Arturo Alvarez has been around long enough to understand the challenge awaiting the Chicago Fire Wednesday night (7 p.m. CT, ESPN/ESPN Deportes) at FC Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium.
“First thing I can tell you is that it’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be tough like the Saint Louis game was tough,” Alvarez said. “We're going to have to expect that [FC Cincinnati] is playing with more confidence, and we have to match their intensity and make sure that we work hard.”
FC Cincinnati set a U.S. Open Cup record for a non-final match by drawing 30,160 fans to Nippert Stadium for their fourth-round victory against Columbus Crew SC on June 14, and another large crowd is expected for a nationally televised Round of 16 clash with MLS' second-place team.
Fire rookie Daniel Johnson knows well the environment his club is headed into, having attended several matches while attending the University of Louisville, about 100 miles down I-71 from the Queen City.
“Obviously they’ve got an absolutely great atmosphere, and a great fan base, and just a great club down there in Cincinnati," he said. “We know what the test is going to be, we’ve watched their game against Columbus and the way they beat another MLS team. We’re going to go in and respect these guys and treat it like any other game that comes up. The Open Cup is a competition that we want to win, but we know it will be a test especially away from home, so we’re looking forward to it.”
Johnson made his first competitive start for the Fire in the Fourth Round win at Saint Louis FC, registering a solid 57-minute shift and using the game as an opportunity to develop and test his playing skills in bulk. Looking to solidify his role with the Fire, Johnson will be ready to build on his past performance should he be called upon again in Cincinnati.
“I was pleased with the minutes and the fitness that it provided, and it was obviously a good team performance," he said of the win in St. Louis, "but I want to go out and build on that and put out some better performances. I was, in the final third, a little bit not tuned up just because it’s been awhile without significant minutes, so I just want to keep building on that and get sharper and sharper.”
During his rookie campaign, Johnson has been able to learn as much as he can from his coaching staff and veteran players about the system of play and how it suits his playing style.
“We want to keep the ball, we want to spread the field, and be creative in the final third," he said. "I feel like I fit almost perfectly into that game being able to create things and play in the final third, it's just now building some other things into my game like the build-up and knowing when to keep it simple and when to push forward into the final third. I think I’m learning more and more. It’s now been five months and I've got some great role models to learn from, so it's been a really good learning experience so far.”
For Alvarez, the prospect of facing a motivated FC Cincinnati side eager to make its mark on the U.S. Open Cup is an exciting angle to the next step in Chicago's quest to claim another trophy.
“Every time whether it's a preseason game or official game or friendly or anything, you know [lower-division] teams whenever they play MLS teams, they always want to do well, they want to show that they can compete, which they can they have shown in the past," Alvarez said. "Obviously the Open Cup is a great platform for them to do that. We just have to make sure that we don’t take them lightly in any way and we have to take it to them. We have to be thinking about making it to the final. The Fire has always been a club that's taken the Open Cup very seriously and we're doing the same thing."
Story by Jenny Haskel
