Sometimes you have to weather a storm on the road, and getting to port just means grinding it out for 90-plus minutes and fighting to see another day…and sometimes that means being your own lighthouse on the shore to see your way home. FC Cincinnati was all of that and more Saturday night in San Diego, taking all the best punches the newest club to MLS could dish out and earning a point on the road thanks to a last-second grasp, returning to Cincinnati after a grueling week with a 3-3 draw.
FC Cincinnati truly took on the full weight of the San Diego FC attack on Saturday, conceding nearly 60 percent possession and being doubled in total shots. But in the middle of that storm, there was a trio of orange and blue lightning bolt flashes that lit FC Cincinnati’s way.
The first two were bolts of lightning thrown like Zeus into the night sky from the boot of Evander. But the final one is what left everyone truly shocked.
In his 100th MLS appearance, Evander earned two assists for FC Cincinnati and cemented himself as third in club history in total assists with 23. The first came in the early stages of the first half, where, after nearly a full 11 minutes of total San Diego control, Evander sparked a quick counter on a brilliant pass up the middle to Kenji Mboma Dem. The French forward raced onto the pass and slotted the shot home for his second career goal.
In the second half, it was Evander’s inch-perfect ball control again to give FC Cincinnati its second goal. After a free kick from him was only narrowly saved, Evander’s corner kick service landed not just perfectly near forward Tom Barlow, but almost exactly onto his foot at the goal mouth. Barlow swept the corner into the net for the lead, but it’s possible it would have bounded in off his legs without the extra effort…that’s how perfectly placed it was.
What FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan described postgame as “all too common” with this team, though, is that while FC Cincinnati was putting away those two chances, San Diego was scoring their own. The hosts equalized in the 32’ and 66’ minutes, and in the 90’+6, it looked like they had won the match.
“The way the game plays out, that seems to be the norm right now for our group -- a lot of highs and lows,” Noonan said in his opening remarks to the media. “I thought for long stretches there was some good defensive work by our guys, but a big demand against a team as strong as San Diego and the idea is to still find more solutions to control the tempo. The end of the game is chaos and the turnover that leads to their goal…we certainly can see out the game in a better way.”
Marcus Ingvartsen gave San Diego FC the lead at the death. His shot, blasted from the right side into the far post netting, was created off a reckless turnover as FCC tried to see out the match. FC Cincinnati players fell to the ground in disbelief…but not in defeat.
13 seconds of game action later, Tom Barlow provided the flash of lightning FCC needed in their darkest hour.
FCC restarted play by rolling the ball back to center back Matt Miazga. Miazga quickly played a progressive pass to Samual Gidi. Gidi delayed with the ball just long enough for Ayoub Jabbari to race into the box before lofting a ball into the area and the top of his six-foot-six-inch head. Jabbari, fighting off defenders draped to his back, headed the pass perfectly to an open space where Barlow would run into and tap home an equalizer.
The home crowd of Snapdragon Stadium that was euphoric just 15 seconds earlier went silent; stunned as much as FC Cincinnati was only a few moments prior.
“Credit to the guys for that last action to make something out of it,” Noonan said after the game, still with at least a little bit of a shocked look remaining on his face. “You're in the moment, you concede a goal, there's despair, there's guys that are on the ground because they feel like we let one go.
“But when I look up, and I see guys that look a little distraught, it's let's push up and see if we can in this moment get numbers as quickly as possible, as close to goal, to create a little bit of chaos,” Noonan continued, explaining the messaging to the team in that final moment. “Credit to Matt (Miazga), he doesn't just put the ball up the field, he finds Sami (Gidi) and enough delay from Sami to get the ball in a good spot, and then you're relying on two bigs with Ayoub and Tom to challenge for an aerial duel, which is what Ayoub was able to do.
“But it wasn't just the challenge, it was the positioning, and then the control to be able to lay the ball off and Tom does a good job in that moment to finish it, because there's a lot of adrenaline, there's a lot of emotion, and for him to get another goal was again, it was a chaotic ending, but credit to those two to make a play.”
