After a two-week stand away from home, FC Cincinnati returns to TQL Stadium this weekend. They are owners of a four-game win streak and are undefeated in their last five matches. With an early kickoff Saturday to open the MLS match week as the first game of week 10, FC Cincinnati is looking to continue their unbeaten streak at home and extend their winning streak even further.
A Western Conference foe is lined up for this Saturday, with Sporting Kansas City coming to The Queen City for the fourth time ever. SKC has won two of their last three matches after going winless in their first six, prompting a landscape altering shift when the club parted ways with long time Head Coach Peter Vermes after a 17-year tenure as Head Coach of Sporting Kansas City.
In his place, Kerry Zavagnin has stepped in to manage the club. Zavagnin, 50, himself played over 200 games for SKC as a player before joining Vermes' staff as an assistant in 2009, where he has been ever since.
"It's a strange time. Peter [Vermes], really, he built that club in a lot of ways to what it is today. And certainly have a lot of respect for him, and what he's meant to the game in this country. I know Kerry [Zavagnin] as well, and a really good guy, obviously, he's got the opportunity now to be the head coach, and won two of the last three. So, you know, the results have improved," FC Cincinnati Head Coach Noonan said Thursday. "I think we're not anticipating anything drastic based on what it's looked like with Kerry in charge…so we'll try to simplify it with the last three games."
With a new Head Coach installed, even an interim one, there may be the expectation for radical changes or unpredictable tactics as the new coach looks to change the tide the club was riding on. But with three matches of a sample size under Zavagnin, Noonan says he and his squad have had the ability to review those games and create a game plan for this match.
"What we anticipate, I think, as far as them defensively is there's some similarities to Chicago with some different pressing ideas that we've seen," Noonan explained. "So that's something that's kind of stood out over the last couple games. I think it's about organization for them, we haven't seen them step up in an overly aggressive way. It's clear pressing moments where their actual pressure, those numbers, that data, shows that it's increasing. But it's from a deeper positioning. So we'll see if that remains to be the case this weekend."
"With the ball, they're very good with some of the switches of play," Noonan continued. "How they use their front three, how they use their outside backs in overlapping moments. So, I would say those are some of the early things that have stood out."
This Saturday's 2:30 p.m. kickoff at TQL Stadium is Kids' Day, with gates opening at 1 p.m. The day will feature kid-centric presentations, including a kid DJ, a kid PA announcer, and a kid singing the national anthem. Fans can write a letter to Gary the Lion at The Corner Kick (top of section 132), and the halftime t-shirt toss will feature kids-sized shirts. A kids' combo meal will be available at Queen City Eats (top of section 124), and youth hats will be available at 20 percent off.
FC CINCINNATI vs Sporting Kansas City – Saturday, April 26, 2025 – 2:30 p.m. ET – TQL Stadium
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Against Sporting KC
This is the fourth meeting between Sporting KC and The Orange and Blue, the second in TQL Stadium and the first at TQL Stadium in MLS action. While all four meetings have been in Cincinnati, FCC have never outright won in any of those meetings – though they did earn a 3-3 (4-2) victory in penalty kicks during the 2023 Leagues Cup.
FC CINCINNATI NOTES
It’s Called a Winning Streak – FC Cincinnati are seeking a fifth straight victory Saturday in a return to TQL Stadium to host Sporting Kansas City. A win Saturday would mark the third-longest MLS Regular Season win streak in club history. The only two longer streaks came in last season’s club-record seven-match win streak from April 20 - May 25 and a six-match win streak from May 6 - June 3, 2023.
Four for Four – A win Saturday would give FC Cincinnati a perfect 4-0-0 April. Excluding months with fewer than three games played, FC Cincinnati have only secured a perfect month twice before in league play: May 2023 (5-0-0) and September 2018 when the then-USL Orange and Blue went 6-0-0. A win or draw Saturday secures the ninth month in FC Cincinnati’s 10-season history with a win percentage of .800 or higher.
Evander from Mason – FC Cincinnati’s Evander scored again from outside the 18 last Saturday at Chicago Fire FC, marking his 12th career MLS goal from outside the penalty area, per Sportec Solutions, by far the most since the start of 2023. No other player has more than seven over that same time span.
Western Conference Foes – Under Head Coach Pat Noonan, FC Cincinnati are 12-4-4 against a Western Conference opponent in MLS Regular Season play, including 5-1-0 last season. Saturday marks the first of six scheduled regular season matches against a western foe in 2025.
Dependable Roman – Roman Celentano is in line to make his 100th MLS Regular Season appearance on Saturday against Sporting KC. Since his first league start on April 24, 2022, only eight other MLS players have made as many as 99 appearances over that time frame.
SCOUTING Sporting Kansas City (2-6-1, 7 Points, T13th in Western Conference)
Sporting Kansas City has seen a turnaround in results since making, perhaps, the most significant organizational change in their club history three weeks ago. After parting ways with long-time manager and GM Peter Vermes, SKC won two of their last three matches and scored nine goals in their last three matches after only scoring six in their first six games of the season.
Last week, under interim Head Coach Kerry Zavagnin, Sporting defeated San Jose Earthquakes 5-3 to earn their second win of the season, and two weeks prior, in Zavagnin’s first game as Head Coach, they defeated rivals St. Louis CITY SC 2-0. During the first six weeks of MLS play, SKC was winless and had accrued just one point.
This offseason was a challenge for Sporting as they looked to retool from a near bottom-of-the-table finish. With new tools at their disposal, SKC used the Cash-for-Player transfer method to sign forward Dejan Jovalic to a Designated Player contract. Jovalic, 25, was set to graduate out of his U22 designation at LA Galaxy, where he had just won the 2024 MLS Cup, so the move to SKC, the first of its kind in MLS history, was aided by his contract situation in LA. Since arriving at Children’s Mercy Park, the Serbian forward has scored five goals for Sporting and has led the team in goal contributions.
A second new DP added just days before the 2025 season kicked off is Spanish Midfielder Manu Garcia, who joined from Greek top-flight side Aris Thessaloniki in February. The attacking midfielder leads the team in assists and has appeared in every game for SKC since arriving. Garcia, 27, rounds out an attacking troupe along with longtime Kansas City man Erik Thommy, who, now in his fourth season, has become a mainstay in the squad.
On the defensive side of the ball, goalkeeper John Pulskamp leads the group and has played every minute of every match this season. Pulskamp joined Kansas City in 2020 and has now, in his sixth year at the club, won the starting spot.
Most often this season, Sporting Kansas City has deployed a 4-3-3 formation and did so again in their 5-3 victory over San Jose. Homegrown defender Jae Bartlett, 19, started in the midfield alongside Garcia and Nemanja Radoja. Jovalic led the front three with Daniel Sallói and Shapi Suleymanov next to him.
