Dirty River Derby – Match Preview
FC Cincinnati continues their win streak against Louisville City FC today. The rivalry between the two teams began on April 16th in front of a crowd of 20,000+. The rivalry has been coined the Dirty River Derby by fans. The two teams met at Nippert where Louisville city pulled away with the 2-3 victory. Louisville sits atop the USL table with a record of (10-1-4) while Cincinnati is just two spots below at (8-2-3).
The key to the match for FC Cincinnati is going to be strong defense. Forward Jon Chandler Hoffman leads Louisville City with a whopping 10 goals putting him in second for league scoring. The Cincinnati defense let their guard down a few times against recent opponent Toronto FC II which led to a goal in first few minutes of the game. Players like Chandler Hoffman will make teams pay for the slightest lapse in defense. We’ll need to see big games out of the defense and the midfield. Just as Louisville City have a huge presence up top, they also have a dangerous machine of a midfield which is just as capable of scoring goals as they are assisting on them. This will be the FC Cincinnati game for fans to watch as it will be quite a battle. We’ve seen vital improvements from the defense since the last time they played Louisville City so this outing is shaping up to be a good one.
Slugger Field (Louisville’s home field) has had to open up 4 sections for FC Cincinnati supporters so it’s clear that these fans are dedicated to their team. Recently there has been a spike in the creation of supporter’s groups adding three new options to the mix. Queen City Firm was the first of the three to form followed by Queen City Mafia and our most recent Lowen Des Sudens. Louisville City also has a strong supporter culture with multiple groups backing their powerful eleven. Both teams and their fans are ready to further this rivalry, Let’s see how things play out on the field.
