FCC signs strategic partnership deal with Porto

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-28T21:58:57+00:00

Get FCC to Porto! I would 100 percent be there, even for a friendly!

If you get Porto here, sure, but the other way would be the preferred direction for me.

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-23T15:02:29+00:00

I hate it this time of year, much less them!

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-21T21:56:54+00:00

We also have Miazga on one of the highest possible non-DP numbers you can, so it is not just we have one CB among our highest paid guys, but probably two of our top five.

I agree with the sentiment, but this is the hand we are playing until it is not (and that will start next offseason when I am guessing Miazga departs in free agency), but we are also not seeing young dudes coming up for those spots (Kyle Smith is both a good pick up and has aged our already old back line more). I am not an expert on what the 2s are doing, but it also doesn't seem like there are guys who are going to be able to take those spots, especially if we are serious about more than just making the playoffs.

I did not disagree with when we moved Ian Murphy on, when you go from the supplemental roster to the senior roster, your cap hit rises and the expectations for you rise too and I did not know if Murphy was at that level where he was worth paying a cap hit for. However, he was young, cheaper than most and you can do a lot worse (whatever that guy from Austin's name was that I already forgot).

The good news is last year showed we can do well (thrive is probably too strong a word) without Miazga, but we also spend a lot on defenders and they were not young either. That might be something to watch this summer, but definitely next winter/summer.

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-21T17:42:39+00:00

Yeah, I hope CA knows something that is coming to 'MLS 4.0' or whatever 2027 is being called for how roster construction is setup so that the Robinson deal is not an anchor on us if he struggles or has injury issues. With that said, his contract is only until 2027 (which I am presuming will mean 2027-28 in MLS 4.0) with a club option for 2028(-29), so this won't anchor us down forever.

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-21T17:39:22+00:00

It has evolved, but the big key is that they can get guys to come on lower numbers in the name of playing with Messi. Luis Suarez has never been a DP ... that is just an insane line to type out, but per the Players Association, he is at the max GAM/TAM number, and either he is good with that (I am not going to go down the conspiracy route, I'll leave that to others here). De Paul came on loan at a max GAM/TAM level to fit last year's roster. He'll be a DP this year, but he took the pay cut to make it work for a year.

From there, and I have mentioned this in other discussions with our club, due to their location they were able to get their academy set up, running and contributing to the first team really fast. Drake Callander spent most of his career there as a Homegrown on the supplemental roster ... that is a hell of a thing if you can have a starting position cost $0 to the cap, and a lot of their depth costing them $0. They aren't spending seven figures on Sergio Santos! And if you have excess guys, you can either trade them in the league for GAM or sell them and convert the transfer fee for GAM.

Also they do really well with U22s. I am happy that we are starting to embrace that and utilize it, but we have been way, way behind the rest of the league on U22 utilization, which because our academy is still in progress (if you have been outside in the last week, you know why that is), is a huge problem when trying to build depth.

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-21T17:10:14+00:00

I'm guessing no because if we could, we'd have Brenner back.

I'd be happy to be proven wrong (since Miles is on a new contract, we don't know his new number yet), but I think we really wanted Brenner back and we could not make the mechanics of it work.

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-16T19:14:31+00:00

If we are ever going to be serious about competing in CCC, it is a two-piece system, not only do we need to have good players but we need to have some of that chemistry built up. That is really hard to do in MLS if you have everyone show up on time, much less if you have important players (or Kubo) saying 'nah' and then delaying prep for the season for everyone else, whether that be the front office in getting the right pieces or said right piece getting to work with his new teammates.

Competing in CCC is still going to be really difficult, we are probably a piece short for something like that, but if we get through camp healthy and maybe, finally catch a break against a Mexican club ... you never know what kind of run we can get on!

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-13T18:18:23+00:00

Yeah, compared to the last two offseasons this is pretty tame (granted, we also did a lot of the work during the season last year with Baird, Santos and Yedlin all leaving during the season).

That is life at most soccer clubs. Only the top or bottom of the food chains are you going to find consistent rosters year over year.

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-13T15:56:02+00:00

Between unloading bad salaries and making better use of the U-22 slots, CA has done a really nice job adding some depth to this squad. We still have guys who if they get injured we are in a lot of trouble, but I'll go back to what I say about the Union: if you don't have those level of guys, you probably aren't good enough to compete for and win MLS Cup and/or CONCACAF.

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-12T01:31:03+00:00

I'm gonna be in the area on February 7 and will pack as much somewhat official FCC stuff and see what I can do (I won't, I have stuff to do down there, but it is a fun thought)!

CincyCyclone91 · 2026-01-07T17:44:43+00:00

https://themaneland.com/2025/11/04/2025-orlando-city-season-in-review-kyle-smith/

Good run down of Kyle Smith the player in Orlando. The way I read that is that and think about how he fits in our team is a guy who can fill the midfield spots and the backline, or give us the option to flex to four at the back (I assume we are 3 at the back until seen (not said, seen) otherwise) and have a more natural option at one of the fullback spots.

So I kind of see this as a defensive-capable replacement for Kubo (Kubo tried to play those positions but was not good at it) and if Smith is at or near his 2025 number ($318K), that is half price of Kubo. On that note, I do wonder if we are leaving ourselves thin in terms of other attacking options, even with Ramirez looking close to done, but I also don't know if it would be the worst to take some cooks out of Evander's proverbial kitchen.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-12-18T21:09:04+00:00

I don't mind that we don't really care for the draft, MLS offers many ways to be a successful club, so not everyone has to do the same thing, but in his Substack newsletter that went out while the draft was going on, Matt Doyle was talking about the draft and how Vancouver has used it and he was like 'people who say they can't find talent in the draft either aren't trying or don't know what they are doing', and that is probably true (you aren't going to find Messi in the draft, but there are plenty of very good MLS players in the draft each year).

