Wiedmer: Even losses feel like wins when Chattanooga Football Club plays [photos]

Chattanooga FC midfielder Leo De Smedt (23) fist pumps after scoring a penalty goal during stoppage time of the first half during a play-in match for the NPSL Southeast Conference semifinals at Finley Stadium on Tuesday, July 11, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Chattanooga FC midfielder Leo De Smedt (23) fist pumps after scoring a penalty goal during stoppage time of the first half during a play-in match for the NPSL Southeast Conference semifinals at Finley Stadium on Tuesday, July 11, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

At 8:22 Tuesday evening, a hot sun still somewhat hovering over Finley Stadium, the temperature still stubbornly registering 86 degrees, the Flag Czar waved his giant Chattanooga Football Club flag as he had not waved it all night.

Then again, for the first time in this National Premier Soccer League playoff game between the Chattanooga FC and its Nashville counterpart, the home team was in the lead, 1-0, thanks to a penalty kick by Leo De Smedt.

So the Czar, who answers to Topher Kersting at his day job as an E-commerce consultant, waved "Gramps" - the 9-by-16-foot flag attached to a 15-foot pole - as festively and furiously as possible, the rest of his Chattahooligans cheering section voicing its victory chant in full throat.

"I just took over this job this year," Kersting said a few minutes later during halftime. "It's a big responsibility. On a night like this it isn't hard at all, but if it was raining or windy it might be different. I lost three pounds at one game this year."

The CFC lost more than that against Nashville. It lost a chance to advance to the second round of the playoffs in New Orleans on Friday. It's believed to be the club's earliest playoff loss ever.

That doesn't mean the season was a failure. One need only go back to the Fourth of July to return to a time when the CFC was one loss from elimination. Instead, the local club won its final two games by a combined score of 10-0, victories that not only guaranteed a postseason but also a home game.

And when De Smedt successfully converted his penalty kick and Kersting helped "Gramps" fly free, at least one more game appeared possible, if not probable.

But then Nashville erupted down the stretch, scoring its first goal of the night in the 70th minute and the match-winner six minutes after that.

Said CFC coach Bill Elliott of that troublesome reversal of fortune: "We had a very bad mistake on the back. Gave them an opportunity that was too easy. That lifeline inspired them and deflated us."

It had looked so different throughout most of the first half, with Nashville embracing the defense-first strategy known in soccer circles as "catenaccio" or The Chain. Its literal Italian meaning is "door bolt."

And it's supposed to lock the door to opposing offenses. So even though the CFC was knocking on that door the vast majority of the first half, it wasn't scoring until De Smedt's goal just before intermission.

Yet whether it was that one very bad mistake by CFC or a more offensive-minded approach by Nashville, the second half seemed more disjointed for the home team, its plight not helped by the halftime loss of Juan Hernandez, whose right knee was done for the night.

"These guys aren't year-round players," Elliott said. "They work jobs nine months a year. They give us everything they've got, but they aren't professionals."

The Flag Czar isn't a professional flag waver, either, but he has come to follow the CFC so much that he drove to Charlotte last Saturday with a large group of Chattahooligans to help cheer the team to a 3-0 win in the playoff clincher.

"I've been a fan for three years," he said. "But it was actually my 10-year-old daughter, Zari, who got me involved in this. She's started following them and got me hooked on them, too."

Even though the official season is done, the CFC still has an exhibition game against Asheville at Finley Stadium on Wednesday, July 19, in what is being dubbed the "Blue Ridge Derby."

As he has all season, Kersting plans to be there with his daughter, waving Gramps.

"The best thing about the Chattahooligans," Kersting said, "is that everybody is inviting and accommodating."

Elliott agrees that the 'Hooligans are special. But he said it's never been just them that's made Finley come to feel so special on warm summer nights.

"They're really just one portion of the crowd," he said afterward as fans from every corner of the stadium waited to collect autographs and get pictures made with their futbol heroes. "The whole city of Chattanooga is what makes this so special."

Then Elliott turned his head toward the Finley stands, toward all those CFC fans still standing, chanting and cheering despite the loss.

Said the coach with unabashed pride: "Without a doubt, this is the best place to play soccer in the whole country."

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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