Charlotte FC Report: Week 17, 2022
The home club had a huge win last weekend against the New York Red Bulls. It honestly may be their biggest win to date. It was in front of the home crowd, but it was a big win regardless. This was the first match with their new coach Christian Lattanzio and the Charlotte club looked sharp. They dominated the whole match and defeated the NY club 2-0. Both of the goals came in stoppage time in both halves. Ben Bender scored the first and Derrick Jones secured the win in the last minutes of the second half. It was Bender’s 3rd goal and Jones’s first career MLS goal. Also, I feel like I haven’t done it in a while, but I want to give props to our goalie Kristijan Kahlina. He has been fantastic for the most part all season long and sometimes doesn’t get the proper respect. He has been solid all year long. Tonight, Charlotte will travel to Ohio to face the Columbus Crew for the first time.
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Charlotte is playing in Columbus tonight and it feels like I’ve been saying this for too long, but hopefully this will be Charlotte’s first road win. I think they have a really good shot tonight. The Crew are currently 3 points behind Charlotte in the standings and things really haven’t been great for them either. They’re a team that hasn’t had a ton of luck in the scoring department, however, they do hold teams down defensively. Columbus isn't an awesome home team, but they have had a decent amount of road success. Hopefully Charlotte can exploit that tonight. The Crew is led by the leg of Lucas Zelarayán, who has 4 goals on the year. Derrick Etienne is probably their most notable player. He leads the team in assists with 5.
Charlotte FC
Charlotte should at least walk out of Columbus with a draw, but with their road woes this season, who knows. Columbus has been a worse team as far as record goes, but they can hang with the best in the MLS, so it really is an unpredictable matchup. Hopefully this could spark a big run for Charlotte and they can get on a nice win streak, but I guess we’ll find out what happens tonight.
Yacs