HARRISON, New Jersey − FC Cincinnati's match at New York City FC will be remembered for all the wrong reasons, many of which have nothing to do with soccer.
In a match marred by a late stoppage in play due to an FC Cincinnati player reportedly being subjected to discriminatory remarks, FCC dropped its second game in a row with a 3-2 loss to New York City FC on Wednesday. The game was played before a sparse crowd at Red Bull Arena, home of the New York Red Bulls.
Post-match, the consequences of the defeat for FC Cincinnati took a backseat to what MLS officials alleged in a post-match statement was a homophobic chant directed at an FCC player. In a separate statement, FC Cincinnati officials said NYCFC fans were responsible for the chant in question.
Neither statement named the FC Cincinnati player in question, although it had been reported during the match that FCC captain Luciano Acosta was targeted by the chant.
Nearly six seasons into its MLS existence, FC Cincinnati had never been involved of a match stopped due a discriminatory display or chant.
Around the 86th minute, referee Guido Gonzales, Jr. stopped the match in response to the alleged chant. He then approached the sideline and discussed the matter with the head coaches of both clubs, and instructed stadium officials to proceed with a public-address announcement regarding the incident.
"Ladies and gentlemen, discrimination has no place in our sport and in our stadiums, and will not be tolerated," stadium officials said over the stadium loud speakers. "A fan chant that was just used is offensive. We ask that fans do not continue to use this chant. Thank you."
The match did not restart until the in-stadium announcement was repeated in Spanish. After that occurred, FC Cincinnati took a drop ball in its own half in the 90th minute. Thirteen minutes of time added to the second half would follow, and game officials didn't report any further incidents.
After the game, FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan was asked how match officials handled the incident, and how he personally felt about one of his players being reportedly targeted. At the time, he was still gathering facts about what transpired.
The statements from club and MLS officials later on added more information regarding what was believed to have transpired.
"Step one was what they were doing, bring the coaches and the players to let us know that the chants were, I think, homophobic in nature, I don't know what the exact wording was (from the referee)," Noonan said. "But that was discriminatory in nature, I think was his word. And so step one was letting everybody know. Step two would be handled if we needed to get to step two. But there wasn't, in the moment, too much clarity on what step two was going to look like.
"I want to make sure that's a fact first. But if that is the case, you know, that's a part of our game that continues to be an issue, and I commend the player, the people on the field for handling a bad situation the right way, because I think everybody went about it the way that we're supposed to, because it's something that we're trying to eliminate from the game."
In a statement provided to The Enquirer and later published on X, formerly Twitter, Major League Soccer headquarters addressed the in-game matter and provided more information about what transpired in its statement: “Major League Soccer is aware of an incident at tonight's New York City FC vs. FC Cincinnati match where a spectator directed a homophobic slur toward a player. MLS unequivocally condemns hate speech of any kind and will not tolerate abusive, derogatory, or threatening comments directed at players, clubs, or anyone associated with the league. MLS is working closely with the clubs and stadium personnel to identify any individual(s) involved. Hate and bigotry have no place in our sport, in our communities, or in society as a whole.”
In a separate statement, FC Cincinnati directly attributed to NYCFC supporters what it called "offensive language directed by fans toward one of our players."
By Thursday afternoon, NYCFC had not issued its own statement addressing the matter, nor had it shared the MLS statement.
An NYCFC official didn't respond to The Enquirer's request for comment.
The action on the field at Red Bull Arena
The victory for NYCFC was a significant one. It guaranteed the club would finish at least the No. 7 team in the Eastern Conference standings, which means bypassing the treacherous, single-game elimination wild card game between the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds.
With the loss, FC Cincinnati dropped to 17-10-5 in MLS play and remained in third place in the Eastern Conference. FCC was still one point back of second-place Columbus Crew in the race for playoff seeding.
In the midst of another slow start for FC Cincinnati on Wednesday, defender Mitja Ilenič scored the opener for the hosts in the 16th minute with a well-placed and quick shot after he was left unmarked near the edge of the penalty area.
The clubs seemed to play to a relative stalemate from that point on, and well into the second half. FC Cincinnati's play was drab, but NYCFC wasn't playing FCC out of the game either.
Then things picked up quickly with less than 30 minutes to play. Alonso Martinez doubled NYCFC's lead in the 65th minute. New York hit FC Cincinnati on the counterattack, and Martinez banged his shot in off the underside of FCC goalkeeper Roman Celentano's crossbar.
The win seemed well in-hand for NYCFC at that point, but that sense was short-lived.
An Acosta penalty kick goal in the 69th minute gave Cincinnati a lifeline. The goal was Acosta's 13th of 2024 and made it 2-1, NYCFC.
