CFC's Caleb Cole, right, maintains control as Tigres' David Vazequez , left, charges in followed by Jorge Cruz, center, in first half of action Thursday at Finley Stadium.With a National Premier Soccer League playoff match less than 48 hours away, Chattanooga Football Club coach Bill Elliott approached Thursday's friendly against the Tigres UANL reserves as just that: a friendly.
He rested starters. Gave players who hadn't played all season an opportunity to play. Substituted regularly.
The players he did play approached Thursday as an opportunity. An opportunity to play. An opportunity to compete.
An opportunity to win.
The Chattanooga FC nearly pulled that off, holding a lead for more than 50 minutes of playing time before a goal in the last 30 seconds of stoppage time led to a 1-all final in front of 3,323 fans at Finley Stadium.
Elliott didn't dress a single player he expects to start Saturday against the Lions on Thursday, and he played the others he expects to dress out Saturday sparingly. Three goalkeepers - Tom Halsall, Nico Dular and former Notre Dame High School standout James Teal, a soon-to-be freshman at Alabama-Birmingham - had playing time.
"Beyond that, we just coached and tried to give everybody an opportunity to go," Elliott said. "They've been working all year, waiting on an opportunity to play in front of the Finley crowd."
CFC (13-2-2) has a quick turnaround, hosting Houston's Dutch Lions in a South Regional match Saturday night at 7:30.
After a slow start against the Mexican Division II-tier team, the Chattanooga club started to mount an attack and took the lead on John Davidson's first goal of the season. That lead held up through a number of solid opportunities by Tigres in the second half, until a free kick in the final minute of play was headed in by a Tigres player.
"What an opportunity for these young guys," Elliott said. "They played a very good Tigres team that created lots of opportunities, but I thought our young boys answered the call, more than held their own. They were a little unfortunate at the end or they would have got the result."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.