IT’S FC CINCINNATI MATCH DAY SEVEN! Tonight, FC Cincinnati was playing host to struggling Richmond Kickers. Coming into tonight’s match FC|C was sitting atop the USL Eastern Conference and Richmond was hanging out in thirteenth place…
IT’S US OPEN CUP MATCH DAY ROUND 4! But first a little diatribe…
With much fanfare and back-patting, it was announced last Tuesday that FC Cincinnati is officially MLS expansion bound. They will finish the rest of this season in USL. And next season, FC|C will make their highly anticipated jump to the “big league.”
Let it be known, I’m not a fan of MLS. Not one bit. I think it’s a mediocre product with too many teams. It all has a very corporate, manufactured feel. Yet it’s next to impossible to find an MLS match on TV, making it really difficult to follow any team. So I’m not super excited about this FC|C to MLS news at all. I remember when it was first announced that Cincinnati was getting a USL soccer team. I was beyond excited. I loved the fact that they were in USL even though I didn’t know much about what the USL was, how many teams there were or really much of anything. I knew it was the second or third division and that was awesome. I was excited. For me, the fact that they were a lower division team sweetened the pot. There’s something about cheering for the little guy. And then we went to the first FC Cincinnati match at Nippert Stadium and they had me, hook, line, and sinker. It was all so magical. Not far into the inaugural season, talk of jumping to MLS kept getting louder and louder. Talks of soccer-specific stadiums. And I could feel my enthusiasm starting to waver little by little. In my opinion, it would be really hard to improve on any great number of things in regards to the club. I think it would be pretty easy for the experience to take a nose-dive. FC|C had a really good thing going in USL. They’re the big fish in a relatively small pond. More than likely by moving to MLS, they’ll just be another midmarket team in a vast ocean of competitiveness. Their impressive USL attendance numbers will put them near the bottom of the top ten in MLS. It’s doubtful they’ll even rank in the top ten once they move into their new 21,000 seat soccer-specific-stadium in the West End neighborhood of Cincinnati.
To me, the only good news that came out of MLS expansion announcement was that the team will play its first two seasons of MLS soccer at Nippert Stadium while their new soccer-specific stadium is being built. My biggest concern is right off the bat with the move to MLS is ticket prices. Are we still going to be able to afford our season tickets next year? USL Season ticket prices are relatively affordable. Are MLS season ticket prices going to affordable as well? Probably not with the seats we’ve had the last three seasons. But perhaps if we moved to cheaper seats. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Tonight, we paid $30 a seat to watch a US Open Cup match that was one the most lackluster soccer games I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Remember last season’s US Open Cup run when FC|C played Columbus Crew and there was so much excitement? Or when they played Chicago Fire and the ecstasy of winning that shootout? I still get goosebumps thinking about the electricity that crackled through Nippert Stadium leading up to the match against New York Red Bulls. There was none of that tonight. Just a future MLS expansion team against a former MLS expansion team who currently sit in ninth place out of twelve teams in their conference. All I could think the whole match was, is this a precursor to what we have to look forward to next season?
At the half, it was nil-nil…
Sprinkles didn’t even bother coming to this match. Second half…
And at the end of 90 minutes, it was still 0-0…
At the end of the first 15 minute extra time, you guessed it 0-0…
And at the end of the second 15 extra time, still 0-0…
On to the penalty kick shootout…
I recorded the entire shootout in case something awesome happened…
And it did not. FC Cincinnati lost the shootout 3-1. I hope I’m wrong about MLS2Cincy. But this is what I imagine all the matches to be like next season when FC Cincinnati jump to MLS. Boooooooring. Maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised. All I know is that I’m going to enjoy the final season of USL soccer in Cincinnati and deal with MLS and all the nonsense it brings with it later. 😐⚽️❤️
UPDATE: I just discovered that for $5/month you can watch all the USL and MLS matches live through ESPN+ on the ESPN app. Done and done.
Midweek FC Cincinnati defeated Detroit City FC 4-1 in the second round of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. Tonight, FC|C was playing host to North Carolina FC. Just like Atlanta United 2 two weeks ago, NCFC are also USL new boys. NCFC were formerly the Carolina RailHawks of the NASL before making the switch to USL. It turned out to be a pretty night for soccer…
What a night! Great game. Great 3 points! FC Cincinnati stays atop the USL Eastern Conference. Next, FC Cincinnati will travel to Pittsburgh for a tough midweek US Open Cup match against the Riverhounds. And then they’re back home at Nippert Stadium next Saturday for another huge clash against rivals Louisville City in a first place versus second place showdown. We’ll see you next Saturday at Nippert! 😀⚽️❤️
IT’S FC CINCINNATI MATCH DAY THREE! FC Cincinnati was playing host to USL new boys Atlanta FC 2. We arrived at Nippert about 15 minutes into the start of FC|C’s match against AFC2 due to watching the running of the Kentucky Derby at Mac’s Pizza Pub…
But that’s okay, it had been raining all day anyway. But by the time we headed over to Nippert Stadium, the rain had just about stopped…
It was still 0-0 when we got to Nippert. So we really didn’t miss much of anything…
And the match would end with victorious on the night with a massive 4-2 win!
