The final day of the 2025 MLS regular season has arrived and FC Cincinnati controls their destiny. After results earlier in the week confirmed the club's qualification into the Concacaf Champions Cup for the third year in a row, The Orange and Blue can now secure their seeding in the MLS Cup Playoffs and look to push for the MLS Cup.
FCC enter the final game of the season in second place in the Eastern Conference, and while they are tied on points with third-place Inter Miami CF, the boys from Cincy own the tiebreaker, so a win Saturday night would confirm their second seed in the East no matter how other results around the league go on the final day.
In their way is CF Montréal, who come to TQL Stadium with their season effectively over but with valor still to play for. The Canadian side have battled their way out of last place late in the season, and while eliminated from the MLS Cup Playoffs, they have still taken points from seven of their last nine matches. So while it will only be pride on the line for them, FC Cincinnati expects nothing but their best and will prepare for that as such.
“You see the challenges when Red Bull was eliminated from the playoffs. How difficult the game still are,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said Thursday ahead of Montreal. “They went about it the right way and caused us a lot of problems. So we expect the same with Montreal and structurally, some similarities, how they defend against the ball, some differences. So we've focused on that a lot, and some new faces that we didn't see the last go around. So trying to get our guys up to speed with that.”
The final day and its potential seeding implications for FC Cincinnati will be something to track as the day goes on, as every Eastern Conference team kicks off at 6 p.m. on Saturday night, meaning the live table will be lively until the final minute. While FCC have already secured home field advantage in the Round One Best-of-3 series of the MLS Cup Playoffs, and that cannot change, a win would also secure FCC home field in the Eastern Conference Semifinals should they advance.
A win also puts FC Cincinnati in a better position to potentially host the MLS Cup Finals, should they reach that point, though they may need some help. Vancouver Whitecaps sit one point up on FCC in the Supporters’ Shield standings, also atop the Western Conference. Should FCC win and Vancouver drop points, no Western Conference side would have more points than Cincinnati and thus any MLS Cup Final that FCC plays in would be at TQL Stadium. If Vancouver does win, though, they would be the only Western Conference opponent FCC could hypothetically travel to for the Final.
“There's no reason to score watch,” Noonan said Thursday when asked if they would keep track of other results throughout the game. “If we go and control what we control, if we win a game, we know we hold on to the two spot, so there's no reason to be paying attention to anything else.”
“It's been a good stretch working on, you know, some of the things that I thought we did well on the back end of the Red Bull game and the improvements we made from the week prior,” Noonan continued. “The week's been good. It's nice to welcome back all those international absences, so we'll get our group back together tomorrow, full and ready to go.”
FC Cincinnati will also be celebrating Fan Appreciation Night for Saturday’s matchup with CF Montréal, with a series of fan-forward activations both prematch and in-stadium. For more information on Fan Appreciation Night, click here.
FC CINCINNATI vs CF Montréal – Saturday, October 18, 2025 – 6 p.m. ET – TQL Stadium
Watch/Stream (English/Spanish): MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
English Local Radio: iHeart Media: FOX SPORTS 1360
Spanish Local Radio: La Mega 101.5 FM
FC Cincinnati Social Media: X/Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
FC Cincinnati Official Mobile App: iOS and Android
History vs CF Montréal
FC Cincinnati took down CF Montréal in their visit to French Canada earlier this season, with Evander and Luca Orellano contributing goals to a 3-1 win.
Nine of the first 12 meetings between FC Cincinnati and CF Montréal have either ended in a draw or been decided by one goal. The outlier though has been three recent matches between the sides as FCC have won 3-1,, 3-0 and 4-1 in 2023, 2024 and 2025.Only three of the 12 all-time meetings between the clubs have featured fewer than three combined goals.
FC CINCINNATI NOTES
One More For The Road – With Saturday’s match being the final game of the 2025 MLS Regular season, FC Cincinnati will continue on as they compete in the MLS Cup Playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. The Orange and Blue are one of three clubs (Orlando City SC, LAFC) to have, so far, qualified for the MLS postseason in each of the past four seasons (Real Salt Lake could be the fourth following Decision Day).
