This weekend saw the NISA Fall regular season kick off with Chattanooga traveling to Michigan Stars. We’ve talked extensively about the result, check out our Knights Who Say NISA show with Jim Hicks of 423 Podcast, and the match itself. It was a fun match that ended spectacularly and as a non-partisan viewer, you can’t get much better than having the homeside drive down the length of the field with 2 minutes on the clock and score the winner. That type of match will bring people back next weekend, regardless of who ends up on the winning side. And while the result may be disappointing for CFC fans, I think it can be argued that it’s a great thing for the winning side and league.

For Michigan Stars in particular, it shows that the club has grown beyond their first two matches of the cancelled 2020 Spring season. Having watched all of the fixtures from earlier this year, Stars matches were marked by a devotion to defense, but defense mostly played in their own half. The team would sit back in a shape that sandwiched the back line with the midfield, creating an almost impenetrable block of defenders to smother attacks. Typically, it would be the keeper behind a double wall of 9 players, almost a 5/4-1. This resulted in matches that saw massive imbalances in possession and losses. Stars lost to Cal United 1-0 and to Oakland Roots 2-1. Certainly, one could argue it’s a small sample size, and that person would be right, but there was already a pattern emerging: great on defense, inept on offense, ineffective at winning matches.

Going into last weekend’s match, I was expecting more of the same, particularly against a CFC side that had played well throughout the Independent Cup, going undefeated. What I got instead was a Stars team that came out swinging. Instead of the low block that waited for clubs to attack, Michigan rolled out a high-pressing defense that led to both counter-attacking goals. The first goal came in the 6th minute and set the tone for the entire match. Though CFC threatened to equalize (and eventually did), the defense was solid enough to prevent the visiting side from punching anything through in the run of play. The winner came in the form of a counter attack out of the Stars’ backline that quickly accelerated up the left side for the winner. Stars may not be the team to beat in NISA yet, but they have clearly added an element of offense to their attack that we hadn’t seen earlier this year.

From a league perspective, this is a great development. Imbalanced tables aren’t exciting to new or non-biased viewers - the more parity and competition, the better. So having one of the legacy names in the league lose to a lesser known club is a big win from an overall league perspective. NISA wants every match to be exciting, because it’s the best way to grow the league by being more attractive to future clubs. It’s also the only way to land a potential TV deal, which is a priority to ensure long-term success. So having the fall opener yield an unexpected result (with an exciting ending) is a massive win for the league, even if it’s a loss for CFC.

All that being said, it’s little solace for Chattanooga fans, of course. But they should be confident to know that their club won’t sit on its hands and will, instead, patch up the problems. Chattanooga is simply too well-run of a club to take a loss and not learn from it. Next week’s match with Detroit will be a big test of that approach.

- Dan Vaughn