CINCINNATI, OH – Patience was the key word from Pat Noonan postgame Saturday night from TQL Stadium. He wasn’t preaching patience or asking for it, he was explaining in a calm, assured way that the difference that night from so many other nights was that his squad played with patience.
Patience may have also been the key for those in attendance as well, but good things always come to those who wait. The game winner, delivered to a deservingly hysteric crowd by Evander on a blistering shot to the upper corner of the net, came on what was nearly the final play off the game. After a match of back and forth action, where FCC took the lead and Nashville struck back to level things all in the second half, it was the composure of the home side late in the match that delivered them the victory.
“I'm happy for the players, I'm happy for the fans that we got to experience a much-needed win tonight on this field. So that's as simple as I could put it,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said postgame. “It was needed. And the guys are in a good way, because they put in a lot of work and while there was things that we could have done better, I think the area that we struggled with for the last stretch of home games, as far as finishing up plays, we scored two goals, and I think there was more out there. So I'm happy about the guys sticking with what we were doing, how we were creating and making a couple plays tonight."
With the game on the line in the final moments of the match, Pavel Bucha and Ender Echenique combined to put the ball on the foot of Evander who rocketed a shot to the back of the net to give The Orange and Blue a 2-1 victory. Snatching a victory from the jaws of a stalemate.
The goal, scored in the 90+8 minute, not only won the match for FCC, but secured the club its place in the 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs. Doing so for the fourth time in as many years.
“Really important win, and in the manner we did it, scoring in the last 10 seconds. That was pretty cool. The crowd was great, that's one of the loudest I've ever heard,” goalkeeper Evan Louro said after the match. Louro made the start with Roman Celentano unavailable due to injury. Louro would make two key saves in the match that helped secure the victory when goals seemed otherwise certain. “I think this is a really good way to build for the final four games of the regular season. So yeah, we're all buzzing.”
After several close calls early in the match where FC Cincinnati attackers had gotten to the door step the newly (re)acquired Brenner broke through in the 73rd minute to open the scoring. In a beautiful bit of movement and skill, Brenner and Kévin Denkey moved in harmony to create an opening in the box for the Brazilian forward to strike home his first goal of 2025. Moments before Evander pinged a strike of a pass into Brenner, Denkey darted across the box in front of him, catching the attention of the Nashville SC defense. Multiple defenders moved to mark Denkey leaving Brenner open to receive the pass.
“The two weeks we had, it was good to understand each other better,” Evander said postgame. Brenner and Evander chose to do their postgame media availability together, so Evander’s words were quickly met with an agreeing “yes” and head nods from Brenner. “I think we had better organization, better chemistry, and we had to win tonight.”
Brenner received what Evander described as a "difficult" ball and expertly put away the finish. From there, it was an outburst of emotion. Brenner lept and screamed in celebration (he also earned himself a yellow card for taking off his shirt) and ran to the corner flag to celebrate with the Cincinnati faithful.
“It was a great feeling, but an even better feeling for getting the win. It was really, really important for us to win at home. But that was one of the best feelings that I've had,” Brenner said. “Thank you very much, Evander, for the assist. It was a very, very good assist. Evander is a player of outstanding quality and is very important.”
“I think it's just the connection, how he likes to play, how he likes to receive the ball. It makes my job easier,” Evander continued as to what he’s learned about Brenner. “You can see the goal that he scored. It's a hard pass coming from me, and he takes a perfect touch of the ball to land in front of him, and he scored for his first goal. So it's quality. Some players like that, they just know it's natural. The understanding just comes natural.”
Nashville would score 11 minutes later to equalize, capitalizing on a loss of momentum FCC had gained after a series of injuries and stoppages forced Pat Noonan to make three substitutions in a four minute span. NSC’s Sam Surridge got loose and struck a hard shot that a diving Louro could only get an arm to but couldn't stop it from going in.
