Hany Mukhtar assisted on first-half goals four minutes apart from Jack Maher and Jacob Shaffelburg as visiting Nashville SC ended FC Cincinnati’s club-record seven-match winning streak with a 2-0 victory Wednesday night.
Off a Mukhtar corner, Maher’s header in the mixer bounced home in the 25th minute. Then on the push, Mukhtar found Shaffelburg to make good in the 29th. Joe Willis made six saves and Nashville (4-4-7, 19 points) halted the longest active win streak in MLS by claiming their first road victory in six tries.
Nashville is 1-0-2 since interim coach Rumba Munthali replaced the fired Gary Smith.
FC Cincinnati (10-3-3, 33 points), meanwhile, held a 22-11 advantage in overall shots and 6-3 in on-target chances, but were frustrated often while losing for the first time since April 13 at CF Montreal.
Cincinnati created the first true scoring chance of the night. In the fifth minute, Luca Orellano’s point-blank strike from the side of the box was stopped by Willis.
Three minutes later, it was the visitors who put pressure on FCC. Moments after Cincinnati keeper Roman Celentano punched the ball out of the box, it eventually landed to Mukhtar, who sent it just wide of the post.
In the 20th minute, Cincinnati was relentless in the box, highlighted by another straight-on drive, this time by 19-year-old Kevin Kelsey, that Willis stopped.
However, after teammate Shaq Moore got a quality look five minutes later that Celentano pushed over the top of the goal, Maher’s perfectly timed header opened the scoring.
A surging Mukhtar then broke toward the box and found Shaffelburg at an advantage on the wing and in position to convert for a 2-0 lead.
While Nashville didn’t sit back in the second half, FCC had their moments to make a dent in the visitors’ advantage. Notably in the 63rd minute when Orellano’s strike through some modest traffic was slapped back by Willis, who corralled Kelsey’s worm burner three minutes later.
Though Cincinnati star Luciano Acosta was active, his nine-match goal-contribution streak came to an end.
–Field Level Media
