Chattanooga FC looks to keep its place at the top of the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference and in the league overall when it hosts New England Revolution II at Fort Finley on Saturday evening.
The Boys in Blue are coming off a resilient and gritty come-from-behind victory at divisional rivals Huntsville City, while New England will want to respond after a heavy 4-1 defeat at New York Red Bulls II last time out.
Saturday's match will be the third ever meeting between the two sides.
Both meetings last season were played in rainy conditions. CFC edged New England 1-0 at Finley Stadium on June 1st, while the teams drew 1-1 at Gillette Stadium followed by a 5-4 CFC victory on penalties for the extra point.
Saturday night's match will be the only time during the regular season that the sides will go head to head.
Head Coach Chris Nugent and forward Keegan Ancelin both shared their thoughts ahead of the matchup with New England.
"They are a strong team," said Nugent. "Defensively, we'll need to be prepared as they will play through the lines quickly. They have good movement and create overloads, so we will need to get our defensive control early. A lot of teams have rotation and movement, so being organized enough to make that difficult will be important. We also need to attack and drive in-behind more regularly."
Ancelin specifically spoke about the team's depth and ability to rotate.
"We all have the ability to rotate in our positions and we love to bounce off each other," said Ancelin. "We are all providing for the team. It's not just one player with all the goals and assists. Everyone is working as a cohesive unit to create and score the chances. I was scoring a lot at the beginning, and now there are others scoring and we're all working off each other, which is great. That will be important in order to go far in the season. We have a lot of players contributing."
New England Revolution II is coached by the experienced Richie Williams, who joined the club in 2019 and is embarking in his second campaign at the helm of the club's MLS NEXT Pro side.
New England is in the midst of a five-match road stretch and most recently lost 4-1 at New York Red Bulls II.
Forward Liam Butts is the team's leading scorer with five goals. Marcos Dias will be another player to watch as he leads the team in minutes played (660), key passes (27) and assists (4).
There will be a special guest executing Saturday's coin toss. NFL Pro Bowler and former Atlanta Falcons fullback Ovie Mughelli will be at Fort Finley. Mughelli played with the Falcons from 2007-2011.
Match info
Venue: Finley Stadium | Chattanooga, Tenn.
Kick-off: 7:00 p.m. ET, Saturday, May 24
Broadcast: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV | Talent: James Hadnot
Audio Webcast: CFC on Mixlr | Talent: Gabriel Schray