For the first time in the month since the 2025 competitive season started, FC Cincinnati have had a full week to ready themselves for an opponent. And with that time, The Orange and Blue look to come back stronger and more prepared than ever for their weekend match with Atlanta United FC at TQL Stadium.
In a rare afternoon game, FC Cincinnati host their Eastern Conference opponents for a 2:30 p.m. kick-off in Cincy Saturday night, offering a unique viewing opportunity and start time. With the weeks-long rest leading into the match, even with the early start, FC Cincinnati will be refreshed and ready to take on a challenging opponent.
It’s been refreshing. You know, we had a couple days off, and then even that first day back, there was still some fatigue. So, we didn’t do very much tactically. We just wanted them to come back and have a little bit of a compete day. Yesterday was good as far as working on some things in bigger spaces and in transition… I think it’s been refreshing for the group,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said Thursday from the pregame press conference.
“It’s tough really when it’s pretty much you play a game and it’s on to the next one. You don’t really have time to sit and reflect on everything you’re doing; it’s just on to the next one,” defender Lukas Engel added during his portion of the press conference. “Having a full week of training is good for us, both mentally and physically. We can actually work intensively on the next opponent, which is Atlanta this week, but a full week is definitely giving us better, I think, options or possibilities to win the game.”
With the FIFA International Window intersecting with the MLS schedule this weekend, clubs all over the league will be without some players as they join national team sides for various international competitions. FC Cincinnati will be without star striker Kévin Denkey and young forward Stefan Chirila as they join the Togo and Romanian U18 squads, respectively, but also Teenage Hadebe, who will be away securing his Green Card during this window.
Atlanta United will be hit harder, losing eight players to international duty. But despite some of Atlanta’s stars being absent, Noonan believes that the core of what they can prepare for against this weekend’s foe will remain true.
“They’ve been pretty consistent in their play and in their structure through their league games. So, it will be a good challenge for us,” Noonan explained. “We kind of piece together with who’s not available, what the possibilities are – mainly at center back and one of those holding midfield roles – outside of that I think there’s going to be a similar group to what we’ve seen… So, we’ll do our best to prepare them, for the type of game, but whoever the personnel is, I don’t anticipate things changing too much on their end with what we’ve kind of analyzed so far.”
FC Cincinnati is 2-0-0 at home this season and are one of just 5 MLS clubs to have won all of their games played at home.
FC CINCINNATI vs Atlanta United FC – Saturday, March 22, 2025 – 2:30 p.m. ET – TQL Stadium
HOW TO WATCH AND FOLLOW #CINvATL on SATURDAY, MARCH 22 (2:30 p.m. ET)
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FC Cincinnati are unbeaten against Atlanta United FC under Head Coach Pat Noonan. Since the start of the 2022 season, the Orange and Blue are 3-0-3 against the Five Stripes. FC Cincinnati swept Atlanta last season, winning 2-1 in come-from-behind fashion at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in April, followed by a midweek 1-0 win in May at TQL Stadium. Kevin Kelsy’s 7th minute goal was all that was needed in the win.
A RARE AFTERNOON IN THE QUEEN CITY – Saturday will mark a rare afternoon kickoff (4 p.m. or prior) for FC Cincinnati. It will be just FCC’s 11th home match in the Queen City with an early kickoff in the club’s MLS era. FCC hold a 2-4-4 record at home in such games. That of course excludes July 28, 2023 when FCC and Chivas resumed the final half hour of play in Leagues Cup 2023 at 2 p.m. after severe weather halted play in the 60th minute the night prior.
FINALLY SOME TIME – Excluding the season opener at FC Motagua in the Concacaf Champions Cup, Saturday marks the first match FC Cincinnati have played this season on a full week of rest. The Orange and Blue had began the season with eight matches in 25 days with MLS and Champions Cup play, going 3-3-2 in that stretch. The Orange and Blue will focus solely on MLS Regular Season play until Leagues Cup action begins in late July. It will be nearly two months – on Wednesday, May 14 at Toronto FC – before Cincinnati will have to play a midweek match in addition to a weekend fixture.
AWAY ABROAD – As FC Cincinnati and Atlanta United take the field, two Orange and Blue players are with their respective national teams during the March FIFA International Window. Kévin Denkey joined the Togo National Team for 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers while Stefan Chirila is with the U-18 Romanian National Team for a training camp.
HOME COOKING – FC Cincinnati seek a 3-0-0 home start in MLS play and seek to become the first team to accomplish that in 2025. Only two other MLS clubs are 2-0-0 at home and host a match in
Matchday 5 (Charlotte FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC), both of whom play later Saturday. Cincy have once before started 3-0-0 at home in MLS, in 2023 when the club started 10-0-0 – tied for the longest single-season home in streak in MLS history and tied for the third-longest home win streak in MLS history.
