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FC Cincinnati

Adi makes return to starting lineup; FCC wraps up season series with New York

May 25, 2019 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Cincinnati News Release


CINCINNATI - After conceding twice in the second half, FC Cincinnati dropped a 2-0 decision to the visiting New York Red Bulls at Nippert Stadium on Saturday evening.

Despite having more offensive chances, FC Cincinnati (3-9-2, 11 pts.) dropped their first home match under Interim Head Coach Yoann Damet. Second-half substitutes Kaku and Omir Fernandez provided a goal apiece to give New York (6-5-3, 21 pts.) their second win against the Orange and Blue this season.

Kaku capitalized off a Cincinnati defensive miscue in the 78th minute. The midfielder stole the ball from Deplagne and slid it beyond Spencer Richey to open the scoring for the away team. In the dying minutes of the match, Michael Murillo played a pass out to Brian White, who crossed the ball in to the center of the box. Fernandez sealed the win with a diving header in the first minute of stoppage time.

The Orange and Blue will be back in action on Saturday, June 1, when the club visits Dick's Sporting Goods Park to face the Colorado Rapids at 8:30 p.m. The match will be televised locally on WSTR Star64, streamed regionally on FloFC, out-of-market on ESPN+ and carried on the radio on WDJO, while an audio stream will be available on the TuneIn app and fccincinnati.com. FCC returns to Nippert Stadium for their next MLS regular-season home game on Saturday, June 22, to face the LA Galaxy at 7:30 p.m. Pick-Six mini plans, and individual-game tickets and group options are on sale at fccincinnati.com/tickets or by calling 513-977-5425 (KICK).

For up-to-the-minute information about FC Cincinnati, visit the team's official website at fccincinnati.com, or follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @FCCincinnati.

New York Red Bulls 2, FC Cincinnati 0

Nippert Stadium | Cincinnati, Ohio

Saturday, May 25, 2019

SCORING SUMMARY

RBNY - Kaku (unassisted) 78'

RBNY - Omir Fernandez (Brian White, Michael Murillo) 90'+1'

FC Cincinnati: Spencer Richey, Mathieu Deplagne, Justin Hoyte, Kendall Waston ©, Alvas Powell, Caleb Stanko, Victor Ulloa (Nazmi Albadawi 81'), Frankie Amaya, Emmanuel Ledesma (Kekuta Manneh 81'), Roland Lamah, Fanendo Adi,

Bench: Jimmy Hague, Nick Hagglund, Forrest Lasso, Eric Alexander, Rashawn Dally

Stats: Shots 12, Shots on goal 4, Saves 0, Corner kicks 8, Offsides 3, Fouls 12, Possession 49.5%, Passes 338 (70.1%)

New York Red Bulls: Luis Robles, Tim Parker, Michael Murillo, Amro Tarek, Kemar Lawrence, Cristian Casseres Jr.(Kaku 59'), Alex Muyl, Marc Rzatkowski, Sean Davis, Andreas Ivan (Omir Fernandez 79'), Tom Barlow (Brian White 58')

Bench: Derrick Etienne, Connor Lade, Sean Nealis, Ryan Meara

Stats: Shots 8, Shots on goal 2, Saves 4, Corner kicks 4, Offsides 1, Fouls 10, Possession 50.5%, Passes 349 (68.5%)

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

RBNY - Michael Murillo (caution) 39'

CIN - Kendall Waston (caution) 58'

REF: Fotis Bazakos

AR: Nick Uranga, Cory Richardson

4TH: Ted Unkel

VAR: Chico Grajeda

AVAR: Gjovalin Bori

Weather: 76 degrees and cloudy

Attendance: 28,290

HOW IT HAPPENED

6' | Following a throw-in near midfield, Roland Lamah gained possession of the ball on the left flank, brought it down and played a well-weighted through ball to Fanendo Adi in the 18-yard box. Adi's first-timed, right-footed shot was directly at Luis Robles and went beyond the endline to give FC Cincinnati a corner kick.

12' | From the right flank at the field, Alvas Powell laid the ball out to Victor Ulloa on the outside of the 18-yard box. Ulloa dropped back to find Frankie Amaya, who dribbled through two defenders to get a right-footed shot from the outside of the penalty box. Robles was able to get a touch on it to send the ball over the crossbar for a corner kick.

