A hat trick, two disallowed goals, a saved penalty and a historic comeback.
That would make for an eventful matchweek in any league in the world. On Wednesday night in MLS Week 17, all of it happened at TQL Stadium.
When it was all over, Eastern Conference foes FC Cincinnati and New York City FC had settled for a 4-4 stalemate, a score that only began to tell the story of a wild affair in Southwestern Ohio.
Some 21,258 fans were fortunate enough to witness it. Some 200,000 more may claim to have been there years from now. And both of the managers – Cincy’s Pat Noonan and NYCFC’s Nick Cushing – were likely relieved it was over.
“The one thing that I said to [Noonan] was, ‘If you bought a ticket to this game, you got your value twice over today,’” Cushing said. “And as coaches that's not what we want, but that's what I believe. For every person that bought a ticket to come to this game today, they definitely got their ticket price.”
Here’s everything you might have missed from one of the most engrossing matches of the 2022 season.
Cincinnati got off to a blistering start, thanks to one man who has been at the center of their 2022 improvement, and another who has the potential to take this club to another level.
Luciano Acosta began the night with his sixth goal of the season and then continued by supplying his eighth assist to Brenner to make it 2-0. Brenner added a second of the game — and just his third of the season to that point — by the 30th minute.
Cincy looked well in control, and even more after Roman Celentano saved Maxi Moralez’s penalty in the 34th minute.
It’s just not possible a visiting team could overcome a three-goal deficit and miss a penalty, could they? Well, read on …
Cincy were still in command entering the 45th minute. Then suddenly NYCFC were level.
Talles Magno got the rapid rally started by poking home a loose ball following a corner kick.
Then, after scoring exactly three goals in his last 1,400 minutes of MLS play, Heber pounced for a brace entirely within first-half stoppage time. He connected with Moralez for both, chipping his through ball over a charging Celentano in the second minute of stoppage time, and hammering a header of Moralez's out-swinging free kick into the net in the seventh.
That completed the first-ever comeback from a three-goal deficit before halftime in MLS history, per Opta.
After scoring his first goal of the year only last weekend, Brenner completed the first-ever MLS hat trick in FC Cincinnati history in the 70th minute when he beat Sean Johnson from the edge of the penalty area. And he wasn’t all that far from becoming just the second player in MLS history to go for five goals in a single match.
But two strikes from the Brazilian were disallowed. On the first, he sent a slick back-heel finish past Johnson that was waived off because it was ruled the ball had crossed the touchline and run out of play in the buildup.
On the second, he was ruled offside on a rebound that briefly set off wild celebrations and appeared to give the hosts a 5-4 lead.
Cincy had the better of the dying moments, but couldn’t find a winner. And the result prolonged two unusual trends.
FCC have now scored three or more goals on four occasions, and emerged as the winner only once. NYCFC have conceded four goals twice, but emerged with four points from those two games.
Understandably, Noonan was the less pleased of the managers afterward.
“Two points dropped. There's no question, if you’re up 3-0 at any point, it’s two points dropped," Noonan said. "There's disappointment, but I think the energy in that locker room, despite not getting the three points, is a group that's hungry and expects more, even against a good opponent.”
Cushing loved his team’s mettle.
“To a man today I thought the resilience, the spirit and the heart was a real New York team,” he said of the defending MLS Cup champions. “I'm really proud of that.”
