Roman Celentano, Evander SPARK FC CIncinnati to WILD 3-2 win over Chicago Fire FC
Damon Gumbert
Photo credit goes to FC Cincinnati
“Sometimes this stuff doesn’t make sense,” said a bleary Pat Noonan after the match. Even the coach looked exhausted after the match, all of his energy left on the pitch with the rest of the team. “Credit to the guys for the way they figure stuff out, again. I’m kind of tired of saying that, but it’s for good reason.”
For the second time in club history, and the second time this season, FC Cincinnati went down a man and found a way to scratch a victory and 3-points out.
A wild affair in the windy city started with Noonan choosing to stick with the same lineup that secured victory last week against the New York Red Bulls. While the lineup didn’t change, the tactics did, with the team opting to not switch the ball in the air nearly as much as they did against RBNY, instead making short passes and attempting to spread out a fast Chicago side.
The first half was a battle between two players: Hugo Cuypers and Evander. The Fire striker remained a problem for FC Cincinnati, netting the first goal of the night in the 16th minute, deflecting a ball off Kyle Smith into the wrong corner for goalkeeper Roman Celentano, who looked like he had a good jump on the shot had it continued its original trajectory.
Evander fired back in the 24th minute, capitalizing on chaos in the Chicago box. The play began with Dado Valenzuela sending the ball to Evander, and the Brazilian slicing the defense and delivering a perfectly placed through pass to Kevin Denkey in the box. Denkey sent a pass across the goal, either aiming for Kenji Mboma Dem, who was central, or to Pavel Bucha, who eventually sent a pass back towards the goal. That pass was deflected by a Fire defender, but found its way to the feet of Evander, who sent the ball past two sliding defenders and Chris Brady to even the match.
Cuypers would not be outdone, scoring his brace just four minutes later, another deflected shot off an FCC defender, this time Andrei Chirila got a boot on it. The play was initiated by Philip Zinckernagel, who beat Brian Anunga on the edge before sending the pass to Cuypers for the goal.
Evander one-upped the Chicago striker, scoring three minutes later in the 31st, scoring a classic Evander top-of-the-box goal. Valenzuela started the build-up by sending a ball to Mboma Dem, who sent a quick pass over to Evander. The midfielder then dribbled for nine steps, striking the ball and sending it to the bottom right corner of the net.
That was it for scoring in the first half, with Celentano stopping the best chance for Chicago to go into the break ahead. The goalkeeper had to use all of his 6’3 frame to make a diving save on a wonderful shot from Zinckernagel in the 44’. After one minute of added time, we went into break even at two a piece.
Noonan made one sub at half-time, bringing in Nick Hagglund for Brian Anunga and moving Sam Gidi into the midfield. That caused some problems initially in the second half, with the back line losing a significant amount of its speed without Gidi and Chicago blitzing up the pitch.
Things went from bad to worse when Smith raised his leg and foot while attempting to play a Chicago throw-in and caught Robin Lod in the face with his boot. Lod went down in a heap, and the referee immediately showed Smith a red card, the fifth time this season an FCC player has received one. Many thought this was going to be a yellow card, including Noonan, who said, “It’s obviously not malicious, but is it so dangerous? I have to see it back, but it didn’t feel that way. Give him a yellow and let's see if we can use VAR in that moment, again.”
“I know Lod came off, and I hope he’s okay.”
Lod was down on the pitch for several minutes and was replaced in the match by Jonathan Bamba after sporting a large welt underneath his left eye.
With the defense down a man, Noonan made a substitution in the 66’, bringing on Matt Miazga for Valenzuela. Miazga, who was returning from an injury and on a minutes cap, entered the game and was immediately a force on the back line. Despite having lost a step in his speed and agility, Miazga’s brain was still firing on all cylinders, being in the right place at the right time on several dangerous moments.
I asked Noonan after the match on if he was worried about Miazga being on the pitch as long as he was, given his return from injury and the minutes restriction, to which he said, “Yeah, it was, because when you saw how thin we were, we used the Nick [Hagglund] sub at halftime and 30 [minutes] was probably the max, and we had a conversation just to see where he was at, but he came over a little earlier than probably he was supposed to because I think he just felt where the game was going and how he could be helpful.”
Over the following 20 minutes or so, Chicago took 12 shots against FC Cincinnati, with several being blocked by defenders, some being saved by Celentano, and a few misplaced attempts going over the crossbar. In the 87’, Noonan subbed on Ayoub Lajhar, who was called up from FC Cincinnati 2 on a short-term loan earlier in the day, for Bryan Ramirez. Lajhar got himself in a bad spot soon after, fouling Zinckernagel in the box and surrendering a penalty kick to Chicago.
With a chance to seal the match, Cuypers stepped up and sent a shot into the bottom right corner. Luckily for The FC, Celentano was prepared and saved the penalty. In the ensuing chaos, Lajhar redeems himself, blocking a shot right at the center of the goal and clearing the ball for the moment.
“So shout out to Ayoub Lajhar. I mean, obviously, he gives away the pen, but after I save it, the ball gets back in, and there's 2 or 3 guys wide open, he makes an unbelievable block,” Celentano said after the match.
After a few more attempts from Chicago were blocked or saved, the ball finally made its way down to the other side of the pitch in the 90+3 minute, with Pavel Bucha receiving the ball in the box before getting his ankle crushed by Dje D’Avilla and earning a penalty for the Orange and Blue.
When asked about Bucha’s injury, Noonan said, “Pavel got an X-Ray, so that’s come back negative, which is a good thing, but maybe an ankle sprain there, so we have to see.”
Bucha initially left the pitch as Evander stepped up to the spot to take the penalty. Cincinnati’s number 10 drilled the ball into the back of the net, sending Chris Brady the wrong direction and earning himself his first professional hat trick.
A reserved Evander spoke about the hat trick after the match, saying, “All I can say is that God gave me the hat trick in the right moment and I’m really pleased with that.”
The match, which had seven minutes of added time initially, went into the 90+11th minute before the full-time whistle was blown. Everyone, from players to coaches, looked completely exhausted when talking to the media after the match. A physically and emotionally draining match that moved FC Cincinnati into fifth place in the Eastern Conference, a surprise after the slow start to the season.
The club will have a week to rest, recuperate, and then return to the pitch and get ready for next Saturday’s match against Charlotte FC. Charlotte started the season well, but has since dropped four of their last five matches, including a 1-0 loss to New England on Saturday.
With Pavel Bucha potentially injured for the time being, the club will need Miles Robinson and Alvas Powell to heal up and return to the lineup soon, as the club has three matches in quick succession, starting with Charlotte (05/09) and then hosting Inter Miami on Wednesday (05/13), then traveling to San Diego for their first-ever match against San Diego FC (05/16).
