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.

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).

From our lips to God’s ear; the NPSL Southeast Region Conference Schedule was released today. When all the dust settled, Only two new teams were added to the Southeast. This allowed two fairly geographically-balanced divisions among the following teams:
East Division

• Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves
• Georgia Revolution
• Jacksonville United FC
• Myrtle Beach FC

West Division

• Chattanooga FC
• Knoxville Force
• Mississippi Storm
• Rocket City United

Our League Schedule plays out like this:
May 5 – Home vs. Knoxville Force
May 11 – Away vs Rocket City United
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 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

There’s been no word yet on any non-league matches. Also, the club confirmed the April 28th home match vs. Chicago Inferno was cancelled.

UPDATE: Corrected switched Division titles & added conference Championship match

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.

As this weekend rolls around and the NPSL National Championships begin, we Chattahooligans are again reminded of the sad fact that our team is not in it. And as much as we dislike the Madison City field, it is a far better scenario to be playing on it than not. So, we’ll hang our heads low and look forward to next season…

The DC United game last week was a great deal of fun, with some entertaining play by both sides, but the result was not what we wanted. Sure, we looked very competitive — with as good a chance to win the game as the U23s had, and far and away better than we looked against them last year — but a third loss in a row was a tough way to wrap up the year. Especially after leading the league for 80% of the season.

So we’ll hold out with our hopes for a better turn of events in 2012. In the meantime, everyone should look in on the NPSL Semifinals going on tonight between the Southeast champion Jacksonville United FC and the Northeast’s Eerie Admirals and then between the West’s Hollywood Hitmen and the Midwest’s Milwaukee Bavarians. The odds seem to be stacked in Hollywood’s favor as they boast several ex-pro and internationally traveled players, but you play the game for a reason. It is interesting to note that none of last year’s Final Four teams returned this year — though all had pretty good seasons.

Some factoids from the Chattanooga FC 2011 season:

The team finished in third place with 17 points — as Georgia Revolution and Jacksonville United tied for first with 18 points, but since they were tied on head-to-head match ups, Jacksonville went through due to their 6 wins over Georgia’s 5…

Chattanooga FC finished with 5 wins, 2 ties, 3 losses in league play, and 8-2-5 overall.

On July 9, 2011, the team lost it’s first match at home in Finley Stadium since May 2009.

The team’s unbeaten streak in regular season league play (13 games) ended on June 4, 2011 in Jacksonville. The last regular season loss in the NPSL Southeast was on June 27, 2009.

In three seasons the team’s record is 20 wins, 5 ties and 10 losses. All under Head Coach Brian Crossman.

This year, the team won it’s first berth in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup by defeating Rocket City in the semifinals and Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves in the 118th minute in the finals.

The team won it’s second ever international match against CF Monterrey’s U20s.

The team played its first professional opponent, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of the USL Pro, in the US Open Cup, losing in overtime by one goal (after leading 2-0 after 75 minutes).

Each of the five losses this season were by only one goal.

12 different players scored this season.

Chattanooga, let’s be sure to turn out in big numbers tomorrow night to send off the boys of Chattanooga FC in style as they welcome the DC United U23 team to Finley Stadium for the very first time! This is your last chance to see the guys play before most of them head off home or back to school for the fall. Let’s give them a great send off!

Now, this may be the first season that DC United has hosted a U23 team, but they should be very good — perhaps the best competition we have seen all season. Last year’s Super 20′s (a younger team) handled Chattanooga FC quite easily, beating us 3-0 up in RFK Stadium in Washington DC. Though were it not for great saves in each half by both Richie Masters and Thomas Hunter, the spread could’ve been a lot worse.

What should help swing some things in our favor:

There should be a couple thousand more fans for CFC at this game than the 50 or so than turned out at RFK last July. The DC team may not have played in front of an opposing crowd that big.

The temperature on the field should not be 101º F (with extremely high humidity) as it was last July in DC.

Our guys should not be as nervous as they were last season — several of them were in that game last year. Like going to the playoffs, that experience can help bring confidence.

