I love a duality in titles...today is technically the Revs second home opener after the first one was cancelled due to blizzard aftermath and lack of green grass. It's also the second home opener of the weekend for the new grass at Gillette Stadium after the Boston Legacy's opening 1-0 loss to Gotham FC yesterday.
And while over 30,000 showed up for the Legacy, which is awesome despite the fact we had to keep the New Kids on The Block off the lawn for obvious reasons, the New England Revolution will get their first chance on the new surface when they host Houston Dynamo FC Cincinnati today at 230 PM (Apple TV).
Jackie Contreras
Now might be as good a time as any to play Cincy, who are in the middle of their CONCACAF Champions Cup Round of 16 matchup with Tigres. With a high potential of sqaud rotation so Cincy can protect their 3-0 lead secured in a win on Thursday, New England might avoid both DP attackers in Evander (29 minutes played this year due to injury) and Kevin Denkey (1 MLS goal but scored midweek vs Tigres as well).
While we should have full confidence that last year's #2 seed in the East will figure it out when Evander is able to pull the strings...at best the jury is still out on the Revs in the early days of Marko Mitrovic's tenure. An extra week off to get Peyton Miller healthy is a good thing, but the Revs offense remains stagnant and too similar to previous years.
New England should be a counter attacking team, or at least more of a countering team than we've seen in their first two games. Just go back to Carles Gil quickly dicing up the Nashville defense to find Leo Campana, still the only goal the Revs have in 2026. The Revs wanting to excel when in possession is one thing, the Revs being too passive with that possession is another. There needs to be far more directness in their play, which should open up more once both Miller and Feingold are able to contribute from the fullback spot. The addition of Diego Fagundez as a veteran wing option via free agency should also a welcome addition.
Seth Macomber
Likewise, Cincy is a team that can devastate you if you make a mistake in the final third. Tigres' GK Nahuel Guzman learned in the opening minutes when his bad pass turnover allowed Ender Echenique to find a wide open Denkey in the middle of the box. Now I don't expect FC Cincy to make a mistake that egregious against the Revs, but if the Revs are going to mess around in their own half then it's all the more reason to be aggressive in getting the ball forward quicker. New England hasn't generated a ton of big chances from build up play so far and should be looking for other ways to get their attack going.
As always we our joined by our good friend Laurel Pfahler of Queen City Press, for her insights on FC Cincy's attack and start to their 2026 campaign. No, I didn't ask her about the Bengals losing Trey Hendrickson to the Ravens, I am not that cruel, but make sure check out their site and subscribe to get all of their match coverage as well.
Seth Macomber
1) What were the big offseason moves for FC Cincinnati? Who moved on and which new faces should we expect to see a lot of in blue and orange in 2026?
It was actually a pretty quiet offseason for FC Cincinnati because both designated players Evander and Kevin Denkey returned and the club gave Miles Robinson an extension to make him a DP, so there wasn't room for any major moves. Most of the roster build happened last summer when Ender Echenique and Sami Gidi came, among others.
Cincinnati did lose three starters in Lukas Engel (went back to Middlesbrough at the end of his loan and now is with Real Salt Lake), Luca Orellano (sold to Monterrey) and Brenner (loan ended with Udinese and now he's with Vasco da Gama). However, the only new bona fide starter FCC added was Bryan Ramirez, a left wingback from LDU Quito in Ecuador.
The club exercised the purchase option at the end of Ayoub Jabbari's loan from Grenoble and signed free agents Tom Barlow (Chicago) and Kyle Smith (Orlando City). Barlow and Jabbari have been battling for the second striker role, but I think Barlow has solidified that for now. Neither are proven goal scorers, so there's a big question where the attack is coming from outside of Denkey and Evander on a consistent basis. Smith is good depth at wingback or centerback. Teenage Hadebe, who has been here since summer 2024, has basically stepped into the left centerback role that Engel played for much of 2025.
2) Just one win so far in league play against Atlanta to go with two shutout losses to Minnesota and Toronto...is this an early season fixture congestion thing or is the offense just a little slow out of the gates?
Fans blame everything from a system flaw/coaching issue to just not having a strong enough roster around Denkey and Evander because the attack was stale last year, and it hasn't looked all that different so far in MLS play, despite a change from assistant Dom Kinnear (now with Sporting Kansas City) to Brett Uttley and some tweaks to the ideas and routines. However, Thursday against Tigres seemed to be a big step in the right direction, and I would argue it's too early to expect a noticeable change when two-time MVP finalist Evander has been available for just 26 minutes in MLS play through three games. Without their star No. 10, it's a bit much to expect the team to function the same as it would with him. I do think the starting lineup is not as strong as the one FCC finished with last year, but we can't really judge until we've seen it with Evander for a stretch of games. He injured his hamstring 10 minutes into the opener and missed most of the next two games.
3) Tremendous first leg performance against Tigres on Thursday, what went right in that game and how high are Cincy's expectations for their continental and domestic campaigns this year? How much can they improve on a 2025 season that saw them bow out in the Conference Semis as a #2 seed to Messi and Co.?
Scoring early really helped give FC Cincinnati much-needed confidence after those back-to-back 1-0 losses to Toronto and Minnesota. FCC was able to take advantage of a really bad pass by Tigres goalkeeper Nahuel Guzman in the sixth minute when Ender Echenique intercepted it, beat a defender on the dribble and dished off to a wide-open Denkey in the middle of the box for the opening goal. That kind of set the tone, and then Tom Barlow scored on a quick counter in the second half and FCC still kept the foot on the gas with more offensive subs to get the third goal. The transition moments were really key in this match.
FCC had really high expectations last year after spending $16.2 million to acquire Denkey from Belgium's Cercle Brugge and another $12 million to Portland for Evander to replace Luciano Acosta, but the team came up one point shy of the Supporters Shield, and then, as you mentioned, lost to Miami in the conference semifinals. Not getting any trophies after that investment and relying on toughing out a lot of one-goal wins made it a frustrating season for fans to watch, so the club committed to getting more out of the attack this year with what GM Chris Albright termed a "refresh." All that to say, expectations are still really high and the pressure is even greater to win something. Advancing to the quarterfinals in Champions Cup would be a big improvement, as this team has not really done well in cup competitions in the past. I predicted a Supporters Shield as their most likely piece of hardware to win just because Noonan has been so good at getting results over the course of a season. The clubd would never say this, but I do think they are more willing to sacrifice some league results to do better in Champions Cup, so that also could contribute to a slower start this season.
Projected Lineup/Injuries/Scoreline/Etc.
I do expect rotation for this, so I could be completely off in predicting which players rotate but here's my best guess:
Barlow - Jabbari; Evander-Powell-Gidi-Nwobodo-Echenique; Flores-Robinson-Hagglund; Celentano
Injuries: The only player likely not available is Kristian Fletcher, the former DC United homegrown who tore his ACL last summer and is still recovering. Matt Miazga has not made his MLS season debut yet as he suffered a setback in preseason with his 2024 surgically-repaired knee. He played in the FCC 2 game last Sunday and was on the bench as an unused sub Thursday, so it's possible he could be ready for a start and gives Robinson a break, but they've been really cautious with him so it's hard to predict a start yet. He hadn't play a game since mid-September due to a quad injury.
Scoreline: FC Cincinnati 1, New England 1FCC has actually been better on the road in this series (2-0-2 in the Noonan era) and the Revs are still finding their way with a new coach, but I do think a draw would be a fine result. The 3-0 win against Tigres helps put FCC in a good position for the away leg of that series but FCC needs to close that out and advance.
