User:IagoQnsi/sandbox/FC Cincinnati v Chicago Fire (June 2017)

FC Cincinnati v. Chicago Fire
Event2017 U.S. Open Cup
After extra time
FC Cincinnati won 3–1 on penalties
DateJune 28, 2017 (2017-06-28)
VenueNippert Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio
RefereeHilario Grajeda
Attendance32,287

On June 28, 2017, FC Cincinnati and Chicago Fire S.C. contested a match to qualify for the quarterfinals of the 2017 U.S. Open Cup. After a scoreless initial 90 minutes and extra time period, the game was settled in penalty kicks. Cincinnati goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt blocked three of Chicago's four shots to bring Cincinnati a 3–1 upset win in penalties.

The match was aired on ESPN, marking the first time the U.S. Open Cup has received a national television broadcast in a round earlier than the semi-finals. The match drew a crowd of 32,287, marking the second-largest crowd ever for a U.S. Open Cup match, and the largest for a non-final match (although both of these records were broken when Cincinnati hosted New York Red Bulls in front of 33,250 fans later in the same cup).

Route to the match edit

The U.S. Open Cup is an annual knock-out cup competition that spans all tiers of American soccer. All professional clubs (except those in lower divisions owned by a team in a higher division) automatically quality, while amateur teams have to endure a qualification process. Because FC Cincinnati and Chicago Fire are both professional teams—FC Cincinnati plays in the second division United Soccer League and Chicago Fire plays in the first division Major League Soccer—both teams automatically qualified for the 2017 U.S. Open Cup.

FC Cincinnati edit

Because FC Cincinnati is a second-division professional soccer team, they entered the Open Cup in the second round. For their first match, Cincinnati hosted AFC Cleveland on May 17. After a scoreless regulation period, the match almost went to penalty kicks, but a 117th minute goal from Cincinnati's Djiby Fall in extra time gave them the 1–0 victory. Cincinnati next faced their River Cities Cup rivals Louisville City FC at home. On May 31, they defeated Louisville after Fall again scored the lone goal in a 1–0 win. In the fourth round, they hosted Columbus Crew SC of Major League Soccer on June 14. Yet again, they emerged with a 1–0 victory after Fall scored a goal off a header in the 64th minute. They were one of just 3 lower-division teams to advance to the MLS-dominated Round of 16 (along with Miami FC and Sacramento Republic).[citation needed]

Chicago Fire edit

As a first-division professional team, Chicago Fire did not enter the cup until the fourth round. On June 14, they visited Saint Louis FC's Toyota Stadium to secure a 0–1 victory and advance to the Round of 16.[citation needed]

Pre-match edit

Venue selection edit

If the match had a venue selection or bidding process, explain the details of that here.

Analysis edit

Discuss previous meetings between the two teams, recent form, and pertinant historical tournament/cup final statistics or records.

Match edit

Nippert Stadium just before the start of the second half

The match attendance was 32,287, which set a new FC Cincinnati home attendance record for non-friendly matches.[1] It was also the second-largest crowd for any U.S. Open Cup match (the largest crowd being the 2011 U.S. Open Cup Final), and the largest crowd for any non-final Open Cup match.[2]

A few days before the match, it was announced that the match start time would be moved to 8pm and the match would air on ESPN2. However, due to the 2017 College World Series championship wrapping up in just two games, a timeslot opened up on the primary ESPN channel, and the soccer match was moved to the main channel.[3] Nationwide, the match aired in 300,000 homes (0.11% of households). In the local Cincinnati area, it aired in 40,000 homes (5.0% of households).[1]

First half edit

Chicago Fire dominated possession and attacking for most of the first half, maintaining 78% possession throughout the entire half. At the 15th minute, Chicago's Arturo Álvarez broke through the Cincinnati defense and made a well-placed pass to Bastian Schweinsteiger directly in front of the goal, but it was intercepted and narrowly cleared out of bounds by Cincinnati's Matt Bahner. At the 17th minute, a shot on goal by Chicago's Matt Polster was deflected just past the left goal post by Cincinnati's Harrison Delbridge. Cincinnati made their first real offensive threat in the 37th minute, when Danni König broke past Chicago's defense to make a shot on goal, forcing goalkeeper Matt Lampson to make his first save of the match. The match went to halftime scoreless.

Second half edit

Chicago continued to lead possession in the second half, but was less dominant than in the first, holding possession 60% of the time. At the 63rd minute, Chicago's Nikolić made a shot on goal from close range but was blocked with a diving save by goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt. One minute into stoppage time, a pass by Jimmy McLaughlin gave Corben Bone the ball past all of Chicago's defenders, but Bone was unable to get past goalkeeper Matt Lampson. The score remained 0–0 at the end of regulation, invoking two 15 minute periods of extra time.

Extra time edit

 
Andrew Wiedeman celebrates a goal at the 109th minute, unaware of the linesman behind him flagging for offsides.

At the 104th minute, Nikolić made a shot on a nearly-open goal, but was blocked with a dive by Hildebrandt. At the 109th minute, Andrew Wiedeman managed to put the ball in the net off of a pass from Corben Bone, but the goal was not allowed as Wiedeman was ruled offside by the assistant referee. The match remained scoreless at the end of extra time, leading to a penalty shootout.

Penalty kicks edit

 
Hildebrandt blocks Álvarez's penalty kick.

