Brandon Vazquez scored early in the first half as host FC Cincinnati survived playing shorthanded for most of the second half and extended its unbeaten streak to five games with a 1-1 draw against the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night.
FC Cincinnati (7-7-5, 26 points) played its third straight draw and is three points behind CF Montreal for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Playing with 10 men much of the time against New York, Cincinnati improved to 1-0-4 after consecutive losses to New England and Montreal.
Tempers flared in the final minutes when Luciano Acosta was shown a red card for headbutting New York’s Aaron Long forcing Cincinnati to play with nine men for the final seconds of stoppage time.
Lewis Morgan scored for New York (9-5-6, 33 points), which is tied for Philadelphia for first place in the Eastern Conference and one point ahead of New York City Football Club.
Rookie goalkeeper Roman Celentano made two saves for Cincinnati.
New York goalie Carlos Coronel made three saves.
Cincinnati took a 1-0 lead by catching New York’s defense flat-footed.
Acosta made a pass through defenders Dylan Nealis, Long and Tom Edwards. Vazquez kept the ball alive while nearly going out of bounds and tucked in a left-footed shot from the right side after Coronel left the box.
New York evened the game when Morgan scored on a penalty kick for the second time in three games. After Raymon Gaddis fouled John Tolkin, Morgan tucked a left-footed shot into the lower right corner.
Cincinnati was forced to play shorthanded for the rest of the match when Alan Cruz was assessed a second yellow card in the 58th minute for taking down Luquinhas on the sideline on a shove that caused New York coach Gerhard Struber to fall down.
Both teams missed good scoring chances after Cruz was ejected.
Morgan saw a shot deflect over the bar after Celantano made a leaping right-handed save in the 63rd minute. Five minutes later, Acosta was awarded a free kick after being bumped by Frankie Amaya but Alvaro Barreal missed the net.
Barreal nearly scored in the 77th but his left-footed shot was stopped by Coronel. Four minutes later, New York’s Tom Barlow saw his header sail high over the net.
–Field Level Media