Where: Cincinnati, OH – Nippert Stadium
When: Saturday, Aug. 4 at 7:30 p.m. ET
2018 Form: FC Cincinnati – 1st Place (13W-3L-5D, 44 pts.), Nashville SC – 7th Place (8W-6L-6D, 30 pts.)
YOUR FAVORITE PEOPLE THIS WEEK – Ref Assignments:
REF: Ismir Pekmic, AR1: Amilcar Sicaju, AR2: Ryan Starr, 4TH: Noah Matos
5 Things to Know
Back to Business: The international friendly against La Liga’s RCD Espanyol was a great opportunity for some of FC Cincinnati’s players to get some valuable minutes. Tyler Gibson made his much-anticipated FCC debut, as did Mark Village. Lance Laing, Will Seymore, and Sem de Wit got a chance to shake off some rust. But now it’s time to dive back into USL play, where FCC is still atop the Eastern Conference with 44 points. After some shuffling underneath, Charleston sits in second place, six points back.
Big Additions: How soon will FCC fans see the club’s first MLS additions, forward Fanendo Adi from the Portland Timbers and midfielder Fatai Alashe from the San Jose Earthquakes? Both are on loan to the club for the remainder of the USL season. FCC announced earlier this week Adi is expected to be available Saturday. Will he start or come off the bench? In either case, he could be a lethal weapon up top. He’ll also give Danni König a much-needed break after handling most of the striker workload. Also remember Emery Welshman is suspended for the next two games after his incident with Charlotte’s Kay Voser. Alashe has the potential to learn plenty under the tutelage of someone like Michael Lahoud and Richie Ryan but could feature once fully returned to fitness.
Yellow Card Watch: Even with only five matches in August, FCC might soon be forced into a bit of squad rotation. Six players are one yellow card away from a match suspension. Dekel Keinan and Emmanuel Ledesma each have seven yellows. Konig, Blake Smith, and Welshman have four. When Ryan returns from his calf injury, he’ll also be sitting on four yellows.
Clean Sheet Reset: An impressive streak of 400 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal came to an end for FCC’s goalkeeper unit two weeks ago against New York Red Bulls II. It happened with an asterisk of sorts on a König own goal, but it counts just the same. The last time an opposing player scored on the Orange and Blue was Jordan Hamilton’s goal in the 75th minute to cap a comeback for Toronto FC II on June 27. Evan Newton sandwiched four straight clean sheets in between goals.
Howdy Stranger: FCC and Nashville SC met just four weeks ago in a 0-0 draw at Nissan Stadium. Nashville now makes the return trip to Nippert Stadium with the final regular season match coming on the road in October. FCC fans who might have been unhappy with the Orange and Blue leaving last-place Toronto with just a draw should take solace: Toronto turned away Nashville with nothing in a 2-0 victory on Saturday, its first of the year. It was Nashville’s third match in eight days. Playing in a 4-4-1-1, Nashville mustered just three shots on goal. Goalkeeper Matt Pickens and midfielder Michael Reed, both of whom missed the Toronto match with injuries, could be back in the lineup against FCC, according to The Tennessean.
Expected Goals:
March to Matchday – FC Cincinnati vs. Nashville SC
Join host Bryan Weigel @bryanweigel, as he welcomes guest Ben Wright (@BWrightSSP) of the Speedway Soccer Podcast (@SoccerSpeedway) to preview Saturday’s match vs. Nashville SC. This show will hopefully fit in your drive time to work, to the pub on game day or lead you right up to game time. We hope you enjoy!
Don’t forget you can now download and subscribe to Cincinnati Soccer Talk on iTunes today! The podcast can also be found on Stitcher Smart Radio now. We’re also available in the Google Play Store.
Growler Cup – Round 22
Returning for 2018 is our Growler Cup! If you contribute $5/ month or more as a supporter of the site, you are entered into the Growler Cup prediction contest. Supporters of the show along with our hosts will predict the score and result for the upcoming week’s match. We have changed the rules for 2018. You get 3 pts for picking the correct result, 1 pt for correct FCC goals and 1pt for correct opponent goals. There will be many opportunities to win as well in 2018. Along with the overall champion (2017 – Chris Dimeo), fans can get on our show to chat with the staff or partake in a trivia contest by scoring the most amount of points in a given month. You will see the predictions of our staff below. Please consider supporting the site at CincinnatiSoccerTalk.com
Viewing
TV: This contest is set for a 7:30 p.m. EST kickoff on Saturday night. The broadcast duo of Tom Gelehrter and Kevin McCloskey will provide the play-by-play and color analysis to FCC fans live on WSTR Star 64. The match will also be broadcast at FC Cincinnati’s pub partners or by Streaming internet on ESPN+.
RADIO: ESPN 1530 AM
Stay tuned to our Twitter handle – @CincySoccerTalk, for updated information.
@rspeirce for @CincySoccerTalk
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