MATCH REPORT: City play front office staff, embarrass small, trophy-less club in preseason friendly

Is it just me or is there something particularly mysterious and atmospheric about a closed-door preseason friendly? Not being able to watch or listen live seems to harken back to a simpler time in football, perhaps an Everton away to Inter Bratislava in the 1981 Cup Winners’ Cup-esque type of draw, when European teams would venture over the Iron Curtain to face an unknown opponent, armed with a scouting report that may or may not consist of only a first XI and a few words in the local language to tell Soviet border guards in the event of detention. As for actual evidence that the game took place, you might get a teamsheet with goal scorers, and in exceptionally lucky cases, eleven seconds of grainy footage that would show the teams lining up, and perhaps an indiscriminate scene of a backpass or maybe an errant throw-in. The remaining events of the evening would be entirely up to your imagination to decide.

Of course, it would be much more difficult to romanticize these sort of matches if they were meaningful in any real way.

Even with the derby matchup, going into yesterday’s game against c*ncnnati I found it really difficult to see it as anything other than a chance for our guys to each get 45 high intensity minutes in before our USL Championship campaign kicks off later next month (assuming the league actually releases a schedule at some point). The rotated-squad match seemed all set to be a fairly austere affair, especially with the game apparently taking place outside a desolate Amazon processing warehouse that doubles as FCC’s training ground.

Yet despite the flat mood and the general embargo on all information coming out the Democratic People's Republic of Ohio, I thoroughly enjoyed the boys in purple’s thrashing of our biggest rival. While we’re certainly no strangers to embarrassing MLS opponents in preseason friendlies, notching a 3-1 victory over New England in 2019, this one was particularly sweet.

A 37th minute handball in the box set up a penalty opportunity that was squared by Abdou, which sent us into the half ahead. Hackworth refreshed after the interval by introducing the second lineup, which included Ownby, who beat the keeper 1-on-1 in the 63rd to double the lead.

But the highlight of the afternoon came in the 85th minute, when our semi-retired, cult hero-made-team admin George Davis IV netted a third from a Jay Tee Kamara assist to add to the glorious disrespect. While I’d like to think Hack threw George on just as a massive piss-take, it is important to note that he is a rostered player for the upcoming season. It will be interesting to see what role he might play on the field going even in his transitional role.

Also notable was a first team appearance for Joshua Wynder, the 15-year-old brother of Elijah Wynder that signed a USL Academy contract with the club last month.

How much does this result tell us about ourselves? Well with the dearth of available footage to pour over, it’s hard to know. We may get something a little more substantial in post-match interviews the club may put out tomorrow, but the fact that the manager of our team’s official Twitter account seemed comfortable enough to publicly taunt a particularly salty c*ncy reporter seems like a positive sign.

While a lot of folks should rightly be encouraged by a victory over an MLS side, it’s important to note that FCC has made few upgrades to a squad that finished bottom of the league and broke the MLS record for goals conceded in a single season. What’s also clear is that both Hackworth and Jaap Stam likely saw this matchup as little more than a chance to improve fitness and experiment tactically.

All in all, any preseason friendly should be taken with a healthy handful of salt, but when it also involves your team embarrassing their biggest rival (especially when they play in a division above) it should likewise be fully enjoyed. More importantly, this should provide a big boost to morale for both the fans and the dressing room, and could go a long way in helping us avoid our typical early season slump we've seen over the past few seasons. Actual league play still seems like a long ways off with the remaining gauntlet of friendlies Hack and Co. have lined up for us, but football is back in Louisville for the year-- and what a great way to start it off. The river is ours.