Sometimes you have to brave more than just your opponent. FC Cincinnati had to combat both Mother Nature and their own demons to pull out a spectacular victory.
Cincinnati (7-5-6, 26 pts.) came from behind twice against San Jose (10-3-5, 33 pts.) and their stingy counterattack to win 4-2 at TQL Stadium Saturday evening. While Bryan Ramirez and Tom Barlow brought the game level, it was Evander’s long-distance golazo that put the game out of reach. His assist in the first half was his 100th goal contribution in his career, the fifth-fastest player to hit that mark in league history.
“I’m happy for the group that now the feeling is better and the performance was better (than Columbus),” Pat Noonan stated after the match. “We made all the right decisions tonight as far as how to get the ball up the field, how to attack, how to get guys in good spots, how to be in more control of what the game looked like, and they were still very dangerous in transition and caused us problems. But I think those moments were far fewer because of the way we moved the ball.”
While the history between Cincinnati and San Jose has not been deep, their last matchup at TQL Stadium resulted in Cincinnati’s biggest win as an MLS squad. Brenner blasted a late hat trick to pilot the Orange & Blue to a 6-0 victory in 2022. The last matchup at San Jose was an emphatic 4-2 road win in 2024 with Yuya Kubo posting his own hat trick.
Cincinnati once again entered their matchup with a clean bill of health and no injuries to report. However, the 2-1 loss at Columbus on Saturday claimed two pelts. Center back Matt Miazga served his yellow-card suspension, while midfielder Dado Valenzuela sat for the first match in his two-match red-card suspension.
San Jose came into this match having restarted the season with leg injuries and dropped points. The Quakes managed a 1-1 draw in the California Classico against the LA Galaxy. However, the injury list remained long—forward Nonso Adimabua, midfielder Niko Tsakiris, and goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr. were all out with lower body injuries. Midfielder Jonathan Gonzalez (lower body) joined the list after an injury in the 20th minute last Saturday.
With the two suspensions being served, Cincinnati started Kyle Smith in the back line for Miazga. Pavel Bucha shifted to his midfield spot for Dado, while Bryan Ramirez started at left back. Kristian Fletcher and Andrei Chirila backfilled the roster, giving Fletcher his first roster appearance for FC Cincinnati.
San Jose had a mostly unchanged lineup from their optimal setup. Preston Judd returned to his usual spot atop the formation after his own yellow-card suspension. Meanwhile, Vitor Costa started at left back for the first time since September 2025.
First half
The bulk of the rain arrived just before the sword was pulled in front of The Bailey. The first lightning strikes delayed the match for two hours, setting the scene for some #MLSAfterDark antics.
Cincinnati owned much of the possession in the first half, making much of their penetration through the edges. Ramirez played his best 45 minutes in Orange & Blue, getting two quick looks on net in the first ten minutes, only to target goalkeeper Angus Gunn’s hands both times.
However, San Jose did well in sporadic periods to press the back line through Timo Werner, who squeezed an early yellow card from Smith. Werner’s feeds to Preston Judd were fended well, but the resulting corner kick in the 26th minute burned the defense.
Werner’s set piece to a leaping Daniel Munie put San Jose on the board first. The defense seemed to lose their marked men, leaving Munie alone for his fourth goal of the season.
Cincinnati still continued to exploit the weakness on the edges and eventually knotted the score up. In the 33rd minute, Evander drew double-coverage atop the San Jose box, leaving Ramirez free to his left. The Ecuadorian wingback punched his ticket, scoring his first MLS goal past Gunn to make it 1-1.
The strong work was not fully reflected in the first half. While FC Cincinnati enjoyed more possession (57/43) and attempts on net (5/1), San Jose’s one attempt on net was the only one that they needed in the first half.
Second half
Given the opportunity to take the lead out of the break, Cincinnati reapplied the press in the San Jose end, churning out nine corner kicks in the process. Kevin Denkey almost caught Gunn sleeping, forcing the Scottish keeper to dive in the 46th minute.
While the vise tightened in their defending end, San Jose caught the Cincy defense in a lapse of judgment. Judd beat the final defender to the ball in the 56th minute and put in a cross that planted Roman Celentano on his line. Werner received the pass to catch Celentano off his guard, smashing his fifth goal of the season to take a 2-1 lead.
Noonan acknowledged that the defense needed work. “It’s not where we’re at. It’s something that everybody is aware of, but until we can get that in a position that it needs to be, it’s important to still be able to attack and score goals, which we’ve been able to do. We know that this isn’t going to be the recipe for success for the remainder of the year. But guys know they’re working hard.”
