No Magic This Year

In 2017, FC Cincinnati's run in the Lamar Hunt Open Cup took the city by storm. They upset two Major League Soccer teams before falling to a third in extra time in the semi finals. Crowds of over 30,000 people packed Nippert Stadium to watch the United Soccer League franchise face off against some of the top soccer teams in the country. The electricity surrounding those matches put Cincinnati on the world soccer map and helped the franchise land its MLS expansion slot a few weeks ago. A week after the MLS announcement, FCC played host to Minnesota United FC of MLS. Instead of feeling like a must see sporting event, it felt like a friendly with not much on the line. 

I think that can be attributed to FCC finally being awarded a spot in MLS. Last year's Open Cup run was viewed by the city as a chance to show MLS that we belong in the league. As a result Nippert Stadium was the place to be when an MLS team came to town for the Open Cup. It also helped that FCC played some of the more well known teams from the league. Columbus Crew SC is an instate rival from about two two hours north of the city. The Chicago Fire was one of the hottest teams in the league at the time and won the MLS Cup in their first year of existence in 1998. The New York Red Bulls, like the Crew, were one of MLS' inaugural teams. While Minnesota United is an MLS team, they are pretty new and have not really established themselves in MLS yet which could attribute to why interest in his match was down when compared to last year's matches. I believe only a little over 15,000 showed up for the match which is well low of last year's Open Cup attendance numbers and FCC's regular season attendance average. With FCC now going to play MLS teams every week starting in 2019, the interest in playing an MLS team in the Open Cup and the fact that it was a less established franchise contributed to the lack of hype surrounding the match.

I also think that the team is focusing their efforts on winning the USL Cup. I feel like this was evident by the fact that their backup goalie, Spencer Richey, was in the game and their two leading scorers in Danni Konig and Emmanuel Ledesma did not even dress for the match. This was probably done to let them rest for their league game. I say that because this is their last season in USL before they make the jump to the big leagues next year meaning it is their last chance to win the USL's top prize. As an MLS team, FCC will still play in the Open Cup and will have all the advantages that come with being a part of MLS such as starting the tournament during a later round. There would also be no greater USL swan song for FCC than to win the championship before they take the MLS pitch in 2019.  

In conclusion, even though FCC's Open Cup run may have been shorter than last year's and lacked the spark that set the soccer world on fire, they will still have many more chances to win an Open Cup Championship. For the USL Cup, it's now or never. Hopefully FCC can give the city of Cincinnati a USL Championship before making a run for the MLS Cup.