FC Cincinnati held scoreless in road tie against Orlando City SC
Pat Brennan
ORLANDO – A draw on the road for FC Cincinnati work – for now.
Playing in its first road match of the 2023 Major League Soccer regular season, FC Cincinnati played Orlando City SC to a scoreless tie at Exploria Stadium Saturday before an announced crowd of 18,062.
The result saw FC Cincinnati improve to 1-0-1. The club is unbeaten in its first two matches of an MLS campaign for the first time since joining the league in 2019.
Orlando, which didn't record a home tie last season, improved to 1-0-1.
Cincinnati’s performance left plenty to be desired considering Orlando started the game with five changes to the starting lineup the club fielded in its season-opening victory one week earlier.
Orlando rested roughly half of the players that started Feb. 25 in preparation for a CONCACAF Champions League tilt Tuesday in Mexico.
Even with those changes for the hosts, and a formational posture that indicated they wouldn’t be the aggressors in the game, Orlando held its own against FCC.
What Orlando lacked in attacking prowess, it made up for with large numbers behind the ball and a collective defense that proved too difficult for Cincinnati to breakdown.
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Cincinnati took 10 shots in the game to Orlando’s seven. One from Brandon Vazquez hit the crossbar. Three others from Cincinnati required saves from Orlando City goalkeeper Pedro Gallese, who registered his 23rd career shutout with the club.
Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano was scarcely challenged in the match as he earned his first shutout of 2023 on the strength of one save.
FC Cincinnati made two changes to its own starting lineup in the match. Ray Gaddis started at right back in place of Santiago Arias, who was out with a leg injury, according to the club.
Brenner Souza da Silva also retook his spot in the starting lineup from Sergio Santos.
Santos started and scored in FCC’s season-opening win after Brenner missed the last three weeks of the preseason.
The Enquirer will update this report.
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ORLANDO − Welcome to Cincinnati.com's live coverage of FC Cincinnati versus Orlando City SC at Exploria Stadium. Refresh this page throughout the 7:30 p.m. match for live updates and analysis, and check back after the game for our post-match recap and analysis. On Twitter, the Enquirer's FC Cincinnati beat reporter, Pat Brennan, will have further updates and analysis (@PBrennanENQ).
In-game updates:
- FINAL: FC Cincinnati 0, Orlando City 0.
- Halftime: FC Cincinnati 0, Orlando City 0: FC Cincinnati possessed 57% of the ball in the opening 45 minutes and forced goalkeeper Pedro Gallese into two saves but ultimately had nothing to show for it by the intermission.
- Match underway at 7:39 p.m.
Pre-match updates:
- FC Cincinnati starting XI: Roman Celentano (GK), Ray Gaddis, Nick Hagglund, Matt Miazga, Yerson Mosquera, Alvaro Barreal, Obinna Nwobodo, Junior Moreno, Luciano Acosta (captain), Brandon Vazquez, Brenner Souza da Silva.
- Cincinnati bench: Alec Kann (GK), Alvas Powell, Yuya Kubo, Dom Badji, Sergio Santos, Malik Pinto, Quimi Ordonez, Ian Murphy.
- Orlando City starting XI: Pedro Gallese (GK), Kyle Smith, Rodrigo Schlegel, Abdi Salim, Michael Halliday, Gaston Gonzalez, Wilder Cartagena, Mauricio Pereyra (captain), Dagur Thorhallsson, Facundo Torres, Ercan Kara.
- Orlando bench: Stajduhar, Angulo, Araujo, Felipe, Jansson, McGuire, Ojeda, Petrasso, Rafael Santos.
