 |
| Picard = Zaha |
Charlotte FC
1-1-1, 4 pts., 4 gf, 3 ga (+3); home 1-0-0, away 0-1-1
Last Results: DWL
Strength/Location of Schedule
@ SEA (2-2 D); v ATL (2-0 W); @ MIA (0-1)
FC Cincinnati has seen plenty of tough games in this early season – including, the live-or-die scenarios MLS teams only see in the playoffs (didn’t end so good, but ain’t that the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup?) – which gives Cincy fans a body of evidence for weighing how hard Charlotte on the road will be. Everything I’ve seen – e.g., a preseason game against my Portland Timbers (Wilfried Zaha was there!), plus the second half of Charlotte’s 2-0 win over Atlanta United FC and about 40 minutes of watching them come ever-so-close scoring (if only 3-4 times; see the highlights) playing a man up in last weekend's loss at Inter Miami CF – tells me to expect one of those grinding chess matches we usually don’t see until the post-season…or when two sturdy defensive teams come together at any date on the calendar…
…speaking solely in my capacity as a man who has aged to where he appreciates certain things more than others, would that this were not so.
The Big Picture
Dean Smith loves him a 4-3-3 and he has stocked that formation with (give or take) the same players across Charlotte’s first three games of 2025. The back four (from left to right) features super-veteran Tim Ream, Andrew Privett, the really solid Adilson Malanda and, as more wingback than fullback, Nathaniel Byrne. While former Timber Eryk Williamson slipped in there once (and struggled), Smith has stuck with (again, left to right), Brandt “Two-Team Journeyman” Bronico, “Gone with Wind” Ashley Westwood, and Pep “Rally” Biel in his three-man midfield and Zaha, Patrick Agyemang and Liel Abada across the front three. If I had to call any of those three lines Charlotte’s particular strength, I’m going to go against a (possibly imaginary) grain and go with the midfield – or at least that feels right given how goddamn hard they are to play through. With a foundation that sound, all Charlotte needs to do is score. Right?
Zaha comes off as their Plan A for generating offense, no surprise there, and Smith gives him license to find the game all over the left side and into the center of the field, and pretty much anywhere above the top of Charlotte’s defensive third. This isn’t a bad idea by any means: Zaha appears to have the legs to do it, he’s occasionally superb technically, and, for all the steps he’s lost over his many stops, he’s quick enough to get separation over the first couple yards; Cincinnati will need to be careful on their right, basically, I didn’t see much in his partnership with Agyemang, but that looks promising AF on paper. I’m not sure what Charlotte has come up with for when they want to attack up the right, but getting Byrne loose for a cross looks like the default (and he’s good a delivering them, even if with more placement than purpose). All in all, being prepared to defend crosses feels a great place for Cincy to start the game-planning.
Charlotte plays against the ball, generally – a habit Miami going down a player (again) might have scrambled a bit – but they’re pretty capable on it, even if it’s just having Zaha work to get in behind and then pushing the three-man midfield forward to pin it in. In most of the footage I watched, Westwood dropped deep to serve as a hub for switching sides and dumping the ball back in, while (mostly) Biel pushes higher to support. He does late runs too, but I’ve seen Charlotte play a notable amount of low percentage attacking maneuvers and, as such, I’m more worried about how Cincinnati scores on Charlotte than vice versa.
 |
| It feels scary, I get it. |
I’d start with not worry about winning. In MLS, I don’t think it’s possible to get farther from a must-win game than playing a strong defensive team, on the road, and on short rest at the beginning of the season. In the context of a 34-game regular season, this game has “fuck it” written all over it in neon, glitter and with reggaeton horns blaring in the background. Because there is no statement to make, nothing to prove for later in the season, and with six points already in Cincy’s regular season bank, the main thing I want to see is Cincinnati try to win – or, in this case, steal – a second win with as many second-team players as they can field without risking a blowout. Get those players out there, play Cincinnati’s standard game-plan and see what they can do. Charlotte will provide those players a stern test and, gods willing, Pat Noonan will learn something about a player or two or three that he can use later in the season.
(Relevant) Notes from the Rest of the East
1) Dammit.
I hate to give Miami credit for anything, but their winning goal versus Charlotte was a thing of ruthless beauty. Moreover, and hate it all you want, so long as their understudies can carry them through enough results, they look set for another strong season in the Eastern Conference.
2) Top Dog(s)
And yet Miami and everyone else, will need to mind the still unbeaten Philadelphia Union (yeah, I know; winning at New England ain't what it used to be). I see people getting down on Columbus Crew SC – some of it revolving around the manifest challenge of replacing Cucho Hernandez – but the bones there are good enough that one expects them to stay in the top four or five teams. I expect to see Cincy up there with them, as they are now, even if they stall at Charlotte and fall out after this weekend.
3) Signs of Life or a Collection of Mirages?
All three of DC United, Chicago Fire FC and Nashville SC picked up wins in Week 3 – games that, related to all the above, put them in a position to leapfrog Cincinnati in the event the Orange and Blue lose this Saturday. Also of note, those three teams beat Sporting Kansas City at home, FC Dallas on the road, and the Portland Timbers at home, respectively. Being a little “Chicago-curious” this season, I may be more impressed by that road win over Dallas than I should be, but SKC has lost 10 straight games, apparently (related, Peter Vermes still has a job) and I know how bad the Timbers are right now from excruciating first-hand experience. A mediocre team can beat a bad one, basically, but what happens after that? We’ll see, we’ll see…
No comments:
Post a Comment