The officials at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport were careful in their efforts to manage the expectations, and behavior, of the crowd.
Dozens of FC Cincinnati supporters had congregated at the facility in the wee hours of last Sunday morning, eager to welcome their team back from Canada, where the Orange & Blue had just clinched the 2023 Supporters’ Shield with a 3-2 win over Toronto FC.
“The security folks are like, it's been a long day. Some of these guys have been drinking. It's an emotional moment. They're tired. They played a game, they flew home,” recalled Zach Blandford, a member and officer of The Pride supporters’ group. “Stay over at the side, cheer, welcome them, but let them drive what engagement looks like. Don't run over to them, don't do anything crazy, let them come to you. They may want to go with their families.”
Then center back and Cincy native Nick Hagglund appeared, and sparked pandemonium.
“So the buses pull up, they park. And Nick Hagglund comes flying off the bus and swan-dives into the crowd immediately,” continued Blandford. “And then the party was just on. It was just this moment of like, the hometown guy who had been here from day one, with all these fans who had been here since day one and never left, all getting this moment together. And it was just really, really special.
“We're crowd-surfing Lucho \[Acosta\] in a parking lot, and hoping that everybody is sober enough to not drop our MVP on the ground,” he added with a laugh. “It was just really cool. It's really special, and it's something that I will never forget.”
The feeling was mutual.
“I got off the bus and I just saw them and you know, after years of what we've been through together, it just felt like, man, I'm so glad I get to celebrate with you guys,” Hagglund told MLSsoccer.com this week.
Zero to hero
Hagglund epitomizes FCC’s come-up as well as anyone: The veteran defender arrived from Toronto FC ahead of Cincy’s 2019 MLS debut via a trade for upwards of $300,000 in allocation money, a deal plenty of pundits considered an overpay. It was one of many roster moves that drew keen scrutiny, in some cases outright mockery, as the Knifey Lions struggled mightily in the top flight after three ascendant years in the USL, finishing dead last in the overall MLS table from 2019-21.
“Even when we weren't winning any games and we were Wooden Spoon and it was the last game of the year, people were still there, they were still cheering, they were still loud, they were still excited, they supported us through the darkest times. So to be able to give them that Supporters’ Shield for them to be proud of and happy about meant the world to the club, to the players – especially me, being through it all,” said Hagglund, a member of the TFC side that won a historic treble in 2017.
For others disembarking from that plane, the euphoria was accompanied by an even deeper set of feelings and reunions.
“All our families surprised us as well, so that was pretty emotional and super cool,” said general manager Chris Albright. “For me, I'm a Northeast guy that moved my family to the Midwest with high school-aged kids. So there's a lot of sacrifice my family's been through and so it's sort of legitimized all that.
“Being able to achieve this, and for the fans, I always say this: I'm a long-suffering Philly fan – Eagles fan, Phillies fan. I get fandom, I get why it's awesome, why it's insane, why it's heart-wrenching. So that's the coolest part.”
Peaks & valleys
Many Shield-winning teams play it cool when they secure the regular-season title, taking care to emphasize their intent to kick on and win MLS Cup presented by Audi – the trophy that earns you a star over your crest – in the postseason.
After so much suffering in those first three years, though, not to mention the startling speed with which they’ve turned things around under the guidance of Albright, head coach Pat Noonan and their technical staff since their late 2021/early 2022 arrival, Cincy did not hesitate to bust loose.
“I won the Shield in Toronto,” Hagglund said, “and I thought being in MLS Cup and making playoffs and all that was kind of normal. And I went to Cincinnati for three years and realized that it's not normal to win all the time. And so for me, it felt like this is an awesome moment and you never know when you're going to get these kinds of moments when you have all these players together, and you achieve something like this. It's worth it to celebrate that moment, as long as you can put your head back together and remember you still got a job to do.”
FCC co-CEO Jeff Berding’s time at the club runs even longer than Hagglund’s, dating back to its founding in 2015. Watching the players and supporters merge their celebrations at the airport gave him a moment of reflection on that journey.
