Match: Chattanooga FC vs. Atlanta United 2
Date: Sunday, October 5th, 2025. 13:00 (Eastern)
Venue: Finley Stadium, Chattanooga, TN. Capacity: 20,412
How to watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+
Tickets: Chattanooga FC Website
It’s Decision Day in the MLS Next Pro. In the Eastern Conference; five teams (including Atlanta United 2) are in the hunt for the last two playoff positions while three teams (including Chattanooga FC) battle for two hosting seeds, and one Pick-Your-Opponent position. The scene is set for a cracking battle along I-75 between Chattanooga and Atlanta tomorrow afternoon, with both chasing a win.
Chattanooga FC (P:27 W:13 D:8 L:6 SOW:4 GF:41 GA:35 GD:+6) has already claimed a club-first MLS NEXT Pro Cup Playoffs berth. What remains uncertain is if they’ll be hosting at Finley Stadium. To do so, they need to finish in the top four and are currently in fourth place. No side in this league has more to gain from a home playoff berth, given CFC consistently brings the most fans. The Scenic City faithful are a key part of the club’s matchday culture and business model. Chattanooga are on a seven-game unbeaten run. Should they win and New England Revolution II fails to beat Inter Miami II, they may even claim third place. They can also claim the Southeast Division title with a victory. They’ve won seven and lost six of their 13 league games at Finley Stadium.
Atlanta United 2 (P:25 W:9 D:8 L:10 SOW:2 GF:38 GA:39 GD:-1) currently sits in 10th place, one point outside of the playoff spots. Unlike CFC they don’t control their own destiny. Not only do they need to win, but they’ll need at least two of Carolina Core, Toronto II, and Cincinnati 2 to slip up. This makes their job somewhat easier and possibly relieves them of stress, knowing they have just one thing they can do. A stoic approach will be needed from Jose Silva Caparros’ men. Atlanta has only won two of its 13 away games, but has drawn another eight. They’ve scored 19 and conceded 25 on the road.
The match kicks off at 1pm Eastern and will be officiated by Izlen Peksenar of South Carolina. Streaming will be available to those with MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.
The history
Chattanooga: P:5 W:1 D:2 L:2 SOW:2 GF:8 GA:9 GD:-1
Atlanta: P:5 W:2 D:2 L:1 SOW:0 GF:9 GA:8 GD:+1
The short history of meetings between these sides offers a roughly balanced record. Atlanta United 2 has two wins to CFC’s one, but CFC has claimed shootout wins in their two draws.
This afternoon will be their third meeting in 2025. Back in March they played out an exciting 2-2 draw. Scores came through an own goal from Atlanta’s Efrain Morales (now with CF Montréal), a Rodrigo Neri equalizer on 78 minutes, a presumed Keegan Ancelin winner for CFC on 84 minutes, and a second Neri equalizer four minutes into stoppage time. Chattanooga would go on to win the shootout 4-3.
More recently, the teams played out a two-part game that began on 24 September and ended on 1 October. Heavy rain caused the game to be initially postponed and then resumed a week later. The halt came on the 71st minute of play, with CFC 1-0 up thanks to a Daniel Mangarov strike. In many ways, the win belonged to CFC’s veteran goalkeeper Eldin Jakupović who proved he’s not only the most experienced goalkeeper in the league, but he’s easily the best too. Across both segments of the tie he made 12 crucial saves (five in the box), and eight recoveries.
Report cards and lineups
Chattanooga
Both clubs have had a somewhat staggered schedule of late, owing to that postponed and resumed tie between them. In between the two segments of that game CFC visited the Big Apple and came away with a 1-0 victory thanks to a Tate Robertson free-kick. The win was impressive, considering New York City FC II’s dominance in possession and attack on Randall’s Island, particularly in the first 45 minutes. The same situation played out when the Atlanta game was resumed on Wednesday, where United pounded Chattanooga’s goal line for the 20 or so minutes of play, only for CFC’s goalkeeper to turn into a brick-wall. Head Coach Chris Nugent has managed to foster a stubborn, hard-to-beat character in this squad since its mid-season troubles. Can they perform the same trick tomorrow?
Much of Chris Nugent’s side picks itself at this point, and he’s been pretty consistent with using a 4-3-3 (or 4-3-2-1 depending on your viewpoint) since mid-season. The defense, marshalled by stand-in captain Farid Sar-Sar is fairly cemented. Sar-Sar has played every minute (2,430) of league action in 2025. He’s one of only four players to have done so, which includes CFC goalkeeper Eldin Jakupović, more on him later. Right-back Tate Robertson is having a stellar season. Returned to the club after a spell in Lexington in USL League One, he has broken the single-season assists record in club history this season (10, third in the league) and holds the club lead for league goals scored (9). He’s one of three candidates in the race for the league’s new Playmaker of the Year award and has made 59 key passes this season. He’ll make his 95th appearance for the club tomorrow.
Elsewhere there’s a little more rotation. The three-man midfield will be composed of some combination of Callum Watson, Gavin Turner, Nick Mondonca, and Luke Husakiwsky. Up front, Daniel Mangarov will almost certainly play. Alongside him will be two of Anthony García, Yuval Cohen, Keegan Ancelin, Xavier Rimpel, or Markus Naglestad. I believe Kwak Minjae, Colin Thomas, Peter Plougmand, and Jalen James to be unavailable.
The player-to-watch is Swiss international Jakupović. At 41 years of age, he’s showing no signs of wear and tear as he demonstrated again on Wednesday that he’s the best in the league. While his impressive resume, with its stops in the English Premier League and UEFA competitions, might be enough to lean on, in 2025 the veteran has posted monstrous numbers. As mentioned, he’s played every minute of action this year for CFC in the league and Open Cup. He also leads the league in clean sheets (10) and saves (122). Should Chattanooga claim victory tomorrow, and whatever they achieve this season, a lot of it will be down to the performances of the Bosnian-born shotstopper.
