The Hell is Real Derby is exciting. But it lacks any real history and if FC Cincinnati doesn’t figure how to run a real sports team, it may not be much 0f a rivalry. The Trillium Cup was fun for a few years, but Toronto FC has Canadian teams to worry about. D.C. United is out-dated.
Over the majority of the first 25 years of Major League Soccer play, Columbus Crew SC’s true rival was the Chicago Fire. And while the rise of closer rivals and the long-term swoon of the Fire has turned what was a heated rivalry into dying embers, it doesn’t take much to re-ignite.