Chattanooga Football Club players Greg Eckhard, left, and Flynn Glover fight for control of the ball during practice at Finley Stadium. The CFC opens its fourth season with a game on Saturday against the Knoxville Force.The Chattanooga Football Club’s season-ending swoon last July kept it from making a second straight appearance in the National Premier Soccer League final four.
A 2-1 road loss in the finale against Knoxville Force, an NPSL newcomer, ended Chattanooga FC’s playoff chances. The squad had two chances to clinch the Southeast Conference title — a win over the Georgia Revolution or Knoxville would have done it for sure, while a couple of draws might as well — but CFC came up empty.
Chattanooga FC kicks off its fourth season tonight at Finley Stadium against the Force and travels to Knoxville next Saturday.
“When you talk to our veteran guys, guys who’ve been here since day one, they know it’s Knoxville who put us out,” CFC general manager Sean McDaniel said. “That’s who ended our season. This match has implications beyond just we need to do well. We want to get back at the team that put us out.”
CFC goalkeeper Thomas Hunter said he wasn’t dwelling on what happened last season, but he does want to learn from it.
“The past is the past and we’re moving on and hopefully we’ll have a great season,” Hunter said. “We might have gotten a little on our high horse and thought we had [the title] in the bag before we did. I think this year we’ll make sure we go out and finish the job, assuming that we have that opportunity.”
The NPSL Southeast Conference has a new look this season. Two new teams are in the league (Myrtle Beach FC and Mississippi Storm) and the conference now is split into East and West divisions. The division champions will square off in a championship game in mid-July, with the winner going to the playoffs.
Chattanooga FC also has a new look with Bill Elliot replacing Brian Crossman as coach. Elliot, the men’s soccer coach at the University of West Florida, hasn’t spent too much time with his players yet.
Because he is still getting to know his team, which had players arriving in Chattanooga this week and will be without some others, how the team looks tonight might not be how it looks next week or next month.
“It’s going to be a trial-and-error operation,” he said.
With back-to-back games against the Force to start the season, both clubs should be able to learn a lot about themselves and make adjustments before heading into the rest of their schedules. While unusual, Hunter said playing a team twice in the first two games could be beneficial.
“At the beginning of the season everybody’s new and you only have a couple of weeks to pull each other together,” he said. “Playing a team the second time probably means it’s going to be completely different game because of the adjustments and the understanding of what the strengths and weaknesses are.”
Chattanooga FC originally was scheduled to play three straight road games following the opener, but it caught a break when its May 11 match at the Huntsville-based Rocket City United was moved to June 22.
Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6268. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeatCTFP.