The Opposition Report II — MD20 vs Chattanooga Red Wolves SC
Fort Wayne Football Club hosts Chattanooga Red Wolves SC at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium in the second meeting of the season, with the final playoff spot one point away and both teams missing key players.
Saturday, August 15 | 7:30 PM ET | Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, Fort Wayne, IN | ESPN+
Editor’s note: On August 14th, Fort Wayne Football Club announced the transfer of forward Lilian Ricol to San Antonio FC of the USL Championship for a near-record USL League One fee. We will have a full piece on what the sale means for the club and this season. The report below accounts for a Saturday without him.
Prior Proceedings
All-Time vs Chattanooga (W-D-L): 1-0-0
The Opposition Report
MD4 Recap & Analysis
The first meeting in East Ridge turned on one question: what happens when Fort Wayne, the team that wants the ball, meets the team that enjoys not having the ball. Yet that game plan changed 44 seconds in. Taig Healy scored, we declined possession for the rest of the night, and Chattanooga got a taste of their own medicine; the challenge of breaking down a defensively stout team. The match turned physical, cards flew, and their head coach was sent off. It was a one-goal affair. The first win in Fort Wayne FC’s professional history came from making it difficult to break us down, a similar identity for both these clubs.
Four months later, Chattanooga still holds the ball less than any team in the league. So what has changed? The quick counter-attack that defined them has gone quiet, and the goals now arrive from corners, crosses, and dead balls; only Forward Madison has scored more from set pieces this season. Greyson Mercer, their main striker in the spring, has drifted to the margins, and Ropapa Mensah now leads the line. The constant has been Omar Hernandez, the midfielder with a hand in more of their goals than anyone on the roster, and the rematch happens without him after his red card against Omaha. Through midsummer their defensive shape kept winning at home by the narrowest of margins, consecutive 1-0 wins over AV Alta and One Knoxville SC on nights the visitors held the ball. Forward Madison put five past them at the end of July, and Union Omaha followed with three more in East Ridge to end a home unbeaten run that had stretched for months. Eight conceded in back-to-back matches. For most of this season they have collected points faster than their expected goals numbers support, and the past two weeks are the first time the results have matched their underlying numbers.
The Matchup II
Two teams just provided us the blueprint for getting through their defensive block. Chattanooga defends with position rather than pressure. They will let you shoot from 25 yards all night, and a month ago AV Alta obliged, two dozen attempts in East Ridge without a single moment of real danger. The teams that beat them got closer to goal and came from more directions. Madison scored five times in one evening through five different routes: a counter, a corner, a set piece, a penalty, and open play. Omaha scored inside 2 minutes, the first goal Chattanooga had conceded at home since May. They kept the ball in Chattanooga’s penalty area for the whole match instead of shooting from distance, and their chances came from different players rather than one playmaker. Madison did it at full strength and Omaha did it with a man advantage. Either way, the lesson holds. A block that shifts as one unit copes with a single threat and comes apart when tasked with defending from different directions.
This Chattanooga shape against our current run of form is concerning. Across three straight defeats we have shown exactly the profile the Red Wolves eat: plenty of shooters, not much from inside the area, one goal scored across three matches. Our performance against AV Alta looks uncomfortably similar to what Chattanooga has been feeding on in all those close wins in the middle of their summer schedule. And now our attack loses Ricol, the man tied for the club’s all-time scoring lead, on the eve of the match. If Saturday becomes Healy as the lone creator while everyone else watches, Chattanooga will have their way in Fort Wayne.
So the assignment is width and depth: stretch them wide, then get into the box. Jack Thomas and Kabiru Gafar have been our sharpest attackers through this stretch, and their one-on-one battles out wide are the mechanism that drags a positional block out of its lines. Javier Armas will need to create chances from his deep-lying position, which is his specialty. Michael Rempel returns from red card suspension and will need to keep Chattanooga unbalanced by getting into the attack. When the ball does turn over, nothing cheap around our own box; dead balls are the one weapon Chattanooga still swings hard, however they will be without their dead ball specialist, Omar Hernandez, which is good news for Fort Wayne.
Can Fort Wayne FC break down this Chattanooga side? Is there enough creativeness in our attack, similar to Madison and Omaha? We had a tactical advantage the first time we played the Red Wolves, which was surprise and also the early goal threw out both teams game day plan. I’m skeptical that we have enough creativeness in our attack this time around, however we know what it takes to beat them. Losing a player like Lilian Ricol at this stage in the season is bittersweet. The team could use reinforcements in our attack, not subtractions. While it certainly makes sense for the club and the long term strategy, as a player on a team in a playoff chase, you can’t help but think “so where are the goals going to come from?” Tonight, this Fort Wayne squad gets tasked with answering those questions. From the couch, I’m prepared for a tough test at home, looking for which player steps into the big vacancy left by Lilian Ricol. He was important for this roster build and he will certainly be missed.
Always FWD