August 14, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Cincinnati News Release
The first goal of Leagues Cup for FC Cincinnati was to win it all, and that dream came to a sharp end Tuesday night at TQL Stadium. After a 15 minute sequence where The Orange and Blue looked like they were going to once again find the magic to come from behind and win, the final 10 minutes of the match left everyone in the building a little stunned.
FCC scored twice to level the score at 2-2 and with 10 minutes remaining seemed to have stolen the momentum and were looking for a victory. But Philadelphia struck back instantly with two of their own to end that hope, and leave FC Cincinnati eliminated from the tournament and waiting 10 days before their next chance at redemption in regular season play.
The change in momentum came so quickly that in the aftermath of the loss, no one really was ready to reckon with how those final 10 minutes unfolded. Was it an emotional let down? Was it a loss of focus? Was it over confidence? Was it Philadelphia just bouncing back? There hadn’t been enough time to really digest the moment. But it was clear that whatever did happen,, it’s not a moment they will look to forget.
“It’s little things. It’s how you manage the game… we have to learn from that,” DeAndre Yedlin, who served as the FC Cincinnati captain to start the match, said post game. “We ended up getting back into the game, but, you know, after that, I think we just kind of shut down a little bit.”
“Maybe we hadn’t gotten past equalizing at that stage and understanding how to manage the next couple of minutes to keep some momentum,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan added in his segment of the press conference. “We just defended really poorly in that five-minute stretch, and that led to the outcome.”
“You look at it all and try to see what we did well and why things went wrong tonight. We’ll get some answers, but some of those answers come the hard way.”
FC Cincinnati continued to show determination and faith in their performance on Tuesday; an attitude and attribute that had become the signature feature of the Leagues Cup run to this point for FCC. After falling behind in each of the previous two matches in the tournament, The Orange and Blue had stormed back to put themselves back into the game. Proving to themselves and the world that FC Cincinnati is never out of a match. But that celebration only happens when you deliver the comeback. This time there was very little pride, just…
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