Chattanooga Football Club opened the inaugural "Blastoff Battle" invitational tournament hosted by Huntsville City FC by edging South Georgia Tormenta FC 1-0 in the club's second match of the 2024 preseason.
A late penalty in the 87th minute proved to be the decisive goal as the Boys in Blue booked their first victory of the year.
Head Coach and Sporting Director Rod Underwood named his second starting XI of preseason with two changes from last weekend with goalkeeper Michael Barrueta and Milo Garvanian replacing Jon Burke and Joseph Perez respectively.
The first half was competitive and physical with Chattanooga FC edging proceedings by producing two shots on goal to Tormenta's one.
Underwood made wholesale changes for the second half, but that did not mean a drop in quality or progressive, possession-based football. Chattanooga FC came close on a few occasions and the team's persistence ultimately paid off. A trialist for CFC was brought down by Tormenta goalkeeper Drew Romig and he converted the resulting spot-kick with just three minutes left in regulation.
Chattanooga FC will now prepare for a quick turnaround as the "Blastoff Battle" preseason invitational hosted by Huntsville City FC continues on Sunday. CFC will close out the weekend with a match against the University of Alabama-Huntsville (UAH) Chargers on Sunday, Feb. 18th, at 11:00 a.m. CT/12:00 p.m. ET.
Quotes
Underwood sat down with ChattanoogaFC.com following the victory to give his assessment on the night.
On his key takeaways from the first win of preseason:
"We were better than we were last week, and that's the most important thing. We showed some more ideas of things we're trying to implement in training. It's just a slow building process. Build, build, build, building blocks and more building blocks... It was really about getting new players acclimated to what we want to do and the returning players back into sync of what we were doing and meshing all that together.
On the challenge Tormenta presented and how his team stood up to that challenge:
"They did a good job. We're both in the same situation: building, growing, missing some players. They did a fine job. They were dangerous and difficult to play against, so it was a perfect opponent for us."
On how some of the newer players are adapting to his style of play:
"We're pretty clear: it's either, 'this is how you do it or you're not here.' There's no deviation. There's no ,'let's have a discussion about it.' This is how we do it. It's down to you (the player) to figure out how to implement it. We teach, teach and teach. But this is the way we go forward."
On any injury news or status updates:
"We're being cautious more than anything else. We want to make sure we stay healthy going into the season. We want to err on the side of caution to make sure the guys are ready for the first game.
On how to manage a quick turnaround of games [CFC plays on Sunday at 12 p.m. ET]:
"We're ok right now because we have a lot of numbers. Tomorrow will be a down day to recover and replenish. We'll then get ready for Sunday. All the group's only played about 45 minutes, so that was the plan. When we put some physical data behind our plan, it was better to go 45 for each player."
On what it was like to have Chattanooga FC supporters in the crowd:
"We do nothing without the fans. We don't exist without the fans. It's so awesome to see them and create real relationships with them and talk with them. That's really important they feel included and a part of what we're doing."