When the regular season schedule was released, two notes took precedent. First, FC Cincinnati hosts the HELL IS REAL Derby on Aug. 10. The second was that the MLS newcomers played nine 2018 playoff teams in their first 10 matches.
No one really chatted about games 11-34, though.
Saturday night’s loss at San Jose Earthquakes was that 11th match. The result left the club in a rocky circumstance: a fifth-straight loss.
But after dozens of stories focusing on FC Cincinnati’s beginning, here’s a look at what comes next for the club during its “mid-season.”
Between now and June 6, when the Orange and Blue play at NYCFC, they have five matches. By the fulltime whistle of that game, Cincinnati will roughly be halfway through the season and have a brief league break until June 22.
This means it’s critical for FCC to rally, recover and reproduce their early-season success before a mid-way break to evaluate and begin the back-half of the season.
Here’s a look at the next five matches:
May 11: Montreal Impact
May 19: at Orlando City SC
May 25: New York Red Bulls
June 1: at the Colorado Rapids
June 6: at NYCFC
According to the current MLS standings, Saturday’s opponent is the toughest of the group.
Montreal is third in the Eastern Conference. After that, NYCFC are fifth, Orlando seventh, Red Bulls eighth and Colorado is 12th in the Western Conference.
FC Cincinnati are 11th in the East, which is second-lowest in the conference. But they’re also only four points away from a playoff position.
With 15 points to play for in the next month, the opportunity is there to end the scoring drought, losing streak and show they can be a serious playoff contender. Now, it’s about making sure those hypotheticals became reality.
