From the kickoff in Saturday’s game between Knoxville Force and Chattanooga FC it was obvious that it was a different CFC squad than the Hooligans have grown accustomed.

As I watched the game and then broke down the game film, I noticed several things that need to be corrected and quickly. If CFC drops the upcoming match this Saturday, any shot at the final four playoffs would be faint at best.

The game’s lone goal, scored by the visiting “tangerines” was a well-served corner that sailed beyond the back post. At first glance, it was difficult to see how the ball was put back into the middle and headed in. The film showed that it was a head-to-head assist. Even though CFC were short-handed at the moment, the defense had marked up on all offensive players. Sometimes, the other guys just make a great play.

Greg Hartley made one spectacular save in the second half but essentially went untested, a tribute to how stout the defense played.

Considering how well the looked on the back line, one wonders why Russell Courtney was substituted out for another defender late in the game. That decision still boggles my mind, since putting someone into an attacking midfield position getting another striker in there may have made more sense.

The formation also comes into question and begs for a solution. Chattanooga had trouble maintaining possession in the mid-field for much of the game, relying on more dribbling and long passes than should be expected. Often, two of the three forwards were simply standing by a defender, hoping to get a high ball over the top. I’d prefer that strategy be left with the Welsh. It makes one wonder what could have happened had Chattanooga pulled a man back into the mid and worked more of a possession game.

Perhaps the formation and the flow of the game was why the chemistry looked off. At no time did it appear as though eleven men were working together. Well, maybe there were moments of it, but in the long run, it seemed like there were eleven individuals.

CFC only had a few real opportunities. I saw a stat that said they had 19 shots. Not sure about that. I DO know they were NOT on goal. The one true chance was a breakaway that was lost with a heavy touch by the striker.

There is some talent on this team, but it needs to find some unification, lest they see their playoff hopes grow dim in the fading glow of the Knoxville Sun Sphere next weekend.

In addition to the NPSL schedule, Chattanooga Football Club has announced cleverly hidden a few non-conference games on the schedule. According to the recently released season calendar posters, the club will play a pre-season match vs. PDL whipping boy, Nashville Metros, April 28, and a mid-season match against provisional PDL team, DC United U23 squad. Also, we’ve heard rumors of a scrimmage match vs. Carson Newman College, Saturday, April 21, at 5PM.

So, here’s the educated fan’s best guess at the, always mysterious, CFC schedule:

April 21 – Home vs. Carson Newman College (scrimmage)
April 28 – Home vs. Nashville Metros (PDL vs. NPSL friendly)

May 5 – Home vs. Knoxville Force
May 12 – Away vs. Knoxville Force
May 19 – Away vs. Mississippi Storm
May 26 – Home vs. Rocket City United
June 2 – Home vs. Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves
June 9 – Home vs. Myrtle Beach FC
June 16 – Home vs. DC United U23 (PDL vs. NPSL friendly)
June 22 – Away vs Rocket City United
June 23 – Home vs. Mississippi Storm
June 30 – Away vs. Georgia Revolution
July 7 – Away vs. Jacksonville United FC

July 13/14 – TBD – Conference Championship Game

Before addressing the final third of the season, we need to discuss the ramifications of the schedule change made recently*. According to this announcement on Rocket City United‘s website, the Friday, May 11th away game in Madison has been moved to Friday, June 22nd. The main effect of which will be a slightly more forgiving CFC schedule right out of the gate. The underlying fear most interested CFC observers are expressing is the team might not gel soon enough. Several of our college players will probably miss the first two weekends, which under the initial schedule, featured 3 key divisional matches. By moving one of those to June, CFC will have a bit more time to get its full personnel ready and integrated. Moving the match also takes some pressure off CFC to not break the (now 2-years-and-counting) home win-less streak RCU is cultivating.

