CFC ‘door opened’ at D.C.

The Volkswagen logos were all over the place Saturday as the Chattanooga Football Club and the D.C. United under-20 team played a soccer exhibition at RFK Stadium in Washington.

Volkswagen is the title sponsor for both D.C. United and Chattanooga FC and sponsored Saturday’s game, which United won 3-0. CFC officials hope the match began a long, mutually beneficial on-field relationship.

“The door’s now been opened,” CFC general manager Sean McDaniel said.

McDaniel and fellow CFC board members Sheldon Grizzle and Tim Kelly were scheduled to sit down with some of the top brass from both D.C. United and the Volkswagen Group of America following the exhibition, during the top-level United team’s game against Portsmouth of the English Premier League.

Long term, that meeting could be more important to CFC than the club’s opportunity to play in a 45,596-seat stadium against the development squad from a Major League Soccer franchise.

McDaniel said before the meeting that getting D.C. United to the Scenic City was one thing he wanted to discuss.

“The initial hope is that there’s some sort of reciprocity that can exist, at some level,” he said. “Can we now get D.C. United to Chattanooga? That’s one of the primary objectives. Secondarily, how do we feed into the Volkswagen-D.C. United soccer picture? What is that vision and how does Chattanooga become part of that?”

Chattanooga FC plays in the National Premier Soccer League Final Four on Thursday, and coach Brian Crossman’s approach to Saturday’s game was to get a lot of his players some minutes to keep them fresh while avoiding injuries.

However, defender Russell Courtney went down early in the second half with a leg injury. His status for Thursday’s game against the Madison (Wis.) 56ers in Madison, Ala., is uncertain.

Saturday’s game was the first loss and second exhibition of the season for the second-year amateur team. CFC opened with a 2-1 win over the under-23 team from Fútbol Club Atlas of Guadalajara, Mexico, in front of an announced crowd of 6,317 at Finley Stadium and then went 6-0-2 in the regular season for the NPSL Southeast Conference championship.

United scored in the 20th minute and led 1-0 at halftime. Early in the second, United scored again — CFC’s largest deficit of the season — before adding a header goal in the 73rd minute.

“The players have had a blast,” Grizzle said. “It’s been a great trip and the guys have really appreciated the exposure and the opportunity to play on such a big stage.”