FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan hailed the impact of Andrei Chirila ahead of their MLS season opener against Atlanta United.

The 17-year-old defender made his first-team debut in their 4-0 win over Universidad O&M in the Champions Cup on Wednesday.

The centre-back won the joint-most duels in the match (seven), the most aerial duels (five), recorded the second-most passes (74) and touches (94), while also completing both of his dribbles.

Chirila also played the full 90 minutes in their pre-season friendly against the Houston Dynamo, and Noonan says those starts were a result of the teenager's hard work.

"His performances in pre-season [warranted his debut]. He has been very consistent with his play," said Noonan after their win in the Champions Cup.

"I think you saw his ability to play forward. He finds some really good passes that can help us break pressure and get his team-mates in good spots with some space to attack.

"I thought his physical duels and aerial duels were better than what we've seen. That was promising. I also like the moments of frustration when he doesn't get it right or his team-mates do an action with the wrong connection.

"He's got something about him and he was on the field because he's been performing strongly through pre-season."

Cincinnati reached the Eastern Conference semi-finals in the play-offs last year, where they lost to eventual MLS Cup winners Inter Miami after finishing second in the regular season.

Atlanta, meanwhile, finished 14th in the East after ending the 2025 season with just one win from their last 18 games.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

FC Cincinnati – Evander

Evander provided at least 15 goals and 15 assists in each of the last two seasons, doing so with the Portland Timbers in 2024 and Cincinnati in 2025.

He is the only player in MLS history to have a 15-15 season with two different teams.

Atlanta United – Aleksey Miranchuk

No player was directly involved in more shots for Atlanta than Aleksey Miranchuk (116 – 66 shots, 50 chances created) last season.

Since his debut in September 2024, Miranchuk (87 shots, 81 chances created) is one of just 10 MLS players to record at least 80 shots and 80 chances created (including play-offs).

MATCH PREDICTION – FC CINCINNATI WIN

Cincinnati recorded 20 regular-season wins in 2025, marking the second 20-win campaign in the club’s MLS history (also 2023).

They are one of two MLS teams with multiple seasons with at least 20 wins in the post-shootout era, along with Los Angeles FC (2019 and 2022).

However, Atlanta have only lost on one of their seven all-time visits to Cincinnati (W2 D4), a 1-0 defeat in May 2024. Cincinnati are the only team Atlanta have played five or more regular-season away matches against and lost fewer than two times.

Atlanta have also lost only one of their last six season-opening matches (W4 D1) dating back to 2020. Atlanta are one of four teams (LAFC, Columbus Crew, D.C. United) with at least four wins in season-opening matches since 2020.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

FC Cincinnati – 63.3%

Draw – 19.5%

Atlanta United – 17.2%