Saint Louis FC Set For Rematch With FC Cincinnati

Ryan
2459 days ago.

Saint Louis FC Will Visit Nippert Stadium Saturday To Face FC Cincinnati

Saint Louis FC is in Ohio this weekend to face FC Cincinnati in a match at Nippert Stadium on Saturday, June 24. The match is set to kick of at 6 pm St. Louis time and can be seen locally on KPLR 11. The match will also be streamed live on YouTube.

Scroll down to preview Saturday’s match as well as check out where you can watch the game on Saturday night with the St. Louligans. (Hint: It’s International Tap House in Soulard.)

Saint Louis FC trave3ls to Cincinnati on June 24 to take on FC Cincinnati in a United Soccer League match at Nippert Stadium.
Saint Louis FC trave3ls to Cincinnati on June 24 to take on FC Cincinnati in a United Soccer League match at Nippert Stadium.

STLFC Plays With Chicago Fire, Ultimately Falls 1-0

Saint Louis FC saw its run in the 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup come to and end last week as it fell to the Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer by a 1-0 score.

The game’s loan goal was a wonderous backheel strike from the Fire’s Luis Solignac in the 27th minute.

The home side came close to drawing even with the Fire later in the match, namely a strike from Christian Volesky that went off the crossbar and a diving header from Jose Angluo, but couldn’t find the equalizer.

Watch highlights of the match below.


The Chicago Fire will move on to face this same FC Cincinnati club in the next round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, June 28.

The matchup will still have a bit of St. Louis flavor to it. It was announced today that ESPN2 will televise the Cincinnati-Chicago USOC Round of 16 match live with St. Louisan Taylor Twellman on the broadcast team with Julie Stewart-Binks.

Fair to say there will be a fair amount of talk about St. Louis and its soccer history as well as its MLS bid, considering Cincinnati recently unveiled its own plans for an MLS stadium.  Public funds going to a soccer-specific stadium is currently a hot topic around the Ohio city much like it was a few months ago in St. Louis. For the sake of FCC and its supporters, hopefully they don’t have the “leaders” spreading crazy stories and alternative facts like St. Louis had.

Outside Looking In After 11 Games 

The USL East standings as of June 22, 2017.
The USL East standings as of June 22, 2017.

STLFC (4-3-4) is on the outside looking in after 11 games played in regards to the USL East playoff picture. The 12th place picture is misleading, however. 9 of the 11 teams have played more games on the season that the local club, including all but one of the clubs currently in a playoff position.

FC Cincinnati (4-5-5) currently holds the final playoff position with 17 points, two more than STLFC. Cincinnati has played 14 games on the season.

Can STLFC Contain Djiby Fall Saturday?

FC Cincinnati came out victorious in the April match between these two teams. Djiby Fall was the difference in the match as he scored all four of Cincinnati’s goals in the 4-0 win.

Fall leads Cincinnati with 7 goals on the season. The Senegalese forward has appeared in just eight games this season. A week after his four-goal game, Fall received a red card late in a match against Louisville City FC. He then bit opposing player Niall McCabe. The USL handed down a five-match suspension on top of the automatic one-match suspension for the red card. He will be eligible for Saturday’s match.

Danni Konig (3) is the only other FCC player to score more than one goal this season.

FC Cincinnati as both scored and conceded 15 goals in its 14 on the season.

Victor Mansaray Returns From National Team

Victor Mansaray will be back for Cincinnati this week after being called up to the senior national team by Sierra Leone.  Mansaray, on loan from the Seattle Sounders, represented the United States on youth national teams as recently as 2016.

While Mansaray was called away from the club for duty, he did not dress for Sierra Leone’s victory over Kenya.

Will Cincinnati Play With A Lone Striker Or 3-5-2? Will They Look Past STLFC?

