Ben Goldschmidt

bgoldschmidt@enquirer.com

Could a city be any happier to lose?

Seriously, every single person who bought a ticket to that match (including myself) knew full well there was an approximate 0.001 percent chance of Futbol Club Cincinnati beating Crystal Palace. Yet we went, happily. We made a festival of it.

The game wasn't about winning or losing at all. It was about a city coming together to recognize its new pride. Its new winning team. That game is a potential symbol of the future of soccer here – that it might not be that long until this matchup isn't an automatic win for Crystal Palace's backups.

Nothing is final yet and there's a long way to go, but that could be the moment we all look back on and think, "then, that's when I knew we could have an MLS team."

I still can't bring myself to think on this topic for too terribly long. As one of my coworkers put it, "As long as you live, you'll never feel right about what happened."

He's a Cleveland fan. If anyone is in a position to know, it's him. So, here's Bengals beat writer Jim Owczarski's take on That Day:

It seems like an age ago but Jan. 9, 2016 was a day that few sports fans in this town will forget and was an ending to a sporting event I had never been witness to. The Cincinnati Bengals, even without starting quarterback Andy Dalton to finish the season, had turned in their best regular season since the Super Bowl campaign of 1988 and had won the AFC North. The rival Steelers came in as the wild card, and for 58 minutes and 24 seconds it looked as if the Bengals were about to win their first playoff game since 1990 thanks to an AJ McCarron to A.J. Green touchdown pass and a Vontaze Burfict interception that set the Bengals up at the Steelers’ 26. And then Jeremy Hill fumbled. Then, 74 seconds later, following Burfict’s hit to the head of Steelers’ wideout Antonio Brown, Adam Jones was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct when Steelers’ assistant coach Joey Porter wandered onto the field. The extra 30 yards allowed the Steelers to kick the go-ahead field goal on the next play with 18 seconds left in the game. Instead of heading to the AFC divisional round the Bengals lost 18-16, the organization’s fifth consecutive playoff loss. The impact of that game would be felt throughout the year, as the NFL said one Steelers’ touchdown shouldn’t have counted, multiple rules were changed because of it and Burfict began the 2016 season on the suspended list. It was an incredible game and result for so many reasons, and it’s one I know I’ll never forget either.

If there were any Reds fans still in denial about their team being on the onset of a rough rebuild stretch, this trade pretty much forced them into the next stage of grief.

Well, maybe not anger. Bargaining? No, that's what the Reds are trying to do.

Most of the fandom was rushed into acceptance right after Todd Frazier was traded to the White Sox, but deep down we all already knew. Some of us just weren't ready to admit it.

Call it a salary dump (as Doc did) or a necessary prospect grab (as the Reds did), it was a loss of a fan-favorite that Walt Jocketty called "extremely tough."

This one took a lot of us by surprise. Not just the outcome, but the hype. We knew Xavier was good. They had an incredible 2015-16 season and this was a huge reason why.

But I've never seen this city all but shut down for a Xavier game that wasn't against UC.

Honestly, any key injury could've made this list – A.J. Green vs. Bills, Gio Bernard vs. Bills, The Bengals vs. Bills, etc. – but given that the Pro Bowl's only winners are those who don't get hurt, this one stung a little more.

For players, the honor is in the invitation. Nobody loses sleep over that game, but Cincinnati sure found a way.

And it turned out to be the first step of many towards a disappointing, lost year.

In the final moments of UC's win against Marshall Thursday, the ball got stuck between the rim and the backboard. And because the possession arrow was was in UC's favor, Cincinnati got the chance it wouldn't miss to win.

"That's usually the (expletive) that happens against us," my friend texted me that night.

She's right. The Bearcats' 2015-16 season ended with the kind of expletive that seems to happen to Cincinnati teams. In the would've-been game-tying dunk, Octavius Ellis was fouled, coach Mick Cronin said at the time.

Not only that, but officials eventually ruled that the ball had not left Ellis' hands before the buzzer.

Cronin isn't shy to voice his displeasure, and what he said at the time pretty much nails it: