Despite Mother Nature pulling her typical Ohio River Valley early spring hijinks and the return of winter weather, FC Cincinnati's preseason steams ahead this evening with the club's penultimate preparatory match for the 2018 regular season. But thanks to the expected temperatures in the mid-30's and the potential for snow, tonight's kickoff against the University of Cincinnati men's soccer team has been bumped up an hour to a 6:30pm kickoff.
And with no television broadcast or webstream once again tonight, that means you'll have to brave the frigid conditions to catch the Orange & Blue. Luckily, $5 tickets are still available online and are expected to remain available at walk-up as well.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
Despite being on-campus neighbors, this is actually just the second time FCC have ever faced UC in an organized match. In fact, the last and only time we shared the same pitch with the Bearcats was just four days shy of exactly one year ago.
That 2017 prseseason match -- also our second-to-last tune-up of the preseason -- ended in a 2-0 win for the Orange & Blue thanks to goals in either side of halftime from Djiby Fall and Andrew Wiedeman.
At the other end of the spectrum, today's match will be just their second match in a six-match spring season for UC. Their only prior match in 2018 came with a 0-0 draw away to DePaul University last Saturday.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Let's start with the hosts, UC. When it comes to Spring games for college sides, what you can expect is often a mixed bag. With the seniors that graduated on in the fall regular season gone and still without the incoming freshman, squads are often short of players. Additionally, offseason training is heavily restricted by the NCAA, so they're not exactly running at full strength even with the numbers they have available.
As for FCC, things are also a little ambiguous.
With the regular season is just over a week away, it would be easy to assume that the coaching staff would look to roll out what might be the expected starting XI for our regular season opener. But, it's also the last match against a team not in our own league -- and the leaves us a valuable 90 minutes to experiment.
"The game against UC is another pre-season exercise where we can get some of the players more minutes in preparation for the season," offered head coach Alan Koch, giving us a hint that experimentation might well be in the cards.
He continued, "We look forward to seeing how our players embrace another opportunity to showcase their talents."