The penalty kick was awarded without much argument from NYCFC players after a long ball played into their penalty area checked up and hit the hand of a New York player.
Then, the video-assistant referee (VAR) intervened about five minutes later to deliver a questionable penalty kick to NYCFC, which was converted in the 75th minute by Santiago Rodriguez for a 3-1 lead. A tripping offense was deemed to have occurred with Miles Robinson and Ian Murphy in the immediate area.
FC Cincinnati had introduced too many fresh bodies into the fray for it go quietly in the contest. Maybe not surprisingly, Corey Baird scored his second goal of the year to make it 3-2 with about two-plus minutes remaining in the eight minutes of added time. Added time appeared to be then extended to 13 minutes.
FCC finally ran out of time, though. Acosta ran straight off the field at the final whistle, and the coaching staffs mostly managed to shake hands after chirping back and forth for much of the contest.
"Yeah, poor performance," Noonan said. "Certainly not a game we deserved to win. We fought enough to make it interesting, but our play isn't good enough, and I don't just put that on the players. Over the last two games, my message hasn't been clear enough or demanding enough for it to look better than it has. So we got some work to do.
"You don't want it to look like that, where you're scrambling in the way we are and playing the way we are. And, you know, expecting to get results. If we would have gotten a result out of that game, you know, we would have been very fortunate and probably stealing a point. So they keep fighting, though. That's, you know, that's something we've seen from them. That's nothing new, but we can't keep putting ourselves in this position and expect to achieve anything."
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HARRISON, New Jersey − Welcome to Cincinnati.com's live coverage of FC Cincinnati versus New York City FC in a match played at Red Bull Arena. Refresh this page throughout the match for live updates and analysis from Enquirer FC Cincinnati beat reporter Pat Brennan ( @PBrennanENQ ).
Final: NYCFC 3-2 FC Cincy
FC Cincinnati drops its second game in a row. They're on a bit of a wobble going into Saturday's match against Orlando City SC at TQL Stadium.
Corey Baird tallies, and it's still a game (90+6')
Corey Baird walloped home his second goal of the year in the 96th minute. The Red Bull Arena scoreboard indicates we're playing 13 minutes of time added on after an initial eight minutes was announced.
A stoppage in play (86')
NYCFC back up by two goals (75')
Santiago Rodriguez was the beneficiary when the video assistant referee (VAR) went back to review a moment that was several minutes old, and ultimately determined an NYCFC player was tripping inside the FC Cincinnati penalty area. Rodriguez took the resulting kick to restore his team's two-goal lead at 3-1.
Maybe there is a comeback coming in this game (69')
A long ball played into the NYCFC penalty area jumped up and hit Thiago Martins' hand, resulting in a penalty kick for FC Cincinnati. Luciano Acosta hammered the resulted kick home for 2-1. The goal Was Acosta's 14th of 2024.
NYCFC doubles its lead (65')
It's hard to imagine FC Cincinnati coming back from this deficit considering what it has produced so far tonight. FC Cincinnati fell behind, 2-0, on a mighty rip from Alonso Martinez that hit the underside of Roman Celentano's crossbar and bounced in.
A drab first half for FC Cincinnati
There aren't many updates for this match in the first half. That's because the game wasn't great quality, and FC Cincinnati managed just two shots on-target.
Teenage Hadebe's debut start for Cincinnati is over to begin the second half, with Yamil Asad on in relief.
An opening goal to NYCFC (16')
With no defender there to close him down, Mitja Ilenič picked out the far post of FCC goalkeeper Roman Celentano's net and scored the first MLS goal of his career. It's 1-0 to the hosts.
Underway at RBA (1')
It's going to be a lightly-attended match. That much we know about this contest. Stay tuned to see if the hearty fans here have anything to cheer about tonight.
The starting lineups for the third-to-last match of '24
- FC Cincinnati starting XI: Roman Celentano (GK), Luca Orellano, Teenage Hadebe, Miles Robinson, Alvas Powell, DeAndre Yedlin, Pavel Bucha, Luciano Acosta (captain), Obinna Nwobodo, Yuya Kubo, Kevin Kelsy.
- Cincinnati bench: Niko Gioacchini, Corey Baird, Kipp Keller, Bret Halsey, Gerardo Valenzuela, Malik Pinto, Yamil Asad, Ian Murphy, Evan Louro (GK).
- NYCFC's starting XI: Matt Freese (GK), James Sands, Perea, S. Rodriguez, Thiago Martins, Wolk, Kevin O'Toole, Maxi Moralez, Ilenic, Justin Haak.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: FC Cincinnati drops a wild, controversial game vs. NYCFC at Red Bull Arena
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