You've probably heard about FC Cincinnati's meteoric rise from USL newcomers to 2019 MLS expansion debutants, but many observers outside of southern Ohio may not be as familiar with head coach Alan Koch just yet.
On Friday the Cincinnati Enquirerpublished an in-depth profile of the driven South African charged with leading FCC into their MLS era, and it's a worthy read for both Cincy fans and those of the teams they'll face in their inaugural MLS campaign next year.
In his second year in charge, the former Vancouver Whitecaps assistant coach has led FCC to the best regular-season performance, far and away, in USL this season, and is currently leading the Orange and Blue towards another trophy in the USL Cup Playoffs.
Meanwhile, he and his staff are already well into the intense process of building their first MLS roster, a particular challenge given the club's historically short runway from second division to top flight.
"We’re building a team from scratch and every other team isn’t building a team from scratch. When you come into the league, you don’t have any assets at your disposal, so you have to go spend money to get those assets," Koch told the Enquirer's Patrick Brennan.
"We’re doing this on a very fiscally sound, responsible budget moving into MLS. It might not be what people expect it to be and it's going to be a major challenge to get the players that we need to get, but we’re used to being fiscally responsible and squeezing everything we can out of every single player. We have to get it right with every single player because we hope to build something special, but it's going to take time."
