Palace win in front of record crowd, Swansea stunned
Wilfried Zaha and Jordon Mutch were both on target as Crystal Palace closed out the United States leg of its pre-season tour with a 2-0 win over FC Cincinnati.
Published : Jul 17, 2016 16:15 IST
Wilfried Zaha and Jordon Mutch were both on target as Crystal Palace closed out the United States leg of its pre-season tour with a 2-0 win over FC Cincinnati.
Zaha sealed the victory for the Premier League visitors just past the hour-mark after Mutch opened the scoring in the eighth minute on Saturday, less than a week on from Palace's goalless draw against Philadelphia Union.
The exhibition match, however, will long be remembered for the fans who flocked to Nippert Stadium.
A capacity crowd of 35,061 witnessed the game - the largest football crowd in Ohio, according to USL outfit FC Cincinnati.
"The crowd tonight and the atmosphere was phenomenal," said Palace manager Alan Pardew. "It's not often you get an atmosphere like that in a pre-season game, not actually in some of our league games in the Premiership. Hats off to everybody who turned out tonight."
Palace will now head to Canada for their final tour match against Vancouver Whitecaps on Tuesday.
Fellow Premier League club Swansea City was not so fortunate in its final fixture in USA, upstaged 2-0 by Richmond Kickers in a weather-affected outing in Virginia.
The game was halted in the 42nd minute as severe storms swept through the area, resulting in a delay of 95 minutes.
Once play resumed, Anthony Grant made sure of Richmond's win with 16 minutes remaining after Jordi Amat turned the ball into his own net in the 11th minute.