Cincinnati and Houston win in Leagues Cup

Round three of the Leagues Cup continued on Monday with FC Cincinnati beating NYCFC 4-2 at home. Santiago Rodriguez put NYCFC up in the 25th and Jovan Mijatovic doubled the lead in the 61st. Cincinnati’s Pavel Bucha pulled a goal back in the 79th, Yamil Asad equalized in the 81st, and Yuya Kubo gave them the lead in the 86th. Sergio Santos added a fourth Cincinnati goal in the 89th minute.

“Yeah that was certainly a fun conclusion to the to the night,” FC Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan said. “You know about the first 25 minutes, there was a lot of good things from our group, minus maybe a couple of the moments where we could have found a lead. But credit to NYC, after that 25 minutes, they were in complete control. And then after the break, leading up to, really our goal, they were the better team, and we had a very strong, you know, whatever that was, 20 minutes, and that’s the difference.”

Houston shutout Real Salt Lake 3-0 at home, going ahead from a Hector Herrera goal in the 7th. Michel made it 2-0 in the 24th and an own-goal finished off the scoring in the 41st minute.

“It was close to our best performance of the year,” Houston coach Ben Olsen said. “It wasn’t our greatest game with the ball, but in front of the goal, it was good and sharp. Defensively it was very sound, and it was a really great effort defending the box and looking after each other to keep a talented team off the board. We talked all week about getting more numbers, commitment and actions into the box, and we saw the result of that tonight.”

Leon drew 1-1 with Colorado in Commerce City, with the Rapids winning 4-3 on penalties. Edgar Guerra scored for Leon in the 77th and Rafael Navarro equalized seven minutes into stoppage time. Leon failed to convert in the third and fifth rounds of penalties with Colorado failing to convert in round five.

Toluca beat Sporting Kansas City 2-1 at Children’s Mercy Park. Jesus Angulo put Toluca up in the 40th and Stephen Afrifa equalized for Sporting KC a minute into stoppage time. Toluca retook the lead from a Maximiliano Araujo goal in the 66th minute.

On Tuesday, Aron Johannsson’s Valur lost 1-0 at KA in Iceland’s topflight. KA scored in the 45th and Valur’s Frederik Schram saw red in the 59th. Johannsson saw yellow two minutes into stoppage time.

Round three of the Leagues Cup concluded with New England drawing 1-1 at home with Nashville. The Revolution advanced 5-4 on penalties. Bobby Wood put the Revs up in the 3rd and Sam Surridge equalized a minute into first-half stoppage time. Nashville failed to convert in the fifth and sixth round of penalties with New England not converting in round five.

2024 Leagues Cup Round of 32

Quotes courtesy of MLS team press releases.