Chattanooga FC looks to continue the month of August on an upward trajectory after securing a crucial two points in last Saturday’s match at Orlando City B when it faces Carolina Core FC in a crucial independent club derby on the road Saturday in High Point, North Carolina.
Propelled by CFC defender Nathan Koehler’s brace, regulation time ended with a 2-2 draw before Chattanooga won the resulting shootout for the extra point (4-2).
Saturday evening’s matchup will be the second of three slated meetings this season between Chattanooga and Carolina Core.
In the last meeting between the sides on April 13, CFC took home all three points after a comprehensive 4-1 win at Carolina.
Head Coach Chris Nugent spoke with media about how Chattanooga is preparing for Saturday’s away match.
“Same thing as what we’ve spoke about in the past of being consistent with our behaviors because when we’re not, that’s when we can get punished,” said Nugent. “We have our principles of how we want to press, and when we fall off of those we can be in trouble. We've been working through those and getting guys more comfortable with some of the individual things we might expect from [Carolina] Core, and then it's the same thing on the attacking front; we’ve been creating chances quite a lot the last ten games or so, but we need to be more effective and efficient when we do it. We've been targeting certain areas that we feel we can exploit. At the start of the year we saw it, we were scoring early and scoring on one or two shots we had, and we need to get back into that a little bit because it really does impact the game state.”
Defender Nathan Koehler also spoke about the resilience and accountability the Blues have had throughout the season.
“I think in training everyone demands a really high standard,” said Koehler. “Whether that’s a unit, so the defenders obviously demand a high standard of defenders, but it’s not just that. You know, I expect our forwards to be on in every session, they expect me to be on every session because if I’m not doing my job and theirs is too easy in training, they’re not getting anything from it and vice versa. The expectations are high all the time. Obviously we haven’t got the wins and the points that we really would have liked to going off of the first part of the season, but our heads aren’t down. The demands and the expectations are really high still. I’m just looking forward to when we get that win and we keep going again.”
Donovan Ricketts is in his first season as head coach of Carolina Core FC (5W-8L-8D, 27 pts.) after being the club’s assistant and goalkeeper coach the season prior.
Carolina comes into Saturday’s match following a 3-2 loss at Huntsville City FC last Sunday.
Glory Nzingo leads the club in goals scored with seven, just ahead of Facundo Canete with six goals on the season. Goalkeeper Alex Sutton is joint top of the league with five clean sheets.
Carolina Core announced on August 7 that it signed former CFC forward Jesus Ibarra.
Chattanooga FC is hosting Building the Future: CFC Town Hall with Chairman of the Board Davis Grizzard on August 23 before CFC’s match against Huntsville City FC from 5:00-6:00 p.m. in the Ultra Club at Finley Stadium
The club announced Monday that it has signed midfielder Luke Husakiwsky to his first professional contract on a one-year deal with a club option for a further year
Defender Nathan Koehler scored his first professional brace in last Saturday’s shootout win at Orlando City B, with his first strike earning MLS NEXT Pro Goal of Matchweek 22 honor.
The club will be hosting an official watch party at Cheers Collective member Buffalo Wild Wings for the Chattanooga FC match at Carolina Core FC.
Match info
Venue: Truist Point | High Point, N.C.
Kick-off: 7:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, August 16
Broadcast: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV | Talent: Parker Johnson