It was an interesting matchup on Thursday, July 18 between FC Cincinnati and D.C. United. Cincinnati is currently placed in last for the Eastern Conference and D.C. United is in second. With such a large difference in ranking, it was interesting to see Cincinnati be more in control of the play.
However, D.C. came out strong, winning a free kick in the 16th minute. Wayne Rooney stood to take the long-range free-kick. He shot for the bottom left corner, where the Cincinnati keeper, Spencer Richey, was able to save it.
Cincinnati came close to scoring in the 24th minute from a corner kick. Kendall Waston was in the center of the box and got his head on it. The ball hit the crossbar then was cleared.
D.C. United got their first goal in the 41st minute by Lucas Rodriguez. Rooney received the ball in the box. He did a drop pass to Rodriguez so he could continue his run in. Feeling the pressure from a Cincinnati defender, he shot for the far-right post and made the score 1-0.
Cincinnati got a free kick in the 52nd minute right outside the left of the box. The referee called for a penalty kick when a United defender deflected the free-kick with his arm.
Emmanuel Ledesma took the penalty kick for Cincinnati. He did a false start which left the keeper ready to dive to the right. Ledesma then used the split second to bury the ball into the bottom left of the goal.
Two minutes later Rodriguez got the lead again for United. He received the ball top left of the box. He took a settling touch then rocketed the ball into the center of the goal.
In the 63rd minute Cincinnati had a failed attack that led to a D.C. goal. Defender, Leonardo Jara, won the ball and started dribbling down the right side of the pitch. When he almost reached the half-line, he sent a curling ball to the top center of the penalty box where Rooney was making his run. Rooney took two settling touches and slipped the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal to make the score 3-1.
In the 73rd minute D.C. United scored the last goal of the game. Paul Arriola got the ball on the left side of the field and made his run to the top of the six. With the angle on the goal narrowing, Arriola made a shot to the far corner making it a 4-1 game for D.C. United.
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