FC Cincinnati
Also written as Cincinnati.
The club
FC Cincinnati were announced on 12 August 2015 as a United Soccer League franchise, the ownership group led by Carl Lindner III of American Financial Group with Jeff Berding, formerly of the Cincinnati Bengals, as president and general manager. John Harkes was the club's inaugural head coach and the team played its USL matches at Nippert Stadium on the University of Cincinnati campus. FC Cincinnati is not the same club as the Cincinnati Dutch Lions FC, an amateur outfit that played in USL League Two (and its PDL predecessor) out of Cincinnati between 2013 and 2019 before going on hiatus; the two have never shared a division and should not be confused with one another.
The club's colours are orange and blue, and supporters call the team "The Orange and Blue." The crest carries a winged lion of Saint Mark holding a sword and a ball, redesigned when the club moved up to Major League Soccer; fans nicknamed the mascot "Gary the Knifey Lion" after noticing the crest's lettering appeared to spell out a name. On 29 May 2018 MLS awarded Cincinnati an expansion place to begin play in 2019. The home ground since May 2021 has been TQL Stadium, a 25,513-capacity soccer-specific stadium built in the West End neighbourhood; before that the club played at Nippert Stadium throughout its USL years and into its first two MLS seasons. The training base is the Mercy Health Training Center in Milford, Ohio, which opened on 6 November 2019 at a cost of 35 million dollars.
The head coach is Pat Noonan, appointed on 14 December 2021 alongside general manager Chris Albright, who joined on 4 October 2021. Carl Lindner III remains owner and CEO, with Jeff Berding promoted to co-CEO in 2022; Meg Whitman, the former eBay chief executive, bought a minority stake in November 2019 and sits as the club's Alternate Governor on the MLS Board of Governors.
Recent seasons
FC Cincinnati's three USL seasons, 2016 to 2018, were built on record crowds rather than results: the club won the 2018 USL regular-season championship, clinched with a league-attendance-record 31,478 at Nippert Stadium against Indy Eleven on 29 September 2018. Those crowds, several of them setting and then resetting the USL attendance record, were central to the case that won Cincinnati its MLS expansion place the same year.
The move up to MLS did not go well at first. Cincinnati's debut MLS match was a 4-1 defeat away to Seattle Sounders on 3 March 2019, and the finished 2019 season, under interim and then permanent coaching changes after Alan Koch was fired following a 2-7-2 start, was 8th in the Eastern Conference. Ron Jans took over in August 2019 but resigned in February 2020 amid an investigation into an alleged racial slur, and Yoann Damet again ran the side as interim coach. The team was 7th in the East in 2020 with a 6-16-12 record, and 2021 was the low point: 4-22-8, 14th in the East and last of all 27 clubs across MLS that season.
The turnaround dates from Pat Noonan's appointment for the 2022 season. Cincinnati reached the playoffs for the first time, finishing 5th in the East on a 12-9-13 record, with Brenner and Brandon Vázquez each scoring 18 goals, the first pair of MLS teammates to share the league's top scoring mark, and Luciano Acosta contributing 10 goals and a league-leading 19 assists. Cincinnati beat New York Red Bulls 2-1 in the opening playoff round before losing 1-0 to Philadelphia Union in the conference semi-final.
2023 was the club's best MLS season by a distance: a 20-5-9 regular season, 69 points, and the Supporters' Shield, won on 30 September 2023 with a 3-2 win away to Toronto FC. Cincinnati equalled the MLS single-season home winning streak record with seven straight home wins, matching a mark San Jose Earthquakes had held since 2002, and reached the U.S. Open Cup semi-final for the first time in the club's MLS era. Luciano Acosta was named MLS MVP on 27 November 2023. In the playoffs Cincinnati beat New York Red Bulls 2-0 and then Philadelphia Union 1-0 on a Yerson Mosquera extra-time winner, before losing the Eastern Conference final in extra time to Columbus Crew, the first "Hell is Real" playoff meeting between the two clubs and the only one to date.