Cincinnati captain Austin Berry won the coin flip, and opted to use the goal at the north side of the stadium (where Cincinnati's supporter section, The Bailey, is located) for the shootout. Chicago Fire opted to shoot second. Cincinnati's Aodhan Quinn took the first shot, but sent it over the crossbar. Chicago's Nemanja Nikolić took the next shot, but was blocked by Mitch Hildebrandt. Cincinnati's next three kickers, Josu, Harrison Delbridge, and Jimmy McLaughlin, all made their subsequent shots, while only Bastian Schweinsteiger was able to score for Chicago. Cincinnati won 3–1 in penalty kicks after Hildebrandt successfully blocked Arturo Álvarez and Juninho.

Details edit

To save time on creating line-up tables, copy-paste the code of the tables below or use {{subst:fbml}}.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FC Cincinnati
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chicago Fire
GK 1 Mitch Hildebrandt
DF 22 Austin Berry (c)
DF 32 Justin Hoyte
DF 4 Harrison Delbridge
MF 2 Matt Bahner
MF 21 Marco Dominguez   77'
MF 5 Aodhan Quinn
MF 99 Josu   55'
FW 7 Kadeem Dacres
FW 11 Danni König   102'
FW 9 Eric Stevenson   66'
Substitutes:
GK 27 Dan Williams
DF 15 Pat McMahon
MF 19 Corben Bone   77'
MF 6 Kenney Walker
MF 8 Paul Nicholson
FW 23 Andrew Wiedeman   102'
FW 20 Jimmy McLaughlin   66'
Manager:
Alan Koch
If you create a field diagram showing the starting lineups, place it here.
GK 30 Gavin Goalkeeper
DF 2 Devin Defense (c)
DF 14 Cedric Centerback
DF 6 Bobby Bastille
DF 29 Barry Badman   87'
MF 12 Marvin Midfield   81'
MF 16 Osmosis Jones   41'
MF 17 Paul Passmaster
MF 15 Blake Ballwinner   78'
FW 32 John Spot   78'
FW 7 Golden Goalscorer   87'
Substitutes:
GK 1 Bill Backup
DF 4 Evan Excluded
FW 10 Rufus Reserve   78'
MF 18 Daniel Disregarded   81'
FW 20 Axel Alternate   78'
MF 22 Nevil Neglected
DF 23 Igor Ignored
Manager:
Mister Bossman

Man of the Match:
Freddy Footballer

Assistant referees:
Larry Linesman
Owen Official
Fourth official:
Phil Fourth

Match rules

  • 90 minutes.
  • 30 minutes of extra-time if necessary.
  • Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.
  • Seven named substitutes.
  • Maximum of three substitutions.

Statistics edit

Post-match edit

As a result of their victory, FC Cincinnati advanced to the Open Cup quarterfinals. In their first away match of the tournament, they faced Miami FC at Riccardo Silva Stadium. After the match was rescheduled due to bad weather, they finally faced off on August 2. FC Cincinnati won 1–0, with Djiby Fall scoring the lone goal in the 69th minute.[4]

FC Cincinnati then advanced to the semi-finals round, in which they would host New York Red Bulls. On August 15, New York defeated Cincinnati 3–2 in extra time to advance to the final (which they would ultimately concede to Sporting Kansas City).[5] Despite losing in the semi-finals, FC Cincinnati earned a $15,000 cash prize for advancing farther than any other team from the second division.[4]

When Josu left FC Cincinnati in early 2018, his successful penalty kick against Chicago was cited as one of the biggest moments in his career with the club.[6]

References edit

[7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

lasting impact[12][13]

  1. ^ a b Watkins, Steve (July 3, 2017). "FC Cincinnati-Chicago Fire drew hundreds of thousands of viewers on ESPN". Cincinnati Business Courier. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  2. ^ McCauley, Kevin (June 29, 2017). "FC Cincinnati shows there is no limit to what American soccer can become". SB Nation. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  3. ^ Brennan, Patrick (June 22, 2017). "FC Cincinnati-Chicago Fire Open Cup match moved to ESPN". USA Today. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Fontela, Jonah (August 2, 2017). "Djiby Strikes Again to Send FC Cincinnati Past Miami, Into Historic Open Cup Semifinal". U.S. Soccer. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  5. ^ Goff, Steven (August 15, 2018). "Red Bulls use late rally to stun FC Cincinnati in U.S. Open Cup semifinal". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
  6. ^ Brennan, Patrick (April 16, 2018). "Josu Currais announces FC Cincinnati departure". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Gannett Company. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  7. ^ Thiesen, Lauren (June 28, 2017). "Miami, Cincinnati Each Upset MLS Teams In U.S. Open Cup Thrillers". Deadspin. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  8. ^ Lauletta, Tyler (June 29, 2017). "A lower division club pulled off a huge upset over the Chicago Fire in the US Open Cup behind the heroic effort of their keeper in a shootout". Business Insider. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  9. ^ Prince-Wright, Joe (June 29, 2017). "Cincinnati boost MLS hopes with incredible crowd, victory". NBC Sports. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  10. ^ Kingery, Nikki (June 29, 2017). "FC Cincinnati tops Chicago before record home crowd to advance". Cincinnati Business Courier. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  11. ^ Rishe, Patrick (June 29, 2017). "FC Cincinnati Continues MLS Expansion Push With Another Record-Setting Performance". Forbes. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  12. ^ Fontela, Jonah (April 4, 2018). "All Eyes on Open Cup: Round-by-Round Breakdown". U.S. Soccer Federation. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  13. ^ Jacobsen, Jordan (January 5, 2018). "USL: FC Cincinnati building an impressive squad for 2018". Fansided. Time Inc. Retrieved April 20, 2018.

External links edit