Alan Koch: The pressure is on Minnesota United, not FC Cincinnati in U.S. Open Cup match

Alan Koch said all the pressure is on the visitors ahead of Wednesday night's matchup with Major League Soccer club Minnesota United FC at Nippert Stadium in the fourth round of the 2018 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

After last season's improbable run to the tournament's semifinals, the FC Cincinnati head coach is applying pressure on an MLS side that on paper should advance to the fifth round. Of course, last season Cincinnati beat Columbus Crew SC in the fourth round, Chicago Fire SC in the fifth and then took New York Red Bulls to extra time in the semis after leading 2-0 entering the 75th minute.

"Let’s be honest, they're an MLS team that has an MLS roster," Koch said Monday after practice. "We’re going to MLS, but we’re still a USL team on a USL roster. They have one player who makes more than our entire roster all put together. All the pressure is on them Wednesday."

His reference to a singular player is Minnesota forward Darwin Quintero, who will make around $1.5 million this season, according to a March article on MLS' official site.

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When the United States Soccer Federation originally announced the fourth round matchup on May 24, Minnesota was scheduled to be home. Later that afternoon the match venue was switched to Cincinnati, meaning the club will host an MLS team at Nippert Stadium in this round for the second-consecutive year.

The changed location shouldn't be ignored.

Obviously FC Cincinnati will cherish playing at Nippert Stadium against a future MLS opponent in 2019, but it could be exploited given Minnesota's dismal road record.

MNUFC is 1-6 in its seven league road matches this season, with the lone win coming March 10. The club is ninth in the MLS Western Conference on 16 points from 14 games, but only has three on the road.

Having analyzed his upcoming opponents, Koch said FC Cincinnati's strategy will focus on Minnesota players but won't deviate away from the success his team has found so far this season. After last Saturday's 2-1 win at New York Red Bulls II, Cincinnati reclaimed first place in the United Soccer League Eastern Conference.

"You play against a team that supposedly has better players, players that you definitely have to be aware of what they have at their disposal," Koch said. "We’ve analyzed them in depth like every team we’ve played against, and they definitely have some big hitters. We have to be aware of how they play.

"But we also have confidence in our group. We’ve come and put together a very good start to the season, we should feel good about how we’ve been playing and how we’re doing. So we’ll definitely be aware of them, but we’re also focus on some of the things that we’re very, very good at, too."

Perhaps the guarantee FC Cincinnati will play future MLS opponents with regularity will lower pressure ahead of the U.S. Open Cup match. To get to this point, Cincinnati had to beat fourth-tier Detroit City FC 4-1 in extra-time, then Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC 3-1 against a Hounds team that hadn't conceded at home to that point in the season.

Those were the prerequisites for Wednesday. In at least one of those matches, Cincinnati was the clear favorite. Against Minnesota at Nippert, the club will regain its "under dog" status it thrived with in 2017.

"We embraced that under dog role last year with a lot of success and we’ll gladly embrace it again," Koch said May 30. "Minnesota are a far bigger club than us right now. Their payroll is through the roof in comparison, so they should be coming here and coming to beat us.

"But we proved last year we’re not scared of anybody. We’ll embrace that challenge and give it our best shot. We did it last year, so why not do it again?"