went lower corner 2nd post for the goal and lead. #RBNY is up 1 – 0 in the 27′ of the first half.

In the 36′ Edelman sends a laser beam of a shot toward the far post, it goes just inches wide and out of play for a goal kick. The attempt was from 20 yards out, through traffic just missing the mark.

The fourth official indicates a minimum of two minutes will be added, Edelman is shown a yellow card but, it’s unclear why. That is half, and the Red Bulls once again lead in shots but cannot make anything of it. It took a phantom penalty kick to get them on the scoresheet tonight and give them an early 1 – 0 lead.

With Pat Noonan out for FCC on the sidelines you can expect his players and staff to step up the pressure and bring the heat after halftime. This team is in first place in the Eastern Conference for a reason, they don’t lie down and die. They fight back and it will be interesting to see what changes are made at halftime.

In the 46′ we get the first change from FCC bringing on Moreno for Pinto, Pinto has been all over the place in the first half, he has also caught the eye of the center official which is never a good sign.

FCC has increased the pressure on the Red Bull back line despite not getting the looks they would like. They have been focusing on Ndam and trying to get him to make a sloppy foul for a send-off. Sean Nealis has helped keep Hassan in the match by stepping up and also getting involved in any confrontations. Sean has to be careful though as he is in the yellow card accumulation talks again with the second stage of punishment in sight.

In the 61′ FCC makes two more moves bringing on Santos for Angulo and Arias for Gaddis who has been solid tonight but starting to look a bit fatigued in the heat and humidity.

The 64′ is MLS gone wild minute, Nocita makes his MLS debut for the Red Bulls and Dante Vanzeir is shown a yellow card after a pretty harmless foul. MLS says the foul was bad but honestly, what does a bad foul even mean in MLS these days? We’ve seen people literally mugged and beaten and not even a whistle, yet the tiniest love tap is approaching Defcon 1 Red Card zone.

In the 72′ Wiki Carmona comes on for a struggling Tom Barlow, I swear we say it every match, but Troy loves the kid for some reason. Don’t get us wrong he is a great guy, the problem is he is a great guy who belongs in USL 2 at best and may even be a bench player there.

In the 77′ that moment of dread every RBNY fan/supported was dreading happens, Duncan goes in hard on a challenge inside the box and the referee thanks him by issuing a penalty kick.

We all knew the first penalty called in the Red Bull’s favor was very soft and the center only needed the slightest excuse to call one the other way. VAR confirms the penalty in the 79′ and of course league villain Luciano Acosta steps up to take the penalty kick. He converts the kick going low corner to the near post. The Match is now tied up at 1-1 and the arena is stunned and trying to get a response from the guys on the pitch.

In the 81′ Troy needing some energy out there shocks everyone, by bringing on Peter Stroud for Hassan Ndam instead of going with Donker who has been spinning MLS first-team defenders every time he touches the playing field.

The substitution would be costly in the end as FCC scores in the 90’+3′ off a broken play in which Stroud lost his mark and couldn’t recover in time to block the shot attempt by Nwobodo, his shot took an odd bounce and went past Coronell low corner of the near post. This time no VAR to save him and say there was interference with him, the goal would be the last play of the match, as the whistle blew to end the match shortly after the kickoff. FCC takes the match 2 – 1 in stunning fashion, it was the most Red Bulls lost one could have.