FC Cincinnati Deliver Historic Victory in Concacaf Debut Despite All the Challenges That Surrounded It

February 23, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – FC Cincinnati News Release

It was not the greatest performance in club history. Pat Noonan defined his team’s output as a “mixed bag.” But it was a unique night for The Orange and Blue, who battled through the adversity that surrounded the match and earned a 2-0 victory in Kingston, Jamaica, over Jamaica Premier League side Cavalier FC.

For the first time, FC Cincinnati traveled outside the reaches of MLS nations and picked up another milestone victory after a banner 2023 season. Sergio Santos penned his name in the FCC record book as the first to score a goal in continental competition when he chipped a pass from Bret Halsey past the keeper in the 45+5 minute. Malik Pinto became the 41st member of The Orange and Blue to score a goal when he put a curling shot on the net that tucked itself neatly into the far corner in the 87th minute.

Roman Celentano kept a clean sheet, and Luciano Acosta was named the Man of the Match and received a nice trophy for his efforts.

Despite all that, the challenges that FC Cincinnati faced were impossible to ignore. They colored their time at National Stadium at Independence Park from the moment they stepped off their bus to begin their pre-match preparations.

So many of the luxuries that are typically provided to MLS clubs when playing stateside were simply not there; others only provided by dozens of hours of hard work in preparation by the FCC support staff. The locker rooms were small and lacked space for everyone to sit down. There were no individual stalls and the showers consisted of just fourheads in a small space.

The pitch had bumps and dead spots; it looked radically different from one patch of grass to another and clearly impacted how FCC wanted to play with the ball getting caught up on the grass regularly. The wear and tear is hardly surprising when you learn the history of the venue. The National Stadium at Independence Park (which also hosts a swimming and diving center across the parking lot from the soccer and track and field venue) is used for practically every major event in the city and surrounding areas. The usage of the grass playing field clearly outpaces the ability for groundskeeping that most are used to. On top of that with stadium lighting being inconsistent at best, the challenges at hand with the building presented major pressure points.

The players, coaches and technical staff would never credit those kinds of conditions to any struggles. They…