Cincinnati Rallies Late for 3–3 Draw Against Chicago

Despite a cold turn in the weather, a sold-out crowd of 25,513 filled the stadium Saturday night for a match against regional rivals Chicago Fire. The night marked Tom Barlow’s first appearance against his former club after leaving in January. A night that would quickly turn into a test of resilience for FC Cincinnati.

Chicago attackers pushed hard from the opening kick, applying early pressure and controlling the tempo while Cincinnati struggled to find their footing through the first half and five minutes of stoppage time.

The first goal of the match went against Cincinnati courtesy of Hugo Cuypers in the 26th minute as Chicago continued to dominate possession. Cincinnati found a response in first-half stoppage time with former Chicago striker Barlow capitalizing on a rebound off Chicago’s keeper Chris Brady to even the score 1–1 at 45’+1. However, the tie was short-lived as Chicago took a 2–1 lead thanks to a penalty kick from Zinckernagel in the final minute of stoppage time.

Chicago came out after the break strong, with Cuypers netting his second goal of the night off an assist from Brian Gutiérrez to widen the gap to 3-1. Cincinnati bolstered their defense and adjusted to limit Chicago’s attack, allowing possession to even out until the 79th minute, when MLS standout Evander made easy work of a penalty kick to tighten the gap to 3-2.

In the 86th minute, Evander placed a corner kick on a dime to Ayoub Jabbari deep in the box, but the ball was intercepted just inches from its target by Chicago’s Dje D’Avilla, who attempted to redirect it and instead sent it into his own net, equalizing the match at 90’+3 to make it 3-3.

The draw brings FC Cincinnati to 2-4-2 on the season and Chicago Fire to 4-2-2.

Cincinnati is still working the kinks out early in the season and needs to find a way to convert these draws to stay ahead in the standings, but they continue to struggle with allowing too many quality chances and defensive instability. While the offense tends to flow through Evander and Denkey, the attack stalls sharply when either of them becomes tied up by opposing defenses, but if Cincinnati can find a way to capitalize on other players in these hangups and turn it into a controlled advantage, they will certainly begin converting draws to wins.

Cincinnati faces off against New York City FC on Wednesday April 22 in New York and will be put to the test on how well they adjust off of this match as New York stands as a very challenging opponent this season sitting near the top of the standings and shooting nearly two goals every match.