Chattanooga FC travels to face Crown Legacy FC on Friday, September 12, with kick-off set for 7:00 p.m. ET at Mecklenburg County Sportsplex.
Chattanooga FC prepares to open the month of September on the road when it takes on Crown Legacy FC for the third and final time this season in an important Southeast Division contest.
Coming off of a two-week break after completing the season sweep over Huntsville City FC with a crucial 1-0 win thanks to Luke Husakiwsky’s first professional goal, CFC will be looking to continue its upward trajectory and secure one of the five playoff spots left in the Eastern Conference. Friday’s match is the first of the last five regular season matches for the Boys in Blue.
Friday night will be the first time Chattanooga FC will catch Crown Legacy on the road in 2025. In the first meeting at Finley Stadium back on April 19, CFC came back in the second half to emerge triumphant 2-1. Crown Legacy had the upper hand in their most recent meeting on July 26, winning 3-1.
What's at stake
A win for either side would be crucial for different reasons. For Chattanooga FC it would represent a major step towards clinching a MLS NEXT Pro playoff spot for the first time in club history, while for Crown Legacy, who sit on the outside looking in, it would keep them in the hunt for a playoff place.
What they said
Chattanooga FC Head Coach Chris Nugent and defender Milo Garvanian talked with media about how the club has used this break to recharge and prepare for the five remaining matches.
“I think the biggest thing was rest,” said Nugent. “We weren’t able to rest a lot during the season, especially when it got busy, just trying to get days off. There were a lot of games where we would travel, come back, and then have to come in and train the next day. That does take its toll. You’ve got the heat and all of those factors, so getting a window where we can just shut down completely for a couple of days was huge to help their bodies recover. It was a tough time, obviously being in such good form, getting eight points out of the last nine [possible], to then have a long break is tough, but we’re hoping that [with] this little break, we’ll still be on form and a little bit fresher and able to compete for the last four games of the season.”
“The long break has been really good just to kind of reset,” Garvanian said. “Everybody kind of went back to their homes, and I went to visit my girlfriend for three, four days, and all of the other guys went back home and just relaxed and sort of reset their bodies. It’s a long season and any chance you can take to have a break from all your muscles firing is definitely a welcome one. I think we’re in a good spot after this big rest. We’ve really just been working on the fundamentals of what we think we need to get better. The coaching staff’s been trying to nail down some points and we’ve just been trying to hit them.”
Both also spoke on training leading up to Friday’s match and what some of CFC’s goals are against Crown Legacy.
“The guys are good,” Nugent said. “It’s very competitive at training all the time. They do a good job of riding that needle of competitiveness, so even in the two weeks when we didn’t have anything on the weekend, we had inter-squad games and the guys are just competitors. I’m fortunate enough that they bring that out in themselves, so our job as the staff is just to angle it to where we want to go. The last two weeks, one was a ‘down’ week and we were just focusing on what we were doing, and then we kind of brought it back up again the next week. It’s really more what we want to do ourselves and then when we play this week, we can angle how we’re going to maybe deal with Crown [Legacy].”
“Our goals are definitely to win the game and come away with three points,” said Garvanian. “Personally, I’d like to get a goal contribution. Last year, I had a few more than I do this year, and I’d love to get back on the score sheet or assist something. That’s a personal goal of mine, but to control the game and win soundly without having to defend for 80 minutes would be great as well.”
Did you know?
- Goalkeeper Eldin Jakupović joins Toronto FC II’s Adisa De Rosario at the top of the league in clean sheets (7)
- CFC defender Tate Robertson holds the club leads in both league goals scored (7) and assists (9)
- Defender Farid Sar-Sar and Jakupović hold the club lead in minutes played this season (2070)
- Chattanooga FC has reached 10 wins in a season for the first time in MLS NEXT Pro
News around CFC
- On Tuesday, Chattanooga FC honored a local childhood cancer patient with a "contract for a day," in partnership with Erlanger
- CFC’s elite MLS NEXT academy teams are in their inaugural season
- Chattanooga FC is hosting an “All in for $10” ticket promotion for the club’s match against Carolina Core FC on September 21, and general admission tickets will be available for exactly $10 at checkout
Know the opponent
Head Coach Gary Dicker is in his first season at the helm of Crown Legacy FC (6W-11L-8D).
The 2025 season has seen them total 29 points through 25 matches played so far, and Crown Legacy currently sits 12th in the Eastern Conference.
The club is coming into Friday night’s matchup off of a 4-3 loss to independent side Carolina Core on September 4.
Last Thursday’s match at Carolina saw forward Dylan Sing become Crown Legacy’s leading goalscorer with his seventh of the season. He is trailed by Emmanuel Uchegbu, who has netted six goals in 2025.
Watch party
The club will be hosting an official watch party at Cheers Collective member Clever Alehouse for the Chattanooga FC match at Crown Legacy FC!
Match information
Venue: Mecklenburg County Sportsplex | Matthews, N.C.
Kick-off: 7:00 p.m. ET, Friday, September 12
Broadcast: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV | Talent: Parker Johnson
Team uniforms for Saturday’s match
Referees
Wes Caouette
Head Referee
Race Williams
Assistant Referee 1
Diego Lucio
Assistant Referee 2
Deny Kulasinac
4th Official
