Evander Bags Brace as FC Cincinnati Earn Gritty 2-1 Victory on the Road in Orlando

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MLS FC Cincinnati

Evander Bags Brace as FC Cincinnati Earn Gritty 2-1 Victory on the Road in Orlando

June 29, 2025 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Cincinnati News Release


With heat, humidity, tired legs and an aggressive Orlando City SC side standing in the way of a perfect road month of June for FC Cincinnati, The Orange and Blue planted their feat firm in the ground at Inter&Co Stadium and refused to yield. Battling for all 100 minutes the match called for and saw out a 2-1 victory on the road.

Evander scored his second brace in three days, breaking out his free kick wand in the shadow of the Magic Kingdom for a stunning goal - sening a curling shot through three defenders. From there, a full ensemble cast performance delivered the victory as Orlando City SC tried to scratch and claw its way to a result at home.

But FCC refused to yield, and the defensive prowess seen through most of this season arrived again when they needed it most and saw out their seventh three-point performance on the road of 2025.

"Pretty gutsy performance. That was challenging, as you can see, from both sides, just with the turnaround and the conditions. You could see that the players felt it," FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan said post-match, praising his side for their efforts. "A gutsy performance from our guys, and I'm happy that they get to walk off the field with three points against a very good team on the road."

Saturday night in Orlando was, to put it lightly, a slog. The Central Florida humidity hung in the air relentlessly and the forecasted rainstorms that would have surely broken that muggy feeling, if not the temperature, refused to arrive. Instead, looming dark clouds hung over the Orlando stadium and set a tone for the night. A dramatic, intense tone. So as the match continued, and the physicality rose with the intensity, the stage seemed perfectly set for a clash of high-quality Eastern Conference foes.

Weather, in all its forms, has never been a place that FC Cincinnati players or coaches look to as an excuse for performance, but they do use the weather to inform how they may play. Pat Noonan highlighted post-match how with the environmental factors, they needed to be smart about how they approached things on Saturday. If FC Cincinnati tried to turn things into a track meet early, or tried to push the pace in reckless ways, they could find themselves worn down in the end. And with three players not travelling due to injury, FCC couldn't afford to find themselves out of gas.

The result of the challenging weather saw both sides playing a more field possession centric duel, a game where being precise was essential. But with both sides needing to battle for space, more physicality took over the game, and each time Orlando tried to up the ante or use their home field advantage to establish some sort of dominance, FC Cincinnati answered the call.

"The guys worked. They gave everything," Noonan said of his squad. "There were some really good stretches of ball movement, of getting into the attack, where I think we were still hesitant to run to goal and really change speeds and take risks. I think the elements factored into that. But I think defensively, on the other side of it, when we needed to get organized and be patient with our press and wait for a ball recovery to gain momentum again and slow the game down with the ball, I thought we did that pretty well also. So, yeah, a challenging night for those guys. They give everything. They're exhausted in there."

FCC got on the board first in a seemingly out of nowhere moment, capitalizing on what could be seen as an error by Orlando's defense. After Gerardo "Dado" Valenzuela won a free kick from distance, Evander stepped to the stopped ball to take the free kick along with Lukas Engel. The host side began to arrange themselves as if one of the two FCC players would approach the ball and swing in a cross to the mass of players who arranged themselves just inside the box. A wall was arranged, and OCSC goalkeeper Pedro Gallesse took guard at the far post, again, anticipating a header or some other kind of attempt at that side.

Evander had no intention of lofting a ball into that mass. Evander saw the vital error and wanted to quickly execute before Gallesse or someone, anyone, in Purple realized the mistake and adjusted.

No adjustment came. An inviting opening in the net was left completed undefended. The wall was set to protect the cross, the keeper set to play the cross, but no one guarded the net itself. So, Evander, who had been instructed of this distinct possibility prior to the match by FC Cincinnati Goalkeeping Coach Paul Rogers, asked Engel if he too saw the opening. Engel confirmed. So Evander made his approach.

"I just knew I needed to hit it hard," Evander explained.

The Brazilian midfielder then uncorked a pacey shot that slotted in beautifully to the lower third of the net. The keeper dove and made it to the shot, but by the time he had, both he and the ball were in the netting and the goal was scored.

