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Now, FC Cincinnati is off to the Sunshine State once more “in a much better place,” Koch said. The third-year club plays Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution in their first preseason game Tuesday.
Here are five things to know heading into the preseason slate:
1. Better prepared
FC Cincinnati went 0-2-1 in Florida last year and finished the preseason 2-2-1. Preseason results don’t matter as teams use the opportunity to try different lineups and formations and are rotating players in and out, but the Orange and Blue ended up having to carry that into the regular season and never really found an identity.
Koch is much more prepared going into his second season.
“To be honest, the whole season felt like we were fighting against it because we didn’t have that time to prepare,” Koch said. “This year it’s been a lot, certainly not easier, but it’s allowing us the time to go do what we need to do to get ready, so that’s where we worked as a club to see who we wanted to keep, who we wanted to bring in and literally just getting the pieces to the puzzle we feel we need.”
2. Roster turnover
Koch took advantage of his first full offseason with the team to build the roster he really wants, rather than one he inherited and tinkered with last year.
He kept nine players from the 2017 squad, leaving just Kenney Walker, Jimmy McLaughlin and Corben Bone as the originals from the inaugural season. Koch added 15 new players, but the team released center forward Tommy Heinemann on Wednesday because of a failed entry physical. He said FCC will add at least one more player before the season.
“I think we are going to be a very possession-based team, and that’s exciting,” Koch said. “You can see already in training everything we do is possession based, but we’ve got some very good technical players. I think the quality of the group is significantly better than it was last year.”
3. Who says ‘no’ now?
FCC lost all three of its goalkeepers, including two-year starter Mitch Hildebrandt, who signed with MLS side Atlanta United to back up U.S. national team goalie Brad Guzan. Fans will have to come up with a new slogan besides “Mitch says no!” for whichever keeper wins the job this year.
Koch brought in three new goalies and expects a battle among them for the starting job. For now, it appears Spencer Richey, who is on loan from the Vancouver Whitecaps, is the leading candidate, but former Sacramento Republic starter Evan Newton also could make a strong push for the job and Koch said former Whitecaps 2 backup Mark Village is a late bloomer who will compete for playing time as well.
“All three keepers are great guys and great keepers, and it’s great to see them under Jack (Stern’s) tutelage and see how they are developing and how they are forming their goalkeeper unit, and we’re excited to see how they do in these games,” Koch said.
4. New scoring threats
Leading scorer Djiby Fall did not return, and Heinemann was expected to start as the team’s new “No. 9,” which is the biggest scoring threat at center forward. So where will the goals come from this year? The club hopes to find out in these exhibitions.
Danni Konig, acquired from Oklahoma City midseason, scored 11 goals in 16 starts with FCC last year and remains an option. Koch also mentioned newcomer Emmanuel Ledesma, who played forward for the North American Soccer League’s New York Cosmos last year, and Emery Welshman as other players who could fill the No. 9 role.
“We’re certainly not pushing any panic buttons,” Koch said. “We put together a squad, so if we have to move players a little bit, that’s part of what we have to do in this phase.”
5. Exciting competition
FCC opens against the Revolution, then plays four USL opponents before the regular season begins, including the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Feb. 10 at IMG Academy in Bradenton. Koch said the team will pick up a third game in Florida that is not yet on the schedule.
Once the club returns, it plays at USL newcomer Indy XI on Feb. 22 and at home against two of Cincinnati’s other three MLS expansion finalist foes: Nashville SC on March 3 and Sacramento Republic on March 10. Those last two games will be especially interesting to fans, as Nashville won the first of the two expansion bids to be dealt out before the start of this MLS season and Sacramento is the biggest competitor for the second spot.
“We’re excited … just to go play some games and give these guys a chance to show what they can do,” Koch said. “We’re not hiding anything. In the three games we play down there, the goal is to get every player 45 minutes in every game and that gives them a chance to showcase what they can do and it gives us a chance to see how they do, and really we’re going to start to build how we want to play.”
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