The Chattanooga Football Club uses “Better Together” as a Twitter hashtag.
On Saturday, together meant the primary two clubs – one trending upward after a number of lean years, the other in the process of building from the bottom after starting over – playing back-to-back matches at Finley Stadium in a rare doubleheader.
The expectation is for the women’s club to eventually get back into the top level of contention in the Women’s Premier Soccer League after not having a team since 2018, when it won a conference championship.
The Chattanooga FC men won the Southeast Conference of the National Premier Soccer League in 2019, but they’ve been trying to find their way since moving to the professional ranks a year later with the National Independent Soccer Association. The support has been there, but the wins have been much harder to come by and the postseason success – a staple of CFC’s time as an amateur team – hasn’t been there yet.
Saturday’s doubleheader – the women lost 2-1 to Alabama Soccer Club before the men defeated AC Syracuse 3-0 – was about promotion of the game but in many ways a normal game day, with spectators trickling in and out and the Chattahooligans fan group pounding their infamous drum.