Just as the regularly scheduled kickoff time of 7:30 p.m. for Saturday night’s match between FC Cincinnati and the San Jose Earthquakes approached, the skies opened up. Lightning struck, the field emptied, and a weather delay was announced.
Two hours later, things cleared up and FC Cincinnati took the field, and what followed was one of the strongest, most exciting and electrifying victories in recent memory for The Orange and Blue. After going down twice to the San Jose Earthquakes, FC Cincinnati and MLS All-Star Evander stormed back to take the lead and cap a memorable, if not long, night at TQL Stadium, with a 4-2 victory thanks to four goal contributions from Evander.
The performance, which, even when San Jose was leading looked like one of the most complete efforts FCC had put together this season, marked the 15th point FC Cincinnati had earned from losing position, the most in Major League Soccer this season. It was another example in a long line of “never say die” performances the team has had, and served as a shining example for how good this team can be when they play the right way.
“A strong performance, The fact that we were down in that game shows that it can be tough sometimes, because I thought we performed really well,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said to open his postgame press conference. “We conceded on the set piece, and on the second goal, we were in control of the moment that we turned the ball over and don't do well behind the ball. But outside of that, I thought a lot of strong performances and a good win against a strong San Jose team.”
A week after what Noonan had described as one of the most disappointing performances in his time at FCC in a loss to Columbus Crew, his squad responded and showed exactly why that performance was so disappointing. FC Cincinnati dominated play for large majorities of the match and, in a game against one of the top teams in the Supporters’ Shield table, looked the part of the support side.
FCC players and coaches all said there were hard conversations this week after that Hell is Real loss, and it seems like those conversations were taken to heart.
“You always learn about a group when you have letdowns like we had in Columbus, and we addressed it early. We tried to spend the rest of the week with the right training focus and moving past it to be ready for tonight, and it felt that way,” Noonan said of his team’s bounce back. “it looked that way with our performance. I'm happy for the group that now the feeling is better and the performance was better. We made all the right decisions tonight as far as how to get the ball up the field, how to attack, how to get guys in good spots, how to be in more control of what the game looked like, and they were still very dangerous in transition and caused us problems. But I think those moments were far fewer because of the way we moved the ball.”
“I think it's not even just because we lost the last game against Columbus. It's the way that we played. We didn't play our best, and technically we were way lower level than we should have been,” Evander added. “So I think the message today to the fans is we still are a good group of players. We can still make the top of the east, and I think that was the message, especially on the ball.
“We needed to improve on the ball and do better sequences, better passes, and I think we did that tonight,” Evander continued. “And of course, we wanted to bounce back and give the fans the win because of the disappointment of the last game.”
San Jose opened the scoring by putting away a corner kick header against the run of play. To that point, FCC had earned seven shots and over 1.0xG to San Jose’s zero. But on that corner kick, the Earthquakes got their first shot and goal.
Before halftime though, FC Cincinnati responded. Evander found a pocket of open space he could play Bryan Ramirez in to, and Ramirez blasted a shot from a tough angle to level the score. The goal was also his first with FC Cincinnati.
The assist was also an important milestone for Evander. The midfielder, who earlier this year already set the scoring record by a Brazilian in MLS history, earned his 100th career goal contribution — and by the end of the night would have earned his 103rd contribution in 104 matches. By hitting the century mark, Evander became the fifth fastest player in league history to make that level. Joining league icons and heroes in a class of their own.
“It feels like it's a dream. If somebody had told me, okay, in a couple years, you’re gonna have 104 games and 103 goal contributions, I mean, I wouldn't even know what to say, that would be crazy,” Evander said postmatch. “I just gotta thank all my teammates from not just Cincinnati but also from Portland, because it's all of them that got me here. Without them, who knows where I’m at.”
The second half began similarly to the first. FC Cincinnati pinned San Jose into their own end, but couldn’t quiet the breakthrough. On a rare counter attack, San Jose broke through and got their second chance of the night and second goal of the night.
“We’re still conceding too many goals, one on a set piece, one in transition. So, getting more stability and more consistency on our defensive play will hopefully get guys more confident in defending against the ball and trying to keep a clean sheet,” Noonan said of the defense postgame. “It's where we're at. It's something that everybody is aware of, but until we can get that in a position that it needs to be, it's important to still be able to attack and score goals, which we've been able to do.”
FC Cincinnati was now down 2-1 in the second half, despite being, in all metrics except goals, the more dominant side. Though, with each sequence where FCC kept the Quakes on their back heels, even when they didn’t score, confidence was building.
“I think the feeling we had tonight was that at some point you're gonna score goals. At some point the ball is gonna go in,” FC Cincinnati All-Star Midfielder Evander said. “With all the chances that we had that we created, it was good.
“I think, of course, when you don't score, you start to get a little bit in doubt if the ball is gonna go in, if it's our night or not. But I think our feeling tonight was always positive, and then we were looking for the goal, the support of the fans and playing at home, helped us to build our confidence and guarantee the win.”
Well, the goals came, and they came with a flourish of beauty
The first was an assist from Evander to Tom Barlow, who had only just moments earlier came on in the game.
Then, Evander put his masterstroke on the game. Lining up a shot from 37 yards out, Evander uncorked a shot that prompted the MLS commentary team to say “Words fail me. Words absolutely fail me.”
“Time and space on the ball, that's all,” Evander said after the match of what he saw lining up that Goal of the Year candidate. “A shot from distance is one of my strengths. My first goal as a professional soccer player was like that, and I've scored many goals like that from outside of the box. I saw that I had time and space, and during the game we were trying everything, trying to combine, I was trying to dribble, and it was not working. So I thought, why not shoot from here? And then I was happy that it went in.”
The final touch on an excellent night was FC Cincinnati doing their fans a service by putting the game to bed early.
After defending the now 3-2 lead into stoppage time, The Orange and Blue connected on a counter of their own to create a fourth goal. Evander again, for his fourth goal contribution, slipped a ball through to Barlow, who, instead of taking the shot himself this time, fired a pass to Ayoub Jabbari, who put his shot into the back of the net to make it 4-2 and send the remnants of a sold out crowd home happy.
“It doesn't matter who the opponent is. It's tough to win, and you can always take things from games to say, 'This is what we're capable of. This is how we can be punished.' The game is always going to present those things,” Noonan said of the team performance. “If tonight the result doesn't go in our favor, I'm sitting there for a long stretch of that game pleased with our play, and the result can alter how you feel or how you assess it. But I thought we performed very well and kept pushing in a good way. Subs came on and did an excellent job. They were ready, so that was encouraging as well to have guys pushing like those guys are.
“We know we can beat top teams,” Noonan continued. “But we know we can lose to anybody. That's what we've shown, and we're trying to be more consistent in beating teams because of all our play, and that's still something that has to be more consistent.”
FC Cincinnati now pause again in the regular season and prepare for Leagues Cup 2026. A tournament that provides another opportunity to earn a trophy and get The Orange and Blue closer to their goals.
“The mentality shifts right now. This game's over. We have the win, but now the mentality shifts to Leagues Cup,” Bryan Ramirez said postgame. “We have to go home, recuperate as best we can, and be ready to take ourselves as far as possible. And if God wills it, we'll be lifting a trophy at the end of it.”
FC Cincinnati take on CF Pachuca on Tuesday night at TQL Stadium in game one of Phase One of the 2026 edition of Leagues Cup. For more information on that. Click here.
