It's been a pretty exciting couple of weeks in Cincinnati with two victories in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup under the team’s belt and another match in the offing, plus a comprehensive league win last weekend at Nippert Stadium.
And that excitement continues into this weekend when FC Cincinnati returns to USL action on Saturday with downriver rivals Louisville City coming back to Cincinnati for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff in the latest River Cities Derby. The match will also be FCC’s third-annual Hometown Heroes Night, presented by Western & Southern, where the club will honor local military personnel and first responders. The first 10,000 through the gates will receive a pack of 2018 FC Cincinnati player cards from Western & Southern.
With all the excitement around the team this week, all general admission tickets for the game were sold out more than 24 hours before kickoff. Reserved are still available, however, and the Orange & Blue should expect a raucous crowd for the derby.
Fans not able to make it to the stadium for the rivalry match can watch it live on Star64 (WSTR), streamed live ESPN+, and on radio by ESPN 1530.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
As if a match against the club's arch-rivals needed any additional hyping, Saturday's match also pits the top two teams in the USL's Eastern Conference. The Orange & Blue have spent the last three weeks perched atop the East standings, with Louisville nipping at their heels just a point behind with a match in hand.
Overall, FCC enter the match on the back of one of their hottest months ever, winning all but one of their six matches overall so far in May. Along the way they've become one of the most potent sides in USL, scoring 19 goals in those six matches – which includes a pair of U.S. Open Cup victories – and sharing the league lead in shot conversion.
Meanwhile, the visitors from Louisville have had an atypical month in the lead up to Saturday's contest.
The reigning USL champions dropped their first two league matches of the campaign to start May, with losses coming on the road to Indy Eleven and Nashville SC. But never a side to stay down for long, LCFC enter this weekend on a rebound. They've won their last two, including a 5-0 blowout of the PDL's Long Island Rough Riders in the Open Cup and a 2-1 win over Atlanta in league play last weekend.
Of course, there's also the not-so-small matter of silverware potentially on the line, too. Given that Louisville took all three points in their first visit to Nippert this season with a 1-0 win on April 7, the Orange & Blue will need to at least take a point this weekend to remain in the hunt to reclaim the River Cities Cup for in 2018.
WHAT TO EXPECT
With each side coming off of important victories in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, the impact of how each team approached those matches could play a part in Saturday's match.
In FCC's 3-1 victory at Pittsburgh, Coach Alan Koch was able to field a completely different line-up than the XI he started last Saturday in the 4-1 win over North Carolina FC. Conversely, Louisville's James O'Connor only made three changes in the midweek compared to the team he fielded against Atlanta last weekend. In fact, five players in Wednesday's squad have started four times in the last two weeks -- defenders Paco Craig and Sean Totsch, and midfielders Paolo DelPiccolo, Oscar Jimenez, and Kyle Smith. It's at possible that the extra mileage on Louisville's legs could have an impact, especially with warm and muggy conditions expected in Cincinnati tomorrow night.
Of note, English forward Cameron Lancaster, currently pacing Louisville with five goals on the season and the lone goal-scorer when FCC last met them in April, was one of the few City given a reprieve from the starting XI in each of the two midweek Cup matches. So watch for him to spearhead Louisville's preferred 3-4-3, with much of the play flowing through both Cameron and a pacey George Davis IV.
On the FCC side of the ball, it's likely that many of the faces that featured in last weekend's win over North Carolina FC will return to Koch's XI. That could include standouts from that match such as USL Player of the Week Emmanuel Ledesma and the brace-bagging Nazmi Albadawi.
But, with so many FCC midweek participants putting in impressive performances, it will be interesting to see if that has any impact on the weekend's team selection.