And we’re playing on our home field (which isn’t exactly a great surface), and knowing the specific nuances of the turf that may help our guys out.

It should be a great night to celebrate the team and get the last of that $4 beer. Let’s turn out Chattahooligans!

So, all our speculations and hypotheses turned out to be completely unnecessary. Chattanooga FC fought hard and played well, but the ball would not go in the goal. And so not even a draw was in the cards for the team as they fell 2-1 to the Knoxville Force on a very late goal. That loss means there will be no NPSL postseason for Chattanooga FC this year. After leading the league for most of the season — trading first occasionally amongst each other — Chattanooga FC, Atlanta Silverbacks Reserves and the Georgia Revolution all lose out to Jacksonville United (who clinched the Southeast Region title with their sixth straight win last night).

We don’t have much heart to rehash the game, but after a nice first goal by Knoxville in the 6th minute, Chattanooga FC seemed to take command of the game, pressing and attacking and missing opportunity after opportunity. In the last stoppage minutes of the first half Chris Ochieng won and then scored a PK to tie it all up. In the second half CFC started to throw everyone at the Force, again creating chance after chance, but never finding the goal — even with some very amazing opportunities. And all the offensive pressing led to a counterattack in the 89th minute that led to a bouncing header. 2-1 Knoxville.

Our Knoxville players are no doubt discouraged — forward Mark Sherrod played well but couldn’t find a goal, while midlfielder Cody McCoy seemed to have an off game and outside mid Tom Webster almost never got the ball. The rest of the guys played decently enough, and Nickson Odeny‘s presence in the back was helpful.

While result is certainly disappointing for us, it has to be much more so for the team as they had the chance to win the title in their grasp not once but three weeks in a row.

Well, it has certainly been a fun ride this season, with plenty of ups and downs. We have to encourage everyone to turn out for Saturday’s final match of the season against DC United’s U23 squad and let’s give our team a wonderful send off and thank you for another winning season!

For anyone who only read Tavio Palazzolo’s quick recap of CFC’s US Open match against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on TheCup.us (http://thecup.us/2011-us-open-cup-first-round-recap/), DON’T BELIEVE IT! From his telling, Pittsburgh was a mildly-challenged juggernaut capable of securing the contest on a whim (consisting chiefly of the line “the Riverhounds woke up and took over the match”). There is a clear bias here that we expound upon further in our addendum at the end of this article.

However:

The memories of the 200-odd fans in attendance give a different account. Instead, we saw two squads with no glaring distinctions between them. Each capitalized on favorable matchups, producing as thrilling a contest as any in the tournament. In the first half, CFC used speed and raw desire to attack Pitt’s defense, keeping the generally slower USL club off-balance, producing a well-deserved one-nil lead at the half, that was quickly doubled to 2-0 by the 55th minute. Ivan Heredia had a beauty of a goalie chip from 40 yards out for the first — making a complete fool of the ‘pro’ keeper. Chris Ochieng did the ‘heavy lifting’ on the second goal, getting down to the endline then playing a perfect ball into Mark Beattie for the tap in second goal.

For much of the second, play consisted of attack, counterattack, repeat. However, a change in strategy gave the ‘Hounds new success. Instead of methodically working the ball up field, Pittsburgh began playing for the longball, accurately sending volley after volley deep into CFC territory. The height advantage of their offense over the CFC defense paid its dividends. Their initial point came from a free kick (near the corner), sent in at crossbar level. Pittsburgh was able to head in the lofty kick, over a leaping Thomas Hunter who’d been caught up too long in the scrum. The equalizer goal was similar, with a fantastically-placed free kick dropped expertly where a waiting Riverhound could muscle in a strong, solid shot. Though that Riverhound was practically ripping off Andy Stewart’s shirt while he did it.

Both extra periods consisted off countless deep runs by both teams as each set of midfielders looked spent. The expert play of a single Pittsburgh defender repeatedly kept CFC out of goal, while the familiar lob, set, score type of play produced the game-winning score for the bad guys.

