street. Louis There was a flood at CityPark on Saturday. One came in the form of severe weather that delayed the start of the game by more than two hours, and the other came during the 90 minutes as St. Louis City nailed the goals on FC Cincinnati.
St. Louis City, the high-flying expansion franchise that now leads all of Major League Soccer in the standings, knocked out previously unbeaten Cincinnati 5-1 Saturday at City Park. The loss was the first of the year for FCC, which fell to 5-1-2 and remains tied for first place in the Eastern Conference.
St. Louis improved to 6-2-0 and moved ahead of Cincinnati at the top of the Supporters’ Shield, a massive achievement after two months of an expansion team’s existence.
Floods arrived early in the game. Jared Stroud scored a 1-0 goal in the third minute. Two late first-half goals – including from Edward Lewin and Kyle Hibbert – effectively put the game out of reach for the FCC before the break.
FC Cincinnati was cut short in the game and played without the injured Luciano Acosta, as well as Brenner Souza da Silva, who looked destined for an exit to Serie A’s Udinese, but even with those absences, FC Cincinnati disappointed in the first half.
In a possible acknowledgment of this, FCC head coach Pat Noonan made three first-half substitutions. Cincinnati’s play improved marginally but the score did not. By the 57th minute, Nicolas Giochini scored followed by an unlucky Roman Celentano own goal that he couldn’t do anything about made it 5-0.
Sergio Santos struggled for a consolation goal in the 62nd minute. It was his third captaincy goal of 2023, and it was little consolation.
The final whistle
It was a night Cincinnati fans would like to forget but probably won’t be able to for agonizing reasons.
St. Louis won 5-1 and took the lead in the MLS Supporters Shield standings. FC Cincinnati’s loss is the first in 2023 as it drops to 5-1-2. The FCC will remain tied to the top of the Eastern Conference and tied to the New England Revolution. Next week will be more about sifting through the wreckage of this match than worrying about the standings.
Something I feel good about (62 ‘)
All three FC Cincinnati forwards united as Sergio Santos tapped the ball over the line from feeder Dominic Badji to make it 5-1. The FCC can roll over and walk away, but it isn’t. Santos’ goal was to lead his team to a third-place finish in 2023.
It really is a defeat (57′)
Continuing with the idea that this simply isn’t FC Cincinnati’s night: St. Louis City’s shot from the top of the penalty area hits the post, rebounds straight to the back of goalkeeper Roman Celentano’s head, and over the line on its own-goal. It’s 5-0. Maybe now is the time for the FCC to shut down this game’s store.
It’s a defeat (53′)
FC Cincinnati had a nice period of acquisition. Three of them were corner kicks as well. But St. Louis came back down and Nicholas Giochini scored in the first period to make it 4-0. It’s going to be one of those nights for FC Cincinnati.
St. Louis Trips to halftime
A severe weather delay last night made way for the worst half of production FC Cincinnati football has had in a long time. This reminds us of a bygone era in the team’s history. Not only is the FCC’s defense targets leaked, its attack is half-hearted. There was possession in the offensive third but rarely a finished product. Cincinnati has one shot on goal and has a long way to climb to make this anything close to respectable.
Wheels off (45+)
Kyle Hebert heads out at 3:00 in St. Louis and continues to beat.
2-0 (39 minutes)
Leaving the ball to bounce and navigate dangerous areas is not part of the FCC’s recipe for success, especially not tonight. Edward Lewin penalized Cincinnati for failing to clear a pass after John Nelson put together a stellar forward run against his former club.
FC Sensi Suspended (35 minutes)
Not much about the tone of this match seemed to fit FC Cincinnati, including the fact that it was surprisingly emotional and tender. St. Louis has had some good looks to double its lead but not recently. The FCC has been able to hang around, which is the way forward for them to get a score from this game while they’re shorthanded.
St. Louis strikes early (3′)
Jared Stroud blasted a shot past Roman Celentano, making it 1-0. The goal in the secondary came from a St. Louis free kick that resulted from an unnecessary foul by Alvaro Barreal.
Football, finally (1′)
After a two-hour, 11-minute delay due to severe weather, including a tornado warning, FC Cincinnati and St. Louis City SC are now underway.
We have a line up!
FC Cincinnati starting XI: Roman Celentano (Goalkeeper), Álvaro Barrial (left-back), Yerson Mosquera (midfielder), Matt Miazga (midfielder, captain), Nick Haglund (midfielder), Santiago Arias (right-midfielder), Junior Moreno (MF ), Obinna Nobudu (midfielder), Koemi Ordonez (English), Brandon Vazquez (English), Sergio Santos (English).
St. Louis starting from the eleventh: Roman Borki (goalkeeper, captain), Jake Nerwinski, Tim Parker, Kyle Hibbert, John Nelson, Edward Lewin, Indiana Vasilev, Jared Stroud, Rasmus Alm, Nike Giacchini, Joao Klaus.
We have a tentative launch time
Tonight’s game will begin at 10:49 p.m. ET unless there are other significant weather delays. It doesn’t rain as hard. Thunder clapping is less frequent and both teams have coaches on the field preparing both halves of the field for warming up. There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel.
Delay continues (8:50 p.m. ET)
However, a lightning warning continues to force fans not to sit in CityPark’s seating bowl. MLS360 on AppleTV announces a scheduled start time for FC Cincinnati-St. Louis at about 10pm but it was not announced at CityPark or made official anywhere else.
Lightning in the area continues to put on quite a light show.
Storm arrives in City Park (7:50 p.m. ET)
It’s dark as night, the wind is howling, the rain is pouring down on CityPark and it now seems likely that the start time of the match will be affected. Everyone in the stadium is still asked to take cover. There has been no official announcement regarding the status of the match and how it could be postponed.
Tornado Warning (7:30 p.m. ET)
Things have taken a dangerous turn at CityPark, which has a tornado warning. Everyone in the stadium is taking cover.
First weather delay of the night (7:15 p.m. ET)
There is no rain at CityPark yet, but fans have been asked to vacate the stadium’s seating area due to inclement weather in the area. This was somewhat expected at some point tonight.
No official word on whether this will affect the game’s 8:30 p.m. ET kickoff. However, neither team prepared their own half of the field for warm-ups.
the weather
Much of Missouri including all of St. Louis is under a tornado watch until 10 p.m. CT, although the sun is setting in downtown areas including near City Park as of about 5:30 p.m. There is no reason To believe that FC Cincinnati- St. Lewis will not be in his game tonight, but there is severe weather moving in the area that could affect the west side of downtown St. Louis at or around 7:30 p.m. kick-off time. League officials will likely be monitoring the weather for the game at this point.
more:Source: FC Cincinnati’s Brynner Souza da Silva is about to move to Italian club Udinese
Team news before the match:
We don’t have to wait for the starting lineups to find out that FC Cincinnati will see some major changes to the starting lineup in their first ever game against St Louis City. Captain Luciano Acosta and midfielder Yuya Cobo were both ruled out with injury. Acosta suffered a shoulder injury in last week’s game against the Philadelphia Union while Kubo has not played in a month. Brenner Souza da Silva, who appears to be close to finalizing a move to Italian club Udinese, was not seen by members of the media during the team’s training session on Friday, meaning his status is in serious doubt.
more:PREVIEW: FC Cincinnati prepares for its first-ever game against St. Louis City
Weather stats
A FC Cincinnati game has not been postponed or rescheduled due to inclement weather since entering MLS.
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