After an unprecedented stop in the Major League Soccer season to make way for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, FC Cincinnati players, coaches and staff are back in town and back in action to resume their work and prepare for the restart of the regular season.
While most staff were already in town and some worked throughout the “break” to prepare for the second half of the season, FC Cincinnati players all reported to the training facility in Milford, Ohio, last Monday. The first training session in over four weeks began a month-long process of preparing for the season to resume, with FCC, in its case, hosting Vancouver Whitecaps FC at TQL Stadium on July 22.
So until then, FC Cincinnati will be in a sort of ‘midseason return to play’ mode.
“It’s nice to get a feel for what will be a new norm. Obviously, it’s a little bit extreme with the World Cup, but as far as the approach, we used that first week to spend some time in the office and kind of debrief and have an idea of what our takeaways are from the first stretch of 15 games and first half of the season,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said of the summer stoppage and how they used their time off. “We were able to take some initiatives into the break and prepare with some projects and ideas so that we could come back and come out and have a good idea for this first week.
“Credit to the players, they've come back with good fitness, and so our first week was a really good push.”
Noonan said the club split the month-long break into sections so the technical and coaching staff could assess the first half of the season, craft a plan and return after some time away to refine and implement it before the start of training. The pause also allowed the staff, including Noonan, to attend FIFA World Cup matches as the United States, Canada and Mexico became the epicenter of world soccer.
This stoppage will, as Noonan mentioned, be sort of a new norm moving forward, as next year Major League Soccer will move to the international calendar after a Sprint Season that opens 2027. Meaning, a summer break will be the norm, but that will technically be the offseason. That said, there will also be a mid-season winter stoppage or pause; that break is more akin to this one, as it will come in the middle of the season rather than at the end.
“It was weird, because sometimes it felt like I was too disconnected, because it's a little bit longer, but it's, I think, necessary for everybody,” Noonan said of pause in the season and the opportunity to step back a little during the year. “We're so used to January to December for a lot of teams, and how you work, that's a long time, and I think this break helps you to have an end goal. Then moving forward, it's obviously going to be the summer to winter and then come out of that winter and have that second half of the season.”
“So a long-winded way of saying it was a good break, good family time, enjoyed our time with our kids, but it's good to be back.”
The comparison right now to an offseason isn’t without merit, but there are some key differences. Yes, FC Cincinnati along with all MLS clubs have been off for a month, which can be the same or longer compared to an offseason if successful in the MLS Cup Playoffs under the current schedule alignment. So there is work to be done to get back into shape.
So to that point, FC Cincinnati will train everyday much like their typical action in Clearwater, Florida, every January and early February — their home for preseason action under typical circumstances. But with the weather excellent at home in Cincinnati there is no need for a big trip south. Which is a glimpse forward at what future seasons preseasons could look like.
That said, there are clear differences between now and a hypothetical summer preseason. The standards are higher and the training goals are different now 15 games into the season than compared to when “starting from scratch.”
“You have a sample size of games and the group with an understanding of each other, so when you start in January, there's new faces, new ideas. I think it takes a little bit longer to see what you want, and again, credit to the players, both in the winter and now in the summer, they've come back with good fitness, and so our first week was a really good push physically, so, I was pleased with that," Noonan explained at the end of the first week of training in an exclusive with FCCincinnati.com. “What we have now is an understanding of each other. The relationships are in a stronger way than they were in January. So when we come back, it’s ‘okay, here's our assessment of the first 15 games. Here's what we know we need to improve. Here's the things we've done well.’ Let's try to let the data guide us in some ways to see how we improve in certain areas, and how we stay strong in certain areas, so you're not starting from scratch.”
As FC Cincinnati restarts training, The Orange and Blue have 19 regular season matches, Leagues Cup 2026 and the MLS Cup Playoffs to go. So while training will be about getting the team ready for the resumption season, Noonan and his staff effectively have a more narrow part of the season to focus on and prepare for, with a larger data set to inform them of how to proceed.
“And when I say scratch,” Noonan continued, “it's compared to a new team in a new year. So that's the biggest difference, the familiarity with one another to know what it's probably going to look like as we resume, and we put our focus on three or four areas with this stretch of training and games that we have scheduled to make sure that when we come out of the break against Vancouver we're stronger than when we ended against Orlando.”
There will be some similarities to how the team trains over the next month or so compared to their typical January/February preseason agenda, things like conditioning and rebuilding fitness after the break will of course factor into their time in some ways. But after reviewing the first half of the season, Noonan and his staff feel they are able to focus more specifically on some parts of their play and will look to hone in on them during this month-long return to play.
