FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said after the club's final friendly of the summer that his squad is ready for the MLS season to resume, but that being ready and being fully prepared aren’t necessarily the same thing.
Noonan gave his thoughts just moments after walking off the pitch from a 5-0 friendly thrashing of Honduran side CD Olimpia at the Mercy Health Training Center in Milford, Ohio. The closed door match was the final of two friendlies The Orange and Blue played this summer after taking nearly two months off from regular season action due to the FIFA World Cup. FC Cincinnati won their first friendly in similarly convincing fashion, taking down English side Burnley FC 3-1 last week at TQL Stadium, but this 5-0 victory where Kévin Denkey earned a brace and Evander, Kenji Mboma Dem and Tom Barlow all scored was the cherry on top of a successful return to play training period.
For the last month FCC has been training to be ready for right now, and are now just five days away from restarting the MLS season. The Vancouver Whitecaps await FC Cincinnati on Wednesday July 22 to kick things off, then three days later The Orange and Blue make the trek north to Columbus for the Hell is Real derby.
So while the team is geared up and ready to go, Noonan says they won’t know if they’re fully prepared until they take the field for the first time in a competitive match and see if their hard work has truly paid off.
"We're ready to restart. Prepared...we'll see,” Noonan said to the gathered press on Thursday afternoon after the friendly. “You can have good results, you can see progress. But now the most important thing is against Vancouver, showing that progress and being ready to to perform and do it when it's when it matters in the table.”
“That's not to say these games don't matter,” Noonan clarified, “but they don't count as far as points. So that's part of it, and we've made good strides, but I want to see that play out in a positive way against a top team in our league.”
FC Cincinnati dominated their second friendly and gave plenty of minutes to their core players as they built up for the return to action. The core group of starters played between 60 and 75 minutes, with other subs coming on for as many as 30 minutes as well.
Olimpia, who, while not of the same public profile as FCC's first opponent in former English Premier League participants Burnley FC, are regular competitors in the Concacaf Champions Cup and have won the tournament twice in their history in addition to 40 domestic league titles. But the importance of the match was in the mindset in Pat Noonan’s opinion, and continuing to show the quality in the things they’ve spent time working on…no matter who the opponent is.
“I think similar to Friday with Burnley, it was how do you have good habits and an approach to the game that allows you to problem solve and improve really on the last few weeks of training and the importance of progress,” Noonan explained. “So it doesn't matter who we're playing. We want to see the things that we've been talking about and working on to come out in the game.
“I think there was plenty of good. I think the conditions are more challenging today,” Noonan added on the high temperatures and humidity on the day. “So it's a good, I think, reminder of what the coming weeks will look like, just naturally, to manage the elements and still know how to change speeds, know how to attack, know how to defend in transition, so that you can do it in a controlled way. If the game gets open, it's trouble. So there were a couple of those moments, but outside of that, I thought the guys controlled it really well.”
The season restart is less than a week away at this point, but this is just the start of a very long path through the end of the season. And one that given how condensed the calendar has become due to the break in the schedule is as grueling as ever. After two months without matches, FCC will now embark on a month-long stretch where they will play 10 times between MLS regular season action and the 2026 Leagues Cup. Which equals to a match every three days, and only one week between now and the end of August with a full week between matches.
So as the season restarts, FC Cincinnati will be balancing getting off to a strong start to rise in the table, while also managing an incredibly busy calendar of matches. All which factored into how Pat Noonan arranged his side for the friendlies.
“We're starting up play in a week. You want the relationships and what you feel is your strongest group (connected),” Noonan explained as to why he broke up the minutes played like he did for the two friendlies. “There's still some uncertainty because we’ve got guys competing for spots, but you want the chemistry to improve, and that was the reason for the selection of groups.
“But having said that, there's a lot of guys that were in that (later block) that I would say could be in the starting lineup. So we'll see. But it was a good couple of games, and guys had the right approach.”
A particular point of emphasis that Noonan has pointed to as a theme for the entire month long return to play “training camp” that FCC have undergone has been the effort and attention to detail players have all put in – particularly given the conditions. The Head Coach has praised the team repeatedly for not only how they returned to training back in June after a month away, but for how they’ve approached every training session (and even some double days) with energy and attentiveness. Sure, the performances can be evaluated each day as more positive or negative, but the things that players can control – like energy, mental engagement and a desire to learn and work as a team – has been excellent. Especially with the heat wave that has come through Cincinnati this past month, which Noonan even confesses that it would understand for a slip or a lag at times given how gruelingly hot and humid it has been. Yet, the players have still impressed.
One player in particular who Noonan highlighted as particularly strong in this period has been Evander, who, the Head Coach says has elevated his all around contributions to the squad during this period in an impressive way.
“I think Evander's overall approach and application has been the best I've seen, especially under the circumstances,” Noonan said. “Evander's elevated his game and just his overall leadership for the group, so really pleased…and hopefully we see that continue.”
With the MLS season ready to kick off now, FC Cincinnati is ready for action. But now it’s time to face the music and perform. After an up and down first half of the year, FCC find themselves in a spot on the table that they’re not thrilled with…but it could have been a lot worse than it is. The Orange and Blue are currently in playoff position, but seventh in the Eastern Conference isn’t where they’d like to find themselves by the time the end of the season arrives.
The first chance to rise in the table is Wednesday when the Vancouver Whitecaps come to town and kick off at TQL Stadium at 7:30 p.m.. So while we’re coming to an end in this chapter of the regular season…much of the book is still yet to be written, and that’s just getting started.