“We knew we didn't have much time to score, so everyone was going forward to try and do something, FC Cincinnati midfielder Evander said after the match. “Then I think it was a perfect long ball from Sami, but I just think it was the moment of the game and that we needed to give the last push, because we’re already losing, so we didn't have anything else to lose.”
With the score level that was, too, how things would end. After a brief delay to review the goal, once confirmed, the referee blew his whistle for full-time, ending the match. The literal final kick of the ball regained a point for FC Cincinnati and sent them back home with something to show for it.
In the moment, the swing of emotions was overwhelming. From devastation to elation, all in a matter of, maybe, 2 minutes. But once that faded, a stranger feeling feels more prominent, a less definitive one.
On the one hand, yes, earning a point on the road is a positive to take and had those last-minute heroics not salvaged that point, FC Cincinnati would be making the long, overnight flight home with nothing to show for it. But on the other hand, when looking at the totality of the game, it’s hard to be totally thrilled. The Orange and Blue once again conceded the lead twice after taking it, and in the end, did not see out the match for a result. They allowed San Diego to score in the end, which isn’t how you want to see the game finish out, even knowing now what would transpire.
“I anticipated we weren't going to win a possession battle tonight, so a lot of our conversation was making sure our defensive structure was as solid as it could be to make sure that we had the spaces right to be able to get pressure to the ball and not let them get into good spots to consistently move to goal, which they're good at doing,” Noonan explained. “However, there is still a large chunk of the first half, especially where we have to have more confidence to play, and I know that's easier said than done, but there were still spaces to understand how to move the ball, and still moments where we turn the ball over, where it's… I think… just a lack of composure or a wrong decision.
“Until we can eliminate that against teams that are strong in possession, like San Diego, those types of games will be us defending for long stretches, and that's a hard way to play…”
Similarly, yes, the FC Cincinnati offense continued to be reliable for multiple-goal games and generated chances all night. Yet, while knowing San Diego FC would likely win the possession battle due to their style of play, and strategizing for it, FC Cincinnati allowed San Diego FC to control the tempo and dictate play even more often than San Diego usually does, making the job harder on themselves.
There were bright sequences of play, stretches even, where FCC showed the composure to play through all of that…but when looking at the totality of it all, it’s easy to see where both Pat Noonan and captain Evander were left saying it felt underwhelming.
“Transition in the first half was our biggest opportunity, and that's when we were able to get the defending right, and then connect the pass, or have the right movement to get out into some space and cause them some challenging moments. “That was the goal,” Noonan explained, showing how the offensive success is linked ot the defensive side of the ball. “But there was probably a handful more, maybe three (moments) that kind of stuck out in the first half, where if I think we just control that moment in how we move up, in how we can connect the same passes and get into our structure, and have some of the ideas that we saw when we were deeper, and we just couldn't, we struggled to live there because of rushing plays.”
“We knew it was going to be a tough game, because the way they played, they liked to have the ball, and we knew it. We needed to be smart when we're going to press,” Evander explained. “We took it all the way to those last few seconds of the game, so, I think it’s a good point because when you cannot win, you just don't lose…butI think it could have been alot better.”
Noonan did grant that fatigue did, in his mind, play a factor in this match and could see that late. For the third game this week, and second on the road, which included a trip out West and an extra day of travel, there were absolutely some heavy legs and tired minds. That can’t be ignored or factored out, but in the days after the match, that certainly won’t provide any comfort.
FC Cincinnati now return home with just one more match to play before the midseason pause in action for the upcoming FIFA World Cup this summer. Orlando City SC come to TQL Stadium on Saturday, but after that, it will be nearly two months before FCC competitive action returns.
When FC Cincinnati set out at the start of 2026, and this unprecedented pause in the MLS calendar was just a distant thought – not yet even worth considering really with how much would come and need to be done before then – it’s hard to imagine anyone inside the Braintrust or lock room at FCC would have envisioned this situation as the one they’d be in going into that break. But here they are. What’s left now is to go into summer stoppage on a high note and with some positive momentum to build upon, because otherwise, it’s a long summer to be sitting on a negative feeling.
But on this Saturday night, FCC emerged with a point. While not perfect, it is something to be pleased and proud of.
