In the return to TQL Stadium after their first road trip of the 2026 season, FC Cincinnati hosts one of their more familiar foes in club history as a new-look Toronto FC comes to town for the first time this year.
After a 2025 in which The Orange and Blue swept the season series, the squad is looking to keep that hot streak going while also keeping their undefeated record at TQL Stadium unblemished! At home this season, FC Cincinnati is 2-0-0 with a +11 goal differential, and against their opponent this weekend, Toronto FC, FC Cincinnati have never conceded a goal at TQL Stadium.
But with an unpredictable Toronto side on the way this weekend, FCC Head Coach Pat Noonan has been preaching focus in the buildup to this match.
“Nothing new, as far as the approach, just taking a look at those games and some new pieces and where (Toronto) can cause us some problems,” Noonan said Friday ahead of the Sunday night match. “So [we've] liked what we've seen (in training). It was, I think, more video review than typical, just to go over details about certain aspects of our play that weren't up to our standard, but it was good conversations and trying to give these guys as much clarity as possible. So with important games coming up, we can have a better performance and outcome than we did last weekend.”
Coming off the coldest match in club history last weekend, kicking off the match in Minnesota with a temperature of 20 degrees, FCC is looking to light a fire at home and get back into the win column after a 1-0 loss on MatchDay 2.
One of the goals FCC players have regularly discussed to start the season is being stronger at home in 2026 and energizing their home fans. That means not only being fueled by the energy of TQL Stadium, but serving as the generator of that power that the Cincinnati home crowd has become so well known for.
“I think it's important for us to come out strong in the first 10 or 15 minutes and put on a real good showing,” forward Tom Barlow said of how they can create a home-field advantage. “Show the fans that there's a desire to go out there and win and score goals. I think that the early fire gets the crowd into it and, hopefully, it gives us some momentum.”
The Sunday match is the first marquee game on the MLS calendar for FC Cincinnati, as it will be broadcast on Sunday Night Soccer on Apple TV. It is also an Evander Bobblehead giveaway night as the first 10,000 fans at TQL Stadium will receive a bobblehead of the Brazilian midfielder in the new Seven Hills kit.
“Things can always improve when you're not scoring goals, and we didn't score goals in our last game,” Noonan said as to how FC Cincinnati is preparing for this match. “I think some of the things that we're seeing in training, and some of the things that we analyzed from the game, decision making and decisiveness in different ways, can improve as far as how we look to go to goal.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. on Sunday night, with action returning to TQL Stadium in short order after this match as FCC continues its Concacaf Champions Cup journey on Thursday, March 12, against Tigres UANL of Liga MX.
FC CINCINNATI vs Toronto FC – Sunday, March 8, 2026 – 7 p.m. ET – TQL Stadium
Watch/Stream (English/Spanish): Apple TV
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History vs Toronto FC
Since joining Major League Soccer in 2019, FC Cincinnati have defeated Toronto FC more than any other opponent in MLS play. FC Cincinnati hold an all-time 9-4-1 record against TFC, improving that record last season with two victories.
That’s despite the Reds winning each of the first three all-time meetings between the clubs in 2019 and 2020. Under Head Coach Pat Noonan, Cincinnati are unbeaten against Toronto FC, with a 7-0-1 record.
Last season against Toronto FC, The Orange and Blue first defeated the Red at home on March 9th with goals from Kévin Denkey and Yuya Kubo. In the return leg, FCC went to BMO Field and won 1-0 on an 18-minute goal by Denkey.
FC CINCINNATI NOTES
(Courtesy of *FC Cincinnati Communications*)
Grande Momento – FC Cincinnati star midfielder Evander enters Sunday with 42 career MLS goals, one goal shy of tying Wélton’s all-time MLS record of goals scored by a Brazilian-born player (43). Wélton spent four seasons in MLS (1996-2000) with New England Revolution, LA Galaxy and Miami Fusion.
Against the Reds…errrr… TFC – Amidst FC Cincinnati’s form against Toronto FC, The Orange and Blue have never conceded a goal to Toronto FC at TQL Stadium, which opened in 2021. FCC have outscored TFC, 9-0, at TQL Stadium, holding a 4-0-1 record against the Reds in Cincinnati with one scoreless draw coming in 2024.