So, to recap our two previous season analyses:

• Winning the division is our first goal
• The Southeast Conference’s West Division figures to be the less competitive division
• CFC has a chance to take a commanding divisional lead as the only club facing all division opponents initially (4 matches against all 3 Div. opponents)
• The middle of the season features a 3-game home stretch that will, at best, solidify CFC as the Western front-runner, or at worst, provide the opportunity to draw even with the front-runner
• The June 2 home date against the Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves will be the “must-see” game of the year

After the open league date in June, CFC should be refreshed and focused on the closing four games of the regular season. The rescheduled RCU away game Friday, June 22 will probably be a hard fought contest between the top two teams in the West. Fortunately for CFC, the following night’s game is a home contest against league rookie, Mississippi Storm. Playing back-to-back matches is always tough, but CFC gets the best of this situation since the Storm will also be playing their second match in as many days (the other being a visit to the Knoxville Force). This match will also mark the end of the CFC home season, so finishing with a strong home win would be a nice gift to the CFC faithful.

Leaving the friendly confines of Finley Stadium, Chattanooga ends the league season in what will probably prove to be the team’s two toughest tests. On June 30, CFC pays a visit to second-year club, the Georgia Revolution, the only returning Southeastern club Chattanooga hasn’t beaten… yet. The Revolution figure to be in the hunt for their division, and by this point in the season will be looking for any points they can get to gain a lead in a tightly-contested Eastern Division. After visiting the Revs, CFC travels down to the Sunshine State to take on reigning NPSL Champion, Jacksonville United FC. Last season, JUFC finished their season with 6-straight wins (plus and additional 2 in the NPSL Final Four). Much of this streak was due to the young club building a team chemistry to complement their well of energy. Beating JUFC in the final match of the season, on the road, would be the exclamation point to an exciting CFC season.

After the Jacksonville game, Chattanooga will hopefully be qualified for the conference’s first ever, championship match. There’s been no word yet on a format, whether it will include 2 or 4 teams, and where it would be played, but in my opinion, it will likely be a single game from the two divisional winners, at the top seed’s home field. Other foreseeable options would be a 3-game, 4-team tournament with the Div. Champs as #1 and #2 seeds, and the next two highest ranked teams seeded third and fourth. It’s also possible that a centrally located club like CFC, Atlanta, or GaRevs could ask to host the game to reduce travel costs, but if money is tight at the end of the season (and when isn’t it?), we’re more likely to see a single game, highest-seed-hosted championship than anything else. And after that, one fortunate team will be jetting off to beautiful San Diego to represent our conference in the NPSL Final Four.

So, where will CFC end up? Well, revising my earlier estimates due to the rescheduled RCU game, I predict CFC will finish the regular season with a 6-3-1 record, 19 points, and the Western Conference Championship. Also, 19 points should guarantee Chattanooga hosts the Conference Championship match July 14; which I’m going to go ahead and predict we’ll win. So grab your suntan lotion and book those tickets out west, cause CFC’s heading to the Golden State in July!

*No official confirmation on CFC’s schedule page yet, but that’s not too surprising.

May 5 – Home vs. Knoxville Force
May 12 – Away vs. Knoxville Force
May 19 – Away vs. Mississippi Storm
May 26 – Home vs. Rocket City United
June 2 – Home vs. Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves
June 9 – Home vs. Myrtle Beach FC
June 22* – Away vs Rocket City United
June 23 – Home vs. Mississippi Storm
June 30 – Away vs. Georgia Revolution
July 7 – Away vs. Jacksonville United FC

July 13/14 – TBD – Conference Championship Game

*This match was originally scheduled for May 11, but has been moved.

In an earlier post, we examined the first 4 games of CFC’s league schedule. Considering those contain half of our road games, we declared anything better than a 1-2-1 record and more than 4 points in the standings would be a good start. Here’s why: all of those games are against our Western Division opponents*. With returning co-champions Jacksonville United FC and Georgia Revolution both residing in the Eastern Division (along with the perennially solid Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves), it’s a foregone conclusion that the East will be stronger than the West. And aside from the slight to our pride, that’s exactly how Chattanooga wants it. Even though there’s been no official word, I’d be shocked if the Conference Championship game(s) didn’t provide an automatic invite to each division’s champion. (It’s possible the Conference Championship will be a 4-team tournament, but even then, the Western Champion would HAVE to be invited.) Therefore, CFC’s goal isn’t really to amass the most points in the conference, just in our (probably weaker) division. That’s why holding serve at home, and stealing at least 1 tie in our three divisional road games would be an acceptable setup to the upcoming series of home games.