"He's a special player. You saw it on the free kick. He's just doing things that others can't do, and that gives us nice momentum," Head Coach Pat Noonan said of Evander. "He's just...he's special."

That was the final play in the first half. The ref blew the whistle immediately after the restart, and FC Cincinnati head to the locker room up 1-0.

Well, almost.

The tensions of the first half had boiled over with that goal and a brief coming together occurred between the sides as they exited the pitch. Eventually all was defused, but the tone was again set.

Noonan, acknowledging the emotions of all who watched the game saw as evident, said post-match that one part of his talk to the team was about managing the emotions of the match. That playing with a fire was part of who they are, but to be smart at the same time. Fight hard but understand the situation.

The team rose to Noonan's request.

"That was part of the message," Noonan said with a sly smile. "You see both teams putting a lot into it, and there's fatigue, there's frustration, there's excitement, there's a little bit of everything. And for the most part, I think even in the second half, we showed improvement."

The Orange and Blue found a second goal, with again, Evander, showing off his quality in phantasmic ways - creating an inch of space with a brilliant dribble before directing a curling shot to the far post past a diving keeper. But this goal was team made rather than an individual moment from a stand still. Pavel Bucha helped break an aggressive high defensive line with a leading pass to Kévin Denkey, who sprinted onto the ball past his defender. Kei Kamara and Evander joined Denkey on the run and after Denkey dribbled into the box and forced the Orlando defenders to collapse on him, he dished out what would be his first assist of the season. Finding Evander on his flank and putting him in a place to succeed.

"The second goal is a team goal, his teammates are understanding how to get him (Evander) on the ball in the right moments," Pat Noonan said of the sequence leading to Evander's second goal.

"You see on the second goal a willingness to run behind, which we need. And understanding, at times, when a forward is working off the line or the space is not underneath, and it's to stretch the field. He did a great job (and) we need to get him on the ball. We need to get him closer to goal more consistently."

Orlando would earn a goal in the 87th minute after throwing everything it could at goal for the final 15 minutes. But outside that one goal -- a grass burner from outside the top of the box from Marco Pasalic - Orlando never truly created a threatening moment. Matt Miazga and Gilberto Flores kept the box tidy for FCC and commanded their defensive third all night. So, after 10 minutes of added time, and over 100 minutes of game action total, the match official mercifully blew the final whistle, and FCC earned a signature win.

A gritty win.

A win that took guts.

With the month of June now closed for FC Cincinnati, and a perfect nine-of-nine points taken from three road matches, The Orange and Blue finish the month and return home for their next match squarely in second place, one point back of the Supporters' Shield table lead. They are on a three-game winning streak stretched out over a month, but a winning streak that represents the same sample size of matches they had in the week before June.

A "bad week overall" was how Pat Noonan described it at the time, where they sandwiched a draw with Dallas with losses to D.C. and Atlanta in that 7 day span.

A tough week no doubt, but a week they clearly learned from. A week that left a lasting impression on the attitude FCC carries itself with, given how they'd handled things since returning to action.

The team went off on a short break after that thanks to the FIFA International Window, then came back to training and had nearly 10 days to work on themselves to set things right. They earned a win over New England, saw some progress, then had another 10 days between matches to continue to work. And work they did.

"We've learned that we need to come together a bit more as a team," Yedlin said from the locker room, highlighting something they came together on during that break. "If that means taking yellows, obviously you got to be smart, but I think we're showing that we're united. Nobody's going to bully us. That's what that is."

Yedlin played all 90 minutes in both games that followed that second break and played a key role in each of these wins. He earned an assist on Wednesday (the first of four Evander goals this week) and made his presence known at every chance.

"It's great for our confidence, we needed that for sure," Yedlin said of not only earning the three-game winning streak, but the way in which they got their results. "Getting back to our fundamentals, our identity, and I think we've done that. But the thing is, we can't just let it go now that we've won some games. We have to ramp it up."

FC Cincinnati will now have a week to recover and recharge for their return to TQL Stadium, where they will host Chicago Fire FC on July 5th. If the intensity put on display in the road games carries over to FC Cincinnati's home grounds, it seems natural that supporters would be very keen on helping to give a lift in whatever way they can.

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