It seems that the hardest part of each season for Chattanooga Football Club coach Bill Elliott is figuring out the early-season pieces of what at the time is an incomplete soccer team.
Players are arriving in Chattanooga almost daily. He attempts to evaluate the talent that has been assembled for the early matches knowing that there are better days to come.
This year is no different.
The club begins the 2015 season this evening with a match against the Georgia Revolution in Conyers, Ga. That will begin a string of three matches in a seven-day span, with a home match Wednesday against the Ocala Stampede in the U.S. Open Cup and a match in Atlanta against the Silverbacks Reserves a week from today.
There will be new players, including a completely new midfield from the one that played in Chattanooga FC's last match -- the 2014 National Premier Soccer League national final. Niall McCabe plays for the Louisville Fire FC of the United Soccer League. Thibault Charmey looks as though he's going to play for a league in the United Kingdom. John Carrier is an assistant coach at Alabama-Huntsville, and while Luis Trude will still be a part of the club, he doesn't arrive in Chattanooga until next week.
CFC also lost two of its starting defenders, Chris Lavie and Wil Linder.
"We're just trying to survive," Elliott said Friday at the club's practice. "We lost some important pieces. Some of our guys just arrived today and are going through their first practices, while some others won't arrive until Monday or Tuesday.
"It's going to be a challenge."
Elliott expects to lean on some of the veteran players who still are with the club. Luke Winter, Chris Ochieng, Sias Reyneke and John Davidson return up top, while James Moore, Jordan Dunstan and Michael Brooks both return, although the latter won't be around as much due to some job restraints. Greg Hartley returns as the team's goalkeeper.
New pieces, old pieces, it doesn't matter. The club expects to be playing at the end, although practices currently feel more like meet-and-greets as opposed to training sessions.
"Ever since last season, finishing the way it did, we've been waiting for this day to get going," Reyneke said recently. "The new jerseys, the press conference, it brings excitement to light that it's here. It's a new chance and a new opportunity to do the same thing as last season.
"We just want to win one more game."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.