{"id":420147,"date":"2026-07-31T23:43:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T23:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/420147\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T23:43:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T23:43:26","slug":"preview-fc-cincinnati-vs-san-jose-earthquakes-prediction-team-news-lineups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/420147\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: FC Cincinnati vs. San Jose Earthquakes – prediction, team news, lineups"},"content":{"rendered":"

While their current form may portray something different, two relatively high-flying MLS<\/a> sides, FC Cincinnati<\/a> and San Jose Earthquakes<\/a>, face off at TQL Stadium on Saturday in the competition’s 18th round.<\/p>\n

FC Cincy, seventh in the Eastern Conference, have claimed just two wins in five ahead of welcoming the off-form third-placed side in the Western Conference, who enter this weekend on a run of one victory in their last seven fixtures.<\/p>\n

Match preview<\/p>\n

When FCC thought they were on the verge of claiming three MLS wins on the spin this season, they were handed a defeat by the Columbus Crew last time out.<\/p>\n

Pat Noonan<\/a>‘s team have claimed six wins since the start of the regular season in February, but their longest winning streak stands at two: victories over the New York Red Bulls and Chicago Fire in April-May and triumphs over Orlando City and the Vancouver Whitecaps in May-July.<\/p>\n

Noonan may have hoped for the best after Kevin Denkey<\/a> put his team ahead after nine minutes, but familiar failings reared their ugly head, with the Orange and Blue conceding twice before the break to fall to defeat.<\/p>\n

Those concessions last time out mean that FCC have not kept a clean sheet in seven MLS rounds going back to April’s 2-0 success over the New York Red Bulls, with the team’s only other shutout coming in the opening round in February.<\/p>\n

Further highlighting the Knifey Lions’ defensive weakness is how they have let in two goals or more during the ongoing seven-match run, notably conceding five in a 5-3 loss to Inter Miami, as well as three in a 4-3 win over Vancouver and a 3-3 draw with San Diego FC.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Iconsport<\/p>\n

As such, a wildly exciting match is nearly guaranteed in Ohio when San Jose visit this weekend.<\/p>\n

The third-placed side in the West have largely thrived under Bruce Arena<\/a>, having finished 10th in their section in 2025’s regular season, thereby failing to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n

However, the Goonies, like their hosts, are clean-sheet shy heading into Saturday’s 18th round, with the team’s last shutout coming in early April.<\/p>\n

Since beating San Diego 3-0 at their California base, Arena’s team have conceded in 11 consecutive MLS matchdays, and strikingly enter this weekend on a run of one win in seven.<\/p>\n

Still, the Quakes sit level on 33 points with Western Conference-leading Vancouver and Los Angeles FC, while having a seven-point buffer on fourth-placed Salt Lake, further accentuating the importance of their strong start of nine wins in 10 before their current dip.<\/p>\n

FC Cincinnati Major League Soccer form:<\/p>\n

San Jose Earthquakes Major League Soccer form:<\/p>\n

San Jose Earthquakes form (all competitions):<\/p>\n

Team News<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Imago \/ IMAGO \/ Icon Sportswire<\/p>\n

After his dismissal against Columbus, Gerardo Valenzuela is suspended for this weekend’s visit of San Jose, while Matt Miazga’s booking in the same fixture means the centre-back is one more caution away from serving a ban.<\/p>\n

With his goal in the previous round, Denkey has now found the back of the net in consecutive MLS fixtures as well as the past six competitive and non-competitive games for club and country, and the 11-goal MLS man aims to be on target on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Closely following Denkey is Evander<\/a>, fresh off his goal in the MLS All-Stars’ 4-3 win over the Liga MX All-Stars on Wednesday, and the attacking midfielder will back himself to add to his 10 league strikes or eight assists against San Jose.<\/p>\n

Unlike their hosts, who have a clean bill of health, Arena has a few injury worries heading into the 18th matchday, with Nonso Adimabua, Earl Edwards Jr, DeJuan Jones and Niko Tsakiris all missing.<\/p>\n

While Cincinnati have Denkey and Evander to trust for goals, Preston Judd<\/a> remains the only player on the visiting side to enter double figures for goals, and the forward aims to add to his 11 MLS strikes this weekend.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Timo Werner<\/a> remains a dual threat on his day, with the former Chelsea man scoring four and assisting three in just nine appearances.<\/p>\n

FC Cincinnati possible starting lineup:<\/p>\n

Celentano; Gidi, Miazga, Robinson; Bucha, Anunga, Nwobodo, Echenique; Evander; Dem, Denkey<\/p>\n

San Jose Earthquakes possible starting lineup:<\/p>\n

Gunn; Kikanovic, Munie, Roberts, Ricketts; Gonzalez, Fernandez; Bouda, Leroux, Werner; Judd<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We say: FC Cincinnati 2-2 San Jose Earthquakes<\/p>\n

Both sides have been in indifferent form heading into Saturday’s encounter, making it hard to back either side to secure maximum points.<\/p>\n

Goals are a near certainty, though, with FC Cincy and San Jose not keeping a clean sheet in seven and 11 MLS fixtures, respectively.<\/p>\n

As such, a high-scoring draw could be on the cards at TQL Stadium this weekend.<\/p>\n

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While their current form may portray something different, two relatively high-flying MLS sides, FC Cincinnati and San Jose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[37743,43698,949,43696,32496,752,10012,18868,43697,88,90,89,7496,8063,14826,18874],"class_list":["post-420147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-cycling","tag-epl","tag-football","tag-formula-1","tag-golf","tag-nfl","tag-olympics","tag-premier-league","tag-rugby","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-sport","tag-sports-mole","tag-teams","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}