FC Cincy, Louisville City rekindle rivalry in US Open Cup: 'It's going to mean something'

In part, this game is for the nostalgics in the FC Cincinnati and Louisville City FC fan bases.

It's for those who hold up as folk heroes names like Chandler Hoffman and Djiby Fall. It's for the supporters in both cities who rejected a rivalry moniker that felt workshopped by advertising agents in favor of "Dirty River derby."

Once upon a time in FC Cincinnati's existence, there was nothing more important than beating Louisville City. Minor-league soccer played between the clubs made and ruined summer nights, and sometimes made entire seasons.

On Wednesday at TQL Stadium, the old foes will revisit their once-simmering dislike with a third-round Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup match (7 p.m.).

FC Cincinnati left behind the days of battling with Louisville for USL supremacy when it jumped to Major League Soccer in 2018 and, in truth, Louisville didn't hurt too badly when the rivalry broke apart.

"Lou City" has been a playoff mainstay in what's now called the USL Championship, and it earned plenty of plaudits, trophies and national TV appearances along the way.

Louisville garnered national recognition for opening Lynn Family Stadium in 2020, the 12,000-seater stadium that also houses a National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchise and hosted the 2021 NWSL championship match.

Today, Louisville sits third in the USL Eastern Conference, which prompted FC Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan on Monday to declare, "they're good."

Noonan also expressed his awareness for what the Cincinnati-Louisville rivalry used to mean, and that he'd lean into that with his players ahead of the match.

"I think the challenge sometimes is an unfamiliar opponent for our group and how do we message it in a way where they're prepared for a tough opponent, one that has history with the club, which a lot of (our) players might not really understand," Noonan said during a Monday news conference. "There's gonna be two fan bases and two clubs that are passionate about this game and winning this game. It's going to mean something, so it's important for the myself and for our staff for our players to be aware of what type of game they're going to get.

"But by no means will it be easy. I'm looking forward to it because you typically don't have this type of environment straight away in this competition."

What's at stake for both clubs

Fans could see flashes of the olden days Wednesday due to the high stakes of the FC Cincinnati-Louisville City encounter. A winner has to be decided, and extra time and penalty kicks will be used to determine a winner if necessary. The victor will then advance to the fourth round to play the winner of Columbus Crew vs. Indy Eleven.

The last time the clubs played was a closed-door preseason match in 2021. That was the first on-field contact between them since the 2019 U.S. Open Cup. Roughly four years on from their last competitive meeting, there's no telling when Louisville and FCC would next play another meaningful game. So, the bragging rights earned Wednesday could have a long shelf life. Either club would be happy to possess those rights.

Louisville has a stocked trophy cabinet, as evidenced by the two stars you'll see over its club crest on Wednesday. Those stars represent USL Championship postseason championships. But another valuable achievement for the biggest, strongest lower-league clubs is a deep run in the Open Cup.

FC Cincinnati made international headlines for its deep Open Cup run in 2017 as a lower-league club. More recently, USL Championship side Sacramento Republic FC took a step further than FCC's run to the 2017 semifinal round by advancing to last year's finale, which also garnered major attention. Louisville has the talent and bona fides to be the latest lower-league side to make a deep cup run, and they're surely targeting just that.

For FCC, some pundits forecasted in the preseason the club was well-positioned for trophies in 2023. Some also suggested the Open Cup could be the most likely avenue to claim silverware this season. Given that, it's fair to say FCC should be expected to do better than its fourth-round exit in 2022, and that an early exit from the tournament at home would be an untenable proposition.

"We're approaching it to go and win the competition," Noonan said of FC Cincinnati's approach to the Open Cup. "The starting point of that is we have to have success on Wednesday, and we have a very tough matchup against Louisville City, so it's kind of a game-by-game. Let's go into this competition with the understanding that we're trying to win a trophy. Six games to do that with Wednesday being the starting point. We can't even think about... being a part of a final if we don't have the right mentality for Wednesday."

Somewhat-familiar faces

FC Cincinnati no longer rosters any players from its days in the lower leagues, but the clubs last met in a fourth-round U.S. Open Cup match in 2019. FCC center back Nick Hagglund is still around from those days.

Louisville has six players in its employ that played in the 2019 game, and most of those also faced off against FCC during the 2018 USL season.

Another Louisville player that FC Cincinnati should be familiar with is defender Josh Wynder, the 17-year-old Louisville City FC Academy product who last week became teammates with FCC's Brandon Vazquez, Matt Miazga, and Roman Celentano during the short USMNT camp that featured a Wednesday match against Mexico.

Wynder will reportedly join Portuguese top-flight side Benfica, which won a bidding war against other reputable European powers to purchase Wynder for a reported USL-record $1.5 million transfer fee.

The USA Today Network's Pro Soccer Wire reported Monaco and Red Bull Salzburg were also vying for Wynder's services.

Louisville midfielder Tyler Gibson is another recognizable face to watch out for Saturday. Due to persistent injuries in 2018, Tyler Gibson played in just eight matches for FC Cincinnati that year, although one of those was against Louisville. After a couple seasons playing for Indy Eleven, Gibson joined Louisville in 2021.

Louisville manager Danny Cruz and FCC GM Chris Albright were teammates with the Philadelphia Union, too.

The Game

Kickoff: 7 p.m., Wednesday | TQL Stadium

Stream/radio: Bleacher Report Football YouTube page.

Series info: FC Cincinnati leads the all-time, all-competition series against Louisville City with a 5-3-4 record. FCC also won both matches against Louisville in U.S. Open Cup play (2-0-0).

Cincinnati.com prediction: FC Cincinnati 4, Louisville City SC 2.

FC Cincinnati

Record: 6-1-2; 20 points, Tied for first in MLS Eastern Conference.

Goals for: 12

Goals against: 10

Coach: Pat Noonan – second season at FC Cincinnati

Projected starting lineup:

Alec Kann, goalkeeper

Isaiah Foster, left back

Ian Murphy, center back

Nick Hagglund, center back

Joey Akpunonu, center back

Alvas Powell, right back

Malik Pinto, midfielder

Yuya Kubo, midfielder

Marco Angulo, midfielder

Dominique Badji, forward

Arquimedes Ordonez, forward

Louisville City FC

Record: 4-1-2; 13 points, third place in USL Championship Eastern Conference

Goals for: Six

Goals against: Nine

Coach: Danny Cruz – third season as manager (assistant at Louisville City since 2018)

Projected starting lineup:

Kyle Morton, goalkeeper

Amadou Dia, left back

Joshua Wynder, center back

Sean Totsch, center back

Manny Perez, right back

Paolo Delpiccolo, midfielder

Tyler Gibson, midfielder

Rasmus Thellufsen, midfielder

Enoch Mushagalusa, forward/winger

Wilson Harris, forward

Brian Ownby, forward/winger

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: FC Cincy, Louisville City rekindle rivalry in Open Cup: How to watch