CINCINNATI — Ohio’s fiercest soccer rivalry is back on Sunday evening, as the Columbus Crew travel down Interstate 71 to face FC Cincinnati at TQL Stadium in the latest edition of the Hell Is Real derby. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m., and the match streams exclusively on Apple TV, with no traditional television broadcast.
The two Ohio MLS clubs last met on July 25, when the Crew won 2-1 in Columbus — a match remembered as much for its finish as its result. In second-half stoppage time, Cincinnati midfielder Gerardo Valenzuela committed a yellow-card foul on Crew forward Taha Habroune, sparking a scuffle between both teams and earning Valenzuela a red card for violent conduct.
The fallout from that night followed both clubs for weeks. Valenzuela, already suspended one match for the red card, was suspended an additional match and fined, while three Crew players were fined for inciting or escalating the confrontation, and Cincinnati forward Ayoub Jabbari and assistant coach Kenny Arena were also fined.
On the table, there is little between the rivals. FC Cincinnati sits ninth in the Eastern Conference with 36 points, while the Crew are four points back in 13th place — close enough that a derby win on Sunday would tighten the race considerably and hand the winner bragging rights that, in this fixture, tend to outlast the standings.
The rivalry’s name comes from Ohio road-trip lore: the “Hell Is Real” billboard along I-71 near Chenoweth, about 30 miles southwest of Columbus, installed in 2004 by Kentucky developer Jimmy Harston. Fans from both cities connected over the sign ahead of a potential 2016 U.S. Open Cup meeting and coined the “Hell Is Real Cup” — a name that stuck even though that game never happened.
The first actual meeting came in June 2017, when FC Cincinnati, then a second-tier USL club, stunned the Crew 1-0 at Nippert Stadium on a Djiby Fall header in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup, before a crowd of 30,160. Cincinnati joined MLS in 2019, and the Crew hold a 10-5-6 edge in MLS meetings between the clubs since then.
Sunday’s match gives Cincinnati a chance to even the season series at home, in front of a TQL Stadium crowd that has made the derby one of the loudest dates on the MLS calendar. For the Crew, a second straight win over their rivals — on the road, in that atmosphere — would be a statement result. Either way, by the time the teams head back up and down I-71 on Sunday night, the sign on the highway will have the final word it always does.