After losing three straight at home, getting a victory at home was vital. Generally speaking it is always a high priority to win games at home, but the recent context contributed some additional necessity to things. The 2-1 victory, no matter how it happened, was as cathartic as it was exciting and helped set things back on course for the final four games of the year.
“Based on form, based on results, and how late in the game, you know, we find the goal, and the energy in that moment is something that this building hasn't experienced enough recently,” Noonan added with a smile in his time with the press. “So hopefully we can take a little bit of momentum from it and confidence from it and continue moving forward. But you know, the timing of it, and the guys sticking with it to find that is important to see.”
Perhaps the immediate aftermath of such a dramatic win is not the time to evaluate the details, but the win certainly makes it easier to view some of the improvements FCC had in their performance for all 90 plus minutes they played.
Going into this match, FC Cincinnati hadn’t scored in three consecutive home matches and even more worrisome than their inability to find a finish, they struggled to generate consistent opportunities. That challenge was a topic they addressed in the two week international break. So maybe the most encouraging detail of the victory is that, even despite the close score line, FC Cincinnati generated far more quality opportunities and were consistently dominant on the ball. The team looked far more cohesive than they had two weeks earlier, and even when Nashville equalized, they hardly looked out of the game.
Noonan credited that improvement to being more patient with the ball, not rushing things and forcing the ball into a bad spot because they felt like they weren’t going to get another opportunity. “I think it was nice in that moment to see us have some patience,” Noonan said. “I think in a couple of games previously, it's putting the ball up into the air and having too much urgency…I think there was enough from the performance tonight that showed that they took some of those training ideas and attacked in an aggressive way.”
“We've talked about more patience. We have to understand that chances are hard to come by. And Nashville's a good team, they're strong defensively. We've seen that with recent opponents or previous opponents, where you can't rush the game, and if you do, you find yourself getting frustrated,” Noonan explained further in his dissection of the match and how training this week factored into that. “I think we were more patient tonight. I think in the first half we rushed a lot of plays, and in the second half, it just looked like the ideas were there, and there was a better understanding of how to get into the box.
“So it's still something we'll talk about. But when we're patient, in the right stretches, the right moments, we can still break teams down. We can still find our chances, and that's where I think we need to continue to, you know, put our focus to make sure that we don't lose patience because the chances aren't happening over and over and over. This is where we're at the season. Teams are all fighting for something, and you're going to see a lot of close games, and you're going to see a lot of teams that defend like Nashville, blocking shots, tough to break down. So having said that, I still think we created a lot of chances so I'm pleased about that."
With the victory FC Cincinnati can check one of their goals for 2025 off their checklist by clinching their place in the MLS Cup Playoffs. FC Cincinnati’s consistency in making the playoffs under Pat Noonan has been an achievement, doing so in each of his four seasons at the helm. But for now, the achievement is more so about fueling the confidence to go for more as FCC have bigger goals they wish to pursue. Making the playoffs is just the start.
"Yeah, I'm pleased about that. It's not easy to do. I think you see that historically, having a team make the playoffs year after year, it's challenging for different reasons,” Noonan said postgame. “I'm happy about the consistency, but it's also the expectations. This is where we want to be, this is where we expect to be, and it's nice to be knowing we're in the playoffs again and clinch that spot. Now it's a matter of how high the seed we are going to get."
"We shouldn't need any motivation at this point. Everybody understands what we're trying to accomplish, and if you need motivation to go play and perform, that's concerning. So I don't think these guys need any more motivation. Hopefully it's just a little bit more confidence after a good result.
“I'm really, really happy,” Evander said of the accomplishment. “It's going to be my first playoffs since I joined the league. You know, really excited to play in Cincinnati in the playoff. I think this season is going to be a season where we can achieve a lot of big things.”
FC Cincinnati now hit the road, heading to Los Angeles, California for their final Western Conference road trip of 2025. The visit with LA Galaxy, the first ever trip to their home in Carson, only becomes more intense as with other results around the league Saturday night, FC Cincinnati find themselves only two points behind the leads for both the Eastern Conference and the Supporters’ Shield.
