Matchday 1 saw debutant Dean Smith’s Charlotte beating 1-nil New York City FC.

Both teams in pre-season seem eager to improve after a pretty precarious 2023 season. NYCFC finished 11th with 41 pts. and missed the playoff for the second time in their history. At the same time, Charlotte finishes with 43 pts. Enough to secure 9th and play the wild card, but were torn apart by NY Red Bull 5-2. Seeing how they adapt and develop new ideas through the season will be interesting.

Dean Smith was the center of attention for Charlotte. It is uncommon to have a former Premier League manager taking charge of an MLS team. What a debut game to have!

Fast and direct long balls were the most common ways to attack for Charlotte throughout the match. However, in the first 10-15 minutes, they did try to maintain a high pressure. NYCFC finds it challenging to have a clean build-up play from the back, and they did make plenty of errors, some due to the high pressure of Charllote, and others were unforced. Time and time against the defense of NYCFC could have been better. From playing from the back to clearing the ball, there were many times they were shaky, and Charlotte capitalized on that. Long ball, second play, and then they create opportunities. One was a corner where O’Toole left his mark, and Tavarez’s header hit the woodwork. The ball was in the line, waiting for Maladande to touch it and score. One set piece, one goal before 10 minutes, and the game was over.

Dean Smith’s Charlotte, in the first game, has displayed an excellent defense, either with very high lines of pressure or with a deep and compact 4-4-2, to which NYCFC has no answers. As time passed, Charlotte became more compact, did not pressure, and focus about defending their lead. And NYCFC did not have a plan to attack a low block. Santi deepened his position to help in the build-up, as he plays a more central role with midfielders, and those were moments when NYC was able to run and create something, mainly in the first half. However, unlike Risa or Martins, Malanda and Privetts were efficient whenever Wolf or Bakrar tried attacking the space or dribbling. While Santi was in the middle, O’Toole was the only option to open the pitch in the left flank, but it was constantly 1v2 or 2v3, so noting was produced from there. Despite having some space to run, New York lacks that inspiration in the final third to make the right final pass.

Meanwhile, Charlotte did use the space behind O’Toole. Tavares was constantly a threat to the defense. Mind you, there were many unforced errors from defense, like in the 33-minute where O’Toole gave the ball away to Copetti alone, but he could not shoot. Despite the obvious penalty from O’Toole (which is safe to say he did not have an easy game), and was later saved by Freese. Charlotte did not have many more opportunities to score a second. The most notorious chance was in the 69-minute where Santi lost the ball in the middle of a transition, leaving a lot of space behind his back. Urso regained possession and, with a long pass, put Vargas in a 1v1 situation with the goalkeeper, but Freese saved the team again. Vargas did have a good match, but this miss and missing the penalty damaged his overall performance.

The second half was Charlotte sitting in the back, waiting to counter-attack, and New York unable to move the ball fast enough to create space. The players were static and failed to lose their marks or create opportunities to pass the ball quickly. Parks and Sand, as midfielders, did not help to make anything in the attack. It was Santi who needed to be in the middle of the base to pass the ball in the final third, but the compact defense was impossible to break. The only good and clean opportunity to score for NYCFC was in the 75-minute. After a throw-in, Bakrar received the ball in the right flank and crossed, Bryne missed his header to clear the ball, giving Santi a penalty in motion, which he did not even hit on target.

Dean Smith’s Charlotte had a clear plan: Incomodate NYCFC defense with long balls and fast transition, score, defend their lead, and exploit the space to counterattack. 

Meanwhile, Nick Cushing’s NYCFC did not have an answer to solve either their attack or defense problems. And the changes were very ineffective.

Talles Magno gives more dynamic to the attack, but his decision-making and touches were unprofitable at best, and Mijatović did not even touch the ball.

Overall. A very serious game for Charlotte. It will be tough to score against. However, it keeps me wondering how they will act against a team that does not want the possession as much as NYCFC, and how many goals can be produced by Coppeti, Vargas, and Tavares because they were a little unproductive in front of goal in this match.

As for New York, the team keeps struggling to have a clean playing of the back and in the generations of opportunities. Moreover, the defense is still shaky as ever. Nick Cushing needs to step up this season because the team has many players to produce more than just 0.5 of the expected goals.