Cover Photo: Anders Saling (IG: @SalingMedia)
September 23, 2023 (Cincinnati, OH) – Luciano Acosta leads FC Cincinnati to a convincing 3-0 victory at home, comes off the pitch to a standing ovation with M-V-P chants.
- Date: September 23, 2023
- Competition: MLS Regular Season Matchday 34
- Venue: TQL Stadium
- Kickoff: 7:39 p.m. ET
- Attendance: 25,513
- Box Score: FC Cincinnati 3, Charlotte FC 0.
- Referee: Jair Marrufo
Starting XI
FC Cincinnati (3-4-1-2): 18 Celentano; 32 Murphy, 15 Mosquera, 4 Hagglund; 31 Barreal, 93 Moreno, 5 Nwobodo, 13 Arias; 10 Acosta; 9 Boupendza, 19 Vazquez (Head Coach – Pat Noonan)
Charlotte FC (4-3-3): 1 Kahlina; 14 Byrne, 34 Privett, 29 Malanda, 24 Lindsey; 13 Bronico, 8 Westwood, 11 Swiderski; 22 Meram, 9 Copetti, 10 Dejaegere (Head Coach – Christian Lattanzio)
Scoring Summary
45′+1′ FC Cincinnati – Álvaro Barreal
50′ FC Cincinnati – Aaron Boupendza (Assist: Luciano Acosta)
78′ FC Cincinnati – Luciano Acosta (Assist: Obinna Nwobodo)
STATS: (CIN/CLT)
- Shots: 20/9
- Shots on Goal: 9/0
- Saves: 0/5
- Corner Kicks: 3/6
- Fouls: 9/9
- Offside: 2/2
- Possession (%): 39.6/60.4
SUBSTITUTIONS
- 60′ – IN: Derrick Jones, Kerwin Vargas OUT: Jaylin Lindsey, Enzo Copetti (CLT)
- 74′ – IN: Yuya Kubo, Dominique Badji OUT: Junior Moreno, Brandon Vazquez (CIN)
- 83′ – IN: Kamil Jozwiak, McKinze Gaines, Patrick Agyemang OUT: Brecht Dejaegere, Justin Meram, Karol Swiderski (CLT)
- 84′ – IN: Alvas Powell, Marco Angulo OUT: Santiago Arias, Luciano Acosta (CIN)
- 89′ – IN: Raymon Gaddis OUT: Álvaro Barreal (CIN)
MISCONDUCT
- 34′ Yellow Card – Ashley Westwood (CLT)
- 45′+3′ Yellow Card – Kristijan Kahlina (CLT)
BY THE NUMBERS
Stats based on the conclusion of FC Cincinnati’s match:
4: To no one’s surprise, FC Cincinnati’s 62 points leads all of MLS this season. Magic number – 4 points. FOUR.
11: Clean sheet number 11 for Roman Celentano this season in MLS. That puts him in first place, tied with CF Montreal’s Jonathan Sirois, Houston Dynamo’s Steve Clark, and Seattle Sounders’ Stefan Frei.
15: Luciano Acosta reaches 15 goals on the season, tying league leaders Georgios Giakoumakis and Hany Mukhtar.
M-V-P: Luciano Acosta
Lucho Acosta was visibly happy in the locker room after the match today – and who wouldn’t be after the goal he scored, taking on defenders like one famous Argentine frequently did in Barcelona. But this year’s league MVP award shouldn’t be overshadowed by the arrival of one Lionel Messi, and Acosta’s performance on Saturday night just adds another impressive performance to his incredible season.
Acosta, 29, has had what should be considered the MVP favorite calibre season for FC Cincinnati in 2023, scoring 15 goals (Best in MLS) and assisting 12 (4th in MLS) for an astounding 27 goal contributions across 30 matches (Best in MLS). In a season where FC Cincinnati sit atop the Supporters’ Shield table with just 4 matches left to play, Acosta’s play has been invaluable for the team.
Coming off of Wednesday night’s draw in Montreal, Pat Noonan revealed that Acosta played roughly 20 minutes through some pain (later revealed to be heel pain), and Acosta confirmed after Saturday’s match that he played the entire match through that heel pain, but also noted that he felt some pain in his hand due to the sheer amount of autographs he signed post-match.
When asked about the last 48 hours, between the contract extension news breaking and the dominant performance at home, Acosta stated,
“Yeah. Just so happy to continue being able to represent this club. I have so much pride to be able to represent this club. So, just very happy and very prideful to continue here. And obviously, I worked very hard, my staff worked very hard, this club worked very hard to get this contract done, so very happy to have that. Proud to stay here for a few more years and represent this club and retire here.”
Clean Sheet – No Shots on Target
FC Cincinnati’s backline, without the services of Matt Miazga (Yellow Card Accumulation Suspension) has looked suspect at times in the past. The combination of Hagglund, Mosquera, and Murphy hasn’t necessarily produced dominant defensive showings, including a 3-3 draw in regulation against Sporting KC in Leagues Cup and a 2-2 draw in Charlotte. Then, this trio of center backs comes into TQL Stadium on Saturday and doesn’t allow a shot on target.
When asked about the performance of this backline, Pat Noonan stated,
“Our backline has had a lot of different combinations, because of guys missing. We’ve already seen what it looks like when he [Miazga] was away with the Gold Cup. I thought the three of them were outstanding. Like I said, the amount of crosses that came in, the amount of times we had first contact on those crosses or got a body on an attacker to not allow a clear header. I think the one at the end, there was the clear look from Jones, when it was 3-0, but they really had a physical presence and did a really good job of picking up runners in the box. And not only getting the initial contact, but their clearances were good. They allowed us to push our lines to get organized again to deal with the second phase from those wide services. We’ve been able to put a lot of different combinations of center backs on the field and get results. So all three of them performed really well.”
Nick Hagglund also spoke on Saturday’s defensive performance:
“I think there was really good communication on the backline tonight, just between Ian, Yerson, and myself. I think Obi and Junior did a lot of work making it easy for the game to be read. We worked a lot on our communication the past couple days, so it was good. Just making sure we kept the game in front of ourselves, we knew they would go in behind and sometimes interchange and make an overload, so just making sure that we were talking through that, making sure that we had numbers accounted for.”
Barreal – Bangers Only
Álvaro Barreal scored off a free kick in first half stoppage time on Saturday, just a day after FIFA announced that his goal against Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the US Open Cup was nominated as a short list finalist for the Puskas Award.
“At practice, I’m practicing those all the time, and with a little bit of luck, that one went in,” Barreal remarked on the set piece goal. “He (Lucho) told me to take it, he gave me the confidence, he said I should take it. I’m happy for the result.”
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