New York City FC tasted defeat at home against one of the Eastern Conferenceâs top teams for a second time in four days, falling 3-1 to FC Cincinnati at Yankee Soccer Stadium.
It was a match marred by a controversial performance from referee Armando Villareal, who disallowed a seemingly good goal from Gabriel Pereira that would have given NYCFC a 1-0 lead and a jolt of positive momentum in the 29th minute.
Instead, Villareal blew his whistle for a phantom foul supposedly committed by Gabe Segal, though even the slowest of slow-motion replays of the sequence didnât show much contact between Segal and Cincinnati defender Yerson Mosquera.
Goals change games, and the lack of one in this instance seemed to drastically change NYCFCâs fortunes. Less than 10 minutes after having that Gabi Pereira goal dubiously disallowed, FC Cincinnati cut through the makeshift NYCFC back line and found their own opener.
Luciano Acosta was left unmarked and in enough space to perfectly curl a shot into the top corner past a frozen Matt Freese, giving Cincinnati a 38th-minute lead they would never relinquish.
While this match featured just the one first-half goal, the vibe at halftime still felt eerily similar to Saturday at Citi Field. That match saw NYCFC lead and outplay the Philadelphia Union for almost the entirety of the first half, only to surrender two JuliĂĄn Carranza goals moments before halftime. Acostaâs goal for Cincinnati came earlier than Carranzaâs brace, yet still had the same effect, deflating the home team and forcing them to scramble to find solutions at halftime.
Those solutions would not be found at halftime. NYCFC came closest to equalizing during a 50th-minute sequence that featured three saves by Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano, who denied Santiago RodrĂguez, Gabriel Pereira, and Maxime Chanot in quick succession to preserve his teamâs 1-0 lead.
That lead would grow to 2-0 for Cincinnati when Ălvaro Barreal curled in a free kick following a foul called on Tayvon Gray just outside the 18-yard box. NYCFC temporarily clawed back into the match when substitute Alfredo Morales pulled a trivela out of his locker, dropping a nifty pass right onto the head of Braian CufrĂŠ, who nodded home his first MLS goal in the 64th minute.
It was only a temporary sign of life for NYCFC, as moments after CufrĂŠâs goal, referee Armando Villareal resumed his place at center stage. A lengthy VAR review of a clash between Tony Alfaro and Yerson Mosquera resulted in Villareal pointing to the spot, with Brandon Vazquez converting the ensuing penalty to effectively settle the match in Cincinnatiâs favor.
Game Stats
NYCFC: 12 shots, 6 on goal, 60.3% possession, 522 passes, 85.1% accuracy, 12 fouls
Cincinnati: 11 shots, 5 on goal, 39.7% possession, 359 passes, 78.3% accuracy, 17 fouls
NYCFCâs âletâs get weirdâ lineup
An already thin NYCFC roster is suffering through an injury crisis at a very inopportune time, right in the middle of one of the teamâs toughest stretches of matches. Talles Magno, Thiago Martins, and Mitja IleniÄ were all ruled out in advance of the match. Richy Ledezma, removed after only 62 minutes vs. Philadelphia due to lingering discomfort from a challenge he suffered on NYCFCâs goal, was only available as a substitute. MatĂas Pellegrini and Alfredo Morales have been entirely absent from many of the teamâs recent matches, though Morales did return and notch an assist in his first 30 minutes of action since the May 6 loss in Charlotte.
The visit from Cincinnati was also four days after the tough match with Philadelphia, meaning some lineup rotation was always going to be likely. This all added up to a Dr. Frankensteinâs monster of a starting XI, with three playersâMatt Freese, Tony Alfaro, and Stephen Turnbullâmaking their first MLS starts with NYCFC.
Thiago Martinsâs absence led to a full reworking of the NYCFC back line, with Nick Cushing opting for a three center back setup that included both Tayvon Gray and Tony Alfaro.
