Everything you need to know about the FC Cincinnati-Columbus Crew MLS Cup conference final

Next up for FC Cincinnati: The ultimate "Hell is Real" showdown with arch-rival Columbus Crew.

Every "Hell is Real" encounter between the clubs is a standalone chapter in the colorful, growing rivalry between FC Cincinnati and Columbus Crew, but the stakes literally can't get higher for the clubs than Saturday when they meet at TQL Stadium for the MLS Cup Eastern Conference championship.

More: What to know about FC Cincinnati's controversial playoff win, 'Hell is Real' east final

More: FC Cincinnati scores late to down Philadelphia Union, advance to MLS Cup east final

For this chapter of "Hell is Real," bragging rights don't begin to explain what's at stake for soccer fans in Cincinnati and Columbus. This victory will be one for the winning fan base to hold over the other's generations of fans to come.

By next weekend, only four teams will be left standing in the Major League Soccer postseason and all of them will be playing for a spot in the Dec. 9 MLS Cup final. (The Western Conference semifinals were played Sunday night).

The winner of the Cincinnati-Columbus match will host MLS Cup, the league's postseason championship game, against the Western Conference champion.

This is a game with a piece of silverware on the line − a "hat and t-shirt" game, as some in sports like to say about championship-round contests where celebratory garb is passed out to players afterward.

It simply can't get bigger than this for "Hell is Real." Here's more on what's sure to be an unforgettable moment in the rivalry's history.

The game

Scheduled kickoff: 6 p.m.

Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Forecast: Cloudy. Daytime high temperature near 50F, about 45F around kickoff and an overnight low of 38F.

Ticketing

Season ticket members who opted in for all postseason games will sit in the same seats they had on Saturday, per FC Cincinnati officials.

The presale for other season ticket members and members of the Orange and Blue Reserve will have a presale opportunity to buy tickets Monday at 10 a.m. The public on-sale for tickets starts at 1 p.m.

The Crew, which always travels well to Cincinnati (and visa versa) will be allocated 200 seats for the game.

If you aren't part of the aforementioned groups or strike out attempting to buy direct from FC Cincinnati, there's always the secondary market. On SeatGeek, FC Cincinnati's ticketing partner, most seats are going for around $200 while the going rate for spots in The Bailey supporters' section, which is a safe-standing section, is a little over $150.

How the teams got here

For FC Cincinnati, defense and goalkeeping has been the story of the postseason even though the club has been marred by injuries and suspension. Through three games, and with head coach Pat Noonan fielding three different combinations of players on his back line, Cincinnati's allowed just one goal − an 2023 MLS-best this postseason.

In net, Roman Celentano has 11 saves, two shutouts, and a game-winning penalty-kick save.

FC Cincinnati shut out the Philadelphia Union on Saturday in an Eastern Conference semifinal match. Yerson Mosquera scored the late and controversial game-winner in the 94th minute, leaving Philadelphia with just seconds to try to find an equalizer before the final whistle.

Columbus Crew Arace: Underdog Crew pull a Christian Ramirez out of their hat, survive and advance

FC Cincinnati swept the best-of-three first round series against New York Red Bulls, winning 3-0 at TQL Stadium on Oct. 29 before securing the sweep in penalty kicks on Nov. 4 after playing to a 1-1 draw over 90-plus minutes.

Alvaro Barreal is FCC's leading scorer this postseason with two goals. Both were scored in the playoff opener against the Red Bulls.

Columbus has a little more wear-and-tear this postseason, having played more games and experiencing a shorter layoff between the first round and conference semifinal (13 days).

The third-seeded Crew needed three matches to eliminate sixth-seeded Atlanta United in the first round. The scores of the matches were as follows: A 2-0 win Nov. 1, a 4-2 loss at Atlanta on Nov. 7 and a series-clinching 4-2 win on Nov. 12, the final day of first-round matches.

The Crew were, perhaps, more impressive in their semifinal on the road at second-seeded Orlando City SC where they won, 2-0, at Exploria Stadium. The clubs played to a scoreless draw over 90-plus minutes and needed extra-time to settle the match.

Christian Ramirez scored in the 93rd minute and Cucho Hernandez added an insurance tally in the 118th minute, marking his fourth goal of this postseason.

'Hell is Real' history

As many FC Cincinnati fans know, their club fired the opening shots in the "Hell is Real" rivalry with an upset win in the 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at the University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium. Since then, Columbus has taken a comfortable 6-3-4 record in the all-time series.

The famous FCC victory in 2017 was followed by a period of Crew dominance that extended all the way to May 2023. Cincinnati joined MLS in 2019 and won just one of their first 10 games against Columbus in the league.

That period of Crew dominance and FCC angst was finally interrupted by a 3-2 Cincinnati win at TQL Stadium on May 20. But the Crew re-asserted their dominance Aug. 20 with a 3-0 rout of Cincinnati at Lower.com Field in the first game after the Leagues Cup break.

This will be the clubs' second-ever meeting in the knockout phase of a cup competition.

What's the meaning behind the 'Hell is Real' moniker?

If you're new to this, the rivalry is named for a billboard facing southbound Interstate-71 in Mount Sterling, Ohio. The billboard reads "Hell is Real." It's hard to miss and harder to ignore. In August, Enquirer reporter Sharon Coolidge wrote the most recent and up-to-date history of the billboard, which inspired the name for one of the most impassioned rivalries in modern MLS.

The billboard was fading and graffitied as of that story's publish date but it has since been restored.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What to know about the next chapter of 'Hell is Real' in MLS Cup