FCC, already qualified for the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup, can drop no lower than third in the Eastern Conference and no lower than fifth in the final Supporters’ Shield Standings.
Mark Made – Before debuting a new secondary kit ahead of next season, FC Cincinnati will wear the Canvas Kit Saturday night for the last time at home. FC Cincinnati have been very successful in the Canvas Kit – Across all competitions, FC Cincinnati are 24-8-5 when wearing the kit.
The Canvas secondary kit, introduced ahead of the 2024 season, was FCC’s first white kit since 2021 and was designed to shine light on the city’s arts community and empowers local artists to express their creativity in alignment with the core values and vision of the club.
Looking for 20 – A win Saturday would mark FC Cincinnati’s second MLS season of 20 regular season wins (2023: 20-5-9) and third all-time season of winning 20+ games in league play (2018 USL Regular Season: 23-3-8).
Made Themselves Available – Lukas Engel – on loan from Middlesbrough – on Saturday could be just the second player in club history to play in all 34 MLS matches in a season, joining Álvaro Barreal’s 2023 Iron Man campaign.
Despite playing in one less game, though, Pavel Bucha is on track to pace the team in minutes played for the second year in a row. 90 minutes from him Saturday would put Bucha at 2,884 minutes played in 2025, just shy of his 2024 all-time club record mark (2,920).
SCOUTING CF Montréal (6-17-10, 28 Points, 13th in the Eastern Conference)
CF Montréal come to TQL Stadium for the final day of the season looking to close their season on a high note after another challenging year, but the French-Canadian side come into this matchup with a two game unbeaten streak they look to continue.
The club formerly known as the Impact have not had the most gruesome of years and are well clear of finishing in last place in the league table, but have not won back-to-back games at any point this season. Of note though, the 13th place Eastern Conference team have only lost three times in a row once this season, meaning the team has at least found ways to earn points despite challenges to their season. In the last two weeks, CFM have defeated Eastern Conference playoff sides Charlotte FC and drew with Nashville SC.
“You see the challenges when Red Bull was eliminated from the playoffs. How difficult the game still are,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said Thursday ahead of Montreal. “They went about it the right way and caused us a lot of problems. So we expect the same with Montreal and structurally, some similarities, how they defend against the ball, some differences. So we've focused on that a lot, and some new faces that we didn't see the last go around. So trying to get our guys up to speed with that.”
Standout forward and towering figure in the attack Price Owusu has had a very solid first season with CF Montréal, joining the club at the beginning of the 2025 season after a trade from Toronto FC. A German native, the 6’3” striker has bagged a career high 13 goals and five assists this season, leading the team in goals, assists and (thus) goal contributions.
The only other prominent goal scorer for the side this season has been Dante Sealy, who joined CF Montréal as a free agent at the start of the season after two seasons in the Netherlands playing for PSV Eindhoven’s reserve team, Jong PSV, and a year with FC Dallas. Sealy, 22, was in Eindhoven on a two-year loan from Dallas, returned to MLS for 2024 but was then released at the end of the season with CF Montréal snapping up the player. He has scored nine goals with CFM this season in 27 starts, and also made his Trinidad and Tobago debut in World Cup Qualifying and the Gold Cup where he has scored three times in five appearances.
Jonathan Sirois has been the main man between the pipes this year for CFM, making 23 starts for his hometown club. Sirois, 24, has earned 4 clean sheets this season and made 77 saves. The homegrown star made his MLS debut in 2023 for CF Montréal and has been the de facto starter ever since. In their last two games though, with the playoffs out of reach, 21-year-old Chilean keeper Thomas Gillier has started.
Interim Head Coach Marco Donadel will lead the club into the final day, and has had the interim tag as manager since March when Laurent Courtois was let go. Donadel joined the Montréal staff in December 2024 but had been an Assistant and Head Coach in Italy and Russia before joining the club.
In their last two matches Donadel has deployed his club in a 4-3-3 formation.
