Three times this National Premier Soccer League season, Chattanooga Football Club and Inter Nashville FC faced off, and each time the final score was 2-1. Inter Nashville won the last two, including Tuesday night at Finley Stadium in a Southeast Conference playoff match.
“Nashville is good, we knew that,” Chattanooga FC coach Bill Elliott said after his team gave up two goals in the final 20 minutes. “They’ve got some of the maturity and composure and resilience that we have had in the past.”
CFC netted the first goal of the night in the last minute before halftime, on a penalty kick from Leo De Smedt.
But Nashville showed its resilience. As CFC held the 1-0 lead past the midpoint of the second half, the visitors found a crack in the armor in the 70th minute as Jose Alberto Castellanos Cordova pulled CFC goalkeeper Paulo Pito out to allow an opening for the tying goal.
And according to Elliott, that was the beginning of the end for CFC, saying this moment gave Nashville a lifeline and took the wind from CFC.