2024 brought a 3rd-place finish in the East on an 18-11-5 record, 59 points, but a first-round playoff exit to New York City FC on penalties, 6-5, after a 1-0 home win and a 3-1 away defeat; Luciano Acosta said afterwards that he wanted to leave the club. In 2025 Cincinnati finished 2nd in the Eastern Conference with a 20-9-5 record and 65 points, with the Brazilian forward Evander leading the scoring across all competitions with 22 goals.
Honours and landmarks
MLS Supporters' Shield winners in 2023, the second-fastest expansion club in MLS history to win it after Los Angeles FC in 2019. USL regular-season champions in 2018. Cincinnati has not won the MLS Cup or the U.S. Open Cup; its best Open Cup run in the MLS era ended at the semi-final stage in 2023.
Notable scorelines
Cincinnati's USL years produced a string of record crowds rather than record scorelines as such: 20,497 against Louisville City on 16 April 2016, 23,375 against Pittsburgh Riverhounds on 14 May 2016, 24,376 against Orlando City B on 17 September 2016 and a final USL-record 25,308 against Orlando City B on 5 August 2017, plus an exhibition crowd of 35,061 against Crystal Palace on 16 July 2016 that was an Ohio state soccer attendance record at the time.
While still a USL club, Cincinnati beat MLS opposition twice in the U.S. Open Cup in 2017: 1-0 away to Columbus Crew in the fourth round on 14 June, in front of 30,160, and Chicago Fire 3-1 on penalties in the round of 16 on 28 June, in front of 32,287. FC Cincinnati's home MLS debut was a 3-0 win over Portland Timbers on 17 March 2019 in front of 32,350. TQL Stadium's opening match, on 16 May 2021, was a 2-3 defeat to Inter Miami. In 2023, en route to the Supporters' Shield, Cincinnati equalled the MLS record for consecutive home wins in a season with seven. In the 2026 MLS season Cincinnati beat CF Montreal 4-3 on 22 March and lost 6-1 away to New England Revolution on 15 March; the club's all-time record MLS win and record MLS defeat by widest margin were not established from the sources read here.
Head-to-head notes
The defining rivalry is the "Hell Is Real" derby against Columbus Crew, named by supporters in 2017 after a Christian roadside billboard reading "Hell Is Real" on Interstate 71 between the two cities. The clubs first met while Cincinnati were still in USL, Cincinnati winning 1-0 in the 2017 U.S. Open Cup; their first meeting as MLS opponents was a 2-2 draw at Mapfre Stadium on 10 August 2019. As of 8 November 2025 Columbus led the all-time series 10-6-6 across 22 matches in all competitions. The heaviest margin was a 4-0 Columbus win during the 2020 MLS is Back Tournament on 11 July 2020; the highest-scoring match was a 2021 game in which Columbus overturned a 2-1 deficit to win 3-2 late on. The two clubs met in the playoffs for the only time in the 2023 Eastern Conference final, Columbus winning 3-2 in extra time on 2 December 2023 after Cincinnati had led 2-0 at half-time, Columbus going on to win the MLS Cup the following week.
Cincinnati's USL-era rivalry was the River Cities Cup against Louisville City, roughly 100 miles southwest along the Ohio River; Cincinnati won the cup in 2016 and Louisville in 2017 and 2018, and the clubs last met in the 2023 U.S. Open Cup third round, Cincinnati winning 1-0 on 9 January 2023.
Right now (2026/27)
Pat Noonan is the head coach, into his fourth season, with Chris Albright as general manager. Through 21 league matches Cincinnati sat 6th in the Eastern Conference on a 8-6-7 record, 31 points, with a strong home record of 7-2-2 set against a weak away record of 1-4-5; the team had scored 49 goals across those 21 league matches. The Togolese forward Kevin Denkey and the Brazilian Evander have been the club's leading attacking contributors this season. Cincinnati also reached the round of 16 of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, going 3-1 in the competition with 17 goals for and 6 against.
Summer transfer business has seen Alvaro Barreal leave for Santos and Luca Orellano for Monterrey, with Bryan Ramirez, Ayoub Jabbari, Kristian Fletcher and Tom Barlow coming in. The remainder of the 2026 MLS regular season and any subsequent playoff position were not confirmed from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Cincinnati https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_FC_Cincinnati_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_is_Real_Derby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Dutch_Lions_FC
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.