What a great end to Cinco de Derby day! 😀⚽️❤️
UPDATE: With tonight’s win, FC Cincinnati leapfrogged Louisville City to sit all alone atop the USL Eastern Conference in first place. And ICYMI, Kenney Walker’s superb long-range effort midweek against Ottawa Fury finished number one on SportsCenter’s Top 10.
His goal also finished with the USL Goal of the Week honors for USL Week 7…
FC Cincinnati finally returned to Nippert Stadium this afternoon in preseason form. FC Cincy was playing host to the USL’s Sacramento Republic FC. Did I mention it was at Nippert Stadium? Last Saturday, FC|C played host to Nashville SC at University of Cincinnati’s Gettler Stadium. Gettler Stadium is the home for both the UC men’s and women’s soccer teams, as well as the men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams. We had tickets to last week’s friendly but skipped it and adopted a dog instead. With today’s friendly being played in the friendly confines of beautiful Nippert Stadium, how could we stay away? FC Cincinnati soccer is back at Nippert! Let’s go!
In what has become a prematch tradition dating back to the beginning of last season, we stopped at Mac’s Pizza Pub in Clifton before the match to get some lunch and watch UC’s basketball game against Memphis in the semi-finals of the American Athletic Conference tournament. Mac’s was packed full of Bearcat fans cheering on their basketball team. I don’t really care for the Bearcats basketball program much at all but the atmosphere was pretty infectious, the food was just great as always and the draft beers were only $1 during the Bearcats basketball game…
Just look at that monster of a burger…
After the Bearcat’s punched their ticket to the championship game, we walked over to Nippert Stadium for FC|C preseason soccer…
We spent the first half standing in the sun behind The Bailey. It felt really nice when you were in the sun…
We spent the second half of the match watching from behind our season ticket seats. And it was pretty darn chilly when you weren’t in the sun. FC CINCINNATI GOAL!!!
Both Genifer and I missed FC Cincy’s goal. And there wasn’t any video so no replay…
Bummer. Did I mention it was pretty chilly when you weren’t in the sun?
It was really great to be back at Nippert watching some FC Cincinnati soccer again.The team looked pretty good. With FC|C signing 17 new players in the offseason and with only 9 returning players, I imagine there are still so kinks to be worked out trying to get the team to gel. We can’t wait for FC Cincinnati’s home opener on April 7that 7pm against Lousiville City FC. Hopefully, it’ll be a little bit warmer in a few weeks. But I’m not going to hold my breath. 😀⚽️🔶🔷❤️
IT’S INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY MATCHDAY! The United States Women’s National Team was playing their first match in Cincinnati since 2008 as they hosted New Zealand at Nippert Stadium. It also marks the first time the University of Cincinnati has ever hosted a national team match…
It seems like we’ve had our tickets for this match for months…
And the big day was finally here…
Here comes New Zealand…
And here comes the USWNT…
There’s Megan Rapinoe…
Tobin Heath…
And Cincinnati’s own Rose Lavelle…
They got the crowd going before the match with a chant of, “USA! USA! USA!”
The New Zealand National Anthem…
O say can you see…
Whoever made the tifo for the match deserves a high five, a handshake and pat on the back because it was pretty awesome…
Here we go…
GOAL USA! After relentless pressure right from the start of the match, the USWNT finally found the back of the net. New Zealand was doing a pretty good job of trying to weather the storm. But you had the feeling it was only a matter of time until the US finally opened the scoring…
It was such incredible night. Terrific atmosphere. We wouldn’t have missed seeing our Women’s National Team play right in our backyard for anything in the world. What an amazing way to cap another incredible summer of soccer at Nippert Stadium! It was pretty unbelievable! 😀🇺🇸⚽️🇳🇿❤️
IT’S FC CINCINNATI MATCHDAY 16! And it’s the final home match of the regular season. Nippert Stadium played host to 22 FC Cincinnati matches total between the USL regular season, US Open Cup and the international friendly against Valencia CF. And we were there for every single one of them…
Djiby was starting again after seemingly falling out of favor for a while…
Tonight’s crowd of 30,417 set new USL attendance record for a regular season or playoff match. The old record attendance of 30,187 was set by FC Cincinnati last season during the playoff loss to Charleston on October 2nd. FC|C ends the season averaging just over 21,000 per game at home this season. The rest of the USL averaged just 4,300.Itstill boggles my mind how many people show up for soccer in Cincinnati. And it doesn’t look like the crowds will be letting up anytime soon.
And then FC Cincinnati added a third! GOAL FC CINCINNATI!!! Harrison Delbridge scored what has to be a contender for goal of the season… A 25-yard rocket to the far post, upper 90. WOW! JUST WOW!
What a great win to close out the FC|C regular season at home…
FC Cincinnati still has four away games remaining on the schedule as they make their push toward the USL playoffs. Keep an eye out for watch parties around Cincinnati…
Thank you for another wonderful season of FC Cincinnati soccer. Thank you for all the great memories from this season. We can’t wait to see you next season. 😀⚽️❤️
IT’S FC CINCINNATI MATCHDAY 15! There was an odd 4 o’clock kickoff for today’s FC Cincinnati match as they were playing host to Pittsburgh Riverhounds…
And it was kind of a chilly, rainy afternoon…
But none of that mattered because we got new FC|C tall boy coozies…
We waited for the match to start and the drizzle to end under an overhang at the east end of Nippert Stadium by The Bailey…
T+G 