CAPTAIN MILES – Miles Robinson has worn the captain’s armband in all eight matches so far this season. He signed with FC Cincinnati ahead of the 2024 season after spending the entirety of his prior seven-year MLS career with Atlanta United. With Atlanta, Robinson made 123 MLS regular season appearances – 111 starts – scoring three goals and two assists. He earned two MLS Best XI honors (2019, 2021), one All-Star honor (2021) and won two titles, including MLS Cup 2018.
G’DAY, BRAD! – Last Friday, FC Cincinnati signed Australian wingback Brad Smith, who brings to Cincinnati over 200 professional appearances, over half of which have come in MLS – most recently spending the past two seasons with Houston Dynamo FC. In addition to 10 Premier League appearances with Liverpool and Bournemouth earlier in his career, he has also earned 23 caps for the Australia National Team.
SCOUTING Atlanta United FC (1-2-1, 4 Points, T-11 in Eastern Conference)
Atlanta United spent the offseason retooling its roster and splashing cash in the transfer market, bringing in two new DP’s and trading for a DP from DC United as they looked to catapult themselves back to the top of the Eastern Conference. But with so much change, Atlanta has not gotten the results it hoped for.
In their first four matches of 2025, Atlanta went 1-2-1, playing three games at home and losing their lone road match. After winning their opening day match versus CF Montreal, Atlanta has not won since, taking on Charlotte FC, New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami CF.
Of the newcomers to the squad this season, some are new, and one is a returning star who is back after a stint overseas. The returner, Miguel Almiron, is back with Atlanta United after six seasons and over 180 appearances with Newcastle United. The winger was an MLS Cup winner with Atlanta in his first stint, won Newcomer of the Year, and was a two-time MLS All-Star and Best XI member during his stint from 2016 to 2019 with Atlanta.
The other notable addition came in the form of striker Emmanuel Latte Lath, who joined Atlanta from English Championship side Middlesbrough on what was reported to be a record incoming fee for an MLS club, eclipsing the fee FC Cincinnati reportedly paid for Kévin Denkey earlier in the window. The Ivory Coast native striker was teammates with FCC defender Lukas Engel at Boro.
“I just talked to him this morning, actually, he’s a great player,” Engel said of his former teammate on Thursday in preparation for the match. “Everyone that knows him knows that he’s a great player, he’s fast, he’s versatile, he’s pretty much got everything you want from a number nine, which is why we need to be on our best on Saturday if we want to stop him. He can score, left, right, (with his) head, wherever he is. He’s a great player, but I believe that we will be able to stop on Saturday.”
“Very active. He’s got good pace. He’s his hold up play. You see in the last couple of games, looking at him obviously, more closely, does a good job of moving off the line and getting his teammates involved,” FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said of Laff. “Runs down balls into the channel, in front of goal. I think he’s got a good feel for how when crosses are going to come in and even picking up knock downs if he’s not getting on the end of a pass himself. So just a really good feel for chance creation around goal, and you know that’ll be something that you can’t lose focus, or his whereabouts, in and around goal.”
Part of the challenge for Saturday afternoon’s match at TQL Stadium for both teams, though, will be the International Window calling up players from both teams to their international teams, leaving the clubs without some of their stars. FC Cincinnati will be without Denkey as he joins Togo for World Cup qualifying, and Stefan Chirila will be with the Romanian U18 squad; Atlanta United will be without 8 players (Luis Abram, Stian Gregersen, Miguel Almiron, Bartosz Slisz, Jay Fortune, Noah Cobb, Efrain Morales, Luke Brennan) with an additional two players being called from their second team. The call-ups leave questions on how Atlanta could line up or utilize reserves later in the match.
“They’re missing some key pieces too. If you look at the starting group from their first league games, you know, with [Stian]Gregerson and [Bartoz] Slisz and [Miguel] Almiron, kind of the starting group, but they lose a lot of depth with guys that would come in with, you know, [Noah] Cobb [Luis] Abram, [Jay] Fortune. I think I’m missing one, but, both teams, I think, are hit with some key pieces that will be out. But I think both teams have good depth that can put strong elevens out there,” Pat Noonan said of the match. “Things can change based on personnel missing, but they’ve been pretty consistent in their play and in their structure through, you know, their league games. So, it will be a good challenge for us.”
Atlanta United, under the management of Ronny Delia, have used a 4-2-3-1 formation.