That opened the door for Stephen Turnbull and Braian CufrĂŠ to earn starts as wingbacks on the right and left, respectively. Those wingbacks probably fared the best among the new faces in Cushingâs lineup. CufrĂŠ scored once and actually came close to two other goals on the night, while Turnbull held his own making a surprise start after mostly seeing action with NYCFC II in MLS NEXT Pro.
Ultimately this lineup was not good enough to earn a result against the hottest team in MLS. The absences and limited availabilities of some of NYCFCâs key players made it a big hill to climb to match or beat Cincinnati, and that hill was made even bigger by a certain other controversial figure in the middle of thingsâŚ
The Armando Villareal Show
The announced Yankee Soccer Stadium crowd of 14,806 might not have known it when they bought their tickets, but they werenât paying to watch NYCFC play Cincinnati. No, tickets for this match actually got attendees an up-close view of a referee who simply could not stop blowing his whistle.
Armando Villareal called 29 fouls and handed out a combined 12 yellow cards, with eight assessed to NYCFC. His decision to chalk off Gabriel Pereiraâs goal for a âfoulâ that no one could make a convincing case for was mind-boggling in real time, and remains so after watching replay after replay of the incident.
Nick Cushing did not hold back when discussing Villarealâs performance and the effect it had on the game, calling the ref âembarrassingâ and a âdisasterâ while also saying âall I ask is for the referee to understand the game of football.â Cushing will likely get fined by MLS for being this outspoken, but itâs a bill he may feel comfortable paying given what transpired in this loss.
That the refereeâs performance was this big of a talking point post-match underscores just how badly Villareal managed things in the Bronx. The team is still responsible for its performance on the pitch and still had plenty of chances to alter the final result, but itâs hard to swallow having a match be so altered by the influence of the one person out there not actually playing the game.
When will the pain end?
One point separates NYCFC from being dead last in the Eastern Conference table after this second straight home defeat. Only a Red Bulls victory on the road to Inter Miami spared NYCFC from the indignity of being 15th out of 15 Eastern teams after 15 games played.
Itâs now been seven matches since NYCFC last earned a victory. That last victory was all the way back on April 22, and since then, NYCFC have earned exactly one point out of a possible 18 available to them in MLS play. Itâs relegation form if that were a thing here in America.
While this stretch is bad, itâs still not the worst run in club history, an âhonorâ still held by the inaugural 2015 squad that mustered four points across 11 games played.
The bigger current concern is: Where is the turnaround coming from? The roster has been depleted by offseason departures and a lack of comparable reinvestment, and is now being further thinned out through injuries.
The loss to Cincinnati was a good example of a game in which everything that could go wrong for NYCFC, did in fact go wrong. The negativity has started to compound for NYCFC, and it might take something unexpected to break the vicious cycle the team currently finds itself trapped in.
Goals:
Cincinnati, Acosta, 38â˛
Cincinnati, Barreal, 59â˛
NYCFC, CufrĂŠ, 64â˛
Cincinnati, Vazquez (PK), 70â˛
Discipline:
NYCFC, NYCFC bench, yellow card, dissent 37â˛
NYCFC, CufrĂŠ, yellow card, foul 41â˛
Cincinnati, Mosquera, yellow card, foul 43â˛
Cincinnati, Vazquez, yellow card, foul 45â+5â˛
Cincinnati, Acosta, yellow card, foul 50â˛
NYCFC, Chanot, yellow card, foul 53â˛
NYCFC, Sands, yellow card, foul 56â˛
NYCFC, Gray, yellow card, foul 58â˛
NYCFC, Pereira, yellow card, dissent 66â˛
NYCFC, Alfaro, yellow card, foul 82â˛
NYCFC, Morales, yellow card, foul 88â˛
Cincinnati, Gaddis, yellow card, other 90â+1â˛
Attendance: 14,806
Referee: Armando Villareal
Assistant Referees: Corey Parker, Diego Blas
Fourth Official: Thomas Snyder
VAR: Victor Rivas
Assistant VAR: Jeff Muschik
