Absolutely thrilling! What a fantastic game! Chattanooga FC we are so proud of you. That was one gutsy performance last night. As we detailed in early entries, coming into this game with 4 quality starters unable to play was far more than a just minor concern. But our team stepped it up and pulled together to tough it out.
So we won 2-0 over the Madison 56ers in a hard fought battle. As we noted in an earlier post, we worried about Thomas Clark filling in for Russell Courtney on defense, as he is more suited for the offensive end of the field. How wrong we were! Not only did Thomas give a very solid performance on defense with some key stops, but he gave us the first go ahead goal that seemed to take the wind out of Madison. So our Man of the Match is Thomas Clark. Congratulations!
And a very close second or runner-up Man of the Match has to be Richard Masters. As the twitter folks wrote: “Richard Masters was Richard Masters.” And he was — quick, solid and dependable. He easily saved 4 great shots to grab his fourth shut out of the season. He was extremely good last night.
You can read good recaps of the game elsewhere, so we will give you our quick overview and opinion. Madison clearly dominated possession in the first half, easily 60% by our estimation. They were solid, consistent and tight in passing. CFC looked a bit tentative, tired and outmanned for most of the first half. In spite of that, we had as many scoring opportunities as Madison did. Odd.
Then in the second half, it almost seemed that the NPSL had sent a memo decreeing that now Chattanooga FC had to dominate. We came out with much greater energy and attacking mentality. It of course resulted in a goal in just under 6 minutes. And that seemed to completely deflate Madison. They were fortunate that Salazar and Espinal were not able to score their very good opportunities. But it seemed inevitable that CFC would get a second goal when Viatrov finally found Hill for the beautiful final nail in the coffin.
Our defense did a fantastic job of bending but not breaking, starting of course with our stingy gatekeeper Masters, and carrying over to Clark, Gambill, Scott and the amazing, leg extending slide-tackling of Andy Stewart. Even Calderwood gave good minutes when came in as a substitute for Beene.
All in all, it was a team effort. Nicely done. Let’s go do the same thing again tomorrow night and call it a season.
Quick scouting report:
While the 4-1 scoreline makes it appear that Sacramento had a walk in the park against Sonic FC, it was far from the case. For most of the first half and the start of the second, the Gold looked outmanned and outpossessed by Sonic. The go ahead goal by number 86 for Sacramento was the only really nice goal of the game for them. They tied Sonic on an own goal and took the lead 3-1 on poor defending and the final goal was due to the goalie being up to try and score.
While Sacramento is a good team and will no doubt be a worthy opponent, CFC should be able to hold their own against them. Their style was similar to other teams we have faced throughout the season: Atlanta FC, Pumas FC and even to some degree, FC Atlas. So we should not be surprised by anything they bring onto the field. The big question is: did Sacramento have travel legs last night or is that how they play normally?
A negative note:
What the heck NPSL? That field is a VERY FAR CRY FROM CHAMPIONSHIP QUALITY. It is small and has patches of sand (8 ft square!) and all sorts of weird seams and uneven spots. Why is it not in better condition? It seems to be an embarrassing reminder of how far our league has to go… We are quite disappointed with it.
A few quick comments…
Clark had a lights out game. Very nice job and Andy Stewart was clutch too with some very good tackles. 2nd goal was made by Viatrov’s great cross and Hill’s hustle.
Sacramento had two very good goals. The second was a nice blast from 20 yards, but the third was better than that one. A solo run of about 50 yards form Pina, who is the league’s leading scorer. The finish was world class, outside of the right foot curler from a tight angle with a defender pressuring. You can’t get much better than that.
The field sucks, but it looks (and plays) much better now than it did a few months ago. Also, it’s still better than the field up in Madison, WI for last year’s FInal Four.
Hope to see you all down here on Saturday night. And if you can’t make it down, watch the game on Ustream.tv. Search for NPSL.
Right you are Ryan — not meaning to take away from the skill it took Piña in scoring the third goal, but the defense’s mistake (being pushed way up and that allowed for him to get behind them to make the 50 yard run) was a key factor in that goal. Not sure that scenario would’ve happened had the own goal not occurred and it was 1-1.