Match Preview: Carolina Core FC v Chattanooga FC
Battle of the Independents takes place tonight
Match: Carolina Core FC v Chattanooga FC
Date: Saturday, August 16th, 2025. 19:30 (Eastern)
Venue: Truist Point Stadium, High Point, NC. Capacity: 4,500
How to watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+
Tickets: Carolina Core website
Carolina Core FC (11th) hosts the league’s other independent club, Chattanooga FC (6th), tonight at Truist Point Stadium. Both sides will be aiming to gather three precious points as the race to get into or stay within the playoff spots heats up in the MLS Next Pro Eastern Conference. It was a one-sided affair the last time they met, as CFC put four goals on the Core back in April at this venue. Expect Carolina to do everything to set that record right against a much changed Chattanooga this time around.
Carolina Core (League: P:21 W:5 D:8 L:8 SOW:4 GF:28 GA:30 GD:-2) are within touching distance of a playoff spot, being only two points off FC Cincinnati 2 in 8th place. Cincinnati has a game-in-hand however and it’s a hugely competitive, packed group in the midfield of the table with Toronto FC II a point ahead in 9th and Orlando City B and the Core both on 27 points in 10th and 11th respectively. The Core does have some strong recent home form up its sleeve, having not lost in their last three games at Truist Point. This includes wins against strong visitors from New England and Philadelphia (both much higher in the table), which is ominous for Chattanooga. Overall, their home record is four wins, four losses, and four draws. Their most recent game, last Sunday, away to Huntsville saw them go 3-0 down within 26 minutes before falling just short after pulling two goals back. Jesus Ibarra, who left Chattanooga FC on 31 July and signed for the Core and a mere week later, scored in his debut against Huntsville.
Chattanooga (P:21 W:8 D:7 L:6 SOW:4 GF:33 GA:33 GD:0) are an unpredictable team right now. After storming their way to the summit of the league in Spring, their June and July form saw them slip down to where they’re now battling to stay in the playoff spots, let alone aim for a home game in post-season. While they have a relieving six-point cushion to NYCFC II behind them, they do need to start picking up wins again to ensure they stay in the hunt. They’re now ten points off first place and most of the teams above them have games-in-hand. For Chattanooga then, while they’ll still aim high, the realistic goal must be to simply get playoff soccer this fall. Their away record mirrors Carolina’s home record, which is intriguing, as is the presence of former fan favorite Ibarra. In their most recent game, Chattanooga tied 2-2 at Orlando City B, initially going a goal up before being a goal down in the dying seconds before Nathan Koehler bagged his second of the evening. They won the resulting penalty shootout to claim a crucial bonus point. That, a potential morale boost plus some fresh signings, might combine into a stronger CFC tonight than we’ve seen recently.
Canadian referee Iryna Petrunok will officiate the match which kicks off at 7.30pm and will be broadcast live on Apple TV+ for those with an MLS Season Pass.
The History
Carolina Core: P:4 W:2 D:0 L:2 SOW:0 GF:5 GA:8
Chattanooga: P:4 W:2 D:0 L:2 SOW:0 GF:8 GA:5
Tonight’s game will be the second of three regular season match-ups between Carolina Core and Chattanooga this season. In their last meeting on April 13, CFC took home all three points after a comprehensive 4-1 win at Truist Point. A farcical own goal from Core defender Ibrahim Covi was quickly followed by a header from their forward David Polanco to tie up the game. After CFC had pulled ahead again thanks to captain Farid Sar-Sar, things got worse for Covi following half-time when he was sent off for a sloppy foul. After that, Chattanooga took firm hold of the game and goals from Tate Robertson and Peter Plougmand sent them back to the Scenic City as the wining side.
At the time, it was Chattanooga’s best start to the season in the club's professional era and since 2016 overall. After the game it enjoyed a three-point cushion over Orlando City B at the top of the Eastern Conference. Carolina Core, meanwhile, remained stuck in 10th place. While things have stayed roughly the same for the Core, Chattanooga’s season has certainly slumped since then.
The clubs will meet again on September 21 at Finley Stadium.
Report cards and lineups
Carolina Core
Donovan Ricketts is in his first season as head coach of Carolina Core after previously being the club’s assistant and goalkeeper coach. He brings enormous experience from his playing days with Bradford City, LA Galaxy, Portland Timbers, and the Jamaica national team, with whom he won 100 caps. He previously coached with FC Tulsa in the USL Championship.
Away to Huntsville last weekend, Carolina allowed three goals in just 26 minutes. Ricketts rang some changes at halftime, with new signings Jesus Ibarra and Antonio Pineda coming in to alter the complexion of the tie. In the 50th minute, a floated through pass from Jathan Juarez was latched on to by Ibarra in the box, who cut through multiple defenders to slide the ball into the opposite corner. Twenty minutes later, following a through ball from Pineda, forward Anthony Sumo Jr. took the ball from the halfway point into the box while fighting off challenges from multiple defenders before finding the back of the net. An admirable fight back, but the damage had been done.
Ricketts is wonderfully predictable in his line-up choices, having started the above XI in their last three outings, including those wins over Philadelphia Union II and New England Revolution II. With a fairly flat 5-4-1, I am uncertain where new signing Ibarra will fit in as he’s more of an advanced winger who thrives within a wider attacking shape.
Irishman Glory Nzingo, on loan from Swansea City, currently leads the club in goals scored with seven, just ahead of Facundo Canete with six goals on the season. Captain Jacob Evans has six goal contributions (three goals, three assists) and has the joint-fourth most key passes in MLS Next Pro this year, alongside Chattanooga’s Tate Robertson. Goalkeeper Alex Sutton is joint top of the league with five clean sheets and the joint league leader in minutes played (1,890). Canete is just behind on him 1,883 minutes played.