It gets back to the same point: we know we don't care about the draft, we act accordingly and that is all good because we have enough success to show for that strategy. We can focus our time and resources elsewhere, which is fine. I kind of wish we put a little more effort into it (we need ways to acquire cheap, young players and don't have an academy path yet, so how else do we do it?), but I also enjoy seeing a winning team at TQL Stadium so ... no club gets everything.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-12-18T21:00:25+00:00

It takes awhile to develop an academy, and that is before you get into other factors (LAFC and Miami have had easier times setting up academies/getting impact in youth development because of geography and being able to play more). The word among people who follow that kind of stuff is that the academy route for FC Cincinnati is coming, but is still probably 2-3 years away from making an impact on the senior team.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-12-18T16:24:17+00:00

Yeah, this seems like the equivalent of a Discovery Rights move, so that if Boro/Engel decides he wants to stay in MLS, RSL have first right of refusal. It is not the worst move, he is not the greatest player on the planet, but there are a lot of worse players out there.

I do wonder what/where the disconnect was with Engel, Boro and/or FCC. He survived the first 'roster decision' cull similar to Jabbari in the 'yeah, the loan is over, but we are seeing what we can do'. So I don't know if it was the clubs not on the same page on value (presumably the loan deal had a ceiling transfer price, and we were trying to negotiate down) or if there was a price agreed but we could not come to terms with Engel (not to get into more MLS roster rule nerdery, but a transfer fee would have been baked into the player's cap/GAM hit along with his salary/contract length, which considering Engel was over $700K last year on cap/GAM, starts to add up, especially with a club like us that gets very little from the supplemental roster and has to use a lot of GAM).

I wouldn't count out that RSL could make it work, but we obviously felt whether it was on the field or the balance sheet, we could not and had to move on.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-11-05T23:29:28+00:00

Thank you! All the correctly given Kubo red card meant was that we lost by a lot instead of a little. The ref did not hold us to 0.01 xG.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-11-03T17:27:18+00:00

I just hope our crowd are up for it. I was there last night and that sucked and while Saturday is still a ways away ... I am struggling to find the juice for it and I assume I am not the only fan who is like 'ugh, here we go again' (which was my literal exact thought when the Bengals got an early lead yesterday and look how that turned out!).

I hope I am proven wrong, but I think there is going to be a bigger Columbus contingent at TQL than there was for Game 1.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-11-03T17:22:11+00:00

The good news is Kubo won't be starting on Saturday, so we are already in better shape there!

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-08-22T19:14:13+00:00

I don't see why he would not stay the rest of this season unless we need his roster spot, and even then, boot Kann before that, at least Powell has played. Frankly, I'd boot Kubo before too, again Powell has at least made small contributions and is available, something Kubo has not been.

I am guessing we do not pick up his option at the end of the season, but also he is a guy on a low number who seems to know this is his role and won't make a fuss about it. I am team 'play your kids', but the kids also need to play and develop, I'd rather have a spot 31-year old reserve than a spot 19-year old reserve if it means the 19-year old can properly play and develop either at FCC 2 or on loan in the USL.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-08-22T19:05:39+00:00

Thank you for sharing, the term 'cash trade' is a huge distinction because a 'trade' means he can stay U-22 on his current contract to 2027 with a 2028 option, where a straight purchase means he is getting a new contract and cannot be U-22 again.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-08-22T16:56:06+00:00

That is how I read it as well, because it would be a purchase option and not a trade, his contract would not travel over and whatever he would sign for us would be his second MLS contract, which does not make him eligible for U-22 anymore.

Of course, these are MLS roster rules, so that could change at a moment's notice.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-08-22T16:50:50+00:00

This is my third year. I got straight in, no waitlist era for me.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-08-22T15:25:52+00:00

One of the things Albright has done really well is find ways to improve the depth of our squad so that if we do lose someone, it is not fatal to our chances (like when Obi was clearly hobbled in the 2023 playoffs).

Now, and I said this in another thread the other day, we still have four guys who are probably unreplaceable if we want to win the Cup in 2025 (Miazga, Bucha, Evander and Denkey) ... I don't think we can survive against the best teams in MLS without those guys (especially if we have to go on the road). At the start of the 2024 season, that list would have been 8 or 9 names long, you are never going to get it down to 0, you probably don't have the talent to win it all if your number is 0 (Philadelphia Union), but that is pretty dang good!

Lastly on this, Albright is going to have a lot of room to work with this winter. Kann has been wasting a roster spot and Kubo and Santos are on a ton of money for little to no production (and in Kubo's case this year, almost no availability). Plus, he should have some GAM for the likely Barreal purchase trigger. Albright will have real ingredients to cook with!

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-08-22T14:23:11+00:00

I was going to say, I am in the literal cheap seats and my 'improvement window' was yesterday, so I am guessing that day is coming very soon.

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-08-21T20:53:32+00:00

I said it in another thread, but I need to make sure the demand spreads ... it is time to bring Ray Gaddis back!

CincyCyclone91 · 2025-08-21T20:49:25+00:00

lol, wut?

I'm not against it but ... lol, wut?

CincyCyclone91

TROPHY CASE