CLEARWATER - The 2025 Preseason for FC Cincinnati is, in a manner of speaking, over. Four friendlies were played over a month in Clearwater, Florida and finished with an undefeated two-win and two-draw record.
Now, the standard four-day build for FC Motagua begins. This week (or rather weekend) is the first week of competitive play action for the 2025 season.
The challenges of preseason for FC Cincinnati this year made the last four weeks unique and, in the words of FCC Head Coach Pat Noonan, less than optimal for preparation for the season. However, some resolutions and progress have provided some light to the build-up of Honduras.
In addition to the month-long saga of Luciano Acosta's future at FC Cincinnati finally coming to a resolution with the former MVP being transferred out to FC Dallas, injuries and other availability concerns have made the last month-and-a-half with an incomplete team to begin preparations for the upcoming campaign. Luca Orellano and Yuya Kubo reported late, but are now fully involved in training. Injuries to Sergio Santos and Gerardo "Dado" Valenzuela have left them both out of training for an extended period. Teenage Hadebe and Alvas Powell also suffered knocks, but are now back in action. An illness has forced several players, including newly signed star striker Kévin Denkey, among others, to miss both training sessions and friendlies. Matt Miazga and Nick Hagglund continue to rehabilitate injuries, and while they are starting to increase their participation, that has only begun in the last week or so.
Meanwhile, new international additions like Gilberto Flores (a U22 Center Back signing from Paraguay) and Lukas Engel (a Danish Wing Back) have only recently been approved for their Visas and are set to join the group just days before departing for Tegucigalpa.
It has been, for essentially all of the preseason, a healthy mixture of FC Cincinnati, FC Cincinnati 2 and the FC Cincinnati Academy that has made training possible. So for some players, like Pavel Bucha, Obinna Nwobodo, Brian Anunga, Miles Robinson, Roman Celentano, Stefan Chirila and DeAndre Yedlin, the preseason has been normal. But without the full squad, it's hard to say FC Cincinnati has had a full, normal, optimal preseason.
Noonan has been transparent with his frustrations and evaluations of the preseason thus far in his media availability sessions after friendlies. After the second friendly, a draw with Houston Dynamo, where FCC conceded late to drop the victory, he expressed concern over the short-term development and results given all these challenges. But after the 4-1 win at Philadelphia and 1-1 draw at Atlanta United, he expressed optimism about the development and how the group is responding to training and translating that to matches.
"Defensively, I think we've been pretty strong and consistent…but with the ball is where technically we needed to improve – spacing, movement – and saw some really nice improvement," Pat Noonan explained after the Philly victory. "The group's been strong. We kind of move forward, and the focus is on our play and maximizing our time with the guys that are here to improve. So, I give everybody credit for how we've tried to just move forward and focus on improving. So the group's been great. My focus is to try to continue to get us prepared for Honduras and play FC Motagua. I think that has been excellent from the guys.
"I'm confident that whoever we put out there is going to be prepared. What I would say is just with injuries and fitness levels, that's where the concern is because we've been depleted and had to utilize a lot of FCC 2 guys, Academy players. Trialists. It's been great to evaluate those players. But as far as signed first-team players, we just haven't had consistency with that group, and so that's where I've been, probably, more vocal about being behind is just having our group on the field more consistently.
"So I think day by day, piece by piece, it's getting better. But certainly, there is a long way to go. But I do think the guys that have played a majority of these first three preseason games have improved, and I think are in a good position to help us in that first leg."
Essentially, Noonan highlighted that on an individual basis, everyone is progressing in a way he is – at the very least – pleased with. A guy who has been fully active all preseason is farther along than, say, someone who just arrived, but the newcomer or late addition is also progressing at an encouraging but independent rate.
The final preseason match with Atlanta was an quality case study in this.
For the first time in the preseason, some more regular starters for The Orange and Blue were stretched out to play for a full 90 minutes, an important milestone for the group before they kick the season off. DeAndre Yedlin and Kévin Denkey among them. So when the pair combined for the Togolese striker's first goal of the season – a play where Yedlin was able to find Denkey from out wide in a more central pocket that allowed the striker time and space to push forward and get a low strike off and beat the keeper – it started to show real signs of connections being built that didn't exist a month ago.
"I'm happy to score. To finally play 90 minutes. It's nice to play. It's nice to play, to have this feeling to score. Now the preseason is done," Denkey said after the Atlanta United friendly. "I feel good just now. The connection in the game is better than when I arrived. I try to understand how my teammates play, and I wanted more connection on the offensive side, because we switched too many players…now we start having this connection more and more."
A similar moment happened in the match with Philadelphia, but the goal was just off as the Union keeper made the save. This time it was Luca Orellano and Denkey. Orellano, who arrived late to preseason then had a nagging hip injury hold him back from full activity, found himself out wide on the right and sent in a beautiful cross to the far post, where Denkey had made a run too. The ball found Denkey's head perfectly but Andre Blake (the Union keeper) had read it just enough to get his hands to it and end the play. These are small steps but encouraging ones.
"All good things, a good ending to our preseason matches, and now we have our focus to turn to FC Motagua," Noonan said after the match with Atlanta United, summarizing the preseason thus far. "We still have a long way to go. That hasn't changed. I think the collective is getting better. Defensively, for the most part, it's been good all preseason...then with the ball, there was progress. So we've scored some nice goals and created some nice chances that I'm pleased with, but we know it's gonna be a totally different environment and game on Wednesday (at Motagua)."
The biggest hole in the now nearly formed puzzle is what to do about Luciano Acosta's replacement. Acosta had been central to the team's attack and a key reason for its success. Chris Albright, FC Cincinnati's General Manager, stated in the press release that a replacement for the services of the Argentine 10 was being worked on. So an assumed Designated Player attacking midfielder is almost certainly on the horizon, in one way or another.
It's a matter of when not if.
But what does that look like? Acosta was skilled not only with his talent but his particular tactical ability. Does FCC now grab a player who is similarly typecast? Or do they look for a different set of skills that could change the way the team plays or the formation Noonan chooses to deploy?
Regardless, in an ideal world, that player – who is certain to play an extremely important role in the team's success – would have been with the team for the last month. Not less than four days before the first competitive match and a week before the kickoff to the MLS season.
But an ideal world doesn't exist. It never does. Success is about the challenges you face and how you overcome them, not the path of least resistance.
So after a month of preseason in Clearwater, Florida, overcoming injury, illness, drama, availability, poor weather conditions, and god knows what else. FC Cincinnati enters the 2025 season ready to fight. And while I have just written all of this about those challenges, Pat Noonan and his squad aren't looking to make excuses for them. He's looking to prepare his team to embrace them and push through.
"Pleased with the group. I know that we have a group that's confident going into it, but with the understanding we're going to need to be better than each of these games that we've played to go and have a good performance and result," Noonan explained. "(Preseason) gives you some answers there, as far as how far guys have to go."
