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    • FC Cincinnati wins the season finale and faces NYCFC in the MLS Cup playoffs
    Albany

    FC Cincinnati wins the season finale and faces NYCFC in the MLS Cup playoffs

    Madoc Meredith Posted on

    CHESTER, Pa. — Perhaps it was the increased stakes in the regular-season finale that helped FC Cincinnati pull off a winning performance, ending a three-game losing streak for the club.

    FC Cincinnati had its final opportunity to build momentum as the Eastern Conference’s No. 3 seed before a trip to the MLS Cup playoffs on Saturday, defeating the Philadelphia Union 2-1 at Subaru Park.

    The loss eliminated Philadelphia from playoff contention. It entered the day with a viable path to earning a wild-card playoff bid, but the loss ended the Union’s streak of six consecutive years in the playoffs.

    Heading into the MLS Cup playoffs for a third straight season, the club improved its record to 18-11-5. FCC was guaranteed a No. 3 seed before the regular season finale, but the win secured the club’s spot in the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup.

    Asked if a win would be enough to build momentum in the postseason, FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan said, “It helps.”

    “You don’t want to go into the playoffs having not won four games,” Noonan said. “But like I said before the game, you know, we’re looking for a strong performance, and if the result wasn’t there, I think, you know, the season is over, it’s a restart, now it’s playoffs, and if you can win your first game at home it will probably be a similar feeling to now and you can go on from there. But I think it’s very important for the group to get into this. The feeling the way they do is certainly beneficial. We have to perform the same to have the same feeling. But I was very happy with the two weeks, the preparation and the way the boys played it looked like us tonight.”

    Noonan also said that Champions Cup qualification was the main reason for his satisfaction with the win.

    “It was a goal of ours. It took us until the last game to get there but the boys should be very pleased to be able to represent our club in this competition,” Noonan said. “Hopefully we have learned some lessons from this year’s experience and know how we can do better in the next game. But I’m very happy that our club is part of this competition.”

    All playoff questions were answered on Saturday

    The Union will begin an early offseason for the first time in six years, but FC Cincinnati’s playoff journey is about to begin. After other games elsewhere on “Decision Day,” as MLS refers to the final day of play across the league, ended as finals, the FCC learned that they would play in the best-of-three first-round playoff series against New York City FC would compete.

    Cincinnati edged NYCFC 2-1-0, with the clubs splitting two regular-season games and a Leagues Cup group stage game, which Cincinnati won at TQL Stadium.

    MLS officials are expected to confirm the full MLS Cup playoff schedule on Sunday afternoon.

    How the Cincy-Philly match ended

    Philadelphia scored its first goal on Saturday just three minutes into the game. Quinn Sullivan scored in the third minute and the Union had high hopes of a playoff spot at that point.

    However, Cincinnati has stopped the bleeding there. They held back the Union’s attack, which also left out leading goalscorer Daniel Gazdag due to injury in the 15th minuteTh Minute. Just before half-time, Yamil Asad equalized for FCC and leveled the game at 1-1.

    On the other side of the half, Union gave FC Cincinnati the go-ahead when Philadelphia defender Jakob Glesnes pushed a slow pass into his own net.

    While Cincinnati had next to nothing to do with the decisive goal, they finished the game relatively cleanly.

    “It was nice to play with the lead. “It was nice to have the feeling of finishing an important away game again with the team throwing everything at you,” said Noonan. “And I think the biggest moment was DeAndre (Yedlin)’s block there at the end. I think the two areas we can improve are the turnovers and moments where we need to be better with our ball decisions in dangerous areas so that we don’t allow teams to attack us in transition when we don’t have the Having time and space to recover. We had a couple of bad turnovers that gave them a chance to attack the goal and we also had a couple of moments, I think, to prevent that. And you know, we’ve missed it on a number of occasions, that two-goal one -get a lead. I play with the lead.

    Another season-ending game involving Cincinnati, Philadelphia

    For the third time in a row, FC Cincinnati and Philadelphia Union faced an elimination scenario. There were direct playoff duels in 2023 and 2022, and on Saturday FC Cincinnati ended the Union’s playoff hopes.

    These teams always seem to find each other when the stakes are highest, assuming FCC wasn’t facing elimination on Saturday. But after the Union knocked Cincinnati out of the League Cup in August, this can be seen as another chapter in the story of two clubs that have developed quite a dislike for each other.

