Charlie Hatch

Enquirer contributor

Nothing has come easy for Futbol Club Cincinnati in 2017. Saturday night was no different.

Maintaining a 2-1 lead over Bethlehem Steel FC in the 90th minute, a lightning delay was issued. An hour later, still under a sky of lightning, another hour delay was issued.

When the game was finally called off at 10:46 p.m. — meaning the four minutes of stoppage time were abandoned — supporters who weathered the storm celebrated with the players who finally left the locker room. The wait was two minutes longer than the actual match.

“It’s kinda ridiculous, to be honest, to wait that long,” head coach Alan Koch said. “There’s obviously still lightning outside. I just saw some. But if that’s what we have to do finish off the job, we’ll wait that long.”

Supporters did, too.

Members of The Bailey continued to bang drums and sing throughout the delay, with club owner Carl Lindner III and Jeff Berding, the club president and general manager, eventually joining. Soon beer and brats were distributed, too.

But the waiting brought the end of another wait: FC Cincinnati’s first United Soccer League win in over a month. Ignoring Wednesday night’s win in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the team’s last win came April 15 — the first home match — when Djiby Fall put four past Saint Louis FC.

“I commend the group on how hard we worked,” goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt said. “That was probably our best defensive 90 minutes together as a team. The boys played really, really hard.”

Cincinnati opened the match at Nippert aggressively, openly challenging a Bethlehem backline that had already earned two clean sheets against the home side earlier this season.

When FC Cincinnati finally scored in the 17th minute off forward Danny König’s well-placed header, the crowd sounded both excited and relieved. The last go-ahead goal in league play was April 15.\

Conceding a penalty in the 32nd minute to Steel’s Seku Conneh, König put his new club ahead once more in the 53rd minute when he finished Cincinnati’s counter attack with a shot slotted into the left-hand side of the goal. He ran to The Bailey with arms stretched.

“It’s always nice to have a coach believe in you,” König said. “You want to replay him and he made the right decision. I’m not thinking about it during the game, but of course you want to pay back for the confidence.”

The Danish forward’s arrival has also brought a revival to his new club.

Saturday, his second start since his trade from OKC Energy FC for Andy Craven, König not only filled the roll suspended Djiby Fall usually provided, but looked like a serious contender for the starting spot once Djiby is available. Entering the match, the latter was tied for the league in scoring with six goals despite already missing four games.

Add midfielder Kenney Walker and left-back Justin Hoyte back into the mix this week — both had been injured and listed day-to-day — and Cincinnati has all the capable firing power to climb the league standings.

“Things happen and it’s a process,” Hildebrandt said. “The only thing that matters is the guys in the locker room and what we’re saying. We know that we have the most talent in this league.

“And we know we’re gonna keep pushing forward no matter what happens. And we’re gonna stick together no matter what happens. And we’re gonna be there right there come November no matter what happens.”

November would mean Cincinnati is playing for a league championship. But the confidence is important, and perhaps even more so based on the previous struggles earlier this season.

Already in third place this time last year, Koch and his squad are well aware of what fans initially expected based on last year’s success. Now with an unbeaten run to this point in May, it’s apparent the club believes better results are already showing.

“This has been tough, a lot of adversity,” Koch said. “We have high expectations for our group. Our community, our fans have high expectations for our group. We know it’s going to take time.

“In adverse moments, you find out a lot about yourself. You also find out a lot about the people around you, too. I’m very, very proud of our players tonight.”

Had FC Cincinnati been forced to play the four added minutes, Hildebrandt assured the media that players were prepared. They had already gone through more tactical analysis, stretches and even table tennis to stay loose.

But those minutes never came. Something more important did.

“Three points,” Koch said when he walked into the postgame press conference. “That’s it.”