Atlanta, GA
FC Cincinnati draws 2-2 with Atlanta behind two second-half goals from Evander
Playing without one of its two headline-making new stars on offense, FC Cincinnati produced a 2-2 draw Saturday with a quick burst of brilliance from the other.
Evander, a 26-year old Brazilian whom FC Cincinnati acquired from the Portland Timbers before the season, scored twice in a six-minute span in the second half as the Orange and Blue rallied from a 1-0 deficit to tie Atlanta United FC. Atlanta scored a late goal to salvage the draw.
Cincinnati is now 2-1-2 on the season for seven points, avoiding a second straight defeat in MLS play. Cincinnati stood in eighth place in the Eastern Conference with six points entering play, with 12 games kicking off later Saturday.
Cincinnati persevered without its star striker transfer Kévin Denkey, who played for Togo in a World Cup qualifying match earlier Saturday. Denkey scored the tying goal in the second half as Togo drew 2-2 with Mauritania.
Fans at TQL Stadium got to see Atlanta’s headline-making transfer Emmanuel Latte Lath open his Cincinnati account. Latte Lath, a 26-year old from the Ivory Coast, scored his fourth goal of the season in the 50th minute to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead.
Atlanta signed him with a reported record $22 million transfer fee from Middlesbrough in England’s Championship league. He has four of the five goals this season for Atlanta, which dropped to 1-1-3.
Evander tied the game for FC Cincinnati in the 70th minute with a free kick from 24 yards. He fired an accurate laser up the middle that Atlanta keeper Brad Guzan appeared to lose in the sun.
Six minutes later, Evander took a pass near the penalty spot at the 12-yard mark, and while falling off balance to his left, he directed the ball inside the far post with his right foot to give Cincinnati a 2-1 lead.
Atlanta tied it in the 89th minute when a crossing pass deflected off Cincinnati’s Alvas Powell and inside the post.
It was a key early match for both teams
The match paired two clubs who are expected to contend for first place in the Eastern Conference but who have had their struggles so far in the 2025 MLS season. Atlanta entered the day 12th in the East with four points and had eight members of its first-team roster gone for international play.
FC Cincinnati faced Atlanta using a different back line without two of its regular starters. Miles Robinson was a late scratch due to illness and Teenage Hadebe was unavailable as the Zimbabwe native is in his home country working on getting a green card.
Nick Hagglund recorded his 120th career start for the Orange and Blue, and 176th all-time MLS start. He took the middle of the back line with Lukas Engel and Alvas Powell on the outside.
At halftime, Hagglund was replaced by Corey Baird, with DeAndre Yedlin moving to the back line.
The first half was fast-paced with 12 shots and 19 fouls
The first half was fast-paced and physical, with 19 total fouls and three injury stoppages. Kubo and center back Lukas Engel received yellow cards for Cincinnati.
Atlanta had seven shots to five for FC Cincinnati.
Seven minutes in, Atlanta star winger Saba hit the post on a laser from about 25 yards out. Moments later, FC Cincinnati just missed scoring from a deflection off a free kick by Evander.
Brad Guzan, a 40-year old playing his 305th MLS game in goal, 235th for Atlanta, made a tough save on Nick Hagglund from close range.
In the 16th minute, FC Cincinnati’ sLuca Orellano, celebrating his 25th birthday, had a free kick from the side of the 18 punched out by Guzan.
In the 35th minute, Cincy keeper Roman Celantano made a diving save at the goal line on Xande Silva.
In stoppage time, Guzan saved a 25-yard shot by Evander and Celantano made a tough save on a corner kick.
The tempo continued in the second half. Cincinnati ended with 14 shots to 12 for Atlanta, and the teams combined for 29 fouls.
The match was the fourth straight time FC Cincinnati has played to a draw at home during an afternoon kickoff. The team had three 0-0 draws last season in the afternoon at TQL Stadium. FC Cincinnati has two wins, four losses and now five draws in 11 day home games all-time at TQL.
What’s next for FC Cincinnati?
It was the first time FC Cincinnati has had a full week between games since the beginning of the season Feb. 19.
Counting its four games in the Concacaf Champions Cup, the Orange and Blue had played eight games in the first 25 days of the 2025 season.
Now that FC Cincinnati has been eliminated from the Champions Cup, the team will only have weekend MLS games until it plays at Toronto FC on Wednesday, May 14.
FC Cincy next plays at Nashville Saturday, March 29, then returns home to face New England April 5. Nashville is 2-1-1, fifth in the Eastern Conference with seven points entering a home game against Montreal Saturday night.
ATHENS, Ga. (July 4, 2026) – Atlanta United 2 earned a 1-0 win against Toronto FC II on Saturday at Turner Soccer Complex in Athens. Daniel Chica scored the only goal of the match as Atlanta maintained its fourth clean sheet of the season.
The first big chance of the match came from Atlanta in the 23rd minute. Cameron Dunbar, running across the top of the 18-yard box, picked out Arif Kovac in space to his left. Kovac, taking a touch to draw defenders to him, waited briefly before slipping Dominik Chong Qui in behind the defense on the left side of the box. Chong Qui nearly scored with a first-time shot on his left foot, but a deflection from a Toronto defender took the ball just inches wide of the far post.