Against STLFC, Futbol Club Cincinnati used a lone striker formation with Fall in that role. Recently, the club has rolled out a 3-5-2 formation with Fall and Konig playing up top. Fans were immediately pleased with the formation change when it helped them upset the Columbus Crew of MLS last week in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

Cincinnati’s 1-0 win over the Crew means it will host the Chicago Fire in the next round of the USOC on Wednesday. Could FCC rest Fall or Konig this weekend to preserve them for Wednesday’s contest? While three points in the league is something the club greatly needs, the idea of upsetting another MLS team in front of the home crowd has to be tempting for the FCC front office and head coach Alan Koch?

Cincinnati Soccer Talk brought up this idea and suggested that Mansaray could play the lone striker role on Saturday.

Another player that Preki and company could see Saturday that they didn’t see in the previous match is Josu Currais. Cincinnati signed the defender trained in FC Barcelona’s youth system in mid-May

Check out the latest episode of the Cincinnati Soccer Talk podcast for more on Saturday’s match from enemy territory. Host Bryan Weigel invited Matthew Bird of the St. Louligans on to discuss the matchup.

(I totally got that stuff about the FCC formation from that podcast. I would have  no clue what formation FCC comes out in otherwise.)

20,000+ Could Be On Hand At Nippert Stadium

The crowds at Nippert Stadium for FCC matches have been the talk of the USL since the club came online last year. 30,160 fans were on hand to see the upset of the Columbus Crew earlier this month. Earlier this week, FCC announced that more than 15,000 seats have already been sold for next week’s matchup with the Fire.

Through eight home matches this season, the club is averaging 19,622 fans. Saint Louis FC, which if of course limited by a much smaller stadium, is averaging 5,595 for USL matches and saw 5,786 pack Toyota Stadium for the Open Cup match against Chicago.

Volesky & Angulo Lead Saint Louis FC In Scoring

Christian Volesky and Jose Angulo lead STLFC in scoring with 4 goals apiece in league play. Angulo also scored two goals in the club first round Open Cup win over FC Wichita.

Stanley Back Stateside

Aedan Stanley and Jack Maher, also a STLFC Academy signing, recently returned from representing the United States at the 23rd Lisbon International U-18 Tournament. The team fell to Japan and Norway, but beat Portugal. Portugal won the four-team round-robin tournament on goal differential.

Stanley has impressed in his time with Saint Louis FC this season and could see action Saturday.

Another STLFC Academy product, Josh Sargent , was honored during halftime of STLFC’s Open Cup match vs Chicago. Sargent starred for the U.S. recently in U-17 World Cup qualifying and the U-20 World Cup.

Saint Louis FC Returns Home July 5th

Saint Louis FC returns to Toyota Stadium at World Wide Technology Soccer Park on July 5th to face the Rochester Rhinos. The match was originally schedule for last month, but flooding in the area forced the rescheduling. Tickets for the original May 6th date will be honored at the gate.

The club has a limited amount of tickets available for the July 5th match for $7 has part of a flash sale. Tickets can be purchased online at SaintLouisFC.com

Stream Saturday’s Match On YouTube

Like every USL match, Saturday’s will be streamed live on YouTube.

You can watch the game with friends Saturday  at International Tap House in Soulard with the St. Louligans.

Speaking of those silly Louligans characters, be sure to check out the latest episode of the This Is Silly! podcast.  It’s the best USL podcast in the land, if I do say so myself.

Stream the match on Saturday below or watch it in St. Louis on KPLR 11.

 

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Ryan

Ryan is a weird dude. He doesn't cook, yet owns a plethora of kitchen gadgets. He rationalized buying a SodaStream while unemployed. He counts Step Up 2: The Streets as one of his favorite movies along with Footloose, Rent, Grease and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. He loves Mizzou but only wants them in the SEC so he can tailgate in Nashville. He owns a ShakeWeight and AbLounger, but still loves him some John Donut and Billie's Fine Foods. You can get more of Ryan at iLoveSoulard.com or just check the stool on the far end of the bar at iTap in Soulard.

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