For the third time in as many years, FC Cincinnati is back in action and kicking things off for the new year with a match in the Concacaf Champions Cup!
After a long offseason and preseason spent down in Clearwater, Florida, The Orange and Blue are set to kick off the 2026 competitive season in Round One of the continent's premier club tournament when they face O&M FC of the Dominican Republic.
The club has travelled to Santiago de los Caballeros to face off against the 2025 Caribbean Cup runners-up, and now in their third season of Concacaf Champions Cup play, FC Cincinnati is looking to push further than ever before.
“I think now there's an expectation to be in this competition each year, which is certainly a sign of the growth of the club,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said of how the club has changed since the first time they entered this tournament in 2024.
“I would say, from the previous experiences, coming up short of our goal of advancing further in the competition and competing for a trophy. So, the biggest takeaway is we've had success in the first round and in the second round, we haven't been able to capitalize on our home performance to better position ourselves for the second leg…so that's something that we're going to look to surpass this year.
Last season FC Cincinnati attacking midfielder Evander had only just joined the club days prior to this opening round, making his debut in that match after less than a week with FCC.
This year, he is looking to build on that experience with what he’s learned from the past season, and now, with a full preseason under his belt.
“Last year I was just joining at the competition, now I'm part of the preseason with the team and being part of the group for a longer time. So now we can, of course, we want to go for the Spencer, and we need, we need to take, we need to take game by game,” Evander said Tuesday at the official press conference ahead of the tournament. “You’ve a very important game against O&M (to start), and you want to take this game as seriously as possible to go further in the competition.”
In the past two years FC Cincinnati has gone on the road to open this tournament and came away with wins in both games; defeating Cavalier FC in 2024 2-0, and then FC Motagua in 2025 by a 4-1 score line. But playing in these tournaments introduces a degree of unfamiliarity for any team. With less knowledge of your opponent than any typical MLS side, FCC will have to go into the tournament and find a way to win on the road again.
“If you just look at (O&M’s) play, I know results wise and form hasn't been kind to them recently, but they have games under their belt, which is something that we don't,” Noonan explained at the press conference. “But you can't have excuses going into these games, these early games, as far as our own group.”
“It's always difficult on the road, and we have to have the mentality right to begin,” Noonan added.
FC Cincinnati open this tournament on the road but return to TQL Stadium next week for the second leg of the two-match series. As the higher seed in the tournament, FC Cincinnati have the advantage of playing at home for game two.
Should The Orange and Blue advance to the next round, a 2025 rematch with Tigres UANL of Mexico’s Liga MX awaits. Last season the two sides met in the same round and FC Cincinnati was eliminated after the second leg.
I think it’s not just me. I think the whole thing is the team wants to succeed and go further in the competition,” Evander said of the team's goals for the 2026 tournament. “I think last year we could have gone further, we had the chance to go further. We want to play to win. You want to play to go as far as possible in the competition and, hopefully, win a trophy.”
FC CINCINNATI vs. O&M FC (Liga Dominicana De Futbol) – Wednesday, February 18, 2026 – 8 p.m. ET – Estadio Cibao Fútbol Club
TV: FOX Sports 2 (English) and TUDN (Spanish)
Stream: FOX Sports App, FOXSports.com (English) and ViX (Spanish)
Radio: FOX Sports 1360
International competition
FC Cincinnati begin the Concacaf Champions Cup 2026 and begin their season on the road for the third year in a row. This season, FC Cincinnati head to Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic to take on O&M FC. After trips to Kingston, Jamaica in 2024 and Tegucigalpa, Honduras in 2025, this trip back to the Caribbean marks the first trip to the Dominican Republic in club history, and the sixth nation that FC Cincinnati have played in.
In Concacaf Champions Cup play FC Cincinnati is 2-0-0 in the opening match of the tournament, defeating Cavalier FC in 2024 and FC Motagua in 2025. In both seasons FC Cincinnati would go on to win the two match aggregate series a week later when they returned to TQL Stadium.
SCOUTING O&M FC (6th in Liga Dominicana de Futbol, 0-4-2, 2pts, 2025 Caribbean Cup Runners-Up)
O&M FC enter the Concacaf Champions Cup for the first time in club history and will make their tournament debut when they take on FC Cincinnati this week. La Universidad, nicknamed as such for their connection to “Dominican University O & M,” earned their ticket to the continent's largest club tournament when they finished as runners up in the Caribbean Cup, falling to eventual tournament winners Mount Pleasant (Jamaica).
With the new year still young, O&M FC are continuing their 2025 season in the Liguilla, where they qualified for the second season of Liga Dominicana by finishing top 6 in the league last year. Their opening to that campaign though has not been ideal, going winless through six matches and only scoring six total goals. One of their top players from last season, Frantzety Herard, who was also the club’s top goal scorer and leading scorer in the 2025 Caribbean Cup, departed the club before the start of the Liguilla, with rumours swirling of the player signing in Europe.
In his place, center forward Anyelo Gómez has stepped up to be the leading man in the offense, scoring and assisting once and playing every minute of the season thus far. The Dominican native is 23-years-old and represented the Dominican Republic at the U-20 World Cup in Argentina in 2023.
Sergio Paredes, 25, is the top goal scorer of this young season, potting two goals, but did so in just three minutes of action all season when he scored twice as a late sub in a 4-2 loss to Cibao FC. Paredes joined O&M FC five years ago and represented the Dominican Republic at the youth national team level when he was 18.
While most of the club are native Dominican players, two new additions this season come from overseas and have played every minute of the season this year. JON TRINCADO, 26, and JULEN OLASAGASTI, 25, both hail from Spain and joined recently after playing in the Spanish third and fourth division, respectively. OLASAGASTI is a center back while Trincado is a midfielder.
A pair of twins round out the notable standouts for O&M FC, though one has yet to see the field in 2026. Josue and Isaac Baez, both 23, have been standouts for the club. Josue, a winger, scored in O&M’s most recent match. Isaac, a midfielder, has not played this season, but was a key contributor in the club's Caribbean Cup success. Both have been called into their Senior National Team on multiple occasions.
In net for O&M FC is Omry Bello, who has played all but one match in 2026 and has been the main man between the pipes since joining in 2024. Bello, 23, has represented the Dominican Republic at every youth level and has been called into the Senior National Team once.
Manager José Aparicio leads O&M FC from the touchline, and has done so since 2023 when he joined the club.