“We've stayed true to the values that I first wrote down when I was writing the business plan,” Berding told MLSsoccer.com. “Yeah, winning got away from us. But we continued to pour everything we could into being a family-friendly, inclusive club, and a franchise that's really committed to making this Cincinnati region better.
“Frankly, that's probably what led to some grace when we made the quick move in and we weren't ready. And yet our fans stayed by us, because I think they understood from our USL days that Carl [owner Carl Lindner III] and I were going to do what it took to get back to the winning.”
Berding is quick to point out the organization’s meteoric rise, fueled by unexpectedly huge crowds at Nippert Stadium and a Cinderella run to the 2017 US Open Cup semifinals, in essence set them up for the brutally sobering introduction to the rigors of MLS. Despite investing substantially in both physical infrastructure and player acquisitions, they would churn through three head coaches and two interim bosses, and dozens of players, in those first three seasons.
“We had what I assure you will never happen again, which is the shortest term from an expansion award to playing our first game – 277 days,” Berding noted. “It just wasn't enough time, and we made plenty of mistakes. Of course, we also had to survive the pandemic and at the time during the pandemic, build the best soccer stadium in the league.
“We weren't afforded three years on the sidelines to watch and learn. We had to watch and learn while getting beat.”
All that losing, and turnover, inevitably took its toll, even on the true believers. When Blandford bought a new FCC jersey last year, he was so hard-bitten about the state of the team that he decided to customize it with the name and number of US women’s national team star and Cincy native Rose Lavelle on the back, rather than anyone on the current roster.
“At the time I was like, I don't know if these players are going to be here,” he recalled with a chuckle. “I don't know if any of them are good.”
Cincy bonds
The club’s founders had always hoped to craft such a profound relationship with the hardcores. Berding calls it “fitting” that Cincy’s first trophy is the Shield, an honor conceived, managed and awarded by and among fans.
“The birth of FC Cincinnati, one of our key ingredients, if you will, was the creation of The Bailey [FCC’s supporters section]. Carl and I went to the bars where people were watching weekend EPL and Bundesliga soccer and invited them to create what has become The Bailey,” said Berding.
“That was our secret sauce. You go to a Reds or Bengals game, or Xavier [University] or UC [University of Cincinnati] basketball or football, there's no such thing as The Bailey. It was a spectacle. You didn't have to be a big soccer fan to want to come to an FC Cincinnati match and just be blown away by the energy that our supporter groups have.”
Max Ellerbe is vice president of The Pride, a lifelong Cincinnatian known for his drumming during home matches at TQL Stadium. He believes FCC have connected and intertwined with a fundamental element of civic identity in a heartland metropolis with less turnover than many other MLS cities.
“Soccer is really just a different sport, it really lets you unapologetically celebrate your city,” said Ellerbe. “This is such a tribal and parochial town; people are born and raised and die here. There's just something about Cincinnati.
“If you're born here, if you've lived here, you get it. You just understand why people want to live and stay here. We've been through so many terrible years [with FCC], but the fans just kept coming back. Our short history feels like it's so much longer because we've had so many different eras.”
Celebration time
The delirious festivities that started in the BMO Field visiting locker rooms, continued on the plane ride home and spilled onto the CVG tarmac resumed with barely a blip on Wednesday night at TQL, when FCC and their fans got to celebrate together more formally at their home match vs. the New York Red Bulls.
Even an upset 2-1 loss to the playoff-chasing Red Bulls could not truly put a damper on the outpouring of joy. It was, after all, only Cincy’s second league loss of the season at TQL, where the Knifey Lions are 19W-7L-7D in MLS play under Noonan, whose up-tempo, pressing-centric system has made his side both effective and entertaining, particularly with the effervescent skill and incision of Acosta at its heart.
