To help keep readers plugged into Cincinnati life even as we continue to physically distance from each other due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, CityBeat is highlighting a series of local podcasts and their creators every week. Read previous installments about "When Pigs Fly," "West End Stories," "Cincinnati Zoo Tails," "Cincy Brewcast," "Nature Vs. Narcissism", "Person of Interest" and "Looking Up."
FC Cincinnati soon will begin its 2021 season in the brand-new West End Stadium — uh, make that TQL Stadium — but the Cincinnati Soccer Talk podcast has been following the action since 2016, before Cincinnati even was considered a Major League Soccer team.
Hosted and produced by Nick Seuberling, the weekly podcast includes game coverage, off-season breaking news, player interviews and more.
“For me, soccer has always been the thing I'm most passionate about. Whether I'm playing it, whether I'm coaching it, or now even just talking about it, I absolutely love it,” Seuberling tells CityBeat.
Seuberling, a Cincinnati native, is a longtime sports fan, having played various sports in his youth and commentating on Bowling Green State University’s teams while a student there. He’s also a podcast veteran, beginning in 2005 after he watched a CNN special on the then-new audio media format. He’s had a series of sports podcasts, including Inside the Jungle about the Cincinnati Bengals.
“It was a lot of fun,” Seuberling recounts his five year experience of hosting Inside the Jungle. “But then, you know, it just felt like that storyline kept happening — they would win, get to the playoffs, lose in the first round. It just felt like a broken record.”
In 2015, FC Cincinnati began as part of the United Soccer League. It was just the news to re-inspire Seuberling.
“They announced that FC Cincinnati was going to be starting and I was like, ‘I'm gonna hop on board. I'm gonna jump on this and be the first FC Cincinnati podcast out there,’ and we were,” Seuberling says. “We started in February 2016, before the team had even played a game, and we've been podcasting ever since.”
In the five years that FC Cincinnati has been around, Seuberling has watched the team — as well as the fanfare around it — continue to grow, especially as it became an MLS expansion team in 2019.
Seuberling remembers the team's first home opener all those years ago.
“We were pretty excited about the home opener, and they had 14,000 fans, and we thought that was crazy because, again, soccer in Cincinnati hadn't done well in its previous versions," he says. "...14,000 people at a home opener on a freezing cold night was just so insane. And then, you know, the next time they had a home game, it was 29,000 (attendees) and it just kept growing and growing."
Seuberling attributes this growth in fandom to the general atmosphere of the games.
“I think what happened was people realized that the FC Cincinnati matches were the place to be," Seuberling says. "That's where you needed to be on a Saturday night or a Friday night or Sunday evening, like you needed to be at an FC Cincinnati match because it was such a party atmosphere. It was such a fun time to be at."
This month, FC Cincinnati celebrated the fifth anniversary of its first home match.
“And now here we are, five weeks from now, going to be playing in their own brand new stadium. I mean, just to think about that is incredible. Just the timeline — I don't know if there's been another soccer story like that. It's been absolutely crazy to cover,” Seuberling says.
Even though the COVID-19 pandemic canceled many live sporting events in 2020, Cincinnati Soccer Talk maintained weekly coverage, even between regular seasons. What once was a one-man podcast has become 22 people covering FC Cincinnati in blog posts and other podcasts.
“There's always something to talk about, right? So whether it be player movement, trades or signings, there's always something to talk about. What aspects of the team would you like to see improved? What aspects of the team maybe exceed expectations?” Seuberling asks.
In addition to game coverage, Seuberling interviews team players such as Joe Gyau, Frankie Amaya and more. Seuberling says he also invites FC Cincinnati supporter groups to talk about their charity work and other connections to the team.
Seuberling says the 2021 season has great potential with significant changes to the roster.
“The biggest thing is, I think, from a fan's perspective is you want to see improvement. We know the storyline that FC Cincinnati rushed into Major League Soccer. They really made it an emphasis to get into the league as soon as they possibly could, and then, by doing that, they sacrificed a lot of things on the roster that didn't go well the last couple of years," Seuberling says. "So I say, we — fans of the club and the media members covering the team — are pretty aware that this is still a rebuilding process and project. And so the biggest thing is we just want to see improvements.”
Cincinnati Soccer Talk can be accessed through its website, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.