It wasn't always pretty, but the job got done Wednesday night at TQL Stadium as FC Cincinnati secured their Round One victory in the Concacaf Champions Cup with a 1-1 result against FC Motagua of the Honduran Liga Nacional. The scoreline brought the two-leg series score to 5-2 and earned FCC a matchup with continental giant Tigres UANL of Mexico's Liga MX in the next round of the tournament.
After a dominant victory in the first leg of the series, FC Cincinnati entered with a comfortable, but not guaranteed, cushion in this match. FC Motagua, winners of last season's Liga Nacional title, would need to defeat The Orange and Blue by at least three goals and score a total of four goals to mount an upset victory. But ultimately, the task was taken care of and FC Cincinnati saw the result comfortably.
The visitors did make things interesting early, though. Backed by a solid contingent of away supporters in the upper deck of TQL Stadium, FC Motagua opened the scoring in the match in the 9th minute thanks to a goal from Rodrigo Auzmendi (who scored the lone goal for Motagua in the first leg as well) on a cross through the box. The goal brought the aggregate score to 4-2 in FCC's favor, but it also placed a new tenor in the early stages.
With the match coming between two league games on the weekends and at the beginning of the season, FC Cincinnati deployed a mixture of rotation and balance to the starting lineup to best suit their needs. Starters from the weekend's win over the New York Red Bulls like Evander, Kévin Denkey and Miles Robinson all took their usual places for opening kick, but some newcomers also rotated in as Pat Noonan opted to rotate seven players into the starting lineup.
FC Cincinnati 2 players Amir Daley and Noah Adnan were added to the roster the morning of the match via short-term agreements and instantly placed into the starting lineup for the match, and others like Evan Louro, Bret Halsey and Brian Anunga were called on for their first starts of the 2025 season.
It was through one of the returning starters, Kévin Denkey, that got FC Cincinnati back on the scoreboard and returned the lead to its original margin. In the 19th minute, Denkey slipped through the Motagua defensive line thanks to a pass from Corey Baird and put a beautifully placed shot past the keeper and into the netting.
That was all the scoring the night would see though. In the first 20 minutes both clubs would exchange goals with each other but ultimately the margin of difference in the aggregate remained the same. From there, FC Cincinnati and its rotated squad would hold down the fort defensively, the four remaining starters from the weekend's fixture would be substituted, and the club would live to fight another day despite only coming out of this match with a draw.
"That was a really challenging series, and they pushed us in a lot of ways," Pat Noonan said from the post-match press conference dais. "A very good opponent. The result was us advancing. There were some things we did well. There were some things that I think we could have done better, but that's every game. I was pleased with some minutes that some guys had."
Prior to the match, Noonan had highlighted that the club's desire was to win the match. That it always is. That is the culture Noonan has strived to create, that no matter who they're playing or the context of the match, the goal is to win. Plain and simple. The Head Coach often ties that together with accountability and expectations of players – that no matter who is selected, the goal is to win.
So, the draw opens a can of worms that could be hard to parse.
On the one hand, it is a draw at home, and it does not achieve that winning condition. But, in the larger context of the series, FC Cincinnati got the job done. They did what they had to do to advance in the series. So it was a successful night, regardless of the draw.
"It's not hard, the result is the result and we advance," Noonan said on whether the outcome makes the achievement of advancing harder to interpret. "There were still a lot of good things. We're still looking to push fitness, work on relationships…I think with Evander and Kevin (Denkey) getting the minutes together that's important because they're going to be so important for us moving forward…So continuing to get those two working together is important. And, Gilberto (Flores) comes in in the second half for Miles (Robinson). He was strong again. He looks the part right now. And I know it's early, but I like what I've seen from him. So, I would say defensively for the majority of the game, there were plenty of good things."
The context of the match can not be ignored, both in the performance and the result. While FC Cincinnati's inner mentality is clearly defined by that desire to win, the rotation in the lineup certainly contributes to the outcome. With those previously mentioned seven rotations to the lineup, much of the match was played with players early in their career (making their debut even) or making their first start of the season for FCC.
Should FCC have been able to play their top lineup, the outcome could have been different. But in the end, that point isn't relevant. The Orange and Blue got a preferable result while considering future needs – and, in the process, continued to adhere to their cultural standards.
"It's always challenging when you have, I would say, roughly half the group being changed. Sometimes you see a dip in form, despite the trust, and despite being confident that your group can go out and look the same," Noonan explained. "This is the first minutes for some of these guys, and you can see maybe a drop off in some moments, but the approach going into it from the individuals that were coming on – and I think the collective – was something I'm pleased about.
"We knew we wanted to manage some minutes and needed to trust guys to come in and close it out. And, I think we accomplished that."
"We want to win every game, but at the end of the day, this is a 180 minute game. That's how we have to look at it, and this was a professional performance," Goalkeeper Evan Louro said. Louro made his second start for FC Cincinnati in the draw and made several key saves to keep FCC at an even score line after tying up the game. "It's very easy to fall into this trap where, 'oh, like the score line is what it is. We can kind of take our foot off the gas.' But that was just not our mentality at all. We're going to try to get a result and see things through."
FC Cincinnati continues their challenging and busy opening to the season with a trip to Philadelphia for the first road match of the 2025 MLS season. From there, it's an even quicker turnaround for the next round of the Concacaf Champions Cup as FCC will host Liga MX giants Tigres UANL at TQL Stadium on Tuesday, March 4.
It's a busy start to the season, but thus far, FCC has passed every test faced by them. But that only gets more challenging as things go on.