    *** ***

    *** ***

    CHESTER, Pa. − Welcome to Cincinnati.com’s live coverage of the MLS “Decision Day” game between FC Cincinnati and Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park. Refresh this page during the game for live updates and analysis.

    Scoreboard Observation Update (60′)

    The help that Union needed in other games has finally arrived. Charlotte leads DC United. Why should FC Cincinnati fans care? The Union will quickly realize this has happened and should light fires under them for the rest of the game.

    This Charlotte goal is also important for FC Cincinnati because it would change their first-round playoff matchup. As things stand, FC Cincinnati will face New York City FC in the playoffs. FCC beat New York 2-1-0 in all competitions this year.

    Disaster for Philadelphia (46th)

    Philadelphia center back Jakob Glesnes made a simple pass backwards to his goalkeeper Andre Blake. But Blake wasn’t quite ready to receive the ball where Glesnes thought. The ball dribbled over the line, giving Cincinnati a 2-1 lead.

    The Union still needs help in other games that hasn’t been forthcoming so far and they still have a lot of work to do.

    On the other hand, Cincinnati is close to securing its spot in the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup, which would be the case with a win.

    FC Cincinnati back in the game (45+4′)

    Yamil Asad took advantage of the space and ran onto a loose ball in the Union penalty area and shot the ball into the goal to make it 1-1. It was his third goal this year.

    As far as the scoreboard is concerned, the Union is currently out of the postseason. FC Cincinnati is likely to face Charlotte FC in the first round of the playoffs. It is questionable whether one of the clubs in the DC United-Charlotte game wants to upset the current score of 0-0 or not. The tie would ensure DC’s berth in the playoffs regardless of what Union does, and Charlotte went 1-0-1 (four points) against FCC this season.

    Halftime is approaching (40th minute)

    This should be a pretty disappointing night for both teams, with FC Cincinnati losing so far and the Union not getting the help they need in other games to qualify for the playoffs.

    DeAndre Yedlin had Cincinnati’s most promising chances of the half, but that was early in the contest. FCC hasn’t done much lately.

    Early big change for Union (15th minute)

    Daniel Gazdag unexpectedly left the game due to injury. Gazdag was by far the Union’s top scorer in MLS play with 17 goals. Philadelphia will be hoping they don’t need a goal later in this game because their best chance of scoring right now is to get treatment in the locker room.

    The final matchday of the MLS regular season begins (3′)

    It’s a breathtakingly beautiful fall night in Subaru Park (which is actually in a suburb of Philadelphia – you can see the skyscrapers of Center City in the distance). And the Union showed really good football. So good, in fact, that Quinn Sullivan scored to give the team a 1-0 lead in the third minute.

    Philadelphia needs a win tonight and now has this part of the game in hand. However, they need help in the form of a loss from DC United or CF Montreal. The Union is trying to overtake one (or ideally both) of these clubs for a spot in the Wild Card playoffs. DC and Montreal will both survive with a draw, but Sullivan’s goal at least puts them under pressure in their respective games.

    The final “XI” of the regular season

    • FC Cincinnati starting eleven: Roman Celentano (GK), Chidozie Awaziem, Miles Robinson, Teenage Hadebe, Obinna Nwobodo, Luciano Acosta (captain), Pavel Bucha, Yamil Asad, DeAndre Yedlin, Yuya Kubo, Luca Orellano.
    • Cincinnati bench: Alvas Powell, Nicholas Gioacchini, Corey Baird, Sergio Santos, Kevin Kelsy, Gerardo Valenzuela, Malik Pinto, Ian Murphy, Evan Louro.
    • Philadelphia Union starting eleven: Andre Blake (TW, captain), Jack Elliott, Jakob Glesnes, Nathan Harriel, Kai Wagner, Daniel Gazdag, Jack McGlynn, Leon Flach, Quinn Sullivan, Michael Uhre, Tai Baribo.
    • Philadelphia bank: Cavan Sullivan, Sam Adeniran, Ale Bedoya, Jeremy Rafanello, Olivier Mbaizo, Jesus Bueno, Danley Jean Jacques, Chris Donovan, Andrew Rick.

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    Madoc Meredith
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