Giacomo Vrioni scores twice, Revolution top Cincinnati 2-1 for fourth straight victory
CINCINNATI (AP) — Giacomo Vrioni scored twice in the first half and the New England Revolution ran their win streak to four with a 2-1 victory over FC Cincinnati on Saturday night.
Vrioni used an assist from Carles Gil to score in the 21st minute and give New England (6-10-1) a 1-0 lead.
Vrioni took passes from Emmanuel Boateng and Gil in the 41st minute and scored his fifth goal of the season to give the Revolution a two-goal lead at halftime. Gil's helper was his sixth and Boateng's his second. Vrioni also scored last time out in a 3-2 victory over the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps.
Cincinnati (12-4-3) pulled within a goal when Yamil Asad took a pass from Luciano Acosta in the 65th minute and scored for the first time this season. Midfielder Obinna Nwobodo was tagged with a second yellow card four minutes later, forcing Cincinnati to play a man down from there. Four other players had yellow cards for Cincinnati.
Aljaž Ivačič saved three shots in his eighth start of the season for New England. Ivačič, who had the only save of the first half, has surrendered just 12 goals this season, two on penalty kicks.
Roman Celentano finished with three saves for Cincinnati.
Cincinnati had won nine of its 10 previous matches before running into New England. The Revolution have never lost on the road in the series, improving to 3-0-1 since Cincinnati joined the league in 2019. Cincinnati beat the Revolution 2-1 at Gillette Stadium in the fourth week of the season.
Cincinnati manager Pat Noonan, the ninth overall pick in the 2003 draft, played 119 matches and scored 47 goals for the Revolution over four seasons. Noonan was runner-up to the Chicago Fire’s Damani Ralph for young player of the year. He helped the Revs win their only U.S. Open Cup title in 2007. No coach has led his team to more points than Noonan since he took the reins in 2022.
New England has not lost since dropping 10 of its first 13 matches under first-year manager Caleb Porter.
Cincinnati missed an opportunity to pass Inter Miami in the Supporters' Shield race. Cincinnati trails the leaders by two points with a match in hand.
The Revolution return home to play the Columbus Crew on Saturday. Cincinnati travels to play FC Dallas on Saturday.
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