In a season wrought with offensive ineptitude, the Chattanooga Red Wolves’ maligned offense
may not have been better than they were against Richmond during their season-saving 2-1 win.
After Forward Madison tied with Tucson, Chattanooga needed a victory to keep their slim
playoff hopes alive.
“We had our moments collectively, but we have some things that we need to clean up,” said
coach David Baruetta, “It’s decision making when we have the ball, and when we don’t’ have
the ball too. We’ll figure it out this week (in practice).”
Midfielder Ualefi Dos Reis scored first for the home team. The stocky two-way player easily
converted a penalty kick in the 23rd minute, a rare moment of stillness for a frenetic offensive
effort for the Red Wolves. In a “do or die” match, the team appeared to move and cut with
purpose, ripping into open space with aplomb.
Defender-turned-forward Vangjel Zguro was stellar on the flanks. As he has done all season, the
Albanian sprayed the ball to targets far downfield. Whether it was Greg Hurst, Sito Seoane, or
another teammate, Zguro continually hit his targets in stride and gave the team constant
chances to score. With the season-ending injury to captain and leading goal-scorer Steven
Beattie, the Red Wolves would rely on others to convert chances.
“It’s always tough to lose a guy like that. He’s not just the leading goal scorer, but he’s also the
captain and the heartbeat of the club,” said injured player and pseudo-coach Colin Falvey, “But
it’s next man in. It’s just a case of whoever is called upon at any night tries to jell into the team
and help us win.”
Seoane was one of those who needed to pick up the scoring slack, and that is exactly what he
did in the 31st minute. The man who has scored all five of his goals at home added a sixth strike
at David Stanton Field. With Zguro trotting with the ball to his left, Seoane was tearing up the
synthetic turf on the right side. Standing only a few feet away from his score-minded
teammate, Zguro fired a low and hard pass to Seoane after he timed his run to perfection.
Zguro’s offering hit the forward in stride, with Seoane still in onside position when he took the
ball in near the right side pipes. The goalkeeper was a step too slow in getting from one side of
the goal to the other, and Seoane easily pushed the ball toward the near post and gave the
Wolves a 2-0 lead.
The second half was much more ragged for the Red Wolves. At one point, it seemed as if every
decent chance the team had was negated by a foul or an offside call. On the other side,
Richmond would not quit against the Wolves, regardless of the fact that they were down a man
after one of their players incurred a red card.
Charles Boateng put a scare into Red Wolves in the 65th minute. The diminutive forward took a
pass on the left side of the field and shuffled a few steps in that direction. He then used his
missile-launcher of a left foot to blast a shot straight past keeper Alex Mangels, closing the
deficit to 2-1. While Richmond was unable to get another, that wasn’t due to a lack of effort.
The Red Wolves spent the last ten minutes on the defensive, and barely withstood a last-gasp
salvo of shots from Richmond.
“We need to be a little bit more clinical in front of the goal,” said Falvey, “And we need to
switch into defensive mode in transition much more quickly.”
For Chattanooga to make the playoff, a few things need to roll their way. The Red Wolves need
to win their match against Toronto FC, and Forward Madison needs to either lose or tie their
final contest. If this were to happen, Chattanooga would edge Forward Madison 42 to 41/40 in
points.