No. 2 FC Cincinnati hosts No.3 Inter Miami CF at TQL Stadium in the Eastern Conference Semifinals this Sunday, November 23, at 5 p.m. as The Orange and Blue look to advance past Messi and Friends and continue their quest for the MLS Cup this postseason.
FC Cincinnati are undefeated against Inter Miami CF this season, winning 3-0 at home before drawing 0-0 on the road in Miami two weeks later. In the last five MLS playings against Inter Miami, FCC is an impressive 3-1-1 and have won both home fixtures against the South Florida club.
Tickets are on sale now at FCCincinnati.com/Tickets. The match will air on Apple TV and MLS Season Pass, with radio to be carried locally on iHeart Fox Sports 1360 in English and in Spanish locally on La Mega 101.5 FM.
This matchup pits the biggest stars in Major League Soccer up against each other, with MVP Finalists, Best XI winners and MLS All-Stars all over the field. To win this match, FC Cincinnati’s stars need to shine at their brightest. Let’s look at a few key ways this game could hinge on in this week's Keys to the Match:
🔑 Control Possesion, Control The Match
After a Round One matchup against one of the most possession-dominant teams in the league, the Eastern Conference Semifinal opponent FC Cincinnati face this time around is again lethal with possession and dangerous when able to dominate it.
While not quite at the overwhelming level of possession the Columbus Crew owned over the course of the 2025 regular season, Inter Miami was third in the league this season in overall possession at 54.9 percent. Unlike most in the league, though, that number drops when playing at home (slightly) to 54.1 percent, and when playing on the road – like they will for this match at TQL Stadium – it rises to 55.8 percent.
But as well learned from the Round One series and through the sage words of FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan, not all possession is made equally. A team may hold the ball for a majority of the time, but if it’s all in their own half, that’s not as dangerous as an overwhelming percentage may suggest.
That said, there is reason to believe that in this match, there will be a direct desire to pull the ball from Miami’s feet as much as possible.
“The intensity is going to be a little different. I think in this game it is going to be important. The team who has the ball is going to be crucial,” FC Cincinnati midfielder and MLS MVP finalist Evander said on Thursday ahead of the match. “You want to have the ball, you want to control the game in a good way. We know if they have the ball they're going to be dangerous as well. So you want to control the ball in a good way and try to seek it during the game. I think this game is all about the team who has the ball makes less mistakes.”
With the quality of attackers Inter Miami have on the pitch, small moments can turn into big ones fast, as the Herons' technical quality can punish you with enough time and space. So, taking possession away from Miami limits their ability to create moments for themselves.
It also, according to midfielder Pavel Bucha, may give FCC a psychological advantage.
“Try to keep the ball as much as possible, I think that can also frustrate them because all of these guys are very comfortable. They like to be on the ball,” Bucha said in his interview on Thursday. “If you if you take it from them, then I think you can have a little bit of advantage”
If there are any clubs in the league that can match Inter Miami’s technical quality on the ball, they are few and far between, but for what Miami have in that aspect, they lose in traditional pace. Their passing and dribbling ability can create a downhill effect in their play, but FC Cincinnati have the speed to keep up with them and make it so that instead of having to make two or three plays to get on goal, it takes five or six, a significant difference when thinking about defending a counterattack, for example. So if FC Cincinnati are able to control play and force the Herons out of the FCC half, they can go a long way in limiting Miami’s most dangerous abilities.
“Be aggressive with them. Step up our pressure. Try to put them under pressure and don't let them turn with the ball. Don't let them have even a tight space to just be on the ball,” Bucha added in emphasis of his initial thoughts. “Look because these guys – Busquets, Messi – when they have little bit of time, even in tight spaces, they can find their teammates and create good opportunities, and that can kill us. So, I think just being aware of that and try to be very aggressive and play our game.”
🔑 Play Agressive
Speaking of aggressiveness, the theme of aggressive play was central to several ideas FCC players and coaches have communicated about key elements of this game. As both a playoff game and an important matchup with a strong opponent, going after the game with intensity and intention is a mindset everyone has highlighted as important.
