CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (September 1, 2024) — Chattanooga Football Club faced Atlanta United 2 for the third and final time of the 2024 MLS NEXT Pro regular season on Sunday evening, and were edged 4-3 in a back-and-forth encounter at Finley Stadium.
Alan Carleton gave Atlanta an early lead, however Milo Garvanian and Ouamri both scored later in the first half to head into the break in the lead. Javier Armas converted a penalty kick early in the second half to bring things level, however Ouamri answered back with his second of the night in the 62nd minute. Ashton Gordon pegged one back for Atlanta in the 87th minute before Karim Tmimi scored the winner for the visitors in the ninth minute of stoppage time after CFC were reduced to nine men.
"It's difficult because you score three goals and you'd think you can get out of it with something," said Underwood. "We're leading late in the 88th minute and you would hope that you could really manage that, so that was a disappointing part. I can't fault the effort. The guys really worked hard tonight and really pushed themselves tonight."
Asked to comment on the scuffle that transpired at the end of the match, which led to CFC receiving three red cards, Underwood said: "I really don't know what I saw. It was a melee in there. I think it's hard to give cards in that way when everyone's involved, so for me that's the hard part. There was a lot of involvement, and they got one yellow and we got three reds. That doesn't make any sense; it was chaos."
The result sees CFC drop to ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings, just one point from a playoff position.
CFC will get the chance to bounce back and look forward to another home match next Sunday, September 8th at 3:00 p.m. ET in a first-ever encounter with Columbus Crew 2. Tickets are on sale now.
Noteworthy
- Co-captains Jean Antoine and Alex McGrath returned to the starting XI having both recovered from short-term injuries
- Jesus Ibarra returned to the matchday squad for the first time since June 13th after recovering from an injury
- Milo Garvanian scored his third goal of the season
- Mehdi Ouamri scored two goals on the night to bring him to a team-leading 12 on the season—Ouamri is now joint-third in the entire league in goalscoring (St. Louis CITY 2's MyKhi Joyner is also on 12)
- Taylor Gray notched his team-leading seventh assist of the season
Post-match reaction
Box Score
Chattanooga FC (7W-9L-8D, 6SOW, 35 pts.) - Atlanta United 2 (7W-11L-5D, 3SOW, 29 pts.)
Finley Stadium | Chattanooga, Tenn.
Attendance: 3,554
Final score:
CFC: 3
ATL: 4
Scoring summary:
12': Carleton - ATL
27': Garvanian - CFC
45'+1: Ouamri - CFC
48' (penalty): Armas - ATL
62': Ouamri - CFC
87': Gordon - ATL
90'+9: Tmimi - ATL
Stats (CFC/ATL):
Possession: 40% / 60%
xG: 1.95 / 1.87 + pk
Shots: 11 / 22
Shots on goal: 6 / 9
Blocked shots: 2 / 5
Total passes: 301 / 444
Passing accuracy percentage: 74.8 / 83.8
Corners: 3 / 5
Free-kicks: 13 / 21
Total crosses: 6 / 8
Offsides: 8 / 1
Goalkeeper saves: 5 / 3
Clearances: 3 / 2
Fouls: 17 / 13
Discipline:
23' - CFC: Kwak (Caution)
24' - ATL: Moore (Caution)
30' - ATL: Okello (Caution)
33' - CFC: Sar-Sar (Caution)
40' - CFC: Watson (Caution)
47' - CFC: Prepelita (Caution)
58' - CFC: McGrath (Caution)
64' - CFC: Ouamri (Caution)
90'+3 - CFC: Gray (Caution)
90'+4 - ATL: Armas (Caution)
90'+ 5 - CFC: Ouamri (Second caution on night leading to dismissal)
90'+ 6 - CFC: Williams (Dismissal)
90'+7 - CFC: Kwak (Second caution on night leading to dismissal)
Line-ups:
CFC starters: Jean Antoine; Farid Sar-Sar, Anatolie Prepelita, Duvan Viafara; Andres Jimenez Aranzazu, Minjae Kwak ( Joseph Perez 88'), Milo Garvanian (Jesse Williams 88'), Callum Watson (Ethan Koren 77'); Alex McGrath (C), Taylor Gray (Markus Naglestad 90'+8), Mehdi Ouamri
Substitutes not used: Jonathan Burke, Logan Brown, Jude Arthur, Jalen James, Jesus Ibarra
Head Coach: Rod Underwood
ATL starters: Jayden Hibbert; Adyn Torres (Ronald Hernandez 59'), Ramzi Qawasmy (Ashton Gordon 77'), Kaiden Moore (Ethan Dudley 46'), Dominik Chong Qui; Javier Armas (C), Noble Okello; Matias Gallardo, Nick Firmino, Alan Carleton; Rodrigo Neri (Karim Tmimi 68')
Substitutes not used: Jonathan Ransom, Cooper Sanchez, Jacob Williams, Landon Zuniga
Head Coach: Steve Cooke
