NYCFC topple Cincinnati on penalty kick

Valentin Castellanos converted a penalty kick in the 60th minute to lift visiting New York City FC to a 2-1 victory over FC Cincinnati on Saturday.

Castellanos flustered FC Cincinnati's Geoff Cameron while maintaining possession of the ball in the box. Cameron, in turn, became aggressive and committed a foul to set up the penalty kick for Castellanos, who made no mistake en route to scoring his team-leading 12th goal of the season.

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Keaton Parks scored in the 37th minute and Sean Johnson finished with two saves for NYCFC (11-8-5, 38 points), who improved to 6-0-0 all-time against FC Cincinnati.

NYCFC, who breezed to a 5-0 win over FC Cincinnati on April 24, are tied for third place with Orlando City SC in the Eastern Conference.

FC Cincinnati's Brenner scored in the fourth minute to notch his franchise-high-tying seventh goal of the season. Allan Cruz set the record with seven goals during the club's expansion season in 2019.

Przemyslaw Tyton made two saves for FC Cincinnati (4-12-8, 20 points), who finished with nine men after Alvaro Barreal and Isaac Atanga were issued red cards late in the second half.

FC Cincinnati bolted out of the blocks as Atanga lofted a ball over the top that was misplayed by NYCFC defender Maxime Chanot. Brenner deftly used a half-volley to settle the ball before beating Johnson.

Parks forged a tie in the 37th minute after heading Gudmundur Thorarinsson's cross into the bottom right corner of the net. The goal was Parks' fourth of the season.

Brenner appeared to give FC Cincinnati a 2-1 lead after cleaning up his own rebound in the 54th minute, however officials deemed the play was offside.