TQL Stadium is about six months old, and it might have already peaked and hosted the best-ever night its history.
Due to the shifting landscape of international soccer, we might never again see a soccer spectacle at the stadium as big as Friday's U.S. men's national team game against vaunted rival Mexico in FIFA World Cup qualifying.
At the outset of the July 28 press conference at TQL Stadium announcing the USMNT's quadrennial home match against Mexico in World Cup qualifying, FC Cincinnati Chief Executive Officer and Controlling Owner Carl Lindner III proudly declared: "We've done it."
And they had done it. The biggest match and the most intense rivalry in North American soccer, and therefore one of the prominent international fixtures in the world, would be staged at TQL Stadium, which was no small achievement.
Four months later, they executed the game to perfection. Friday's match was nothing short the spectacle you expect of USMNT-Mexico, complete with chippy on-field drama and a famous "Dos a Cero" victory that immediately took its place in USMNT lore.
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A World Cup qualifier against Mexico is as big as it gets for USMNT and its fans. There's another happening in March 2022, too, at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Bigger venue, pro-Mexican crowd, of course, and every bit as much passion and flair.
After that, though, the biggest match we know in North American soccer might cease to exist as we've come to understand and love it in its present context.
There won't be a qualifying cycle for the next World Cup for these decades old foes. The event is to be jointly hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada, and allows the three host countries to qualify automatically.
The 2026 World Cup is also the tournament that will see the field grow to 48 national teams from 32.
In enlarging the World Cup field going forward, it makes it less likely that regional heavyweights fail to qualify, as the U.S. did for the 2018 World Cup in Russia and as Mexico nearly did for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
And then there's still the possibility (albeit a fiercely debated one) of switching the FIFA World Cup from being staged once every four years to a biennial event. That could also upend that qualification process as we know it.
The USMNT-Mexico rivalry will remain. FC Cincinnati President Jeff Berding told The Enquirer on Wednesday he expected the rivalry to continue unabated, with future meaningful match-ups occurring in the Concacaf Gold Cup, which crowns this FIFA region's champion national team every two years.
The newly introduced Concacaf Nations League will exist, too. That competition, which saw the Americans meaningfully triumph in the championship match over Mexico in June, attempts to make a kind of league season out of international matches for the region.
But Friday's match still might have been the end of an era, and the best night TQL Stadium will ever know.
It's not that FC Cincinnati did anything wrong. The venue and the club that reside there aren't at fault, of course, but having tasted what its like to be the "it" stadium and America's "it" soccer destination for a week, Cincinnati simply might feel the effects of a lessened USMNT-Mexico rivalry more acutely.
To be sure, this isn't just a Cincinnati problem.
A lessened USMNT-Mexico rivalry on the men's side is a broad, pressing concern for both countries. It was discussed at length in the week leading up to the match, and American players and coaches – some of which weren't alive during the biggest moments in the rivalry's modern history – were regularly asked about it.
If it doesn't get bigger than USMNT-Mexico in World Cup qualifying, and the stakes and format of World Cup qualifying are set to be kinder to the giants of the global game, how can there ever be another USMNT-Mexico match like Friday's, and the one in March to come?
How can Cincinnati ever again know white-hot soccer feuding set against frigid temperatures and driving rain, with the American Midwest's winter looming, and 26,000 still packing the stands?
Asked Thursday about the future of the USMNT-Mexico rivalry, U.S. head coach Gregg Berhalter said, "it could potentially change."
"I think about the rivalry over the years and the impact of these games, what they've meant to our fans and Mexican fans and the rivalry and how the rivalry's grown, you know, it's been great," Berhalter said. "I've been asked 'is it gonna change? Will the rivalry change?' And I don't think it will.
"We may not be able to play qualifiers of this magnitude, World Cup qualifiers. But we'll see them down the road in a lot of meaningful games and the rivalry is always gonna be intense. You know, we're both fighting to be top of our region and when you have two teams like this going at each other, there's always gonna be heat."
This is not to say TQL Stadium doesn't have big games and events left in it.
The stadium's in its infancy, and by all accounts U.S. Soccer has thoroughly enjoyed the two events it helped stage there in 2021 (the U.S. women defeated Paraguay in a post-Olympics friendly in September).
In terms of the city at-large continuing to be a destination for major matches, TQL Stadium should be at the top of the list for future consideration regarding MLS All-Star games, friendlies, Gold Cup matches, and other events.
There's also Cincinnati's bid to host 2026 World Cup matches. The bid isn't to host the USMNT specifically and Paul Brown Stadium would be the host venue, but if the tournament comes to the city in 2026, you can bet that would be like nothing the region has ever experienced.
And then there's FC Cincinnati. The club fell on hard times upon entering Major League Soccer and has finished last in the league for three consecutive years. The club is a popular punching bag for national MLS pundits but the reality, as well as the custom in North American sports, is that all expansion projects eventually improve.
Better days will come eventually at club level in Cincinnati. MLS Cup playoff soccer at TQL Stadium would be a very enticing proposition given the club's rabid support.
Bringing an event like the USMNT's World Cup qualifier for Qatar 2022 to Cincinnati was always going to be special. Regardless of the outcome, it promised to be memorable and historic.
The game that resulted, combined with the scenes around the city for a week leading up to the match, surpassed expectations. History was made, and then some.
The stadium's reputation grew for the right reasons, and will continue to grow.
U.S. Soccer, be it the men's or women's national team, will surely return eventually.
We might not ever again see a night like Friday for as long as the stadium stands, and that's simply the reality of the impending sea change in the world's game.
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