FC Cincinnati Run Over in Philadelphia

Damon Gumbert

I normally start these articles with a quote or by waxing poetic about the match that had occurred. We’re not doing that today. I’m putting as much effort into this article as FC Cincinnati put into this match, which is to say that I’ll be giving up half way through.

The facts of the match were that Philadelphia completely out played Cincinnati and embarrassed a once mighty team. Cincinnati didn’t manage to put a single shot on frame, only really managing one shot in total. The defense, which is as makeshift as it has ever been, was completely outclassed.

Many people are complaining about the officiating in this match, and yes there are things to complain about, but FCC were their own worst enemy. In the 16th minute of the match Obinna Nwobodo was shown a red card and sent off after a foul on Frankie Westfield.

The foul was a justified red card, Nwobodo was late and went cleats first into Westfield’s ankle. The anger to the call was misunderstood, as while the call was correct it directly contradicted a similar play that happened when The FC took on Nashville. In that match, Evander was taken out by a late foul that came with cleats to the ankle. The VAR in that situation did not see any reason to take a second look and consider a red card, but in this match the VAR did have the referee go and check the call and he overturned the yellow and upgraded to a red card.

With the team down a man, FCC was on the back foot for the rest of the first half. Philly ramped up the aggression on offense, taking it directly at the squad. In the 40th minute Evander was shown a yellow card for a foul on Quinn Sullivan in the box, leading to a penalty kick. It was a soft foul, but it will always blow my mind that players keep their forearms and elbows so high that other players can just walk into them and then put on their acting shoes to try and get a foul called. Just… keep your arms lower.

Sullivan nailed the penalty kick, sending Roman Celentano the wrong direction, and put the Union up 1-0. A few minutes later Bruno Damiani would double the score, slipping by Andrei Chirila and connecting on a ball from Cavan Sullivan right in front of goal.

It was a pretty pitiful first half, and that could only really be topped by the team essentially putting the white flag up with their substitutions to start the second half. Pat Noonan took out Ender Echenique, Evander, and Kevin Denkey, substituting them for Tom Barlow, Alvas Powell, and Nick Hagglund.

If you stopped watching at that point, so did I. The game continued and Philadelphia scored three more times. A 5-0 rout of FC Cincinnati.

Now the Orange and Blue have to turn around and get ready for another match on Saturday. Not only will Nwobodo miss that game due to his red card, but Evander will also be out due to yellow card accumulation. The most interesting thing to see going into that game is if players like Kristian Fletcher or Stefan Chirila can finally get some minutes with the first team.

I wouldn’t put any money on that happening though. The club makes a big deal about building up their youth players but refuses to play them. When the club has played their younger players, they have tended to do pretty well, which makes the decision to not play them incredibly frustrating.

Charlotte comes to town and by the end of the weekend FC Cincinnati could realistically be out of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. They currently hold the seventh spot, but only sit one point ahead of Philadelphia and two ahead of NYCFC and Toronto FC.

Hopefully they can pull it together, but as they say, “it’s the hope that kills you.”