FC Cincinnati Open Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs with Hell Is Real Matchup
MLS FC Cincinnati

FC Cincinnati Open Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs with Hell Is Real Matchup

Published on October 25, 2025 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Cincinnati News Release


The Audi MLS Cup Playoffs are back for 2025, and FC Cincinnati have earned their spot for the fourth consecutive season and are looking to go all the way and lift the cup this December. As the #2 seed not only in the Eastern Conference but all of MLS, The Orange and Blue will have every opportunity to advance and celebrate at home this postseason.

The first matchup they face welcomes a familiar but hardly friendly foe to TQL Stadium as the Columbus Crew come to Cincinnati for Round One. The Best-of-3 series to open the MLS Cup Playoffs means we will get at least two (if not three) playings of the Hell is Real derby to decide who advances to the next round.

FC Cincinnati enter as the higher seed, thus, they will host Game 1 and (if necessary) Game 3 with Game 2 at Lower.Com Field in between.

A postseason matchup is the kind of competitive environment that gets everyone amped up to another level, but now adding a rivalry battle to the mix has just elevated the stakes even further.

"It's the playoffs, we've been training and working for moments like these all season. So we're definitely raring to go. Obviously, it being a rival just adds that much more to the games in itself," FC Cincinnati defender Miles Robinson said Friday ahead of the Monday night tilt. "Having the first game at TQL is definitely something that we've worked towards, and we're excited.

"It's going to be a great crowd, great atmosphere...so we're definitely excited and ready to go."

"I think that it's kind of an early final," FCC midfielder and finalist for the Landon Donovan MLS MVP Award, Evander, added on Friday. "This is the type of game that big players and big teams want to face. It's going to be very interesting."

With the series pitting two rivals who know each other so well against one another, the details may be the place where success is found most. So while even in the most normal of playoff environments the intensity and focus would have to ramp up, when playing Columbus The Orange and Blue need to take things to another level.

"You cannot make those mistakes you and you maybe could make in a regular season. You don't have time to recover anymore. If I make a mistake, you're out. So I think we're bringing more attention to the games, more focus to the games," Evander continued from his media availability. "We need to be very clinical in our decisions...because one mistake and you could lose it."

FC Cincinnati host Game 1 on Monday, October 27 with kickoff set for 6:45 p.m.. Fans are encouraged to wear Orange to TQL Stadium to Orange Out Cincinnati. The return leg for Game 2 is currently scheduled for just less than a week later in Columbus on Sunday, November 2, with a 6:30 p.m. kick.

FC CINCINNATI vs Columbus Crew - Monday, October 27, 2025 - 6:45 p.m. ET - TQL Stadium

FS1 | Fox Deportes | Apple TV | MLS Season Pass | Fox Sports 1360 | La Mega 101.5

TV Talent (ENG-Apple): Jake Zivin (PxP), Taylor Twellman (Analyst), Jillian Sakovits (Sideline)

TV Talent (ENG-FS1): Callum Williams (PxP), Devon Kerr (Analyst)

TV Talent (SPA): Sammy Sadovnik (PxP), Diego Valeri (Analyst)

Cincinnati Radio Talent (ENG): Tom Gelehrter (PxP), Kevin McCloskey (Analyst)

Cincinnati Radio Talent (SPA): Gustavo Luques (PxP), José Romero (Analyst)

Playoff Format Explained

The Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs are back for the third season under its current format all eyes will be on the Hell is Real derby in the opening phase of the tournament as FC Cincinnati take on Columbus Crew.

To lift the MLS Cup at the end of the playoffs, FC Cincinnati will have to win four rounds of competition. - Round One being a Best-of-3 series with the following three rounds being single elimination.

In Round One, teams will play three matches against each other (if necessary) and advance from the series after winning two games. Like some other Cup competitions there will be no draws, however, unlike others, should a game be level after 90 minutes a winner will be decided immediately via penalty shootout rather than go to extra time first. A win in the shootout will be as good as a win in regular time. After Round One though, extra time will be utilized as normal and if things are still level then, a shootout will decide a winner.

The Best-of-3 series makes the opening match vital to success as not only does the home team get the third game played at home should they need it, but historically teams who win Game One (in regular time or shootout) advance to the Conference semifinals 87% of the time.

Hell is Real

The most prominent rivalry in Major League Soccer gets a third, fourth and maybe fifth edition this season as FC Cincinnati take on Columbus Crew in the Hell is Real derby to open the 2025 MLS Cup playoffs. The two sides have met twice before in Cup competition dating back to the 2017 US Open Cup matchup where then USL side FC Cincinnati played giant slayers by defeating the MLS Crew side 1-0 in the Fourth Round.

All-time, FC Cincinnati is 4-8-6 against the Columbus Crew, including the 0-1-1 record from this season. The Orange and Blue earned a hard fought draw in Columbus earlier this season, but fell in the home leg in July.

Orange Out

Monday night's MLS Cup Playoffs opener at TQL Stadium will be an "Orange Out" as FC Cincinnati look to remind MLS that Ohio is Orange and Blue! All fans in attendance, and truly any and all loyal to FCC, are encouraged to wear Orange for the match to help Orange Out TQL Stadium, Cincinnati and anywhere FC Cincinnati fans gather!

