FC Cincinnati had a completely disastrous night Sept. 9 in Philadelphia.
Cincinnati lost 5-0 to Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park in Chester, Pa., a loss that damages Cincinnati’s place in the standings in both points and goal differential. Cincinnati also lost Evander and Obinna Nwobodo for their next match against Charlotte Sept. 12 due to card suspensions.
FC Cincinnati drops to 8-8-7, remaining on 31 points and dropping to seventh place in the Major League Soccer Eastern Conference. Cincy has now lost two straight games by a combined score of 9-0. Their goal differential is now minus-seven. Philly improves to 8-10-6 for 30 points and is now plus-two. Philly is now 7-0-2 since the World Cup break under interim head coach Ryan Richter.
"Yeah
another instance where we can't get out of our own way with discipline in how the game looks," said FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan. "So, bad night, and we'll see how we respond from this."
Nwobodo, Cincinnati’s top defensive midfielder, drew a red card in the 16th minute. The foul was initially ruled a yellow but was upgraded after video review. Cincinnati played a man down after that, and Nwobodo will be suspended for this weekend’s home match with Charlotte.
The game remained scoreless until late in the first half, when Philly struck twice. The first came on a penalty kick by Quinn Sullivan after Evander was called for a foul in the goal box. He was given a yellow card on the play, which suspended him for the Charlotte match due to yellow card accumulation.
“Yeah, we lose two key pieces, but I think we'll have guys that are ready,” Noonan said. “But of course, when you take those two out of the mix, I think for any team that can affect the group. But we'll see what that means for us because we have guys that can fill in those roles and help us perform and win.”
In stoppage time. Bruno Damiani scored from close range to give Philly a 2-0 lead at halftime.
“I thought actually for the remainder of the half we actually defended in a good way up until the penalty,” Noonan said. “We could have made a couple of early decisions (on substitutions), but I I felt like the group, from (the red card) to the penalty was actually defended in a pretty good way.”
Damiani scored twice in the first 16 minutes of the second half to make it 4-0 and give himself a hat trick. Cavan Sullivan assisted on all three goals and Quinn Sullivan two for a four goal-contribution night.
Damiani has six goals for the year. Damani had scored in both wins over Cincinnati last year, and had a goal later in Wednesday's match waved off by a handball on another player.
Pavel Bucha scored in the second half, but it was waved off on an offside call by video review.
Milan Iloski provided the final score on another PK late in the game, his 12th of the season.
Philly dominated the stats, with 18 shots and 65% possession to only one shot for Cincinnati. Kevin Denkey missed a shot on a quality chance in the first half when it was scoreless, and Cincinnati never had a shot on goal after that.
Cincinnati fell to 1-6-5 on the road overall this year, and 1-6-2 all-time in Subaru Park.
Cincinnati played its 250th all-time MLS regular-season match, and is 92-101-57 all-time after a rough first three seasons from 2019 to 2021.
Nick Hagglund came into the game to start the second half, the first minutes he has seen on the pitch since the World Cup break.
The club made headlines by parting ways with veteran center back Matt Miazga on Sept. 4. Miazga is still listed on the roster but shared a post on Instagram Sept. 4 saying goodbye to FC Cincinnati and the fans.
Noonan said that hasn't been a distraction but the team's approach was still lacking.
"Mentality can be a lot better," he said. "Our last two performances show that. I don't put it on just players. This is a collective concern."
What's next for FC Cincinnati?
Cincinnati hosts Charlotte FC 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 at TQL Stadium. Charlotte entered the night in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, and beat Montreal 2-1 Wednesday to improve to 39 points (11-7-6), eight ahead of Cincinnati. The teams drew 2-2 May 9 in Charlotte.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: FC Cincinnati loses game, players, in disastrous loss