“This team wins and it's a lot of fun to watch,” said Matt Broo, president of The Pride. “Every time you go to the game, Lucho Acosta does five things I've never seen on the soccer field before. Aaron Boupendza, you get a goal out of him, you're going to get a backflip out of him. There's joy with this team. I think that's part of the reason why the city loves this team so much. … When you pay money to watch FC Cincinnati, you get every dollar’s worth of your entertainment value."
Supporters say Noonan’s intensity and commitment have inspired not only the squad, with both new signings and holdovers performing at high levels, but those watching, drumming and singing in The Bailey as well. The coach set the tone in a memorable meeting with supporters’ groups early in his first season in charge.
“Right after that first game against Austin [a 5-0 road loss in Noonan’s first match in charge], where we got smacked and it felt like it was going to be more of the same,” revealed Blandford, “He basically came in and was like, ‘I f--king hate losing. We're not going to do much more of that. This is different. Believe it's different. This is not going to be the norm. We are going to reset your expectations.’”
Noonan’s words resonated. The Orange & Blue made the playoffs for the first time in 2022, beat RBNY in their opener and pushed eventual East champions Philadelphia – where Albright and Noonan worked together for years with Jim Curtin & Co. before moving west – to the limit in a ferocious Conference Semifinal clash.
Still, the scope of this year’s dominance was unexpected, even for its architects. Albright admits he fretted over the winter about whether “we could potentially take a little step back” amid rising spending across the league. Even after an excellent spring, it wasn’t until July 12, when a heavily-rotated FCC lineup, playing without Noonan as he attended his father’s funeral services, secured a 2-1 road win over RBNY that he began to believe something big was brewing.
“Pat had just lost his father, Dom respected assistant Dominic Kinnear\] coached the game,” he said, “And we went in there and beat them on a late goal by Obi \[[Obinna Nwobodo]. I think at that point, you're kind of looking around and going, ‘Holy s--t, man, these are the wins that propel you to something greater.’
“It said a lot about our group, the depth we've built, the belief to be able to go up against all those odds and win that game.”
Cup or Shield?
Whatever happens in the postseason, where Cincy will be widely favored to win more hardware, this Shield run will remain a watershed for the club and city, which hadn’t won a top-flight pro sports title since the Reds’ World Series win in 1990. Just as impressively, the gusto with which they’ve celebrated it might even have a meaningful influence on the wider discourse around the Shield and its place in MLS lore.
“It's a big achievement and maybe that conversation is different years back. But for me, it’s the consistency of a team over the course of a season,” Noonan told reporters on Monday. “For me now, even my own opinion of this has changed. I think [the Shield] has now surpassed MLS Cup in terms of relevance. That’s not to take away the desire for our team to hold the MLS Cup trophy. But for that group to be the top team over the course of the season, I think it’s very meaningful.”
Albright has now won the Shield twice as a player and twice as an executive, though he jokes in the past he’s had to be reminded of the former titles, since they were given much less weight in the league’s infancy. In recent days he’s gotten congratulatory messages from Curtin, LAFC co-president and GM John Thorrington and other counterparts that suggest Noonan’s views are more widely held than the general public might think.
“It's the hardest thing to win. And I don't think it's close,” said Albright. “Obviously it's why every other league in the world is settled this way. I think the Supporters’ Shield is being recognized by my colleagues, coaches, players, as that, as sort of the hardest thing to do. I think that sentiment’s lagging publicly but I think gaining momentum, and it's starting to find its rightful place.”
While that debate rumbles on, its current holders plan to make the most of every minute they have the Shield in their possession. Broo goes so far as to pledge that one of Cincy’s signature food items, their loaded local twist on the chili cheese hot dog, will soon be dished up on its flat surface.
“I've already gotten email requests asking hey, can you bring the Shield here? Can we get the Shield there? So it's going to be just sorting out who's got availability to make sure it can make the rounds and everybody can see it,” he said. “And because it'll make everybody else mad, I'm committed that we will be eating Skyline cheese Coneys off the Shield at some point during the course of the next calendar year.”
