Charlotte FC faces elimination in New York
Trailing 1-0 in the Round One series, Charlotte FC has to beat NYCFC on Saturday to force a Game 3; Wilfried Zaha gears up for impactful return; Malanda's numbered days; previewing Saturday's Game 2
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Charlotte FC has to win Game 2 on Saturday in New York to bring best-of-three first round series back to Bank of America Stadium and prolong the season
Coach Dean Smith and his coaching staff in dismay during Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to New York City FC in Game 1 of Round One playoff series. (Photo by Matt Geslin, Instagram: @mgeslinphoto)
Charlotte FC played all season for home-field advantage, squandered it away in Tuesday’s opener against New York City FC, and is desperate for a chance to come home to Bank of America Stadium next week.
In order to “put it right,” as captain Ashley Westwood explains it, the Crown has to win Saturday at Yankee Stadium to force a Game 3 after a dud of a 1-0 loss in Game 1. Without Wilfried Zaha, who watched in a hoodie from a luxury suite after a last-minute red card Oct. 18, Charlotte’s attack was slapdash, as in “lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern.” (Thanks, Merriam and Webster.)
Now, Charlotte has to play well on the road, which is always challenging, in a place they don’t particularly care for, Yankee Stadium, at 3:30 p.m., which is weird, on a field configured into what Westwood referred to as a “baseball ground.” But Charlotte has run out of time for complaints or excuses or anything else.
One man who knows exactly what it feels like to have it all come down to you?
“We are hungry,” Charlotte’s veteran goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina said. “We can’t wait. We had our opportunity on Tuesday. We were not there. Now we have opportunity in New York, and we will show how hungry we are. Or [if] we are not hungry, and we are happy to finish the fourth in the regular season, then that’s it [the end of the season]….
“It’s time to win, to suffer, to maybe not play good football but to win the game. Like who cares? Many games in the season, we didn’t play well, but we won them, and this is our style.”
Nobody should be hungrier than Zaha. His second yellow card in the 90th minute of the regular season finale against Philadelphia was a crushing blow for a team that was killing off a 2-0 lead and already facing a postseason without playmaker Pep Biel.
Zaha had 10 days to think about it, and 90 minutes of watching Charlotte shut out for just the fifth time all year. By the time he got to the locker room after the game Tuesday night, he was demonstrative.
“He gave us a good talk in there,” defender Harry Toffolo said after Tuesday’s loss. “He’s raring to go. He’s excited. He would have been desperate to get out there and show his talent, and he’d have been frustrated with himself about the situation, but the character he is, he puts the team first [and came to the locker room]. And he was in there giving everyone a good pep talk, and I guarantee you now he’s going to be ready to go in New York.”
Kahlina said Zaha reminded his teammates there wasn’t much separating them and New York in a 1-0 loss. Alonso Martinez’s nifty work into the box and clever touch around Adilson Malanda was the difference in the game.
“We know what it takes to go and win the second game,” said Coach Dean Smith, who led Charlotte to a Game 2 win in last year’s playoff series against Orlando. “We believe we can take this to a three-game series.”
Charlotte was facing elimination in Game 2 of Round One last year against Orlando and won in a shootout — albeit at home — to force a Game 3.
Charlotte evened the series last year (before eventually losing it) at home, in front of a Friday night crowd of 40,238. This year’s series opener was on a chilly Tuesday night, which Smith acknowledged was not the best combination.
“We distributed 34,000 tickets and we got 21,000 there,” Smith said. “Listen, the fans that were there made a really good noise, but it wasn’t the feeling like it was against Orlando at home last year.”
Smith said he had neighbors near his SouthPark apartment who couldn’t come to the game with kids in school the next morning. He understood that, which is why he’s always lobbied for weekend matchups.
“The playoffs are meant to be everything in the MLS, so I just felt we could have played Friday,” said Smith, since Saturday wasn’t an option with the Panthers in town Sunday. “Why not? Why couldn’t Miami play Saturday? You’ll get bigger attendances.”
