Asheville City Soccer Club wrapped up its inaugural regular season this past Saturday, hosting Inter Nashville FC along with 2,500 fans on a (finally) beautiful evening at Memorial Stadium. Fans came out of the woodwork for this one. I have seen the stadium full on both sides, but never packed in quite like this. The few scattered open seats that are usually visible from across the field were completely filled on Saturday night, capping an amazing first season with an exclamation point in the support department.

Unfortunately, the Blues could not pull off the victory for the sizable crowd and fell 3–1 in a game that, by kickoff, had no meaning in the playoff picture. The Atlanta Silverbacks had already taken care of business at home against their crosstown rival, Georgia Revolution, clinching that Atlanta would host the first round. Or would they? More on that in a minute.

But first, on to the play on Saturday. The Blues started the match more energized than Nashville. This was the case in the first meeting as well, until play was altered by a couple of red cards. Nashville struck first on Saturday though in the 16th minute when Andrew Chamberlain (who single handedly tied the match up the last time these teams squared off) found himself open in the box with only Siegfried to beat, putting it past him into corner.

To the delight of the Blues and all the fans in attendance, it only took six minutes for the equalizer. Mitch Botfield found the net on an assist from Elma N’For when the Blues were countering with numbers. It is only fitting that the score remain 1–1 going into the half, as this was by far the most common HT score over the course of the year.

The Blues celebrate after Mitch Botfield’s goal. (Photo Credit: Alex Hamilton)

The second half belonged to Inter Nashville. A goal in the 48th minute from Christian Gomez would be the game winner, although another would come from big Rian Hooper in the 90th minute to seal the deal. Gomez’s goal was an absolute beauty, one of the prettiest I’ve seen all year. He put a one-touch laser into the corner, bending it over Siegfried. I am pretty sure it hit both the side post and the crossbar at the same time.

Izaiah Vignali plays the ball into the box. (Photo Credit: Alex Hamilton)

Ten minutes or so after Nashville’s second goal, the Blues scored when Jack Miller sent a long set piece into the box that found its way from Elma to Tom Seery to Zack Compton, who put it past the Inter keeper. The crowd was ecstatic that Asheville had just tied it up again, but there was a reeeaally late call for a phantom offside as the flag went up after the ball had gone in the net.

Now, there is no way Compton was off: he was behind Seery when he headed it away from the keeper. So it stands to reason that the call was made on Tom, who did not appear to be offside, but the flag stayed down until the ball had gone from him to Zack to net. Tom may have been off indeed, but he did not appear to be (nor did he on the replay), and the call came unbelievably late from a conference between the two refs involved.

(Photo Credit: Alex Hamilton)

Goal or no goal (sorry Zack, I’m pretty sure you got robbed), the result was a loss and the future remains the same. Asheville is still heading to Atlanta today. Here is the “more on that.”

There was a rumor goin’ round… partway through the match, word spread to a few of the Blues supporters that Atlanta may have a hosting conflict and Asheville was going to get to host regardless. Sunday morning the rumor busted and it was released that Atlanta would in fact play host for the first round of the playoffs…

At 3:30pm! On a Tuesday!

That leads us to this bit of stupidity — it turns out that the Silverbacks could not have an evening match time because of scheduling conflicts with their local rec league. This may sound absurd enough, but it gets odder. The team has had this problem in the past. There was a scheduling conflict in last year’s playoffs and they had to move the game to Georgia Gwinnett College. And then it happened again with a U.S. Open Cup match earlier this year.

A man named “Boris” apparently runs the rec leagues in Atlanta. Multiple ATL supporters have spoken fairly poorly of this gentleman and his handling of soccer in Atlanta in the online world. There was more than one mention of a $20,000 fee for the Silverbacks to buy the time for this one match in order to play in the evening. I cannot attest to the validity of this claim, but good grief, what a joke.

Naturally, no one can blame the Atlanta players for wanting to play in front of possibly no one, rather than an intimidating 2,500 strong if Asheville were to host. But Asheville’s fans that wanted to travel and couldn’t because of the match time are not the only ones that are frustrated. The Silverbacks’ fans seem to be more irritated than we are… and rightfully so.

The hefty amount of backlash on social media from its own fans toward the club is certainly sad in a way. You feel for the supporters. But not that much.

It’s also quite comical in a way. Oh, Atlanta. The throwing of red flares into our section last time we were in Silverbacks Park, and the rudeness that was brought to Memorial the week before, leave a little less room for sympathy.

The good folks at ACSC are supplying a bus for the South Slope Blues today. That’s how you win over your lifelong supporters. And who knows? Maybe we will outnumber the Silverbacks supporters because of the shoddy kickoff time. There may only be a hundred seats filled this afternoon out of a gargantuan 5,000, but we’re still coming for you, Atlanta.

Graphics compliments of South Slope Blues supporter, James Campbell

If you don’t have a normal job, you should check out the stream via the Silverbacks’ live feed. And if you are in Asheville and cannot make it on the bus, Hi-Wire’s Big Top is having a watch party. Turning up the sound will be optimal as we will once again riddle the airwaves with chants of, “Your traffic sucks!” My goodness, Atlanta is stupid.

It’s Asheville City’s first playoff match ever. Let’s rally behind these boys and help push them to New Orleans. If not in body, then at least in spirit: it’s game day. #COYB!