FC Cincinnati had a mountain of firsts in their Concacaf Champions Cup match last week versus O&M FC, scoring nine times to advance to the Round of 16 with a 13-0 aggregate score.
There were debuts, debut goals, youngest player to score records, most goals in a match record, the largest margin of victory in MLS history record broken. Four graduates of the FC Cincinnati academy scored, the most ever, and five graduate members of the academy took the field in a single match, which is another record.
Stiven Jimenez, Kenji Mboma Dem and Ademar Chavez all scored their first goals for the club while the more veteran Obinna Nwobodo set the club's Concacaf Champions Cup assist record with his fifth assist of the tournament.
But among those milestones, there was a more unique one that has been brewing for a long while.
When Stefan Chirila came on at halftime to replace Tom Barlow, he joined an FC Cincinnati squad that included his younger brother, Andrei Chirila, on the pitch. For the first time in club history, The Orange and Blue deployed a lineup that not only included brothers, but a pair of brothers that had graduated through the FC Cincinnati Academy.
“My mom has already been blowing up my phone, calling me and (Andrei),” Stefan Chirila said from the Concacaf mixed zone after the match last Wednesday evening. Stefan, the older of the two brothers at 19-years-old, scored his first goal for FC Cincinnati, banging in the ninth goal of the night in the 87th minute.
“It means a ton, especially to me, to Andrei and my family watching from home to see their two sons together,” Stefan said. “Obviously, sharing the field on a professional stage was both of our dreams. But I never thought we would be sharing it at the same club. I always knew we would get to this stage…but couldn’t have imagined it like this.”
Andrei, the younger at 17, is a center back who made his second first team start of the season, one week after making his first when he debuted in the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup series with O&M FC. Andrei is signed to FC Cincinnati 2 in MLS NEXT Pro, whereas Stefan is a first team player, but the defender has been a stand out contributor in preseason and his opportunities with the first team, and earned his call ups to join FC Cincinnati through his performances.
“You have to earn it as a starting point. I think all the guys that were on the field earned it, because there were certainly players that – if we wanted to maintain some fitness – could have been out on the field,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said of the young players making appearances in the victory over O&M FC last week. “I think those young kids took their minutes really well.”
The duo moved from Allentown, Pennsylvania to join the FC Cincinnati Academy just two years ago, with Stefan, a forward, joining first and Andrei soon thereafter. Now the brothers live together, drive to training together, and, well, do everything together as they pursue their dreams.
Prior to their arrival at FC Cincinnati, though, the two had never played together in an organized fashion. They would play in the same organizations, but never on the same team. Part of that is, of course, age, a two-year age gap is more dramatic the younger you go, but it was also just unique timing of where they have been at in their career.
But last season, the two played 22 times together with FC Cincinnati 2, which was, in Stefan’s approximation, the most they had ever played together.
The crowning moment came on the goal Stefan scored, where the two combined, at least in part, to find that finish.
In the 87th minute, Andrei, standing near the midfield, pinged a pass over the top and into the O&M FC zone. Ayoub Lahjar (also making his team debut) chased down the pass and quickly centered the ball to a darting Stefan, who took his chance well and blasted his shot past the keeper and in for his first FC Cincinnati goal.
“It was a beautiful ball,” Stefan said of his brother's effort. “Without his pass, I wouldn't have gotten to the end line and then gotten the goal. It was a great pass.”
The Chirila brothers said they couldn’t count how many missed messages they had received from their family members and friends after coming back to the locker room, but a lot of them were from their mom. Stefan though, made sure to promise no matter how many there were, she would be his first call when he and Andrei got home.
