Chattanooga Football Club's performance vs. Silverbacks shows growth

Chattanooga Football Club's Sias Reyneke and Atlanta Silverbacks' Ferrety Sousa chase the ball Wednesday at Finley Stadium.
Chattanooga Football Club's Sias Reyneke and Atlanta Silverbacks' Ferrety Sousa chase the ball Wednesday at Finley Stadium.

The way the Chattanooga Football Club's match unfolded Wednesday against the Atlanta Silverbacks changed the expectations of the club.

A year ago, the Chattanooga side was humbled in a 5-0 defeat against the same opponent in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup. CFC was determined to put forth a better showing this time around -- while also preserving the legs of some veteran players with two more matches on the schedule this week and the National Premier Soccer League schedule still ahead of the team.

A brief CFC lead turned into a tie on a questionable call, and in overtime it turned into a 2-1 victory for the Silverbacks of the North American Soccer League. In two weeks, they'll travel to face the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer in the fourth round of the nation's longest-running tournament.

But for a moment, CFC (5-1) had reason to celebrate. A perfectly-placed cross by Jose Ferraz turned into a perfectly placed kick into the upper corner of the net by Luke Winter, which gave CFC a 1-0 lead in the 87th minut.

It was hardly a minute later when a foul was called against CFC in the penalty box. Shaka Bangura converted the penalty kick, which led to a tie and overtime.

In the 109th minute, Jaime Chavez scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal for the Silverbacks.

"I thought we had it," CFC midfielder Luis Trude said. "When we scored, I looked at the clock and saw there were three minutes, and our defense has been very consistent in not conceding goals. We gave up a penalty kick that in my opinion wasn't [a penalty]. After that, we kept our head and had chances to score, but we didn't and they scored one more."

In last season's match, the Silverbacks held a 3-0 lead at the half and were never seriously threatened. That was a point of emphasis this season for CFC, to show it was better than the effort put forth last year. It's helped the club battle in back-to-back overtime matches in its first two games in the Open Cup this season, against Ocala Stampede and the Wilmington Hammerheads.

"We saw this game as an opportunity for a do-over from last year," CFC coach Bill Elliott said. "There were maybe seven of us involved in last year's match, and we approached it from that standpoint. As the game went on, our confidence grew. We thought we could win this. When we went ahead, I wasn't surprised.

"I think that we proved that with discipline and hard work, you can be in these kinds of games. I like to think that if we can play that way against them, we can play with anybody in our league."

CFC has little time to rest, hosting the Maryland Bays at 7:30 Friday evening in the second game of the Steinbrecher Cup, a tournament for the top four amateur teams in the nation.

CFC defender Jordan Dunstan went down with a knee injury late in Wednesday's match. Early reports are he tore his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season.

"We're a victim of our own success," Elliott said. "We would have been better off letting Atlanta win and go quietly into the night, but that's not how we're built.

"We wanted to put ourselves in a position to win, and if we did, we were going for it."

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.

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