A real kick: Fans, weather, score perfect in HCFC debut

HUNTSVILLE — The staff with Huntsville City FC was on edge with everyone else in the area Friday as storms rolled through.

The city’s MLS NEXTPro soccer team was scheduled to make its Huntsville preseason debut Saturday and, needless to say, the severe weather would have put a damper on the excitement.

“Thankfully, we got the weather in,” said Coach Jack Collison. “We were a little bit nervous yesterday (Friday).”

But, the sun came out and under a clear blue sky, HCFC took the field against Savannah Clovers.

More than 1,200 people filled the east bleachers and stood along the fence at John Hunt State Championship Field. The game was held there because the club’s home at Joe Davis Stadium is not quite ready.

“When you’ve got a crowd like this for a practice game, that shows the support of soccer in Huntsville,” said Mayor Tommy Battle.

With a DJ pumping the crowd and the drum-beating HCFC supporters chanting “H-C-F-C”  during the match, it was quite a festivity.

“It was amazing, amazing,” Collison said. “Seeing the crowd come through the gates. It was great to see it in person because we’ve been around the community a lot recently and got an idea of the excitement.

“It was great to see it come to fruition.”

Huntsville City added to the excitement with a 2-0 win as Azaad Liadi scored a pair of first-half goals.

“… The boys put in a pretty good performance, a positive result, a couple of goals, a few more chances,” Collison said.

HCFC dominated ball-possession in the first half in what Collison said was the team’s objective.

“Two words we’ve used this week are relentless and ruthless,” he said. “We certainly were relentless, we just weren’t ruthless. We could’ve gotten a couple more goals.

“But, on the whole, a really pleasing performance which gives us a lot of hope moving forward.”

Huntsville City FC continues its preseason schedule March 14 at John Hunt Park against FC Cincinnati 2. Game time is 7 p.m.  at 7 p.m. For tickets, click here.