Chattanooga FC returns home to close out its August slate of matches when it hosts Huntsville City FC for a crucial Southeast Division matchup on Saturday night.
CFC earned an important three points in last Saturday’s Battle of the Independents at Carolina Core thanks to defender Tate Robertson’s expertly converted penalty kick to make it 1-0 late in regulation time.
Saturday’s match is the third and final time Chattanooga will face Huntsville City this season. The Blues were victorious in both previous meetings, earning an early 1-0 win on March 15 and coming from behind to take home a 2-1 road win on May 17 thanks to second half goals from Nathan Koehler and Daniel Mangarov.
Head Coach Chris Nugent spoke with media ahead of a pivotal third and final regular season meeting with Huntsville.
"There's been a lot of positivity in training," said Nugent.
"Getting five points out of the last six available was great. At this stage of the season it's all about picking up points. Every point is going to help. We all saw how close the league was last year and it will be close again this year. It was a tough game at Carolina Core on Saturday—they get a good crowd there. To get late goals two weeks back-to-back that were deserved and to snap our non-clean win streak as well, it was good to get that monkey off our back. We're trying to not get too caught up in the highs and lows of it. We know we are competitive with anyone and we can beat anyone and it can happen to us; it's just that type of league."
Nugent also addressed how the team's three new signings [Husakiwsky, Garcia and Cohen] have been gelling and how the team has welcomed them all in.
"We have a fantastic group of players here. It's a good environment that we've all created and the guys are always welcoming even when we have players coming in on trial. We get a lot of good feedback of how welcoming our players are. You get that from Chattanooga as a city as a whole as well, people want to help you acclimate, so it's great to have that reflected in the team. They've all been in similar positions where they've been the new guy in the locker room, so they want to help each other. We're trying to raise each other up because we know everyone here can be important for us."
Goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic joins Toronto FC II’s Adisa De Rosario at the top of the league in clean sheets (6)
CFC defender Tate Robertson holds the club lead for league goals scored this season (7)
Defender Farid Sar-Sar and Jakupovic are two of three players at the joint top of the league in minutes played this season (1980)
Chattanooga FC is hosting Building the Future: CFC Town Hall with Chairman of the Board Davis Grizzard before Saturday's match against Huntsville City FC from 5:00-6:00 p.m. in the Ultra Club at Finley Stadium
CFC announced Tuesday that it signed former Inter Miami CF Academy forward Yuval Cohen to his first MLS NEXT Pro contract
Cohen faced Huntsville City, suiting up for Miami, just last week and converted the team's lone penalty in the shootout for the extra point in that match
Head Coach Chris O’Neal leads Huntsville City FC (11W-4L-6D) in his second season with the club, and it currently sits second in the Eastern Conference with 43 points.
Huntsville gained five points in its two matches last week and earned MLS NEXT Pro Team of Matchweek 23 honors. Thursday saw the club draw 2-2 at Miami before coming out on top 3-1 in the shootout to earn the extra point before it hosted New York City FC II on Sunday evening in a 2-1 win. The club also climbed to fourth in the latest league power rankings.
Alan Carleton and Christian Koffi lead Huntsville with 10 goals each. Carleton also leads the club with six assists, trailed closely by Koffi’s five.
Match info
Venue: Finley Stadium | Chattanooga, Tenn.
Kick-off: 7:00 p.m. ET, Saturday, August 23
Broadcast: MLSNEXTPro.com | Talent: James Hadnot Radio: CFC on Mixlr | Talent: Gabriel Schray