In the 34th minute, Atlanta grabbed the opening goal. Chong Qui, taking a throw in from the right side, launched the ball into the Toronto box and found the head of Matthew Senanou. With a glancing flick off his head, Senanou guided the ball centrally, where Chica reacted before his markers to jump up and connect with a header, looping the ball into the bottom-right corner of the net.
Atlanta nearly added a second just before the half. In the 40th minute, Dunbar pounced on a Toronto turnover in the Atlanta half and broke through the defense. Carrying the ball down the Toronto half and into the box by himself, Dunbar wrapped a left-footed shot toward goal, but goalkeeper Adisa De Rosario was able to get down quickly and block the shot. Despite the save, the rebound spilled only as far as Kovac, who dropped a defender and De Rosario with a fake shot, but his ensuing effort was deflected out of play by center back Stefan Kapor.
It was a quiet second half, with Atlanta content to pass the ball around and maintain possession as it attempted to see out its lead. However, Toronto nearly equalized in the 78th minute. Striker Jahmarie Nolan, picking the ball up on the left side of the box, lofted a cross to the back post of the Atlanta goal toward fellow striker Dekwon Barrow. Rising up just inches from goal, Barrow connected with a header, but Jonathan Ransom quickly reacted to palm the effort off the goal line with his right hand. The chance was still alive as Kapor attempted to tap in the rebound, but Ransom, who was on the ground, extended his body to come away with a double save, sealing the three points.
Atlanta United 2 (8-5-3, 27 points) returns to action Saturday, July 11, when it takes on Inter Miami CF II at Turner Soccer Complex (7 p.m. ET, MLSNEXTPro.com, OneFootball App, Soccer Down Here).
The Braves are exiting a June that was absolutely miserable, but they finally hit a handful of homers on Friday night, hosting the Mets. They’ve got another favorable matchup here, with Chris Sale on the mound and facing the imminently hittable Sean Manaea for New York. We’ve got a national TV matchup on the 250th anniversary of this great country’s founding. The Braves have lived up to expectations, despite their horrid June, but FOX will be a bit disappointed in the Mets, relative to what they expected before the season when this matchup was scheduled.
Chris Sale has been brilliant of late, and really all year, but the struggles of Atlanta’s offense have prevented the team from capitalizing on that in the form of wins since May. One would think that this would be a game that the Braves could put some runs up against Manaea at home, perhaps building on the power they showed Friday, but this is the type of game they have frequently been losing lately. Sale may figure out a way to score a run off the pitching mound out of pure fury if he doesn’t get any run support today.
Manaea has been ever so slightly above average in most things other than ERA this year, getting the opener treatment frequently and starting only 4 games. His elite extension props up a pretty uninspiring arsenal of primarily a four-seamer, sinker, and sweeper, with a cutter and changeup sprinkled in. His four-seamer and sinker have a lot of arm-side run, while the rest of his pitches have quite average movement with well-below-average velocity. He’s perhaps been getting some HR/FB rate luck this season, so hopefully he gets some regression in favor of Atlanta’s bats.
Game Date/Time: Saturday, July 4, 8:08 p.m. ET
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
Can you believe it? After what has been the most successful lottery and draft in Utah Jazz history, Jazz fans will get to watch prized prospect Darryn Peterson take the floor for the first time.
Peterson was the talk of draft night, with questions about whether he would actually be the #1 pick. After a month of speculation, the Washington Wizards ultimately went with AJ Dybantsa. Utah came away with the player they wanted all along, and now we get to see just how good Peterson is going to be. Yes, you have to take the summer league with a grain of salt. If a player plays great, you can’t take too much from it. If a player plays badly, it’s time to be concerned. But would argue it’s time to ignore that because it’s hard to exaggerate how good Peterson can be, and it’s just as hard to see him not playing well in his first summer league. This is a new era of Jazz basketball, and this first summer league with Peterson is a prologue to what should be the most successful chapter in Jazz basketball history.
The best part of all of this is I hardly feel any pressure or anxiety, I’m just excited to watch this new prospect be unleashed. There have been prospects in Jazz history whose futures you didn’t quite know. With Peterson, the question is just how good he’s going to be. Tomorrow we find out, and I personally can’t wait.
How to watch the Salt Lake City Summer League?
Who: Utah Jazz vs Atlanta Hawks
When: Saturday, July 4, 2026 | 3:00 MT
Where: Jon M. Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City, UT
How to watch: Prime Video, ESPNU, League Pass, KJZZ, Jazz+
This goes without saying. The most important thing in this game is to see how healthy Peterson looks. Does he have his burst back? How does the playmaking work? How well does he score the ball? Basically, all eyes will be on Darryn Peterson and how he looks in his debut. From the moment the Jazz run onto the floor and warm up to the time the game starts, you can bet that his every move will be the prime attraction.
Just like last season, Bailey will be another player to watch in this summer league. He showed fantastic signs this season, and this summer league is an opportunity to show his improvement. Bailey scored and rebounded last summer league without a single play run for him. Now that he understands the offense much better, he should have a nice game.
The other interesting element will be how he plays with Peterson. What does the chemistry look like? They’ve only been together for a short amount of time, but we’ll see if they are playing well together starting in Game 1.
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