Cincinnati holds off Toronto FC for its first-ever victory at BMO Field

TORONTO — Ian Murphy and Luciano Acosta scored goals and FC Cincinnati held off a late Toronto FC charge for a 2-1 win in MLS play Saturday.

The victory was the first in three career visits to BMO Field by Cincinnati, which has recorded three of its 17 career league wins over TFC. Cincinnati bent but didn't break in five minutes of frantic stoppage time as Toronto charged hard for the tying goal.

Jesus Jiminez scored his seventh of the season for TFC, whose three-game home win streak was snapped.

Toronto (3-4-2) was coming off a 5-4 loss to New York City in a wild game at Citi Field that saw TFC pull ahead 2-0 only to concede the next five goals. That defeat snapped Toronto's four-game unbeaten streak (3-0-1).

TFC has yet to keep a clean sheet this season. Its last league shutout was 18 games ago — a 0-0 draw at Colorado last September.

Saturday's game was the opener of a rare back-to-back league series. The teams meet again next Wednesday on "Star Wars Night" at Cincinnati's TQL Stadium.

Cincinnati (3-5-1) was winless in its previous four league games (0-3-1), but two of those losses — against CF Montreal and Los Angeles FC — were by one goal and it did beat the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 2-0 in U.S. Open Cup play during that run.

Murphy, a rookie defender, put the visitors ahead in the 44th minute, punishing Toronto for some sloppy defending. It started when Mexican centre back Carlos Salcedo's attempted pass to goalkeeper Alex Bono squibbed into touch. The ensuing corner went deep to Cincinnati's Junior Moreno, who drove it back into the box.

Former TFC defender Nick Hagglund rose high and headed the ball to an unmarked Murphy, who chested the ball down and fired it past Bono for his first career MLS goal.

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