CFC fans may recognize Sutton, as well as midfielders Jonathan Bazaes and Corey Lundeen from their time at the Maryland Bobcats and Albion San Diego, respectively, back in the NISA days.
However, the most recognizable face in a Core jersey will be that of Jesus Ibarra. The 27-year-old played for CFC from June 2023 to late July 2025, participating in the club’s transition from NISA to MLS Next Pro. In his two seasons competing in MLS NEXT Pro, Ibarra made 28 appearances, scored eight goals and contributed four assists in total. The highlight of his time in Chattanooga was when he scored the 2024 MLS NEXT Pro Goal of the Year in 2024. He scored in this first game for Carolina last weekend and is undoubtedly the player to watch for the Core in tonight’s game.
Another reunion of sorts with be that of Carolina forward Yekeson Subah and Chattanooga goalkeeper Eldin Jakupović who are former teammates from their time together at Los Angeles FC in the 2023 MLS Season.
A number of the Core’s squad came though academies of foreign sides. These include center-backs Juan Pablo Rodríguez (Lanús in Argentina) and Ibrahim Covi (Metz and Ajaccio in France and Ponferradina in Spain), right-back Paul Leonardi (Ajaccio), midfielders Derek Cuevas (Barcelona in Spain) and Nzingo (St. Patrick’s Athletic in Ireland, Stade Reims in France, and Swansea City in Wales), and striker David Polanco (Essingen in Germany).
There’s some international youth experience in the team also, with Argentina (Rodríguez), Dominican Republic (Cuevas), Antigua & Barbuda (Drake Hadeed), Jamaica (Zion Scarlett), the United States (Polanco), and the Republic of Ireland (Nzingo).
Chattanooga
This week, Chattanooga announced a pair of new signings with former Des Moines Menace captain and midfielder Luke Husakiwsky and ex-Austin FC II striker Anthony García coming in to bolster ranks. Head Coach Chris Nugent has been without powerful striker Peter Plougmand for a while now, and will hope García is the man to instill some venom back into CFC’s frontline.
Last time out, CFC fought to a 2-2 stalemate at Orlando City B before winning the resulting shootout for the extra point (4-2) to secure two crucial points in the race for playoff spots. It was a man-of-the-match performance from CFC center back Nathan Koehler, who scored a brace to bring his league goal tally this season to three.
I believe I predicted this line-up correctly in the team’s last outing in Orlando. We won’t know until the next Availability Report drops, but I don’t expect to see many changes nor do I expect to see either of Husakiwsky or García thrown into the starting XI. The latter, I do anticipate to see off the bench.
An issue for CFC lately hasn’t been a lack of goals, they are scoring plenty; on average 1.5 per game since July 1st. The issue is that, of the 15 goals they’ve netted in their last 10 games only one has been scored by an out-and-out striker/forward/attacker (Markus Naglestad against Toronto FC II on August 2nd). The other 14 were scored by Steeve Louis Jean (1), a midfielder; Milo Garvanian (1), a defender/wing-back; Gavin Turner (1), a midfielder; Nathan Koehler (2), a defender; Jalen James (2), a winger; Daniel Mangarov (3), a winger; and Tate Robertson (4), a defender/wing-back. While its great that this team can chip in with goals from across the squad, when you don’t have a reliable outlet up front, you’ll struggle to outscore opponents as you can’t lean on defenders and wingers to rack up double-figure goal stats given the other work they’ve to do around the field. This team needs Naglestad (2 goals, 1 assist) or Keegan Ancelin (3 goals, 2 assists) to regain form to match their obvious talents, Peter Plougmand (4 goals, 2 assists) to return, or García to hit the ground running. The only other option is to try and deploy James, Mangarov, Minjae Kwak, or Colin Thomas as a striker, something I’m not sure any are suited to.
Like Sutton for the Core, CFC’s goalkeeper Eldin Jakupović and defender Farid Sar-Sar lead the league in minutes played (1,890). Jakupović is one of only five goalkeepers at the joint top of the league in clean sheets, with five. Mangarov and Robertson share the club lead for league goals scored (6). Robertsons’s eight assists (second most in the league) mean he leads in goal contributions (14). Mangarov also has an Open Cup goal to his name and seven assists.
A shoutout to Nathan Koehler, as my player to watch this week. Signed late, he joined CFC from Prescot Cables, in the English Northern Premier League. In my mid-season review of CFC, I had assigned him the Surprise Package award as I’d felt it was hard to gage exactly what his level would be coming from such obscure origins. Since making his first start away to Atlanta United 2 on 30 March, he hasn’t looked back and has started all 19 games in that time. He’s forged a strong defensive partnership with Sar-Sar, remaining in Nugent’s favor when a back four is used, as well as a back three. While it’s not reasonable to expect another brace from him tonight, last weekend highlighted just what an impact this guy has had since signing for CFC. He’s become such a reliable operator for this team and likely one of the first names on Nugent’s team sheet. Keep an eye on him as he’s a composed center-back and looks a potential future leader for this side.
And as usual, as I gave an overview of the international experience at Carolina Core, it’s worth mentioning that Jakupović is a senior international with Switzerland, and that Mangarov and Turner have experience in the United States youth setup.
Analysis and Predictions
I’m envisioning an open game. The previous games between them was very even in terms of states with both sharing an even 50/50 split in possession. Carolina had more shots, but CFC were the more clinical gaining more shots on target and big chances. Both teams will be out to win this one, based on where each has come from and CFC’s away form matches Carolina’s home form. I’m anticipating a possible 2-2 draw.
