{"id":7160,"date":"2017-05-21T00:21:14","date_gmt":"2017-05-21T04:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/?p=7160"},"modified":"2017-05-21T00:27:07","modified_gmt":"2017-05-21T04:27:07","slug":"fc-cincinnati-halts-skid-win-bethlehem-steel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2017\/05\/21\/fc-cincinnati-halts-skid-win-bethlehem-steel\/","title":{"rendered":"FC Cincinnati Halts Skid With Stormy Win Against Bethlehem Steel"},"content":{"rendered":"

FC Cincinnati<\/a><\/strong> defeated Bethlehem Steel FC by a score of 2-1\u00a0on Saturday in front of 18,441\u00a0at a stormy Nippert Stadium. Recent\u00a0acquisition\u00a0Danni K\u00f6nig scored a brace for the home side to secure the victory in only his second start for\u00a0the club. K\u00f6nig joined FC Cincinnati just ten\u00a0days ago from OKC energy.\u00a0The victory halts\u00a0a five-game winless streak for Alan Koch’s team that has stretched back to April 19th.<\/p>\n

In an interesting twist of USL scheduling, this was the third time these teams had met in the past month and a half. Bethlehem Steel FC won both\u00a0of the last two contests in the month of\u00a0April\u00a0in the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n

FC Cincinnati Halts Skid With Stormy Win Against Bethlehem Steel<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For the first time this season, FC Cincinnati started the same 11 players that started the week prior. Bethlehem Steel FC made three\u00a0changes to the lineup that won away against Toronto FC II last Saturday. Santi Moar got the start at left midfield and Ken Tribbett and Matt Hahoney made\u00a0the first XI\u00a0in defense.<\/p>\n

First Half<\/h3>\n

An\u00a0entertaining first half of play saw both teams with\u00a0space to operate and attack the opposition’s goal. FC Cincinnati opened the scoring in the 18th minute. Winger and ex-Union player Jimmy McLaughlin found himself in\u00a0space on the left flank. He dribbled straight for\u00a0goal and just before\u00a0he entered the box he curled a ball with the outside of his foot, into the path of Danni K\u00f6nig. K\u00f6nig leaned in and connected with\u00a0a glancing header that sent the ball into\u00a0the bottom right corner of goal.<\/p>\n

15 minutes later, Steel FC equalized from the penalty spot. FC Cincinnati midfielder Aodhan Quinn was attempting to clear a ball out of\u00a0the box and slipped during his kick. The ball squirted free and\u00a0Bethlehem striker Seku Conneh gained possession. Quinn attempted to recover from his mistake but clipped Conneh’s heels, sending the striker to ground. A penalty was awarded and Conneh finished cooly with a drifted PK that sent FC Cincinnati keeper Mitch Hildebrandt the wrong way.<\/p>\n

The first half ended in a 1-1 deadlock. FC Cincinnati had a slight\u00a0possession advantage, but Steel FC led\u00a08-5 in\u00a0shots, and 4-1 in shots on target.<\/p>\n

Second Half<\/h3>\n

FC Cincinnati started as the aggressor and were rewarded seven minutes after the whistle blew. A long ball sent FC Cincinnati winger Kadeem Dacres free down the right side behind Bethlehem’s defense. He controlled the ball and pivoted back toward the center. He played an early pass\u00a0for Danni K\u00f6nig who was making a run to\u00a0the top of the box. The Danish striker\u00a0fired on goal but defender Hugh Roberts\u00a0blocked the shot. It fell back to K\u00f6nig who tried again with his left and this time found the net.<\/p>\n

The teams exchanged attacks in what\u00a0remained of the second half. Both sides created quality\u00a0chances, but neither was able to add to their respective scoreline. FC Cincinnati made efforts to possess the ball and kill the clock. Steel FC looked dangerous on the counter when they won the ball back. As the\u00a0match approached its end, mother nature intervened. The heavens opened and lightning followed. The match was stopped in the 89th minute for a lightning delay.<\/p>\n

After 2 hours of delay, the contest\u00a0was finally called by USL officials. Because 70 minutes were completed, the result stood and FC Cincinnati won by a 2-1 scoreline.<\/p>\n

K\u00f6nig Shines<\/h3>\n

After a challenging first match for FC Cincinnati where he didn’t register a shot, Danni K\u00f6nig certainly made an impact\u00a0in his second game. When asked about K\u00f6nig’s contribution, FC Cincinnati head coach Alan Koch said the following.<\/p>\n

“Awesome. Danni is first class. He showed tonight what we know he’s capable of doing. Danni\u00a0got rewarded for his efforts…last week he had only trained with the group for two days… He\u00a0fed off some good service, but had the ability and the confidence to bag two goals.”\u00a0<\/em>[FC Cincinnati]<\/a><\/p>\n

For Steel FC, they fall into ninth place and out of the playoff spots with the loss. They’ve won three and lost five after eight games played.<\/p>\n

The second year Cincinnati team had only two wins from its first nine games heading into this match. The much-needed victory\u00a0moves FC Cincinnati into sixth place on 12 points, eight points behind leaders Charleston Battery. They got\u00a0revenge against a team that beat them twice, and will try to\u00a0use the\u00a0win\u00a0as a platform to get their season on track after a slow start.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Orange and Blue Press \/ Joe Schmuck<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FC Cincinnati halts a five game winless streak with a 2-1 victory over Bethlehem Steel. Danni K\u00f6nig scored two goals to lift FC Cincinnati to victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1653,"featured_media":7189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,26],"tags":[918,1207,1208,113,61],"class_list":["post-7160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-usl","tag-alan-koch","tag-bethlehem-steel-fc","tag-danni-konig","tag-fc-cincinnati","tag-usl"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}