WHO:

FC Cincinnati, 8-7-7, 31 points, 6th place Eastern Conference

WHAT:

The Dirty River Derby finale

WHEN:

Saturday, August 12, 2017, 7:30 p.m.

WHERE:

A possibly sold-out Louisville Slugger Field

WATCH:

I’m assuming you already have tickets if you’re reading this. The club’s already sold over 10,000, and I think I saw somewhere that they’ve sold even more than the last Cincy match, which was a club record. So if you’ve waited this long to get tickets, you might be out of luck to see this game live, which would be too bad for you! But you can still watch it on YouTube, WBNA-21, or listen on 840 WHAS.

WHO, AGAIN?

Normally I like to use this space to talk trash about the upcoming opponent or poke fun at its fans or something like that. Unfortunately, Louisville City hasn’t beaten Cincinnati since Chandler Hoffman’s first half hat-trick against them in April of last year. Since then, there have been two draws and three losses against the blue and orange.

That sucks. What’s worse is City fans could be forgiven for kind of expecting more of the same in this match. Cincy will be without Aodhan Quinn due to yellow card suspension (surprise) but Djiby, König, and Harrison Delbridge should all be starting. Meanwhile, City’s probably going to be without George Davis IV, Paolo DelPiccolo’s status is unclear, and so is Brian Ownby’s. We all love this team, but given that City’s lost twice to FCC with more or less full strength rosters already, there’s plenty of reason for doubt.

Of course, it’s times like these that James O’Connor tends to get his teams to perform the best. LouCity’s only lost at home once this season. We’ve all seen what teams who let City have the ball can do. Surely the staff have learned some lessons from that. I don’t think JOC and Team Purple have any interest in disappointing a record home crowd twice in a row.

Let’s go get three points. COME ON, CITY!