Returning to the friendly confines of Finley Stadium, May 26 vs. Rocket City United, brings us to our first critical match of the season. Should we be trailing in the western standings, it will likly be to RCU, as Knoxville Force will have only played 3 games, and Mississippi Storm will have undegone an absolutely murderous fist half-schedule vs. JUFC, ATL, GaRev, CFC, and Mrytle Beach FC. Defeating the Rockets in Finley would likely send us into the lead in the West.

The next two matches are against cross-divisional foes Atlanta (June 2) and Myrtle Beach (Jun 9), and provide an opportunity to extend what we hope will be our lead in the divisional standings. Our games against Atlanta are always dramatic, and this one will probably be the pinnacle of our season. Any fan thinking of skipping this game should have their head examined. The following week will see us give a proper welcome to NPSL newcomer, Myrtle Beach, which will likely be playing their first match ever in front of more than a few hundred fans (they don’t visit follow large fanbase clubs Knoxville or RCU this season). Beating MBFC would send a nice signal that Chattanooga’s not quite ready to concede its southeastern dominance to a bunch of upstarts.

Seven games through the league schedule, we’d obviously LOVE to be 7-0-0, and bragging to anyone who’ll listen about our manifest destiny, but a 4-2-1 record would be acceptable heading into our bye week. Thirteen (or higher) points would probably keep us abreast with either Knoxville or RCU in the western standings, and setup a tough (but manageable) final leg to the season.

*Chattanooga is the only team facing exclusively divisional foes in their first 4 games (and we actually don’t play a cross-divisional opponent until game 6). This provides a unique opportunity to grab the divisional lead if we can get hot right out of the gate.

It’s been reported the NPSL is awarding its 6.5 US Open spots to last season’s regional champions (except, strangely, for Keystone Conference Champion Erie Admirals). Southeast Regional Co-Champions Jacksonville United FC and Georgia Revolution will both be invited to the tournament. This means that CFC’s disappointing 2011, SE Region 3rd-place finish continues to haunt the club, costing us a chance at more national exposure. With the Cup’s new, more transparent venue awarding process, Chattanooga stood a VERY good chance of hosting an Open Cup match. Personally, I’m sick at this news, and it just makes me want to pretend the 2nd half of last season never occurred.

But this sort of thing is the other side to caring so much. We all love it when we roll through victories, post outrageous attendance stats, and see national articles written about the soccer revolution occurring in Chattanooga. This latest news is a sobering reminder that the chance of great disappointment is always linked to our dearest hopes.

UPDATE: The decision to award the Open Cup births to the previous season’s Champions was forced by the USSF’s decision to move up both the first Round matches (May 15th), and the qualifying date (May 1st).

With the unveiling of the 2012 league schedule, it’s time to begin looking forward to the upcoming season. So let’s get started.

Like last year, we’ll play a 10-game league season, omitting any US Open Cup qualifying games that may, or may not occur. Due to the new divisional structure, it was impossible to setup a complete round-robin within the 10-game limit. So, each team plays a home-and-home series with their 3 divisional opponents (that’s 6 games for you Silverbacks fans out there), and the remaining 4 games against each cross-divisional opponent, divided evenly between home and away matches.

Adding two new teams made organizing the divisions fairly simple. The teams were basically split geographically along I-85, with newcomers Mississippi Storm, completing the West Division, and Myrtle Beach FC rounding out the East. The addition of 2 more, far-away teams makes Jacksonville United FC seem a lot less isolated, and balances the distances between teams remarkably well. In fact, the divisions’ average home stadium to home stadium driving distances are within 4 miles (West Div: 309.6 miles apart; East Div: 306.3 miles apart). That’s pretty well balanced.

