The problem with playing with ten men is that defending actions becomes exponentially harder. Because at the end of the day, the shorthanded team is trying to mark ten outfield men with nine. One unmarked player, like Detroit City’s Yazeed Matthews in the 88th minute, will have space they normally wouldn’t. Matthews got the ball in front of the goal, flicked it into the air with his back to the keeper, and did a bicycle kick to win the game 2-1 for Detroit. Chattanooga FC was playing with 10 men after Richard Dixon was sent off with a red in the 65th minute.
Sean Hoffstatter had the first good chance of the game in the 11th minute of action.
He drifted into a pocket of space inside Finley Stadium’s “end zone” like an experienced slot receiver. He took in the short pass and fired a shot. The Detroit City defense closed quickly and blocked the shot, but it was a good possession.
CFC found early success firing semi-long balls to the wings, where Hoffstatter and Juan Hernandez would race down the sideline as a couple of other CFC players would flood into the box. Detroit City had a few okay shots on goal, but Richard Dixon and keeper Alec Reddington kept their composure and dealt with those threats with poise.
When in possession, Chattanooga FC began to dominate possession after the 15th minute or so, which is not CFC’s usual strategy. Instead of blasting balls downfield, the home team began to ping the ball around with short passes, and Detroit City sat back a la Atletico Madrid.
In the 29th minute, Detroit City had one of their few threatening attacks up to that point in the game. The ball started on the right wing, and as their forward continued to break toward goal, he realized he had an open look. Reddington was alert and ready and dove to swat the ball away from the danger zone after that.
Detroit City could not be kept down forever, and they finally struck in the 43rd minute. Pato Botello-Faz swung into the box and posted up a few yards from the goal. He was more than ready to head the ball in when the cross came his way and gave DCFC a 1-0 lead.
“We weren’t good in the first half,” coach Fuller said. “But I thought the changes we made at half had a big effect until the red card.”
Markus Naglestad made his return in the second half, joining Daniel Jackson and Hoffstatter to create an attacking trident while Hernandez dropped into more of a 10 role. In the 55th minute, Naglestad announced his return on a corner kick set piece.
Naglestad started his run at the far post, and looped across the face of the goal. As he flashed to the near post, he jumped into the air and bashed the ball home with his head. The score now stood knotted at 1-1 apiece.
“I thought changing Tate to the right (wing) to start the half worked really well, and obviously Markus coming on scored right away,” coach Fuller said. “We had the game going our way.”
Chattanooga FC’s chances of winning were severely diminished after Richard Dixon was called for his second yellow of the game. Now playing with 10 men, CFC formed their wall and braced for a shot from just outside the box. Reddington deflected the first and a defender blocked the second.
Taking a page out of Jose Mourinho’s divisive but well-studied playbook, the shorthanded boys in Blue spent the rest of the match parking the bus in front of 2,000 fans. Kaio DaSilva subbed in and made a great clearance when the ball crossed into the box. Reddington cleaned up the Detroit City shots that got past the defense.
On one of the few instances where CFC sent bodies forward in the 78th minute, Naglestad let a shot rip from 10 yards away. His low blast was saved by the keeper, and CFC sent the bus back into their defensive third. Shaun Russell was exceptional on the wing, and at one point warded off three different Detroit City attackers to wrest possession back for his team.
“Shaun was terrific, he was terrific and played great,” coach Fuller said. “And to be honest I thought our entire back line did well. I thought Kaio was great when he came on too.”
Detroit City ruined any CFC plans of a ten-man tie when they scored with only a few minutes left in the game. Chattanooga now heads to the West Coast to play the Los Angeles Force next week.
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