I handed off the megaphone to someone else, the amount of people surging into the front of The Bailey was too much. Annoyed, I went to the top and decided to take in the game from up there. I wanted to enjoy the match, not fight for space. The rest of the stadium was filling up, even the upper deck on the east side. Not even a year before, there was no FCC, no Die Innenstadt. Yet, there it all was before me: 35,000 fans and many of them donning scarves emblazoned with our logo and the words: “Juncta Juvant,” the city’s motto, our motto. The club we rallied around, representing the city we love, was about to take on a squad from the top tier of international football.



The march from Mecklenburg had been the biggest yet. Standing at the corner of University and Vine, you could look down the hill and see a trail of people in orange and blue for the next several blocks. We marched and sang in unison, echoing throughout the concourse and towards the north end of the stadium. I don’t regret not taking a usual spot up front with a bullhorn in hand. For the first time this season, I was able to walk around and take in the atmosphere from all over the stadium, snapping photos of the huge crowd. It had been an incredible day. At noon, Mecklenburg Gardens was already packed as beers were toasted, a pig was roasted, buffet lines were jammed, and both Cincy and Palace fans alike sang in the crowded biergarten. It truly was a day to behold as a fan of sports, soccer, and Cincinnati.



It’s been said that this organization is ambitious, and the club made that clear in a statement of their MLS pursuit on day one. But scheduling a friendly against a Premier League side had been a huge step that turned some heads. On their summer tour, Crystal Palace would be taking on the Philadelphia Union and Vancouver Whitecaps of top tier MLS, as well as us down in American soccer’s “third division.”



Up front when the match began, I was annoyed at the amount of people trying to force their way into the front and center. I get it, The Bailey is a fun area, but when you’re being nearly trampled by so many people, many of whom you’ve never seen at a match before, your patience goes away quickly. Even in the presence of such a momentous occasion. In the end though, stepping away for this match proved to be the best thing (and I understand the excitement around The Bailey, this club, and that match). My girlfriend and I got to watch alongside my father and close friends. At the top of the section, people still sang, still chanted along. In the end I took it as just more people being exposed to what sets FC Cincinnati apart in the soccer landscape. In the warm sun as the evening wore on, that stadium’s energy never let up. In the second half, I came across my friend Evan standing by the Jimmy Nippert memorial, looking out at the packed house. I remember him saying to me back in November, in the early days of the franchise after a team meet and greet: “It’s going to be a fun summer.” Never would I have imagined that he and I would be standing there along with 35,000 others watching our club, not even a year old, take on an EPL side. The best memories of that day though, centered around celebrating what Die Innenstadt has become so far. I love FC Cincinnati, but I love our supporters group more.



I wanted to do something special to commemorate it, to maybe sum up how big of a day this was, how important it was to some. As a photographer and writer, I could’ve devoted the day to taking photos and writing an essay (but that would’ve gotten in the way of beer, chanting, and talking with friends). I decided to do a photo booth of sorts. Not the corny, use-our-custom-wedding-hashtag-on-instagram type of photo booth, moreso, portraits. And I wanted opinions, I wanted to know why people felt this match was important. So we strung up a small banner and a few of the flags, set up the camera in the biergarten and invited fellow Die Innenstadt members to pose and define the day in their own words.



I asked this question to each person:



“Why do you feel this match is so important to Cincinnati?”

