The Chattanooga Red Wolves are set to take on North Texas Soccer in a USL League One matchup on Saturday, August 8th at 9:00 PM EST. The Red Wolves will hope to pick up their first win on the road this weekend, at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas. This will be a League One top 5 matchup, as the Red Wolves enter the game placed 3rd in the league, while North Texas SC trail by just two spots, at 5th place. The Week 3 Power Rankings even saw CRW climbing to second in the league.
The Red Wolves (1-0-1) are unbeaten going into the weekend after picking up a point on the road in their opening game against Tormenta FC, and also winning their first home game against FC Tucson. North Texas SC on the other hand, lost 1-0 to Union Omaha on Saturday, after picking up a win against Forward Madison FC bringing them to 1-1-0 on the season. After a historic weekend marking the inaugural home opener in CHI Memorial Stadium, the Chattanooga Red Wolves have a ton of momentum that will carry into this weekend’s game. The Red Wolves put on an impressive performance in their last game against FC Tucson with a valiant defensive effort that completely shut down FC Tucson’s offense. This proved to be a hard-fought physical matchup that contained 44 overall fouls and 11 yellow cards, but in the end, the Red Wolves found victory. The environment at CHI Memorial was remarkable with a fantastic fan turnout, a great atmosphere, all topped off with an inaugural win to launch the Red Wolves and the city of Chattanooga into this new era.
The game ended 1-0 in favor of the Red Wolves, after Greg Hurst notched his third goal of the season after slotting one past the FC Tucson keeper in the 53rd minute of the game. There was never a dull moment in this matchup, and perhaps the most pivotal point in the match came when Alex Mangels came up with a huge penalty kick save, to give Chattanooga the momentum they needed to finish out the game. Chattanooga was able to quell a very desperate and attacking team with a strong defensive effort, ultimately securing the three points. North Texas SC is coming off of a loss to Union Omaha, who were able to find victory against the defending champions.
In 2019, North Texas got the better of the Red Wolves on the season winning two out of three matchups. In March of 2019, the Red Wolves played North Texas SC in their first ever game as a new club, and lost a very tight game, 3-2. The Red Wolves bounced back however in the next matchup between the two teams, pulling out a 1-0 win at home in August. North Texas SC however, won the tiebreaker later in August, with a 2-0 win on the road against the Chattanooga Red Wolves. North Texas SC went on to end the season at the top of the table with a record of 17-6-5, becoming the USL League One Champions, while the Chattanooga Red Wolves ended the season 10-8-10, sitting 5th in the standings.
The Red Wolves will be eager to redeem themselves this season as they have a stronger squad, a new home stadium, and a point to prove. They will look to improve their unbeaten streak to 3 games, and to get the better of North Texas SC this season. It will prove to be difficult as North Texas SC has an affiliation with FC Dallas, a notable team in the MLS. With FC Dallas being out of the MLS playoff race it would not come as a surprise to see a high caliber team of both FC Dallas and NTX players faceoff against the Red Wolves. Nonetheless, our boys from Chattanooga do not shy away from stiff competition but rather use the opportunity to rise to the occasion. Help us root the Red Wolves on while they are on the road by streaming it on ESPN+ at http://www.espn.com/watch?id=e621987e-1b19-4c9a-8943-4f720af81f6e.