Atlanta
Like CFC, Atlanta also took a trip between the two segments of their recent tie. They travelled to Bridgeview and sealed an unlikely win against a Chicago Fire II side that was chasing a home playoff berth. A Patrick Weah brace (including a penalty) and goals from Gabriel Wesseh, Salvatore Mazzaferro, and Arif Kovac sealed the win in a game that they were always in control of. The result did Chattanooga a favor by essentially knocking Chicago out of the running for fourth place. Given the impressive context of that win and how they achieved it, Jose Silva Caparros’s team will have been bitterly disappointed not to have followed it up by snatching something from the resumed game with CFC on Wednesday.
According to yesterday’s Availability Report, Head Coach Silva has a full compliment of players available to him. So I expect something similar to the above to lineout. He has favored a 3-4-3 formation recently, spearheaded by Patrick Weah, and this was what he used in the game at Chicago.
Weah is the team’s top scorer this season with nine league goals, while Gabriel Wesseh leads the team with seven assists on the season. I’m making Weah my player-to-watch for Atlanta, and look forward to his battle with Sar-Sar, Koehler, and Jakupović as United looks to take revenge for Wednesday’s result. Weah has .89 goals per 90 minutes, has scored both of his open play penalties, and provided an additional two assists.
There’s a high degree of fluidity within the Atlanta United organization between its MLS and MLS Next Pro sides. Nyk Sessock, Salvatore Mazzaferro, Adyn Torres, Cooper Sanchez, Jayden Hibbert, Dominik Chong Qui, and Josh Cohen are all players who could appear tomorrow in Chattanooga, who have played for the senior team in MLS or US Open Cup games. Weah also has MLS experience from his time with Minnesota United.
At international level, while some players have received call-ups, none are capped at senior level apart from Hibbert, who has played for Jamaica but recently got a call up from Canada. At youth international level Sessock, Chong Qui, Sanchez, Torres, James Donaldson, and Ignacio Suarez have all played for the USA. Elsewhere, there have been youth international caps for New Zealand (Ronan Wynne), Venezuela (Santiago Pita, Rodrigo Neri, and Moises Tablante), Liberia (Weah), and Northern Ireland (Ryan Carmichael).
Permutations
Chattanooga clinches Southeast Division title:
1) CFC 2 or more points, or
2) CFC shoot-out-loss + Huntsville 2 or fewer points, or
3) Huntsville 1 or fewer points
Chattanooga clinches top four seed:
1) CFC 2 or more points, or
2) CFC shoot-out-loss + New England loss, or
3) CFC shoot-out-loss + Huntsville 2 or fewer points, or
4) New England loss + CFC wins tiebreaker over New England, or
5) Huntsville 1 or fewer points
Matches to watch out for (all 1pm ET):
Inter Miami CF II vs New England Revolution II
Huntsville City FC vs Carolina Core FC
Atlanta clinches a playoff spot (pay attention):
1) ATL win + Carolina Core 1 or fewer points + Toronto 2 or fewer points, or
2) ATL win + Carolina Core 1 or fewer points + Cincinnati shoot-out-win, or
3) ATL win + Carolina Core 1 or fewer points + Orlando shoot-out-win, or
4) ATL win + Carolina Core 1 or fewer points + Cincinnati loss + ATL wins tiebreaker over Orlando, or
5) ATL win + Toronto 2 or fewer points + Cincinnati shoot-out-win, or
6) ATL win + Toronto 2 or fewer points + Orlando shoot-out-win, or
7) ATL win + Toronto 2 or fewer points + Cincinnati loss + ATL wins tiebreaker over Orlando, or
8) ATL shoot-out-win + Carolina Core loss + Toronto loss, or
9) ATL shoot-out-win + Carolina Core loss + Orlando shoot-out-win, or
10) ATL shoot-out-win + Toronto loss + Orlando shoot-out-win
Matches to watch out for (all 1pm ET):
New York Red Bulls II vs Toronto FC II
Orlando City B v FC Cincinnati 2
Huntsville City FC vs Carolina Core FC
Analysis and Predictions
With the help of a Soktoerfest promotion, provided by sister club VfL Wolfsburg, Chattanooga Football Club is aiming to break a regular season record crowd this Sunday. I say this, not to echo their marketing team, but to make a point. Atlanta’s players will need to expect a large and vocal crowd at Finley Stadium come 1pm, something that you don’t get a lot of in MLS Next Pro. Chattanooga’s fans have had it hard in recent seasons, enduring some painful results at home. There was the frustrating 1-0 defeat by the Michigan Stars in the 2022 NISA Semi-Final and the painful penalty-shootout loss to Flower City Union in the same stage of the same competition at the same stadium a year later. Then there was the disappointing 1-1 tie with NYRB II on the final day of their first MLS Next Pro season last October, that condemned them to 9th in the table, missing out on playoff soccer by one place yet even on points with the three sides ahead of them. These were all at home.
All this to say that the crowd that comes on Sunday will be expecting something. That puts pressure on Atlanta, but it also heaps pressure on Chattanooga. Although the Chattahooligans are a positive and supportive (i.e. non-toxic) fangroup to their own players, I imagine that a large crowd of groaning, disappointed home fans might get at some of Chattanooga’s players mentally if things aren’t going well. Experience and leadership from the likes of Sar-Sar, Robertson, and Jakupović will be of critical value.
I’ll go with a home win, 1-0.