Now let’s look at CFC’s road to the Championship. Our inaugural match of the 2012 season is the front end of the 1-75 Darby, at home versus the Knoxville Force. Our boys in blue will get a chance to avenge last season’s championship-ending loss to the Padawans. If last season was any indication, getting Knoxville early should prove helpful, since they absolutely stunk up the league until mid-July. After getting our feet wet against Knoxville, we’ll dive right into the most grueling stretch of the season. A pair of road games, in as many nights, against Rocket City United and Knoxville, will test the team’s conditioning, while giving the new coaching staff a chance to really experiment with the lineup. The following week, CFC travels to Biloxi, to play the Mississippi Storm. While we have no way of knowing how competitive this first-year club will be, history tells us there’s always one new club that’s game-ready from the start, and one that isn’t. Mississippi is probably that last one; which is good, considering the timing of this match. Obviously, we hope to be 4-0 with 12 points after this game, but realistically, anything better than 1-2-1 and holding more than 4 points will be a good base to build on.

I know the thought of sitting on only 5 points after the 4th game seems disappointing compared to how CFC began last season, but pulling at least 5 out of 12 possible points while enduring 60% of your road schedule, is not too shabby. “Win at home; tie away” is the secret to victory in this conference, and if we’d pulled that off last season, we’d probably be applying another coat of polish to our NPSL Championship trophy right now.

Keeping up with the 4th tier of American soccer is difficult. Clubs form. Clubs disband. They change owners, personnel, stadiums, and even cities, with great frequency. All this happens under the guidance of a mostly part-time, or volunteer leadership that has about a million other things in their lives to accomplish. So it’s no surprise that the League’s structure often isn’t “official” until days before opening weekend. Still, we hard core fans Chattahooligans demand information in the off season (those tailgating menus, nylon flags, and Jacksonville travel accommodations aren’t gonna make themselves). And with the fall addition of five new teams to our region, no one seems to know exactly what the 2012 season or schedule will look like.

But piecing together the various rumors, Facebook photos, and quick mentions from other clubs, we have a fair idea of how our region’s structure should look. We’ve also been reading more about our new members and where they’re located (for those away game trips to exotic locations like Mercedes, TX and Fort Smith, AR). A working picture of these developments can be seen in this Google Map: NPSL Southeast Region Home Fields.

So, with three months until our April 28th home friendly vs USL newcomer, Chicago Inferno, we’re getting a better picture of what 2012 will look like.

So Chattanooga FC is gearing up for the 2012 season: the first round of official tryouts was this past Saturday at Finley Stadium. Your favorite nosey scout from the Chattahooligan was there to scope out the scene. Here’s a few short notes:

It’s always tricky to know who’s going to be picked for the team and who’s going to come next summer at these first of 3 tryouts — as a good amount of the really talented players are given a bye by the coaches. They are allowed to show up at later tryouts, if at all. So we can’t really get a sense of how important this batch is… A few really talented guys standout, as do some really bad players, but the rest kind of blend together as pretty decent.

But new Head Coach Bill Elliott was there, along with Assistant Jimmy Weekley and GM Sean McDaniel.

Several three season CFC players attended: Russell Courtney, Moises Drumond and Ivan Heredia. A pleasant surprise was that former Dalton standout Irvin Espinal was back after walking away from the team early in the season last year. Perhaps he had issues with former Head Coach Crossman?

We weren’t able to identify all the talent there, but some current or former NCAA Div I players were there — a Clemson teammate of forward Michael Brooks and a younger brother of a Covenant kid who starts at the U of South Carolina. There was a good bit of local talent trying out too — kids from CCS, McCallie, UTC and Covenant, to name just a few…

The play looked good in general, and we’ll be excited to see how the team shapes up.

Other notes:

News on players from last season: Forward Mark Sherrod had an insane sophomore season at Memphis University — finishing as something like the second leading scorer in all of NCAA Div I! So while that looks good on CFC’s resumé for developing talent, it means that Mark is on the radar for some pro teams and looks like he’ll be heading elsewhere for the summer (we’ve heard rumor of Portland, not a bad place to go).

Another first season player (and Memphis teammate of Mark’s), midfielder Cody McCoy is rumored to be heading to NC to tryout with the USL Pro team Charlotte Eagles.

First season midfielder José Robles is also going to tryout at some sort of a pro combine, so he may not be able to return either.

All the best of luck to you fellas! Make Chattanooga proud!

The conference:

Apparently the Southeast Conference of the NPSL is being broken into 2 divisions: East and West, each compromised of 5 teams. All the teams in the same division will play each other twice, once at home, once away. They will also play some (maybe all?) of the teams in the other division once.