Deja Vu all over again! – FC Cincinnati and Toronto FC meet in consecutive years on March 8. On March 8, 2025, exactly one year before Sunday’s match, FCC defeated TFC 2-0 at TQL Stadium. Kévin Denkey and Yuya Kubo scored to give The Orange and Blue three points on that day a year ago.
Goalscorers – Only three players on FC Cincinnati’s current roster have scored in their MLS careers against Toronto FC: Tom Barlow (3), Kévin Denkey (2) and Kyle Smith (1).
With Barlow and Smith in their first seasons with Cincinnati, Denkey (who scored in both matches last season against the Reds) is the only player to have previously scored for FCC against Toronto FC.
Scouting Toronto FC (0-2-0, 0 Points, T10 Eastern Conference, T25 in MLS)
Toronto are winless in their first two matches of 2026 and continue an extended road trip to start the season with their trip to TQL Stadium this Sunday. With renovations to their home stadium BMO Field underway in preparations for the FIFA World Cup this summer, Toronto FC has opened their season with a Western Conference road trip by first visiting FC Dallas and then Vancouver Whitecaps. In those matches, Toronto has conceded six goals and scored just twice.
FC Cincinnati swept Toronto in 2025 in Robin Fraser’s first season in charge of the Reds. But like this season – when FCC will be finished with both matchups with Toronto by early April – the Orange and Blue were done seeing Toronto by May last year. But the Toronto in the second half of 2025 was vastly different than the early-season Toronto FC.
In July, Toronto parted ways with two of their top players in Federico Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne and began anew. The big addition during 2025 was attacking midfielder Djorde Mihailovic, who joined the club midway through the year and notched eight goal contributions in just 10 matches. The American attacker has played all 180 minutes this season thus far and scored in the season opener.
The offseason addition that made the most noise this winter was former Nashville DP defender and captain Walker Zimmerman, who signed as a free agent with Toronto after six years in the music city and over 140 appearances for NSC.
The third of the American trio of notable squad additions was only announced earlier this week. Forward Josh Sargent was announced as the club’s newest Designated Player after a league-high fee paid to Norwich City FC of the EFL Championship in England. Sargent, 26, has made over 150 appearances for the Canaries across five seasons in the Championship and the Premier League and scored 56 goals in that stretch. He has also been a regular U.S. Men’s National Team selection, getting the call for the United States 29 times and scoring five times. He was selected for the USMNT at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and started twice before being made unavailable due to an injury. Sargent could make his club debut this weekend.
“There's going to be no analysis of him with their group. It's kind of understanding the player and what he brings to the table. So I just think from a work rate standpoint, with and without the ball, he's going to cause a lot of threat with how he moves, to stretch the game, to understand moments, to to run the back line and get behind,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said Friday ahead of the match of Sargent. “Obviously, he is a proven goal scorer, so he's been doing that pretty consistently. Defensively, I think he sets the line well with their pressure, or potentially could with how they step to the ball. He's a relentless worker.”
In the opening two games of the MLS season, TFC have deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation with Mihailovic at the middle of the front three and Zimmerman as the anchor on the backline. With Sargent only just arriving, Derrick Etienne Jr has been the man at the top of the formation as forward. A Haitian international, Etienne Jr is in his 13th MLS season and has over 220 appearances. Since joining Toronto FC in 2024, he has made 50 appearances and has scored four goals.
It will be a sort of homecoming for the Haitian forward, though, as in 2019 Etienne Jr made five appearances for FC Cincinnati, including two starts.
Between the pipes for Toronto (with former DP goalkeeper Sean Johnson now with D.C. United) is 2022 MLS SuperDraft selection Luka Gavran, who started both MLS matches to open 2026. The Hamilton, Ontario, Canada native attended St. John's before being selected by Toronto 31st overall in the draft. He made 36 appearances for TFCII before being promoted to the first team and has made 18 appearances across four seasons with Toronto, but is now poised to be the starting keeper. Gavran has also represented Canada at the national team level, being called in for a friendly and making his national team debut against Guatemala in June 2025.
