MLS: Charlotte Moves to Third in the East after Defeating NYCFC 2-1

Alex McCaskey
Apr 22
2 min read

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Eight games into the season, Charlotte FC find themselves sitting in the top three in the MLS Eastern Conference. The Crown is one point off of second place Inter Miami and five points off of conference leaders Nashville. Through these eight games, Charlotte is 4-2-2 with a 3-1-1 record at home and a 1-1-1 record away from the Queen City. Their road win came on Saturday, April 18th when they traveled to Citi Field to take on NYCFC and came away with a 2-1 win.

Now, let’s get into the starting XI. Starting up front we had the trio of Wilfried Zaha, Idan Toklomati, and newly promoted attacker Rodolfo Akolo who joined the first team from Crown Legacy. The midfield three consisted of Brandt Bronico, Pep Biel, and captain Ashley Westwood. The centre back pairing consisted of Tim Ream and Morrison Agyemang while the full back tandem was Harry Toffolo and Nathan Byrne. Once again, the man between the pipes was Kristijan Kahlina.

Now let's get into the match. Neither team could find the back of the net and both teams headed to the locker room locked at 0-0 and looking to make adjustments. The adjustment would come quickly from The Crown when Idan Toklomati finished off a beautiful pass from Toffolo to find the back of the net and give Charlotte the lead in the 54th minute. As the clock wound down, it was looking like Charlotte was going to walk away with a 1-0, but Kerwin Vargas had other plans. Pep Biel delivered a beautiful cross to Vargas who powered it home from the top of the box in the 90th minute. Just like that, Charlotte was up 2-0 with little time left. NYC didn’t give up and they pulled one back in the dying minutes but when the final whistle blew, Charlotte headed home with three points.

The stats from the match tell an interesting story. Charlotte finished the match with eight total shots while NYC had eight of their 23 shots on target. NYC controlled possession throughout the match, 59% to 41%. On the defensive side, Charlotte received four yellow cards to NYCFC’s two while Kristijan Kahlina saved seven shots to the two that NYCFC stopped.

Charlotte looks to continue their good form with a midweek matchup against bottom of the table Orlando City on April 22nd before traveling to Nashville on April 25th for a matchup of top three clubs.