We think this is what we heard on the division break down:

EAST
Chattanooga FC
Knoxville Force
Jacksonville United FC
Myrtle Beach
Mississippi Storm

WEST
Atlanta Silverbacks
Georgia Revolution
FC Tulsa
Rocket City United
Galveston Pirate SC

Or something like that. If anyone knows more that we do, please correct us in a comment.

And the winners of each Division facing off in a playoff game to get to the national championships.

So it looks like our arch-rivals Atlanta and Rocket City won’t be playing us as often.

CFC finally announced that they have named a new coach today, we’re posting what they had on their site below.

—

Chattanooga FC announced yesterday that Bill Elliott has agreed to take the Head Coach position for the team’s 2012 season.

“Bill’s great reputation along with his Chattanooga roots made him an easy choice for us. We felt his successful longevity at the collegiate level will be carried over to CFC and the upcoming season. We’re glad to have him and assistant coach Weekley in 2012,” said General Manager Sean McDaniel.

“I was born and raised in Chattanooga, I attended the University of Tennessee and I never thought I would leave East Tennessee,” said Elliott. “When the position was offered to me at the University of West Florida, it was a opportunity to make a career in my passion — coaching. Seventeen years later, I feel it was a good decision.”

Elliott is very excited to be back in Chattanooga for the summer season. He says he is glad to have his wife Chrissy, his three and a half year old daughter Peyton and his eighteen month old son Trey around his extended family that lives in and around the Chattanooga area.

Elliott has kept up with Chattanooga FC even while he’s been in Pensacola. “I think the CFC organization has done a fantastic job in the past three seasons. They have set a standard in the league and in the southeast and I am honored to be a part of that.” He also had great things to say about former head coach Brian Crossman. “I’ve known Brian Crossman for years, and I believe he did an outstanding job establishing a great foundation for the team. I hope to continue to build on that.”

Assistant Coach Jimmy Weekley echoed that sentiment. “Bill and I are former teammates (with the Chattanooga Railroaders in the ’90’s) and have been friends since college. Bill brings a wealth of knowledge to us. I am very excited to have the opportunity to work along with him in furthering the success of CFC.”

Bill Elliott is one of the top coaches in the NCAA Division II. In his years of coaching he has compiled an overall career record of 307-144-29, including a 248-101-28 mark at the University of West Florida (Pensacola). He is among the top NCAA Division II coaches in the top 30 in career winning percentage(.630) and career wins(150).

From 1995 -2001, Elliott served as head coach for both the men’s and women’s team. He is the only coach in conference history to lead both men’s and women’s programs to the conference tournament, and the only coach to have won both men’s and women’s titles. In his time serving as the head coach for the women’s team he led his team to the GSC tournament every year, winning three titles in seven years. Elliott has also won three men’s and three women’s GSC Coach of the Year awards.

Elliott came to West Florida from Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, Tennessee. He spent two successful seasons with the Bulldogs, leading both men’s and women’s teams to the playoffs in each season. Elliott’s 1993 women’s team captured the NAIA District 24 title, and he was named the district coach of the year. Overall, his women’s teams compiled a 17-18 mark and his men’s teams were 17-14-1.

Elliott’s coaching career began in 1992 at Division III Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn. as an assistant under Pepe Fernandez. In his year at Maryville, the women finished 15-3 and ranked 20th in the NCAA Division III. The men finished 10-8.

Elliott played high school soccer at Hixson High School in Chattanooga, where he led his team to a second place finish in the state as a senior captain.

Elliott also played Division III professional soccer in the United States Interregional Soccer League as a member of the Chattanooga Express. He helped lead the Express to a runner-up finish at the 1993-94 Indoor Soccer National Championships. In 1997, he was hired in mid-season as a player and head coach of the U.S.I.S.L. D-III Mobile Revellers with whom he had started the season as a player. In 1998, he was a player and assistant coach for the Pensacola Barracudas.

Elliott earned a bachelor of science in business administration in 1991 and a master’s of science in recreation and sports management in 1993 from the University of Tennessee. He also played played NCAA Division I varsity soccer for the Volunteers. Elliott holds the NSCAA Advanced National Diploma and a USSF A License.