31' | Following a stretch of buildup play after a New York turnover in the middle third, Mathieu Deplagne -- who was positioned 10-yards to the left of the top-left corner of the 18-yard box -- reversed the field by playing a lofted ball to Adi. The forward attempted a volleyed shot, however, his attempt was mis-timed and the ball trickled beyond the endline for a goal kick.

40' | Amaya sent a free kick from the middle third to the 18-yard box, where Adi was able to head the ball on frame, but Robles was able to push the ball over the crossbar with his right hand.

56' | Following an FCC midfield turnover, Alex Muyl sprung a counter attack by playing a lead pass to Tom Barlow inside the 18-yard box. A charging Spencer Richey got to the ball just before Barlow and was able to smother the attempt.

78' | RBNY GOAL -- Amaya passed the ball back to Deplagne in Cincinnati's defensive half. Deplagne lost the ball between his feet. Kaku intercepted it and slotted the ball into the goal for New York.

83' | From the edge of the middle third, Lamah laid the ball out to Deplagne on the left. With clear space in front of him, Deplagne dribbled forward and took a shot from outside the 18-yard box. His driven shot narrowly missed left of the goal.

90+1' | RBNY GOAL -- Michael Murillo played a through ball to White on the right side of the field. White crossed the ball over to the penalty spot, where an incoming Omir Fernandez dove to head the ball towards goal and doubled the away team's lead.

GAME NOTES

With today's loss, the Orange and Blue fall to 3-9-2 through 14 MLS matches ... in addition, FC Cincinnati fall to 2-3-1 in home contests ... FC Cincinnati's all-time record against New York Red Bulls now sits at 0-2-0 ... Cincinnati is now 2-5-1 against Eastern Conference opponents

Interim Head Coach Yoann Damet made four changes to the starting lineup from FC Cincinnati's most recent match against the Orlando City SC on May 19 ... Alvas Powell (RB) Caleb Stanko (CM) Roland Lamah (LM) and Fanendo Adi (FW) shifted into the starting lineup, while Greg Garza, Eric Alexander, Kekuta Manneh and Darren Mattocks were dropped ... today's lineup is FC Cincinnati's thirteenth unique lineup of the season ... the only times this season FCC carried over the same starting XI was on March 10 and March 17

Darren Mattocks (hip), Fatai Alashe (hamstring), Victor Cruz (ankle) and Leonardo Bertone (hamstring) were unavailable for selection this evening because of injury

Fanendo Adi returned to the FC Cincinnati starting lineup for the first time since March 17 in the home opener against Portland Timbers ... Adi left the match at halftime with an ankle injury... since then the forward has made two appearances off the bench against San Jose (May 4) and Orlando City (May 19)

Nazmi Albadawi made his MLS debut when he replaced Victor Ulloa in the 81st minute ... the midfielder made 29 appearances and recorded 10 goals with the Orange and Blue in the USL in 2018

Tonight's match marked the first time this season FC Cincinnati did not use three substitutions

Caleb Stanko returned to the FC Cincinnati starting lineup for the first time since May 4 against San Jose Earthquakes

Rashawn Dally made the 18-man matchday roster for the first time this season after being recalled from Memphis 901 FC earlier this week

Following his fifth yellow card of the season, Kendall Waston will be unavailable for selection in FC Cincinnati's match at Colorado on June 1 ... Waston will be FC Cincinnati's first player to miss a match because of yellow card accumulation

POSTGAME QUOTES

FC Cincinnati Interim Head Coach Yoann Damet

On tonight's match

"I think a lot of positives to get out of this game. I think the score does not reflect what happened on the field. So for sure, frustrating for the guys. I think we deserve better than that tonight and I think again it's about keeping our heads up, keep working and moving forward."

On the positives he takes from the game:

"The mentality of the group. The confidence that they played with. I think the mentality was spot on tonight from the beginning to the end. Guys worked hard on the field, tried to respect the plan, and I think they did a great job. They showed some confidence, and I see a lot of improvement."

