FC Cincinnati to play USL newcomers Indy Eleven on Saturday

For Futbol Club Cincinnati, Saturday night's match against United Soccer League newcomers Indy Eleven could offer a unique situation in terms of scouting and preparation.

It's a role FC Cincinnati should know well. Just two years ago, the club was playing its first competitive matches. For opponents, that meant trying to scout a team with no previous history.

Now, it could be Cincinnati trying to scout against its next opponent.

Indy joined the USL earlier this year after playing in the North American Soccer League. With the swap into a new league, the club transformed into one packed with former Major League Soccer-experienced players, who should compete atop the Eastern Conference standings along with FC Cincinnati.

But with only one game of USL history to sift through, how is Cincinnati head coach Alan Koch scouting his upcoming opponents?

"Obviously it’s not their coach's first rodeo," Koch said Tuesday about Indy head coach Martin Rennie. "You know how he may do things and his assistant coach was with San Francisco (Deltas) last year, so we explore everything. But it is a sort of guessing game at this stage considering they’ve played one game and we’ve played one game too."

Of course, the teams met last month in Indianapolis, where Cincinnati won 2-1, but Koch said his opponents had only been training for 10 days and any footage from that match would be all-but useless.

So what could happen is a match between two teams who focus more on themselves and countering what the other is offering. If so, that could lead to an open, entertaining match between two of the league's better teams.

For FC Cincinnati, the club will look to build off its 1-0 win two weeks ago against the Charleston Battery. Since then, the team earned a 4-2 win over the Columbus Crew SC reserves this past weekend in a closed scrimmage.

As for the Eleven, the team will play its first USL home match and is expecting a crowd to surpass 15,000 fans. The club's record is 11,000 from its inaugural match in NASL. Last weekend, they beat the Richmond Kickers 1-0.

"They’re a big time team," Koch said. "Big time players. They’ve come into the league and they’ve made a statement by signing all the players that they have. They’ve gone on the road in the first game and got themselves three points.

"They’ll be right at the top at the end of the season. They’ve made that known and gone and signed numerous MLS players. So they’re going to be a big-time team with big-time expectations."