The Charlotte Eagles have unfinished business in the PDL playoffs.

They head to Reading, Pennsylvania to take on Ocean City Nor’easters July 23 for the Eastern Conference semifinals. If the Eagles win, they’ll face the Reading United-Carolina Dynamo winner in the conference final July 24.

“We want to do the best that we can and compete for a championship,” Charlotte coach Dave Dixon said. “I still think that we have what we need to do it. It’ll be interesting because you’re playing brand new teams that you haven’t seen all season.”

Said defender Wilfred Williams, who was a part of last season’s Eagles team: “We’re going right back to where we ended last year, which is exciting.”

Pfeiffer’s Santi Moar, a midfielder, led the Eagles with eight goals, and Young Harris striker Marco Micaletto followed with five. Both led the team with four assists. Pfeiffer’s Jaime Siaj, a striker who will not be with the Eagles this weekend and striker Kelvin Omondi from John Brown University tallied four goals each.

“We can only do so much scouting,” Dixon said. “I’ve watched half of (Ocean City’s) games. Ocean City has a good team—really athletic and [they] play very direct, counter-attacking type style, which is something that we’ve struggled with throughout the season. We have to be really sharp in possession. We can’t give away loose balls in the midfield, and our shape as we’re attacking has to be one eye on defending as well.”

Said Micaletto: “It’s come to the business end of the season. We all love playing games where it’s knockout. That’s what it’s all about at the end of the day.”

Charlotte-Ocean City features several players from Pfeiffer, who won the Division II national championship last season.

“They’re all very, very competitive,” Dixon said. “I think that they’re close. That team is a pretty close team for having so many guys from different parts of the world, but as soon as the whistle blows it’s going to be all business and competing.”  

After winning the South Atlantic Division and finishing the regular season 11-2-1, the Eagles still remember their undefeated regular season return to the PDL (10-0-4) after self-relegating from the USL. Their playoff run last season included a 3-2 win against the Cincinnati Dutch Lions before losing the Eastern Conference final on penalty kicks to the Jersey Express.

“We really don’t have a ton of control over all the players and when they go back to school and those types of things,” Dixon said. “A lot of teams are in the same boat. Reading has 16 players left. We’re a little bit ahead of Reading. Last year, we went to the playoffs with 13. So we’ll go now with 20-something. It’ll be good to have some depth up there.”

Said Williams: “We have a lot of players who can come in and make an impact. Our bench is a game changer.”

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