There were fouls. There were offsides calls. There were offsides uncalled. There were shots on target. There were crunching tackles. There was trash talk. There were goals. And at the end of Saturday night, there was a 3-0 Chattanooga FC win over the visiting Maryland Bobcats to move the home team to 2-0-1. Forward Daniel Jackson was the star, scoring twice and creating several more opportunities with his great runs as the number nine.
“There’s a reason he played in the USL Championship for years and was drafted by Real Salt Lake,” coach Peter Fuller said.
“It was a great start for him, and I thought there were several other great starts too. Our decision-making was excellent.”
James Kasak lined up a free kick from 30 yards straightaway in the ninth minute, and his shot was aimed high and hard to the right. It was well-struck by the winger, but blocked by the Maryland Bobcats goalkeeper, who had the ball bounce off his hands and out of bounds.
Was forward Daniel Jackson offside in the 14th minute? Maybe he was, but it was close enough to being a deflection for the linesman to let play go on. A long ball went to forward Juan Hernandez, and it crashed into open space behind him. Jackson began to race downfield and caught up to the ball while accelerating downfield.
Using his pace to make his way downfield, Jackson started to veer to his right as he approached the box. Having beaten his own man, all he had to do was get a shot around the keeper Christian Caulker. Jackson took a low and left shot toward the far post that found itself a home in the back of the net to give CFC a 1-0 lead. Jackson could have possibly scored again a few minutes later, but he ended up getting decked by Caulker when he went up for the ball.
“Coach gave us a good game plan, which was to play quickly,” Jackson said. “Things just clicked, and of course support from the fans gives you an extra buzz. I think that the way we played, we wanted to stay organized. They had a little bit of possession in the first half, and we caught them over the top for that first goal.”
Teenage phenom Damian Rodriguez had several nice tackles and deflection from his position next to veteran Richard Dixon on the right. He also displayed a level of comfort on-ball, moving up and down the wing and making a couple decisive dribble moves and crosses into the box when given the opportunity.
“Every time he’s played, he’s done a good job,” coach Fuller said “And he’s not afraid. He’s brave and he plays a lot bigger than his size.”
Jackson’s physically-demanding night continued in the 26th minute. The new signing made another quick run down the middle and tried to force a shot in from close as he got tackled into the woodwork. It looked like a foul but was cancelled out by the fact that Jackson was already offside when he received the ball. In the 28th minute, Jackson had two point-blank shots on goal, but the first was blocked and then the second sailed over the top bar.
Maryland had a good crack at the goal in the 34th minute after their winger drew keeper Alec Reddington out from his post in front of the goal. An alert Nick Spielman covered for his keeper and deflected a shot with his leg, and the threat dissipated after that. James Pele Sesay also had a great shot in the 38th minute after cutting inside to his right and taking a shot from 10 yards out. That shot just barely missed going in the near corner, and the game remained a 1-0 affair.
Maryland’s Alex Kao made CFC supporters nervous in the 47th minute after he ducked and weaved and juked through the middle of the CFC defense and looked to have an open shot from six yards away. That was when Dixon flew in from nowhere and made a perfect tackle to blow up the play and stop the scoring threat.
In the 51st minute the Bobcats had another corner kick from the left side. The two sides converged and a Maryland striker flew in and used his head to propel the ball toward the goal. Reddington had to fully stretch out his 5’11 frame to make a leaping save, and after the two teams jawed at one another for a few seconds, the do-over corner wasn’t nearly as threatening.
“There’s nobody who works harder or wants it more,” coach Fuller said of his goalkeeper. “His decision-making lets him down at times, but tonight it was spot on, and I thought his positioning was also great.”
Chattanooga FC was content to sit back and defend for long stretches to start the second half. But CFC made the most of their rare scoring chances in the 65th minute on a fastbreak. Brett Jones flashed downfield and was smacked by Maryland’s Caulker while in the box. The keeper was given a red card and sent off. His replacement made a great effort to stop Juan Hernandez’s penalty shot to the right corner, but he couldn’t block the captain’s bullet.
Kasak had his obligatory amazing assist from the left wing in the 73rd minute to ice the game at 3-0. He blew past his defender, and crossed a low ball to a crashing Jackson. The forward had essentially an open goal and just tapped the ball in for his second goal of the game. After scoring one goal in all of 2020, Jackson had scored twice that in less than 90 minutes.
“James had a huge impact aside from his assist for the goal,” Jackson said. “His work rate and decision-making on the ball have been exceptional.”
Chattanooga FC plays another home match next Saturday against Los Angeles Force. The match kicks off at 7:30.
Do you have an opinion on this article, or have a story you believe needs coverage? You can contact the author at Joseph.A.Dycus@gmail.com or on Twitter at @joseph_dycus.