Coming off their worst performance of the season at Philly (5-0), an Evander-less FC Cincinnati battled to a 3-3 tie against Charlotte FC.
“It’s a shame that we dropped points tonight. It’s hard with the way the game’s played to see a lot of good things,” said head coach Pat Noonan. “With what I thought was a pretty strong performance to to only get one out of it, have to scramble to get the one as is a shame.”
Not even three minutes into the match, Tom Barlow crossed a perfect ball to Pavel Bucha, who placed it home through some traffic for a 1-0 lead.
That lead didn’t last long whatsoever – the youngster Andrei Chirila gave one right up in his own end. Chirila tapped one up in the air on a failed clear and gave Liel Abada a ball on a platter.
Cincinnati gave Charlotte another gift just a few minutes later – Barlow tripped Pep Biel up in the box, who then converted on a PK to make it 2-1 visitors.
Cincinnati continued passing up opportunities to tie this one up, the worst of them all coming near the end of the first half – Ender Echenique beat the defender on a breakout, and instead of shooting, he passed back to Miles Robinson, who fired it WAY above above the net…
“It’s one of the many decisions where, when we get closer to goal, we don’t have the right feel for how to finish plays off,” said Noonan.
Chirila later made up for his first half mistake and fired a shot in off Kevin Denkey to tie it up 2-apiece early into the final 45 minutes.
Cincinnati’s suspect defense later gave up another one, this time Idan Toklomati headed one off a cross in between two Cincinnati defenders, both whom looked lost, which made it 3-2.
In the final minutes of extra time, Denkey delivered on a corner from Bryan Ramirez to tie at 3-3.
Noonan put it simply post-game. “This is what we are right now. We can’t get out of our own way,” and I’d have to agree. Defensive lapses at critical moments has just been this team’s Achilles heel, an all too common theme the past seasons.
Simply looking at the stat-line of this match tells the story: Cincinnati 67% of possession, 28 shots to 8, 12 corners to 3, and 9 shots on goal to 4, yet they draw.
Lastly, the most telling (and worrisome) quote Noonan gave was this: “We just don’t have that killer instinct right now.” How a team doesn’t have a killer instinct on a Saturday night at home in front of packed house in the midst of a playoff race is beyond me, and until they figure it out, this roller-coaster of a season will continue.
FC Cincinnati will next face Houston in a week on the road at 8:30 PM ET.
Author