On Mathieu Deplagne's miscue that led to New York's first goal

"I'm disappointed for him. I think he's been one of the most consistent players on the team. I think he doesn't get enough credit for what he's done so far in the team. I'm just disappointed for him. But again, I don't look at that much more. I think it's important that we stay together in these moments. We're all going to have moments like that where we can go down, but the group is stronger and if we stay together, we're going to go through that."

On if he saw the ending coming

"That's football, everything can happen. As long as its 0-0, it can go both ways. We knew the game was developing, I think it was a balanced game. The dynamic of the game changed quite a few times, so sometimes we had more of the ball, sometimes we were more proactive, more attacking, sometimes they were. I think the game can go either way, and unfortunately tonight that happened on one little factor. It's disappointing, but again, we need to see the big picture, we created opportunities, we offered more chances. We tried to progress, we tried to create, we tried to add more connections on the field, and impose ourselves more, and I think the guys showed a lot of progress."

Thoughts on Fanendo Adi's performance

"Very happy with Adi. I think again, his mentality, I've spoken about his leadership and his importance in the team. I think tonight, again, I'm very happy with what he showed for 90 minutes. I was expecting to see him more tired in the second half, he was able to go through the game. I see a lot of positives in his leadership, what he brings to the table. I think at some points, we used him too much in the air. We dind't play enough on the ground to create triangles and progress on the field. So I think sometimes, we relied on him a little bit too much. But again, it's just about keep working, moving forward, trying to work on these little details on how we're going to play, which players we're going to find on which places on the field."

FC Cincinnati Midfielder Victor Ulloa

On the performance

"I think we fought for 90 minutes. I think tonight we dominated a lot of the game, we created some good opportunities. Unfortunately, we couldn't get one to bounce in the net. I mean, the first goal that they get is our mistake, and the second one we are just pushing for a tie so we're stretched a little bit. But yeah, the mentality of this team, you saw it from the first minute to fight and we know that we're in a tough situation and we need to get out of it. We just need to keep fighting and keep working and keep putting in the work that we've been doing."

On his comfort level with playing a more attacking role

"Yeah it felt good. It felt good to get on the offensive side a little bit. I like that position because I get to show a little bit of my offensive side, I felt like I did a pretty good job tonight, I wish I could've been more involved and maybe help create more opportunities so that we could have scored.

On the play of Caleb Stanko

"We know that he is a quality player, he has technique, he's aggressive defensively and that is what we needed tonight. I think he did a great job from coming in and not playing many games to starting tonight, I think he did a great job.

On the last two matches overall

I think the past weekend, we were bad on set pieces, and we knew that we had to be better and we knew that that was matchups: man on man. We knew that we had to take our responsibility, we put our hands up, the guys that make the mistakes, and moved on. I think this week we improved on that part, but I mean the first goal was really our own mistake and we know that that is something we can fix and we just have to take the positives. Like I said, we know we are in a tough situation but all we can do is just keep working."

On the challenges of playing with different players in the midfield

"I think we built those connections through training, I think any of the guys that have played so far can move in and adapt at any moment, and we are building that chemistry on the field, training, and we have put in three good weeks with Yo. We have to keep doing and keep putting in the work and keep that strong mentality. We know that eventually we will get rewarded for all of our hard work."

On the play of Frankie Amaya

"You see that he is growing more confident on the ball, he is being the focal point of our attack, creating chances and making opportunities happen. I think he has taken that responsibility on his shoulders and kind of taken the team on that part and I'm happy for him. I'm always advising and talking to him, trying to push him, because I know he has the quality and I know he can be a great player for us."

New York Red Bulls Head Coach Chris Armas

On tonight's match

"Yeah, I mean that locker room is really energized right now. I think part of it is that we win on the road. Part of it is that we continue the momentum. Part of it is that there are a lot of different players contributing. Part of it the guys feel like they are growing in all these moments."

On RBNY goalkeeper Luis Robles

"Well, I just said to him on my way out of the locker room, another night where you just you come up big, you stand tall. The way we play, we get beat at moments behind and he seems to be in the right spots right now and he was locked in. So, to see him make some big saves, it's a game changer for sure. It's another game that he has won it for us."

