FC Cincinnati's reserve team will play in 2022 after all.
There was some doubt about whether FC Cincinnati would get its "2" team off the ground this year for the debut season of MLS Next Pro, Major League Soccer's competition that bridges the gap between its academies and the big league.
On Tuesday, FC Cincinnati confirmed its participation.
"FC Cincinnati 2" will play a 24-game schedule, which could be followed with a berth in the eight-team playoffs. One-time FC Cincinnati interim head coach Tyrone Marshall of Jamaica and newly-hired goalkeeping coach Ryan Coulter of Ireland will lead the team.
FC Cincinnati was included in the initial MLS Next Pro news release this past offseason as a club that would launch its "2" team in 2022.
But with some MLS clubs launching "2" teams in 2022 and others waiting until 2023, FCC officials said the team considered waiting until next year in order to focus on the development of its first team.
Ultimately, with some infrastructure including Marshall already in place, the club determined joining the league for 2022 was feasible.
The FC Cincinnati 2 roster is expected to be confirmed in the coming days. At least part of the team trained Tuesday on the Mercy Health Training Center's turf field, which was adjacent to the first-team practice.
The MLS Next Pro schedule also should be confirmed soon, with the announcement of the team's home venue forthcoming.
Twenty-one teams will participate in MLS Next Pro's inaugural season this year, with at least nine clubs scheduled to launch in 2023.
Some of the clubs launching in 2023 are original MLS teams, like D.C. United.
MLS Next Pro's goal is to create an accelerated, smooth pathway for younger players to emerge from club academies to the highest levels of the game in North America.
Each club’s active roster will be comprised of up to 35 players, including 24 professional players and up to 11 amateur players, all of whom are eligible for selection on game days, MLS officials said in a news release.
Each club will begin with seven international roster spots, an asset that may be traded between teams.
FC Cincinnati's academy launched midway through 2019 and now fields teams in the Under-13, Under-14, Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19 age groups.
The academy has so far produced two professional players. Goalkeeper Beckham Sunderland graduated out of the academy to his first pro deal in 2020, and Quimi Ordonez signed professionally in July.
In the MLS Next Pro setup, players like Sunderland and Ordonez, along with their amateur academy peers, would have an intermediary platform to further their development rather than being forced into the competition for minutes with more-experienced players.
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