Losing a game that seemed “in hand” is tough. Yet if anything, this loss has done more to boost the club’s confidence than any previous win. Before the match, there were legitimate questions about how good a club this team really is compared to the rest of the country. Now we know that at our best we can play with, and sometimes dominate, any team below the second level of US soccer. Now it’s time to use that knowledge to claim the prize we fell short of last year – the NPSL Championship. From this point on, nothing less should be acceptable. After proving our mettle against one of the top twenty clubs in the country (UPDATE: probably closer to top-forty.), how could we be satisfied losing to the likes of Atlanta, or Madison, or Hollywood?

The answer is simple: we can’t.

Brief addendum:

It’s worth mentioning here that it looks like US Soccer has some sort of vested interest in helping USL teams win in the US Open Cup. First, it was completely absurd that the game was awarded to Pittsburgh instead of Chattanooga. Only 200-some fans turned out (305 was reported by CFC), and no admission was charged at all. Ergo: no money for USSF. In Chattanooga we would’ve attracted over 10 times that amount, easily 3,000 would’ve attended (if not 5,000) and paid admission! What could possibly be the motivation there? To help the pro USL look better than the amateur NPSL — make us travel 10 hours to hostile territory. Secondly, the officiating was clearly biased to Pittsburgh — the foul that lead to the free kick that got the first goal was questionable, and the second goal should’ve been disallowed by all the fouling the forward was doing to our defender. Thirdly, the field was not even US Open Cup regulation size! It was only 63 yards wide instead of the required 68! Talk about bias. US Soccer wanted Pittsburgh to win.

Just in case any of you are wondering how this year’s US Open Cup will work, here is some info from the official handbook about how teams are selected and then paired. Just FYI.

2011 U.S. Open Cup Competition Format

The 2011 U.S. Open Cup Competition will be conducted on a single-elimination, one-game-knockout basis utilizing a tiered-bracket format (39 games—see the tournament bracket on the following page).

The number of teams competing in the 2011 Open Cup tournament will be as follows:

• Major League Soccer: Eight of 16 U.S.-based teams enter in the Third Round. The top six clubs from the 2010 regular season (Columbus, FC Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Real Salt Lake and Seattle) automatically qualify. The remaining 10 clubs (Chicago, Chivas USA, Colorado, D.C. United, Houston, New England, Philadelphia, Portland, San Jose and Sporting Kansas City) compete in play-in games to determine which two will join the field.

• United Soccer Leagues PRO: All 11 U.S.-based teams enter in the First Round.

• United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League: Nine of 54 U.S.-based teams enter in the First Round. The top club from each of nine divisions (Northeast, Mid Atlantic, South Atlantic, Mid South, Southeast, Great Lakes, Heartland, Southwest and Northwest) qualifies based on the results of four pre-selected 2011 regular season games (two home, two away) for each team.

• U.S. Adult Soccer Association regional qualifying: Eight teams (winner and runner-up from qualifying competitions held in each of the four U.S. Soccer regions) from approximately 60 entering at the local and state levels. The eight qualifiers enter in the First Round.

• National Premier Soccer League (a USASA-affiliated national league): Four teams (one from each of the league’s four geographically-based divisions: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and West) from 20 entering the competition (out of 38 in the league). Each division devised its own method for determining its representative in the tournament proper. In previous years, NPSL teams participated via USASA regional qualifying. The four qualifiers enter in the First Round.

Teams competing in the First Round will be assigned to one of eight geographic groups, each not necessarily containing an equal number of professional and amateur teams. A blind draw will then be conducted within each group to determine all First Round pairings. After the First Round, MLS teams will be added to the bracket for Third Round games based on geographic considerations. Pairings will be arranged to prevent the possibility of a lower division team playing a parent club (e.g. Chicago Fire Premier [PDL] will not be pitted against the Chicago Fire [MLS], should both teams be in the competition in the same round) except for the Championship Game.

Each team will be matched with an opponent according to the following provisions:

• First Round: Random draw within each four-team group as described above, with teams from the same level avoiding playing each other where possible.

• Second Round: Two First Round winners from each group face each other.

• Third Round: Eight MLS clubs enter to play eight winners from the Second Round.