“For us specifically, it was aspects of our build and trying to be more pragmatic, being more understanding of the opposition and ways to advance the ball and take away risk,” Noonan said of some of the elements the team is addressing. “I think we were poor in assessing where we stack up against the rest of the league, and just from the eye test, we have to eliminate how we turn the ball over, where we turn the ball over, and then what our structure looks like to be more compact and connected in our play. So that was something that stood out. Defensively on set pieces we'll look to improve. We were strong on the attacking set piece side, and so there were little tweaks, but how do we maintain that as a strength in the team? Because it got us a lot of goals, and we'll look at how we press and how we recover to press. I think those were the biggest areas that stood out where we can improve our play.”
Before the club kicks off its regular season action a month from now though, they will have two summer friendlies to tune up with. First, Burnley FC of England will be coming to TQL Stadium on July 10, then Olimpia FC of Honduras will visit FCC for a closed door friendly on July 15. Those matches, like the preseason friendlies FC Cincinnati schedule every year, will be unique and adjusted to make sure they are best used for preparation of the season, but they will be the first glimpse of the squad after almost two months without action.
“It's nice to have variety in who the opponent is. A lot of times you don't have the option to play Olimpia and Burnley in January or February, so I think it's nice to see a couple of new opponents,” Noonan said of the summer opponents. “There'll be uncertainty around what type of game it looks like and where we're at in our fitness and where they're at in their fitness and understanding of the team…but certainly Burnley is a strong opponent and so is Olimpia.”
This will be FC Cincinnati’s first time facing either club which introduces a degree of uncertainty, both for familiarity and expectations. With them both being summer friendlies that means all teams involved will be in the middle of periods of change and will be working on different timelines. Olimpia is between seasons in the Honduran league and Burnley is in the midst of changing from the English Premier League to the EFL Championship after being relegated. Noonan is hoping that unfamiliarity helps his team learn how to deal with different kinds of opponents and grow as a group through it.
“There'll be a lot of change there, just based on the switch of seasons and leagues, and with Olimpia, the games and what you can use to understand them won't be there. So, what you have is a good situation for us to try figuring out different opponents, and, and using all these things that we're talking about now to say, ‘okay, can you then understand what type of game it is early on,’” Noonan explained. “How do we figure it out without different faces in the game? That's ownership on the players to problem solve. So I like that aspect of it.”
Another element to the match schedule Noonan highlighted as liking is staking the matches closer to beginning of the regular season restart, so as to allow more time to work on themselves. By having games on July 10, July 15 then restarting the season on July 22, Noonan says the team has more time to work and focus on themselves without having to focus on match preparation. The hope is by the time July 10 rolls around, and FCC play that first friendly, the squad has had several weeks to train on their own and feel more comfortable and confident about the things they’re implementing before bringing them to a match environment.
With the club back in action now, and about a week's worth of training completed, it is worth noting that some players had longer breaks than others and how that factors into the return to play. While most FC Cincinnati players were out on break for the last month, some first teamers were in action and had less time off than others.
Some first teamers appeared for FC Cincinnati 2 over the break, where the MLS NEXT Pro side played three matches between the last first team game and now. Brothers Andrei and Stefan Chirila made appearances, Ayoub Lajhar and Ademar Chavez also made starts, and Kristian Fletcher made his return to the pitch for game action for the first time in over a year as he continues his return to action after reconstructive ACL surgery.
Others made international appearances. Kévin Denkey played for Togo, scoring three goals in two matches including a brace in a 5-1 win over Benin. Pavel Bucha made his first senior national team appearance for Czechia in their final pre-World Cup friendly. Andrei Chirila, in addition to action with FCC 2, represented the USA U18 team at friendlies held in Spain, and Ender Echenique made two appearances in pre-World Cup friendlies for Venezuela – coming on as a sub in 2-1 loss to Turkiye and going a full 90 in a start against Iraq where Venezuela won 2-0.
Then of course, Miles Robinson has been with the US Men’s National Team as they compete at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
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Robinson became the first active FC Cincinnati player in club history to start or appear in a match at the FIFA World Cup, going all 90 minutes in the US Men’s National Team's final group stage match against Türkiye on June 25. A moment that everyone at the club knew was exciting for both Robinson and the club.
“Well, knowing Miles, and I can't speak for him, but first off, how proud he is to be a part of the national team program and represent his country. It brings a lot of happiness and pride,” Noonan said of his defender prior to his appearance in the World Cup. “So now knowing what it felt like for him and how how excited he was to be a part of the World Cup team, that was visible, and now if he has the opportunity to get World Cup minutes, doesn't matter what the circumstances are…representing the USA or any country in a World Cup, that is an important moment.”
FC Cincinnati action gets underway soon, but for the club itself, the “summer break” is over. Training is underway regardless of the rising temperatures, and part of the buildup includes two-a-day sessions to help the team get back on track.
Soon, MLS action and Leagues Cup 2026 will be underway, but before then, the next chance to see The Orange and Blue is nearly here. FC Cincinnati take on historic English club Burnley FC at TQL Stadium on Friday, July 10, at 7:30p.m. For more information on that match, including tickets, click here OR call 513-977-KICK.
