ORLANDO – One of the great chapters in FC Cincinnati history will always be its rivalry with Louisville City FC from when the teams were two of the biggest and best clubs in the United Soccer League.

FC Cincinnati's moved on from the USL to Major League Soccer, but that chapter isn't closed or finished yet.

Some people – including former Louisville City FC head coach and current Orlando City SC manager James O'Connor – are doing their absolute best to keep the memory of the rivalry from fading.

O'Connor used his first match against FC Cincinnati in MLS – Orlando trounced Cincinnati, 5-1 – to twist the knife yet again on his old nemesis.

"On a personal level, it's exceptionally nice for that to happen against Cincinnati because there's big rivalry between Louisville and Cincinnati," O'Connor said of Orlando's 5-1 victory. "For (Louisville City Chairman) John Neese and (Louisville City President) Brad Estes and all the Louisville fans, they'll be looking at that and be very pleased, as well. So, nice for that to happen against FC Cincinnati."

It's not surprising that O'Connor stoked the flames of the old second-division rivalry. The distaste the two clubs had for each other was real. It ran deep and all the way to the front-office level at one point.

The major flashpoints in the running feud included FC Cincinnati player Djiby Fall being accused of biting a Louisville player and O'Connor refusing to shake hands with now-former FC Cincinnati head coach Alan Koch's hand during post-game antics.

The thing that made the Dirty River Derby great was that the clubs would simultaneously best each other in important and painful ways.

FC Cincinnati overshadowed Louisville City off the field in terms of attendance figures and its push for Major League Soccer. Cincinnati was the bigger-money, glamour club.

But Louisville won (a lot) and that drove FC Cincinnati crazy. Louisville usually won the head-to-head meetings, as well as the trophies. Louisville retained the rivalry-series trophy awarded to the winner of the season series in 2017 and 2018 after Cincinnati won it in 2016.

Louisville also won USL Cup in 2017 under O'Connor and again in 2018 with a team O'Connor had departed for the Orlando job but still constructed.

FC Cincinnati typically flatlined in the postseason via first-round exits or underachieved as they did in 2018.

Nowadays, that rivalry seems to be in its dying embers.

FC Cincinnati has a player (goalkeeper Ben Lundt) on loan with Louisville. There are no scheduled matches of any kind on the books currently, and the only way they would meet again would most likely be in the U.S. Open Cup.

Additionally, most of the major players, coaches, and agitators (Djiby) from the derby have all moved on.

Clearly, and somewhat refreshingly, some of the former derby combatants aren't letting go of the Dirty River Derby.