Dean Smith pleased with Charlotte FC’s preseason progress

CROWN LEGACY

Nimfasha Berchimas, who turns 16 on Feb. 22, started for Charlotte FC against San Jose at the Coachella Valley Invitational in California.

While scores of friendly matches are arguably the least telling factor of how a team will perform when whistles blow in earnest, it feels better when they’re putting the ball into the net.

Charlotte FC did that four times in its first two of three matches they will play in the Coachella Valley Invitational, a preseason exhibition tournament hosted by the LA Galaxy at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, about 125 miles east of Los Angeles.

Better yet, both games were clean sheets, which would be a welcome stat line for the Crown, which gave up seven more goals than they scored in 34 regular season games last season with only seven shutouts.

Charlotte, still in the market to bring in two designated players after sending Karol Swiderski to Serie A side Hellas Verona, and Polish national teammate Kamil Jozwiak to LaLiga’s Granada CF on Spain’s southern coast, downed LA Galaxy 3-0 on Wednesday, followed by a 1-0 90 minutes against the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.

Less than a month into his first training camp with Charlotte, Dean Smith said that he expects to have at least one DP spot filled before the season opener against New York City FC on Feb. 24. With both offensive firepower and defensive prowess – specifically a left-sided central defender, according to Smith – on the shopping list, which comes first will be determined.

Mystery guests

At this point, he has at least 30 players in camp, including two secretively listed as trialist. The first, outed as Tariqe Fosu-Henry, is a 28-year-old London-born winger of Ghanaian descent who last played for Brentford with loans to Stoke City and Rotherham United. He scored an opportunistic goal against the Galaxy.

The second has been identified in media reports as former Orlando City midfielder Junior Urso. The 34-year-old already has had a moment at Bank of America Stadium, assisting on Orlando’s first goal in a 2-1 decision against Charlotte in August 2022.

Both started and played well against San Jose in what was a solid overall effort. The results however, while optimistic, must also be seen for what they are: a new coach learning his roster while working to instill concepts and principles. Though one could assume who many of the starters might be come the opener, these training camp lineups are showing no preference with multiple mixes getting time together.

Copa-T!

The game announcer for the online stream of the Galaxy match couldn’t quite get the pronunciation of Copetti’s name right – calling him “Copa-T” even though he got to say it a lot when the Argentine came on replacing Patrick Agyemang for the final half of that game.

One clear impact player for the Crown has been the remaining DP, Enzo Copetti, whose relentless running is coming with more purpose and intent in putting pressure on opposing defenders, with or without the ball.

Back to his natural dark hair from his platinum blond coif last season, he is no less easy to spot on the pitch. He scored on a free kick against LA. Against San Jose, this led to him stealing the ball off the goalkeeper’s feet – he was outside the box – but his shot could not beat a defender who had fallen back into coverage.

Smith cautioned not to read anything into who’s starting or not and told the players that as well.

“I certainly am enjoying the competition,” he said. “I think they're both very good players. If we've got them to competing for one place, or when we decided to play both of them, I think they're going to be a handful for defenses this season. I think it's a good problem to have.”

Youth will serve

There have always been teenage phenoms in the game but with the professionalism of training techniques and improvements of academies and scouting, it feels like more and more athletes are seeing their big-time debuts before they are legally allowed to drive, drink, or vote.

While there are plenty of experienced 30-something professionals on the pitch, one is literally half their age. Nimfasha Berchimas, who turns 16 on Feb. 22, started against San Jose.

After a breakout performance for the USA at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, leading the team in scoring as the youngest American player at the tournament in 20 years, Berchimas, who is from High Point, was a finalist for U.S. Soccer’s Young Male Player of the Year award along with fellow Triad native Gianluca Busio (Venezia) from Greensboro, Benjamin Cremaschi (Inter Miami) and Jack McGlynn (Philadelphia Union) and Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg). Around his busy USA schedule, Berchimas made eight appearances and scored his first pro goal on Sept. 17 to boost Crown Legacy to a 1-0 win against New England Revolution II.

“He’s a real fast twitch player,” Smith said. “He presses very well. He’s got good skills; he’ll just get better. I don’t mind playing people if they show me in training they’ve got that application and attitude to go and do things, then let’s have a look at them in a match.”

Charlotte’s older young star, 17-year-old Brian Romero, famous for his late game penalty-drawing dash into the box against Chelsea in 2022, played in the first match against the Galaxy.

The club’s latest MLS SuperDraft selections and Crown Legacy call-ups are also getting looks but there isn’t enough time in three MLS friendlies for Smith and his staff to see everything they want. As a result, Charlotte scheduled a friendly against USL side Phoenix on Wednesday.

“If young players are good enough, then they're ready,” Smith said. “I've no problems with putting young players into the team or the squad if I think that they’re training well and ready to step up. It's commonplace in Europe that players are making their debuts at 16, 17 years old. So I see no problem with pushing them ahead if they look ahead of the game.”

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