New York City FC 4-4 Cincinnati: Late letdown as two-goal lead slips away

New York City FC got the goals that were missing from some of their recent home setbacks, but they weren't enough to get the team back to winning ways at Yankee Stadium, as FC Cincinnati rallied from down 4-2 late to pull even in the 90'+5' to earn a wild 4-4 draw.

This was a back-and-forth battle between two teams desperate to snap their respective MLS winless streaks, NYCFC without a win in four league games and Cincinnati without a win in three.

It might be somewhat fitting that it ended up an eight-goal draw where neither team could be that pleased with their performance and each team's MLS winless streak extended by another game — though Cincinnati will cherish the one point gained from what looked set to be a loss.

It looked to be heading toward a New York City win because Nico Fernández Mercau had a brace before halftime, Agustín Ojeda finished off a sterling pass into open space from Aiden O'Neill to make it 3-1 shortly after halftime, and Talles Magno restored some order and made it a 4-2 New York City lead with a curling beauty after coming on as a late second-half sub.

Yet this game was defined by the fact that Cincinnati kept coming back into things and wouldn't let New York City get comfortable.

Kévin Denkey earned a brace, Evander had a great-looking goal from distance disallowed by VAR after a foul in the build-up was identified, and Cincy eventually got their last-gasp equalizer when Kevin O'Toole conceded a penalty, tripping up Evander in the box, with Cincinnati's Brazilian No 10 stepping up to the spot and sending Matt Freese the wrong way to convert and settle the 4-4 scoreline.

Not a dull Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, by any means.

Defensive switch-offs prove costly

Cincinnati originally pulled level with NYCFX in the first by punishing a moment of flat-footedness from the New York City defense off a quickly-taken throw-in, with Kévin Denkey left unmarked and free to connect with a cross from Ender Echenique on a 32nd-minute equalizer.

A similar situation played out on Cincinnati’s third goal, which started from a throw-in taken deep in New York City’s defensive end. New York City‘s defensive line stayed deep and conceded the space to Andrei Chirila, and the Cincinnati substitute had time to set and shoot on target past Freese to make it only a 4-3 NYCFC advantage.

The New York City defense was a strength across multiple recent seasons, but it has looked leaky of late, making some uncharacteristic mistakes, which also includes the late foul committed by Kevin O’Toole on Evander that gave Cincinnati their equalizer from the spot.

The club has only kept one clean sheet this season and has now conceded 10 times in the last four games in all competitions, so improvement at the back will be necessary if the five-match MLS winless streak is to end this Saturday in Montréal.

Upside: The scoring floodgates opened

Coming out of the Charlotte loss, much was made about missed scoring chances coming back to bite New York City in games, particularly the Charlotte loss and the St. Louis draw at Citi Field.

There were no such concerns from this one, as the attacking front of New York City picked on the makeshift Cincinnati backline that lost Nick Hagglund during warm-ups, lost Teenage Hadebe in the early stages of the first half, and was without Designated Player and United States men's national team regular Miles Robinson.

New York City found acres of space behind Cincinnati's reserve defenders, with Nico Fernández Mercau and Agustín Ojeda both using their pace to beat the line and add to their goal totals. Fernández Mercau made history as, according to MLS, he's the fourth player in club history to score at least 10 goals in his first 20 regular season appearances, the most recent to do so since Héber in 2019.

The most aesthetically-pleasing goal of the night might have belonged to Talles Magno, who looked like he put the cherry on top of a New York City win when he curled in a perfect finish that kissed off the inside of the far-post and into the net, eluding at least one Cincinnati defender and an outstretched Roman Celentano in the Cincy goal.

The goals were there and the attack looked to be clicking, but the opposite was true of that defensive unit at the back.