On impact the subs had on the game

"Listen, if you can pull the right strings at times and maybe you can benefit. But I think as the staff, we are watching. We know what we are looking at but when we bring in Kaku, for sure. He plays two of the three games this week. We wanted to manage him the right way going into the match. We thought we would get him involved in some way. Omir Fernandez was the third sub. So, we had to be mindful of not to burn it too early, but we know in the final third he is so clever. Then Brian White gets an assist. Listen, we said in there that the starters come in to a night with 28,000 people, this team, they're grinding for results. It is going to be difficult. It's hot. It's turf. It's aerial duels all night. They showed up with courage, our guys. The reserves come in, do their part, it is a total team effort. So, it is great to see these guys rewarded."

On Amro Tarek's form

"Yeah, I think not too long ago, we said he was a great off-season pick up. Denis Hamlett nailed you He said, you know with the help of CJ Brown, who had coached him in Orlando. So, credit to those guys and credit to Amro (Tarek). He is prideful. He loves the team. He loves being with the group. He fits in so well. The guys have taken to him, and it usually has to go that way. You don't just play good. You have to feel comfortable and happy and accepted, and then maybe you can play good. We think that's the right equation. So, it's great to see, he gave a lot to the team this week. We pushed him hard and congrats to him."

On the break after gaining momentum

"Well, what that locker has done is amazing. You know, it comes with a little bit of criticism and they responded to that, we all did. So, to see the guys stick together, and again I said it in the Atlanta game when it was referenced, it's not a starting point. The Atlanta wasn't a starting point. That was the results from a strong foundation. Guys sticking together. Coaches preparing the right way, all of it. So yeah, 5-1-1, it's great, but I'll tell you what, they'll reset it. That's what the key is, to reset it, to come back to work with humble approach, but with our growing confidence and growing togetherness is probably the best it's been."

New York Red Bulls Midfielder Omir Fernandez

On this first goal for RBNY

"I mean, for sure. You know, as a sub you're always trying to make an impact. You're trying to help the team win and to add that extra goal in those dying moments where we needed it the most. You know, it's a great feeling. I feel like it would've been better at home with our fans to celebrate, but away will have to do. It's a moment I'll never forget."

On the impact the substitutions had on the game

"For sure. I mean, we've always said we have a deep team. You know, it doesn't matter the 11 that start, everybody is committed to come in and win. That's what we are. We're a winning team and we always wanted to come in and win. You know, Brian got the assist. Brian created a lot of chances, did good defensively up there, and Kaku, obviously, coming in and scoring the first goal is big time."

On the team's mentality after good string of games

"You know, we're always confident in ourselves. We know what kind of team we are. We make people uncomfortable, and it doesn't matter what we are. We always try to find comfort in our game. We don't change the style that we play. And away or home, we want to make people uncomfortable, and it's working."

On building off tonight's match

"Yeah, for sure, now that we've moved up in the table. We had a rough start, but we've always known that we were going to pick it up. We know what we have in the locker room, and we're ready to get 3 points and keep going."

New York Red Bulls Midfielder Kaku

On the game

"La verdad, contento por el partido que ganamos. Una cancha muy difÃ-cil y el equipo lo hizo muy bien. AsÃ- que, feliz por ellos y por volver de sumar de a tres."

"Honestly, happy for the game that we won. It is a very difficult pitch and the team did very well. So, i am happy for them and adding by three again."

On subs contributing to the win

"Muy bien, siempre hay que estar atento. Hay que estar listo para cuando te toque entrar. Tu no sabes si puedes cambiar el ritmo de un partido. AsÃ- que, contento porque los dos que entramos pudimos hacerlo muy bien."

"Very good, you always have to be vigilant. You have to be ready for when you it is your time to go in. You don't know if you can change the rhythm of a game. So, I am happy because the two of us came in we were able to do it very well."

On the string of good results.

"Muy bien, porque el equipo está agarrando la confianza del año anterior. Creo que vamos hacer un rival muy difÃ-cil para todo lo que venga."

"Very good, because the team is gaining the confidence of the previous year. I think we're going to be a force to be reckoned with in anything that comes."

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