While the time dwindled, Cincinnati found a winning breakthrough in a flash. Tom Barlow, fresh into the game, maintained his run to receive a pass from Evander in the 80th minute. His open shot beat Gunn to his right, clanging off the post for his sixth goal of the season.
If you took time to blink after that, you missed quite a bit.
With San Jose pulling their defense back, Evander caught Gunn sleeping on his line. The Brazilian midfielder clobbered his 11th goal of the season in the 82nd minute from 37 yards out, gifting FC Cincinnati the lead for the first time that night.
“I think the feeling was at some point you’re going to score the goals,” Evander addressed after the match. “At some point the ball is going to go in with the amount of chances we had created. Of course when you don’t score, you get in a little bit of doubt.
“But I think tonight our feeling was always positive. With the support of the fans and playing at home, this helped us to build our confidence and guarantee the win.”
“Evander was spectacular tonight,” Noonan added. “Our conversation post-Columbus when he returned from the All-Star festivities was about forcing plays and him feeling this pressure to always provide production and play for our group and sometimes, when you push and try to do too much, it’s counterproductive. Tonight, he just made all the right decisions.
“It was a really good response from him. That was as strong as he’s performed off the week we had. He ended the week in a really good way.”
While San Jose managed to scratch some possession and a hopeful miss by Ian Harkes in extra time, the Orange & Blue cemented their victory soon after. Barlow found Ayoub Jabbari in the fifth minute of extra time to slam the door shut. Jabbari’s second of the season completed the scoring at 4-2.
“It was kind of a weird game,” Barlow pointed out. “It was a two-hour delay, so we were kind of waiting around for a little bit. But credit to the fan base for sticking around and waiting for us. They really brought the energy. You could feel it on the second goal. They brought us back to life.”
Ramirez was happy with the effort, but already has shifted his mind toward the Leagues Cup. “The game’s over, and we have the win, but now the mentality shifts to the Leagues Cup. We have to go home, recuperate as best we can, and be ready to take ourselves as far as possible. If God wills it, we’ll be lifting the trophy at the end of it.”
The win pulls Cincinnati up to sixth place in the East before the Leagues Cup starts next week. San Jose return home in third place in the West, but get two weeks off while they watch the Leagues Cup from the sidelines.
Major League Soccer, Match #18
FC Cincinnati vs. San Jose Earthquakes
TQL Stadium, Cincinnati, OH
Attendance: 25,513
Result: FC Cincinnati 4, San Jose Earthquakes 2.
BOX SCORE
FC Cincinnati Starting XI (3-4-1-2):
Roman Celentano (GK); Kyle Smith (Teenage Hadebe 70′), Miles Robinson, Samuel Gidi; Ender Echenique (Alvas Powell 88′), Pavel Bucha, Obinna Nwobodo (Bryan Anunga 89′), Bryan Ramirez; Evander (C); Kenji Mboma Dem (Tom Barlow 70′), Kevin Dénkey (Ayoub Jabbari 90+3′).
Bench: Evan Louro, Nick Hagglund, Kristian Fletcher, Andrei Chirila.
San Jose Earthquakes Starting XI (4-2-3-1):
Angus Gunn; Benji Kikanovic (Jack Jasinski 81′), Daniel Munie, Reid Roberts, Vitor Costa (Jamar Ricketts 60′); Ronaldo Vieira (C) (David Romney 81′), Beau Leroux; Ousseni Bouda (Jack Skahan 73′), Nick Fernandez (Ian Harkes 46′), Timo Werner; Preston Judd.
Bench: Francesco Montali, Paul Marie, Luka Jovanovic, Darius Johnson.
Scoring summary:
SJ – Daniel Munie 26’ (Werner)
CIN – Bryan Ramirez 33’ (Evander)
SJ – Timo Werner 56′ (Judd)
CIN – Tom Barlow 79′ (Evander)
CIN – Evander 82′ (Nwobodo)
CIN – Ayoub Jabbari 90+5′ (Barlow)
Discipline:
YC – Kyle Smith 20’ (CIN, foul)
YC – Evander 87’ (CIN, poor sportsmanship)
YC – Miles Robinson 89’ (CIN, foul)
Next Match:
Leagues Cup: vs. Pachuca, 7:30 pm, Tuesday, August 4th; Apple+, FS1.
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