FC Cincinnati kicked off their 2025 MLS season by welcoming the New York Red Bulls to TQL Stadium. The orange and blue come into this season with very big expectations. Having signed striker Kevin Denkey for $16 million from Cercle Brugge, (which was the league record signing at the time) and midfielder Evander from the Portland Timbers for $12 million, many pundits believe that Pat Noonan’s side will compete for every trophy this season.
The game started off rather slow for FC Cincinnati. They really couldn’t create much offensively, mustering only one shot in the first half. They would end up going into halftime tied 0-0.
In the second half FCC started to push the ball up the field a bit more, but it honestly felt like a goal was coming for the Red Bulls if anybody was going to score one. Sometimes soccer is a weird game though because in the 70th minute, just when things were going well for New York, FC Cincinnati netted the game’s first goal thanks to the new boy, Kevin Denkey.
That’s all it would take to decide this game as the orange and blue would see out the win and all three points to start the season.
I don’t think FC Cincinnati played their best in this game. I assume they were a bit tired, seeing as how they played a game in Honduras on Wednesday. However, they did enough to win the game and that’s all that matters.
I think this team is going to be a ton of fun to watch this season. I think Evander played a great game and the more he gets his legs under him and settles in with the team, the better this team will be. Kevin Denkey is a ton of fun to watch and he should score a bunch of goals this season.
Defensively this team is rock solid. I thought DeAndre Yedlin was great in this game, especially going forward. I think he’s really going to enjoy playing with Evander.
There’s a lot of things to be excited about with this FC Cincinnati team including the club announcing the contract extension through 2029 of Luca Orellano earlier today.
The win and the extension of Luca are about as good of a start to the season as you can ask for as an FC Cincinnati fan. The team will try to continue the good vibes on Wednesday, February 26 in the 2nd leg of their Concacaf Champions Cup matchup against Motagua. That game will be played at TQL Stadium. FC Cincinnati leads 4-1 on aggregate.
Their next MLS game will take place on Saturday, March 1 as they travel to Philadelphia to take on the Union. For those wondering, Philadelphia won their season opener against Orlando City, 4-2.
It’s time to start turning our attention to Motagua on Wednesday, but in the meantime..
Ohio Sports Radio 
Leave a comment