Brenner scores 3 to beat D.C United, putting Cincinnati in MLS playoffs for first time
Cincinnati FC’s Tyler Boyd scores his team’s third goal in the 63rd minute Saturday night as the United Soccer League side scored the only goal of a 2-1 U.S. Open Cup victory over D.C. United.
The win put Cincinnati on the verge of making their first MLS playoffs start since the inaugural 2014 season when they were a charter member of the league expansion club, the Columbus Crew.
The club has played in MLS competitions twice, when they met Atlanta United FC in the U.S. Open Cup in 2015 and when they won the Supporters Shield in 2016. Cincinnati also fielded a professional team in the lower divisions of the state soccer league at one point.
The Reds will wait to see how Monday‘s road game against D.C. United at the BMO Field plays out but the club is looking ahead to the USL’s playoffs, where they have a chance to be a first-round opponent for one of the league’s automatic qualifiers, Real Monarchs SLC, when they open against Bethlehem Steel FC at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
Cincinnati, which came out of the 2018 season with a 10-8-9 record, is the top seed in the league’s North Division. Bethlehem is also in the division and has the worst season in the league with a 9-15-7 record.
The game has not yet been announced for the USL’s third-round playoff schedule which is scheduled to begin next April and conclude on April 25, 2019.
Cincinnati will wrap up a road-trip today when they meet the New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers at 7:30 p.m. at Mardi Gras World Casino inside the Superdome before closing out their 2018 USL regular season with a visit to the Tampa Bay Rowdies at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
D.C. United (10-7-8) is in second place in the North Division with 12 points, five points behind both Cincinnati and Bethlehem, who are tied with four points.
The Rowdies (13-2-8), who have won 15 of their last 17
