CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (June 2, 2024) – Chattanooga FC Women hosted their second game of the WPSL season Sunday evening against Knoxville 865 Alliance at Finley Stadium. The back-and-forth affair saw the away side just edge out CFCW, 2-1.
CFCW’s Eleonora Franco got off to a fast start, creating multiple chances from the left wing. It was Franco who opened the scoring with a 13th minute goal from just inside the 18-yard box. This goal was created from a pinpoint longball from Franco’s college teammate at the University of Louisiana Monroe, Janne Van Brummelen.
CFCW kept the pressure up offensively throughout the first half, but also held strong defensively. CFCW’s Anna Land and Hannah Opie both made goal-saving tackles from just outside the six-yard box in the 32nd and 37th minute.
The high heat affected both teams, and toward the end of the first half Knoxville took advantage and equalized with a 42nd minute goal that was created from a through ball by Bre Mendoza and finished off by Kayla Barr.
Knoxville’s late first-half attacking success carried over into the second half, as they netted their second goal of the contest in the 56th minute. Mendoza added on to her first half assist with this go ahead goal in the second half.
The Sky Blues kept the pressure up, with lots of crosses and chances in Knoxville’s box in the final 15 minutes. CFCW’s attacking threats put the Alliance under fire, but they ran out of time at the end of the 90 minutes.
Chattanooga FC Women will next travel to FC Birmingham on Saturday, June 8th at 7:00 p.m. ET. With a game in hand on the rest of the conference, CFCW will look for three points as they approach the second half of the season.
Quotes
Eleonora Franco gave her reaction after the match.
"The first half was for sure our best half so far. We played better than the last game, that's for sure. We're still a young team, so we need to get to know each other. I think that's a major factor. We could've done more.
On scoring her first goal for the club:
"It was really, really satisfying, especially when I started hearing my name really loud, from people who don't even know me (who didn't know me before), so it was really, really satisfying."
On what it will take to get a first win on the season next weekend in Birmingham:
"We're going to give everything we have. We're going to try and improve and start understanding each other. We did have a good performance out there, but we could've done much more, especially considering the individual talent we have on the team. We can win everything if we want to."
Head Coach Tom Halsall also gave his thoughts after the defeat.
"I'm disappointed. We've worked really hard in training this week. Because we saw our identity a lot more in the way we play this week and the way that we fought throughout the game, I just felt like we deserved more out of it. I felt like we controlled a lot of the game. We just switched off again, and we got punished.
"Sometimes those lessons are the hard ones to learn. It's difficult to digest because we went up 1-0 and got the crowd going. Eleonora had a great goal and we maintained it for a long period. We were the better team for the first 30, 35 minutes and the last 10 we just switched off. To lose the game overall is disappointing. I know the players are down. We're down, too. But there are a lot of positives. We introduced a couple more players today, which really helped us. You saw players step up into their roles and take responsibility, which was really good. Big positive for me was seeing more of our identity of how we play and the style we play, and I think it worked a lot, and that's what's really encouraging to take from the game today even though we did lose."
Notes
- Abbey Marak and Janne Van Brummelen made their first appearance and start for CFCW
- Chattanooga FC head coach, Tom Halsall, was coaching against his sister-in-law, Allison Hansford, forward for Knoxville 865 Alliance
Box Score:
Chattanooga FC Women  (0W-2L-0D, 0 pts.)  - Knoxville 865 Alliance (2W-0L-1D, 7 pts.)
Finley Stadium | Chattanooga, Tenn. 
Final Score:
CFC: 1
865: 2
Scoring Summary:
13’: Eleonora Franco - CFC
42’: Kayla Barr - 865
56’: Bre Mendoza - 865
Line-ups:
CFC starters: Lilly Kate Varino, Anna Land (C), Abbey Marak, Hannah Opie, Billie Jean Davies, Kaitlyn Gauze, Janne Van Brummelen, Ciara Casamento, Eleonora Franco, Juliette Lucas, Summer Hernandez
Substitutes: Brooke Alvarez, Bailie Dull, Mary Beth Skelton, Ava Vandoren, Betha Pucek, Riley Brown, Annalisa Vincent, Brady Livingston
Head Coach: Tom Halsall
865 starters: Peyton Huber, Masey Fox, Kendall Wade, Alayna Corbitt, Lexi Bearden, Nyla Blue, Liv Stott, Kayla Barr, Alexis Washington, Claire Palya, Allison Hansford
Substitutes: Emma Cooke, Chloe Chase, Jordan Hellman, Megan Carroll, Sydney Clements, Bre Mendoza, Abigail Witten
Head Coach: Allan Schoenfeld
