The New Year in Cincy has kicked off with a blanket of snow covering the city. A polar vortex has dumped a near Canadian level of snow on the Queen City, making it funny to imagine FC Cincinnati kicking off at TQL Stadium in just 47 days.
But it’s true. With the New Year officially rung in and The Orange and Blue set to report for preseason in about a week's time, the 2025 MLS season is right around the corner despite the fresh powder. FCC has never had an “Orange Ball” game (called as such due to the usage of different colored soccer balls to account for the snow) but the weather evokes the idea of one, that's for sure.
Other than the impending start to preseason activities, an admittedly exciting but not exactly newsy part of the calendar, it was a quiet holiday season for FCC. The 2025 MLS Schedule was announced, a new MLS game ball was introduced, and FCC traded a second round draft pick for GAM and drafted Ben Augee out of Gonzaga in the third round of MLS SuperDraft.
USMNT calls on Robinson
The biggest news now is that Miles Robinson has, once again, been called up to the US Men’s National Team for their upcoming annual January Camp which kicks off on January 8 in Ft. Lauderdale at Inter Miami CF’s training center in south Florida.
Robinson has been a mainstay with the national team and one of the only consistent MLS players to be called up to join the squad, which otherwise is composed of Americans playing in overseas leagues. With the USMNT (notably) hiring a new manager last summer, famed Argentine manager Mauricio Pottechitino, there was some question as to if Robinson’s number would continue to be called. But since the former Paris SG and Tottenham Hotspur manager has taken charge, he has remained a reliable selection no matter the camp.
This call in does not exactly affirm or deny that though. Like most January camps in the past, the group called in this session is more of a reflection of who is available rather than the first choice team. Robinson, along with a few others called in this window, defy that standard. But that’s the exception. January is not an official international window, so all of those aforementioned players in foreign leagues are still currently playing for their club teams. Per FIFA by-laws clubs must release their players during designated international windows to allow the players to compete for their national sides, January not being one of those windows means teams do not have to release their players and thus, with those teams in the middle of the season, they typically do not.
For European National Team’s, this isn't a problem, they simply do not host camps. For Concacaf nations, this January window becomes an opportunity for Head Coaches to call in a more diversified group and get hands-on experience with a different group, potentially to see who from the domestic leagues could get a future call up to another camp.
Robinson is an example of this kind of opportunity. The now FCC defender attended a joint 2021 January Camp with the senior side and the USMNT U-23 team. At that camp he impressed senior team officials and was elevated to the full national team roster ahead of a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago. In that friendly he scored his first of a future three senior team goals.
As a regular call in now, his skill set is well known. But with a more unfamiliar collection of players there is still opportunity for him. Last season Robinson went to this same January camp and served, for the first time, as captain of USMNT in a friendly against Slovenia in San Antonio, Texas. An honor he spoke about at length and highlighted how much that meant to him and his family.
He will, assumingly, have a leadership role again. He has the third most senior caps of the 24 players called in behind only Tim Ream – who just recently made the move to MLS from English Premier League Side Fulham – and Walker Zimmerman – who is making his first USMNT appearance since 2023 – so his credentials are unparalleled in the camp. But this is an opportunity to continue to prove himself in front of the new Head Coach. To have a more exclusive opportunity than a more full, veteran, camp could provide.
The appearance in camp is not expected to hinder Robinson’s preseason in any sort of dramatic ways, but it will likely delay his report to the club's opening weeks of preseason activities. FCC is expected to report some time early next week before departing for Clearwater, Florida for their own destination preseason camp and Robinson will not be available until after the January 22 match against Costa Rica in Orlando. But the same happened last year when he, Roman Celentano and Ian Murphy were called in, so it is not expected to be an issue.
Brandon Vazuqez back in MLS
A year after departing FC Cincinnati and MLS at large, FCC striker Brandon Vazquez is back in MLS. Austin FC and CF Monterrey of Liga MX have struck a deal for a reported (approximate) $10 million USD for the American forwards services. Vazquez remains The Orange and Blue’s second all-time leading scorer behind only Luciano Acosta with his 43 goals across competitions in his 127 appearances with the club from 2020 to 2023.
While with CF Monterrey Vazquez tallied 14 goals in 48 appearances.
It was, at the time of FC Cincinnati’s sale of Vazquez to Rayados, reported that FCC retained a sell-on percentage of any future deal but no official reporting of those details has yet to go public. So the only sure detail of Vazquez’s MLS return is that the former Cincinnati man will make another return to TQL Stadium on May 10th when The Verde come to TQL Stadium. It will be the second time in two seasons that Vazquez makes a return to Cincy as an opponent after returning last year with CF Monterrey facing off with The Orange and Blue in Concacaf Champions Cup action early last season.
