Analyzing the Schedule – Part 1

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.

Post by John Q. Chattanooga | Chattanooga FC, Local
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