CFC women, men can host four playoffs this week
Four games. Four days. All involving Chattanooga Football Club teams.
It could happen this week. Fresh off their seventh National Premier Soccer League Southeast Conference regular-season championship this decade, the CFC men will host a conference playoff semifinal Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Finley Stadium. If they win, they’ll play again Saturday at home in the championship match with a spot in next week’s region playoffs on the line.
The CFC women are a step ahead of the men. The winner of the regular-season WPSL Southeast Conference championship automatically earned a berth into the region playoffs, giving first-time winner Chattanooga (8-1) a spot this week in the final four. CFC will host a match Friday, “most likely against Pensacola FC,” according to CFC women’s general manager Gretchen Hammel, with the winner moving on to a likely Sunday final.
The other two semifinalists were to be the Carolina Rapids and the Florida Gulf Coast Dutch Lions, but the Rapids have declined to play and a substitute team is being lined up. Hammel said that if the Dutch Lions advance to the final, the championship match will be held “early Sunday afternoon” to account for the 10-hour drive for the team based in Cape Coral.
The men won’t know their Thursday opponent until after tonight’s matches. Inter Nashville FC and Asheville City Soccer Club are in one playin match, with New Orleans facing the Georgia Revolution in another. The brackets will be reseeded after the play-in matches, so CFC would draw the lower remaining seed of the two survivors. The Atlanta Silverbacks will host tonight’s other winner.