Fire blow two-goal lead in second half, settle for tie with Cincinnati

CINCINNATI — Tom Barlow and Evander Da Silva Ferreira — known simply as “Evander” — each scored for Cincinnati, but it was an own-goal by the Fire's Dje D’Avilla in the 86th minute that gave the hosts a 3-3 tie Saturday night.

Evander's free kick into the area was redirected into the net by D’Avilla, capping Cincinnati's rally from a 3-1 second-half deficit. The Fire (4-2-2), who had won three consecutive games, are unbeaten in four straight.

“I think there's two ways we can look at this game,“ Fire coach Gregg Berhalter said. “The first way is to say that the side is much improved from last year in terms of coming to a difficult atmosphere and having the ambition to control the game, to win the game and to play, to score goals. So, happy with that.

“But on the other side, the defending was not nearly good enough to win the game. And if it wasn't for us scoring three goals, we would have lost the game because defensively we were very poor tonight. And we have to learn from that. We have to improve that, and we have to have much more compactness, shape and pressure on the ball.”

Hugo Cuypers, who returned after missing three games with a head injury, scored twice, and Philip Zinckernagel added a goal and an assist. Chris Brady had eight saves and became the third Fire Homegrown player to play 100 matches for the team, starting each game (Mauricio Pineda and Brian Gutierrez are the other two).

Zinckernagel converted from the penalty spot in the fifth minute of first-half stoppage time to give the Fire a 2-1 lead. Cuypers opened the scoring in the 26th minute, and his goal in the 48th made it 3-1.

“Yeah, it's been a tough two weeks for me being out with a head injury, but I was just really, really happy to be back, and I felt good,“ said Cuypers, who has scored at least one goal in each of his last five games and has six goals overall. “Had a few good training days before the game.

“I think the team performance in the first half helped, the way we were able to combine and play offensively. Unfortunately, we dropped back in the second half. But overall, it was a positive comeback.”

Barlow, who signed as a free agent with Cincinnati in January after two seasons with the Fire, scored in the 42nd minute. Evander made a penalty kick in the 79th to it make 3-2.

Roman Celentano had three saves for Cincinnati (2-4-2).

The Fire's next game is Saturday at Soldier Field against Sporting KC (7:30 p.m., Apple TV, 890-AM).