The latest in a line of failed professional teams trying to represent your city. But this one felt different. A team that proudly claims Cincinnati as its home and continues to partner with local soccer academies, building fustal infrastructure in the inner city, and provides an amazing on field product that makes you proud to be a fan. The signing of local product Austin Berry showed you this was a team that wanted to win, and to represent the Queen City.

Finally, a professional club for the Queen City.

And now they play each other. Wednesday June 14th is a game between two soccer teams, but it is also a clash of fandom for a soccer loving portion of the city. There are plenty of Crew SC fans here in Cincinnati. So what to do? Do you stick with the team you rooted for as kid, albeit by default? Or do you pull for the team that represents your city? This is not very common. Columbus and Cincinnati are cities that do not clash all of that often, in fact I don’t believe they have ever had professional teams in the same competition ever in their history. This is especially rare for sports fans in Cincinnati.

But it’s not like it has never happened.

The Bengals have only been around since 1967, new kids on the block in the AFL. For NFL fans here in Cincinnati, this presented a crisis. Many of them were already fans of a team dressed in black and yellow, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Having been the closest team for years, and not wanting to cheer for a team from Cleveland, they found themselves Steelers fans. And then some upstart team in orange showed up in their city, playing in Nippert stadium. This marked the end of their Steelers fandom. When you have a chance to cheer on your hometown team, you take it. Sure, you may have fond memories of the road trip to another city while dressed in black and yellow, but now you have a team all your own. A team that represents you and your community, up against other cities, trying to win championships and defend their home in front of a roaring crowd of support. You can’t blame people for abandoning their adopted teams in favor of that hometown pride.

So whose song will you sing?