As it was, Charlotte was the only home team to lose in the first 10 games of the MLS playoffs so far. This is a Charlotte team that led MLS with 13 wins at home this season.
Challenges of Yankee Stadium, where Charlotte FC is winless in two trips
If you watched Charlotte lose 2-0 at Yankee Stadium in a noon game six weeks ago, the one which snapped its MLS record-tying win streak at nine games, then you know. The field is smaller, shorter, more narrow and generally awkward — though the low TV camera angle probably doesn’t help. It’s shoe-horned into the Yankees’ baseball outfield, where New York City FC has to play while soccer-specific Etihad Park is being built in Queens, slated to open in 2027.
The smaller field makes it harder for offenses like Charlotte to run into space behind a line of defenders.
“You’ve got to be a lot smarter to create goals,” Smith said. “Technically, you’ve got to be better in your combination play and getting behind them. So yeah, it’s going to be tougher to go and score there.”
And while it has its advantages on defense, Kahlina said the varying background (stands on one side, baseball infield on the other) makes it hard to manage his positioning.
Smith was quick to point out, though, that New York has been beaten there. (NYCFC lost four times at Yankee Stadium during the regular season and twice at Citi Field, where the New York Mets play.)
“You just have to deal with it,” Smith said. “We’ve got to play the conditions that are set out there and do our best we can for them.”
Days numbered in Charlotte for French defender
Adilson Malanda rises for a header in Game 1 Tuesday, a 1-0 loss to New York City FC. (Photo by Matt Geslin, Instagram: @mgeslinphoto)
Charlotte FC’s Adilson Malanda could be playing his final game for Charlotte FC on Saturday as he prepares for his transfer to Middlesbrough FC of the English Championship when the season ends. Middlesbrough is second in the standings and in line for promotion to the Premier League.
Malanda, who turned 24 on Wednesday, will leave his mark as one of the best players during Charlotte’s inaugural four seasons. Kahlina, who’s played just a few steps behind the talented center back since 2022, shared an appreciation for a player he also considers a good friend:
I’ve appreciated him from the first day when he came here because he’s completely a top professional, on the field, training, the games, recovery, everything is taken serious, and because of it, he gets this transfer to a really big club, and I hope they will go to Premiership, and he will play there. He’s not someone who will go there, and then after three years come back here, because his mentality is just to go as far as he can. He’s really good in the head, a calm and positive guy. It was great, and still it’s great to play with him, because he gives confidence for me, for [the] defense, for the team, how he plays with the feet, how he reads the actions, how many clearances he had this season to help me that I don’t need to make something more. We’re really good friends, and I hope he’ll enjoy there.
Up Next: Game 2 No. 4 Charlotte FC vs. No. 5 New York City FC
When/Where: 3:30 p.m. Yankee Stadium, Bronx, N.Y.
How to watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Find information about how to subscribe for the season here.
How to listen: WBT 1110 AM and 99.3 FM in English, WXNC 97.3 FM and 99.1 FM in Spanish.
Notable:
New York City FC won Game 1 1-0 on a goal in the 34th minute by Alonso Martinez, the Costa Rican standout who now has 17 goals on the season.
Wilfried Zaha returns to the lineup for Charlotte FC after serving a one-game suspension in Game 1. Zaha has scored goals in three consecutive games to bring his season totals to 10 goals along with 10 assists.
Charlotte FC is hosting a watch party Saturday at the Carolina Theatre, 230 N. Tryon St., which includes a meet-and-greet with mascot Sir Minty and a team pop-up store. The event is free but tickets are required and will be distributed outside the Carolina Theatre starting at 1:30 p.m. while inventory lasts.
Carroll Walton is a longtime baseball writer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution now in her fourth season covering Charlotte FC. She would love to hear from you. E-mail her with questions, suggestions, story ideas and comments!
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Odd grounds or not, I like our chances and believe in our players and Deano. Let's go Charlotte!... It really hit me last match that Malanda has just one or two more games with us. He's been arguably our most important defensive player other than Kahlina over the last two years, and I NEED to see him at The Fortress one last time.