Daniel Karell

Louisville Courier Journal

Oscar Jimenez hasn’t been with Louisville City FC long but he already understands the gravity of facing FC Cincinnati.

Louisville City is set to host its rival on Saturday at Louisville Slugger Field for the first time this year after a pair of road games at Nippert Stadium. The first was a controversial 1-1 draw last April in which Djiby Fall bit Louisville City midfielder Niall McCabe and served a six-match suspension, and the second trip to Cincinnati was a 1-0 loss at the end of May, knocking Louisville City out of the U.S. Open Cup.

Now with Louisville City hosting, Jimenez said the challenge is getting up for a “battle” without letting the emotions of the rivalry take over.

“This is my first year here but (we) have history against them,” Jimenez said. “The last two games we’ve played them were both fights, just battles. Things happen on the pitch and to try to not remember those things and just go on to the game like a normal game is difficult, but it’s something we really need to focus on not doing so we can play well.”

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Since the last game against FC Cincinnati, a switch flipped for Louisville City in the scoring department. In March, April and May, the team combined to score just eight goals in eight games. Since then, Louisville City has scored 14 goals in seven games while on a 4-1-2 run.

In the same span, FC Cincinnati, which has advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup with wins over the Columbus Crew and Chicago Fire, has eight goals in seven games with a 2-2-3 record in that span.

But like with many rivalry games, recent form can be thrown out the window. Louisville City coach James O’Connor said, even with all the bad blood between the two teams, it is crucial to get off to a good start in the match.

“It’s very important,” O’Connor said. “You want guys to get a good foothold, to be able to get a little confidence in the game and to get going.”

O’Connor joked that these rivalry games are what gives him the itch to get back on the field as a player, and Jimenez and Ilija Ilic said they would draw on their experience in other rivalries.

“The rivalry back home is crazy, really intense,” Ilic said, referring to his former club Red Star Belgrade’s rivalry with crosstown club Partizan, considered one of the most passionate and intense rivalries in Europe. “Every time you play, you try to take emotion out of it but everything around the game is so pumped. Everybody is talking about it. You get affected on the field, so the way you respond to that, you either play better or you sink. We’ll try to play better against Cincinnati.”

In addition to playing for pride, the game has playoff implications. With both teams around the halfway point of the season, Louisville City sits in second place in the Eastern Conference with 29 points through 15 games while FC Cincinnati is in sixth place with 24 points from 18 games, two points above the red line to make the playoffs.

But because Louisville City has three games in hand on FC Cincinnati, a win for Louisville City would put more distance between the two clubs.

UP NEXT

FC Cincinnati at Louisville City FC

Saturday, July 15, 7:30 p.m.

TV: WBNA-21; Radio: WHAS-840