FC CINCINNATI NOTES

Welcome to the MLS Cup Playoffs - FC Cincinnati return to the MLS Cup Playoffs for the fourth consecutive season and are one of two clubs (LAFC) to have directly qualified without any Wild Card Matches in each of the past four years. Monday marks the Orange and Blue's 10th all-time MLS Cup Playoffs match.

FC Cincinnati are 4-3-2 in the prior nine matches, and are 1-1 in match-deciding shootouts.

Roman and Alvas: Playoff Veterans - As FC Cincinnati's 10th MLS Cup Playoffs match approaches, the only active roster player to have played in every single playoff match leading up to 2025 is goalkeeper Roman Celentano.

Alvas Powell though leads all FC Cincinnati players with 21 career MLS Cup Playoffs appearances. In another appearance milestone, his next appearance will be his 139th in all competitions for Cincinnati, which would match the amount of games played he had with Portland Timbers (139 GP from 2013-18).

Only two players on the active roster have recorded a goal contribution in the playoffs for FCC: Luca Orellano (goal at NYCFC - 2024 Round One, Game 2) and Obinna Nwobodo (assist at New York Red Bulls - 2022 Round One).

Award Finalists - FC Cincinnati's Evander (Landon Donovan MLS MVP) and Nick Hagglund (Comeback Player of the Year) were among the finalists announced by MLS on Wednesday for respective Year- End awards.

Evander was named a finalist for the second consecutive season for the award while Hagglund's perseverance to become a 2025 mainstay following numerous injuries has him up for his first individual league-wide award.

What a Debut Campaign - After scoring his 22nd goal of the season last Saturday vs CF Montréal, Evander set the single-season club record for goals in all competitions. Now he hopes to extend that record in a long playoff run for the Orange and Blue. None of his goals this season have come from the penalty spot.

SCOUTING COLUMBUS CREW (14-8-12, 54 Points, 7th in the Eastern Conference)

Columbus Crew come into this playoff series after one of their worst stretches of play in the Wilfried Nancy era, but also on a high note as emphatic winners on the final day of the regular season to escape the Play-In game. The Crew, who defeated the New York Red Bulls on Decision Day 3-1, leapt from the 9th seed to the 7th on that final day to set up the match with FCC in Round One. But prior to that victory Columbus had only won once in their previous 10 games and had earned just four draws in that stretch as well.

But that poor run matters not now, the records have been wiped away and all that is left is a 0-0 score line and two games to win in order to advance. FC Cincinnati will have the homefield advantage in this series, but generally speaking Columbus has had no issues going on the road this season earning a 5-5-7 record away from Lower. Com Field this season.

This biggest question for the Columbus Crew is the health of its stars. Diego Rossi, who led the team in goals scored this season at 16, has appeared just once since September 13th due to a hamstring injury, and newly acquired Designated Player striker Wessam Abou Ali has been sidelined for a reported six-weeks after he sustained a hairline fracture in his right ankle during a game against Toronto FC on September 20th.

While Crew Head Coach Wilfried Nancy indicated earlier this week that Rossi "could have" been available for their Decision Day match, his status is still shrouded in mystery likely until the match lineups go out Monday. Ali is not expected to be available for this match, but should the series go all three games he could make it back based on that six-week timeline.

With those two DP's out, the lineups they have put together in that stretch have relied on their depth and youth to see them to this point. While known MLS stars/commodities like Daniel Gazdag and Darlington Nagbe have been ship steadiers during this period, young players like Jacen Russell-Rowe, Sean Zawadski and Max Arfsten have stepped up to take on a bigger role. And they will continue to have to if they want to find success.

Another key contributor to overall team success this season is French midfielder Dylan Chambost, who led the team in minutes played this season and assists with eight. The 28-year-old joined the side in 2024 after the summer window and has since appeared in every match for the Crew and started in 30 of 34 matches this season.

On the defensive side of the ball, Steven Moreira has been the key cog in the backline playing 30 matches this season and logging just under 2500 minutes. Malte Amundsen has been the other defender in the formation to step up this season with 2024 MLS All-Star Rudy Camacho out for the season to this point (though Camacho did make his first appearance on the bench this past week).

Wilfried Nancy's Columbus side plays, most often, a 4-3-3 formation with Nagbe as the center midfielder of the group to play as quarterback. Of late, with Rossi and Ali out, Russell-Rowe has been the starting forward at the top of the forward three with Hugo Picard and Lassi Lappalainen on the outside.

American keeper Patrick Schulte has been the man between the pipes for Columbus for years now after being drafted ahead of the 2022 MLS season. The Saint Louis University Billiken's product played one year with the MLS NEXT Pro side Columbus Crew 2 before making the leap to starter in 2023 where he has since played 83 matches in three seasons. This season, Schulte has made 65 saves on 101 shots and earned three clean sheets, both of which (saves and clean sheets) are career lows.

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