The definitions of such varied slightly, but the overarching theme of a mentality has come through clearly.
“The games we played against them we played courage and we played with confidence,” Evander said of the two regular-season matches FCC played against Miami this season, which included a 3-0 home victory and 0-0 road draw.
“I think overall, probably just our intensity,” defender and now regular captain for FC Cincinnati, Miles Robinson, said Thursday as to why he thinks his side has had the success it has against this opponent when so many others have struggled. “We've got a good group of guys that have played very intensely and play together as one, as a unit. I think when we do that, we're at our best.”
Though, the double-edged sword of aggressive play can cut both ways. Something that Pat Noonan specifically highlighted in his pre-match press conference on Friday. While yes, he wants his team to come out and attack the match with confidence and intensity, it is important not to change the way they play, or to not do so in a reckless way, lest you leave yourself exposed in a different way.
“It has to be controlled intensity,” Noonan explained. “The goal is not to change the way we play because of the opponent and the situation. Of course, there's always adjustments. There's always things that you have to be aware of with the threat when you're putting pressure to the ball, and how and when you do that, but it has to be intentional intensity.”
“We just were looking at some of the game management moments from our Columbus series,” Noonan continued. “Different structures, and how we get pressure to the ball, and the efficiency in which you do it. It's to keep the opponent further from goal, so it's not about suffering and bunkering. It's intentional intensity to go to the ball, to put teams under pressure, to win it, and then to hopefully find a transition moment or maintain possession.”
🔑 Do your job, stay in the moment
The final key point FC Cincinnati players talked at length about is the intentionality of staying “switched on” for all 90 minutes and not letting yourself wander, or hide, from the moment.
Robinson, Bucha and Evander all highlighted how the skill Inter Miami have can punish you if you lose focus for even a single moment, and that could be the difference in the game. A solution to ensure they maintain that attention to detail is to stay focused on their own jobs, while also remembering it is a team game and that, no matter who is on the other side, when they play as a group, they are all stronger for it.
“Overall, it's 11 men against 11 men. We just have to recognize that it's a team sport, and if everyone does their job and can compete and play at their best, we should be in a good spot,” defender Miles Robinson said Thursday at Mercy Health Training Center. “Staying switched on mentally in both the offensive and defensive thirds. If we can be elite in those moments of the game, those small margins, if we stay true to ourselves and stay committed to the team, I think we should be good.”
It has been a somewhat discussed topic in the press and public discourse that the attention, or the focus, or maybe even the historic context Inter Miami and its starpower brings can throw teams off their game. It’s not exactly been a scientific study that has contributed to this conversation, but enough anecdotal evidence and experience of watching teams make mistakes their supporters describe as "uncharacteristic" makes for a curious thought. FCC has been one of, if not the most, successful sides against Miami since the arrival of Lionel Messi and his troupe of stars in 2023 and is one of the case studies for the alternative side of the theory. A team can be successful against Miami when it simply doesn't succumb to that pressure and plays within itself. In five MLS matches against them since Messi’s arrival, FC Cincinnati is 3-1-1 and have outscored Miami ten to three, and nine to one in games at home, supporting that theory somewhat.
Two-time MLS MVP finalist Evander, a league superstar in his own right, subscribes to that theory at least somewhat. It is his belief that not allowing those kinds of sentiments or reverences to come through is, and has been, key to Orange and Blue success.
“I think some teams feel the pressures when they play against these guys,” Evander explained. “I think you need to respect them, because they're actually big players and have had big careers. But I think you have to play the game. At the end of the day it is 11 against 11 on the pitch. Everybody wants to win, and you have to play with courage and confidence.”
"Everybody's gonna be watching, every eye is gonna be on this game and I wanna win.”
Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. on Sunday at TQL Stadium with a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals on the line. With the game set to be a Blue Out, make sure to wear Blue to the match to support FC Cincinnati. For information on tickets, visit https://www.fccincinnati.com/tickets/.
