Kenji Mboma Dem's First MLS Goal Rescues 10-Man FC Cincinnati in 1-1 Draw at Toronto FC

For roughly 70 minutes on Saturday afternoon, FC Cincinnati looked like a team that had finally found the plot. Then Kévin Denkey collected two yellow cards in the space of two minutes, Gilberto Flores turned a ball into his own net, and the visitors were staring at a fourth road defeat in four tries this season.

Kenji Mboma Dem rewrote the ending. Two minutes into eight minutes of stoppage time, the substitute ran onto Ayoub Jabbari's pass on a fast break and steered a left-footed shot into the bottom right corner for his first MLS goal, salvaging a 1-1 draw with Toronto FC at BMO Field. Nobody won, but only one dressing room walked out feeling like it had escaped something.

Cincinnati Knock, Gavran Answers

Cincinnati arrived north of the border in a funk, having lost four of their first six league matches, including a 4-2 defeat at Red Bull New York the previous weekend. Per the club, Pat Noonan had described his defense as "leaking goals." For an hour, though, the Orange and Blue looked sharp.

Toronto struck first in the chance column. Derrick Etienne Jr. tested Roman Celentano in the second minute, and Benjamín Kuscevic got his head on two Alonso Coello corners in the opening 10 minutes without hitting the target. Cincinnati's reply came through Evander, whose through ball sent Tom Barlow in on Luka Gavran in the sixth minute. Gavran held firm.

The best look of the half arrived deep in first-half stoppage time. Evander's cross found Matt Miazga in the middle of the box, and Gavran got down to keep the header out of the bottom left corner. The teams went in scoreless.

Cincinnati came out of halftime pushing. Denkey set up Evander for a shot that slid just wide in the 51st minute, and three minutes later Nick Hagglund met another Evander delivery with a header that Gavran saved and pushed behind for a corner. Toronto's best answer in that spell was a José Cifuentes strike that flew high and wide.

Then the afternoon frayed. Miazga went off injured in the 62nd minute, with Kyle Smith replacing him and Jabbari coming on for Barlow.

Two Yellows and an Own Goal

Denkey was booked in the 69th minute, a caution the club's recap attributed to dissent. In the 71st, he was booked again and sent off. Per the AP, it was the fourth straight match in which a Cincinnati player had been shown a red card, and Noonan did not dress it up.

"We lose our cool, and we have a man sent off," he said. "That's the biggest concern. This is four games in a row now we don't finish the game with 11 men."

Toronto sensed the shift. They made four changes at once in the 82nd minute, including Lazar Stefanovic for the injured Zane Monlouis, and a minute later Flores put the ball past his own goalkeeper. Noonan pinned the goal on his side's failure to handle a cross. Jonathan Osorio then nearly ended it from a direct free kick in the 88th minute, sending his effort just over the bar.

The Bench Mob Delivers

Noonan's final roll of the dice came in the 88th minute, when Mboma Dem and Gerardo Valenzuela replaced Bryan Ramírez and Pavel Bucha. It took Mboma Dem about four minutes to matter.

The club's recap credited Samuel Gidi with the long pass that sprang Jabbari, and Jabbari, described by the club as one of Mboma Dem's closest friends, found the 24-year-old in the center of the box. According to the club, Mboma Dem noticed four Toronto defenders drifting toward Evander and simply sprinted into the hole they left behind. The finish was clinical. ESPN credits the assist to Jabbari alone; the AP also listed Gidi.

Toronto still had chances to snatch it back. Malik Henry forced Celentano into a save with a header a minute after the equalizer, and on the final action of the match, Celentano stopped one more Kuscevic header from a Coello cross.

The Men Who Shaped It

Kenji Mboma Dem. One shot, one goal. The 2024 MLS SuperDraft pick and former FC Cincinnati 2 player was playing only his 23rd minute of the season, per the club, and the AP noted the goal came in his eighth career appearance, all of them off the bench. Efficiency like that gets a name chanted in the group chat.

Ayoub Jabbari. Came on at the hour mark and produced the only assist of the afternoon, which the AP said was his first in his 12th career match.

Evander. No goal and two shots, but nearly every dangerous Cincinnati moment ran through the Brazilian, from the early through ball for Barlow to the crosses for Miazga and Hagglund. Even his gravity created the equalizer.

Luka Gavran. Three saves for Toronto in what the AP said was his 23rd career start, two of them on headers from the middle of the box.

Benjamín Kuscevic. Toronto's most persistent threat, with a team-high three shots, all of them headers, plus a yellow card for a bad foul.

Stats That Matter

• Shots on target: Cincinnati 4, Toronto 3, despite the visitors playing the final 20-plus minutes with 10 men.
• Clearances: Cincinnati 40, Toronto 14. The last half hour was a siege.
• Crosses: Toronto attempted 27, completing just seven.
• Possession: Cincinnati held 51.2 percent of the ball.
• Saves: Three apiece for Gavran and Celentano.

What It Means

Toronto move to 3-2-2 with 11 points and are now unbeaten in five straight league matches, a run that began with a 1-0 win at TQL Stadium on March 8. The AP said that was the first time Toronto had won in Cincinnati, and it added that Toronto have not beaten Cincinnati at home since Sept. 29, 2021. That drought survives, but Toronto's home record is still clean this season: two wins and two draws in four matches.

Cincinnati sit at 2-1-4 with seven points, and this was their first point away from home after losses at Minnesota, New England and Red Bull New York. They host the Chicago Fire next Saturday, while Toronto welcome Austin FC.

The Takeaway

Cincinnati keep playing on hard mode by choice. Four straight matches without finishing with 11 men is not a quirk; it is a pattern, and Noonan called the latest one "inexcusable and preventable." But the response told him something too.

"It speaks to the character and resilience of the group," Celentano said. "We put our heads down and got into it."

The fight is clearly there. The discipline is the boss level they still have not beaten.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes as reported by FC Cincinnati (fccincinnati.com); additional notes from the AP recap via ESPN.