With successful preseason trips to Florida and Indiana now in our rearview mirrors, FC Cincinnati begins finally will make their 2018 Greater Cincinnati debut when they jump across the Ohio for a Tuesday night friendly against Northern Kentucky University.
The preseason match will kickoff at 7pm at the gorgeous 1,000-seat NKU Soccer Stadium in Newport, Kentucky -- and tickets are still available here as of the time of publication, as well as at walkup should they still be available. And with no streams planned for the match, you might want to get your ticket now if you want to take in the action.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
Our fourth fixture of the preseason will be our second meeting with the Division I side lead by second-year head coach Stu Riddle. The first of those meetings came last summer when FCC's reserves and trialists traveled to NKU and earned a 1-1 draw with the Norse.
Things will be a little bit different this time around, however.
Since the regular season now just under four weeks away, FCC head coach Alan Koch only has four more matches to figure out what his first eleven looks will look like on March 17th in Charleston. But don't read too much into what you see tonight.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Instead, watch for the reverse of what we saw in Indianapolis last week. While we saw one group go 60 minutes and another go 30 minutes against the Eleven, each group will swap minute lengths tonight against the Norse. Though with most getting a full 90 minutes between the two, it wouldn't be surprising if Koch might start showing glimpses by Saturday's friendly against Nashville.
Regardless, he's pleased with the progress they've made.
"I am very happy with how the team is progressing on and off the pitch," Koch shared on Monday morning. "The players are working incredibly hard with the system of play we have implemented and are gelling very well."
The match will also be a reunion for men on opposite sides of the divide, as new FCC winger Russell Cicerone -- who impressed in his 30-minute stint last week -- will square up against his former coach in NKU's Stu Riddle. Riddle coached Cicerone for four years at the University of Buffalo before helping him to a fourth-round selection in the MLS draft.
