Dean Smith leads Charlotte FC into the MLS postseason

CHARLOTTE FC

Charlotte FC coach Dean Smith has led the Crown to the Major League Soccer playoffs in his first season at the helm. The Crown faces Orlando City FC in a best-of-three series that starts Sunday in Orlando.

How could anyone who’s been around these parts for more than a minute think that a coach named Dean Smith wouldn’t have a positive impact on the fortunes of Charlotte FC.

In his first season at the helm, the British Dean Smith, a former player turned League One, Championship, and Premier League manager, will lead his team against Orlando City on Sunday against Orlando City in the first round of the 2024 MLS playoffs. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. (Apple TV MLS Season Pass, WFNZ).

Even the original, when he took over the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team in 1961, didn’t have a winning season, going 8-9. It took the Tar Heels legend six years to make the postseason, which granted, was a lot harder to do back then.

He got North Carolina to the NCAA Final Four in 1967. Can Charlotte FC coach Dean Smith get his team to that rarified air sooner? Why not, would be the response from the evenly keeled Brit. He is a man who aspires to be better every day and expects the same from his staff and players.

Charlotte FC’s Smith has already guided the third-year team to 14 wins and 9 draws against 11 losses, season with a plus-9 goal differential, primarily due to the second best defense in MLS, based on goals conceded (37) and clean sheets (12).

Charlotte had a respectable 13 wins in 2022 but 18 losses. Ten wins but a marked improvement in turning losses into draws got them into ninth place and a play-in game last year. Orlando finished just one point ahead of the Crown this year.

Last season, Charlotte allowed 57 goals against; 52 in 2022. They achieved seven clean sheets last year, eight in 2022. Smith and his staff are building a solid foundation.

WWDD – What Would Dean Do?

Basketball Smith could have been talking about soccer Smith when he said, "The most important thing in good leadership is truly caring." Tim Ream, who captained the U.S. Men’s National Team during the recent international break, says the man is authentic.

“He doesn't change whether he's in front of cameras on the touch line, inside the training ground here, or on the pitch,” Ream said. “He’s very, very authentic. There's nothing he's telling (media) that he’s telling us different, so that's always nice to have, that you know what you're going to get. And he gives that every day.”

For Charlotte FC, Smith is the right man in the right place at the right time.

“With the group of guys we have,” said Ream, “with his experience, it was about building a culture and a squad and a team that can compete, and compete as quickly as possible. And it's turned out to be a very, very, very good appointment. I think everybody, myself included, have really enjoyed working under him, and learning from him on a day-to-day basis.”

The first news that came out of the preseason training camp eight months ago was how Smith was organizing team building events not just for the players but for the entire staff as well, cementing the understanding that everyone had an important role to play in the overall fortunes of the club.

‘We’re going to Disneyland’

Usually, that line follows winning a major title or championship. For Charlotte FC, it defines the first step in the path towards a trophy.

The best-of-three first round series starts in Orlando against a club CLTFC wasn’t able to solve during the regular season. The first matchup in Charlotte had the home side up 1-0 on a Kerwin Vargas strike but was turned sideways when Scott Arfield was ejected in the 37th minute. Orlando equalized in the 63rd minute but the 10-man Crown regained the lead when Brandt Bronico, coming off the bench, scored a cheeky 77th minute goal.

Orlando broke hometown hearts with an 81st minute goal from Facundo Torres off a corner kick to gain a 2-2 draw.

The rematch in Florida capped the post-Leagues Cup dry spell where Charlotte drew once and lost three straight after the three-week layoff. Since losing 2-0 in that game, Smith changed the defense, pushing Ream out to the left in place of Jere Uronen, but with a more conservative defensive role, essentially a third centerback when Charlotte had the ball. He brought Andrew Privett back into the center with Adilson Malanda, and gave right-back Nathan (After)Byrne(r) license to fly as a wingman.

The Crown closed the season with four wins and a draw, including a season ending three game win streak. The draw came in Miami against league leaders Inter Messi. In those five games, Charlotte scored 15 times, conceding just 4 goals. Three were clean sheets. So yes, Charlotte FC is a team in good form heading into the playoffs, very capable of breaking Orlando down.

Both offense and defense will have to be on-point to make that happen. Since beating Charlotte, Orlando closed the season with a 4-3 loss to Columbus, three straight wins including a 3-1 victory over FC Cincinnati, and a surprising loss to Atlanta United on Decision Day.

“I think they're the best team we could have faced,” said Smith, “because I'm a big believer that the league table never lies. So, if you look at the league table, the best team were Miami, the second best team were Columbus, and the third with Cincinnati. And then ourselves and Orlando were one point apart. So makes it a real tight match up. We know a lot about each other.”  

Smith is faced with the blessing and curse of having a variety of options to decide for his starting lineup. It’s exactly where he wants to be.

“It's a great decision for me,” he said. “We've got players who are in form at the moment, or wanting to start the game, and that's where I said I'd like to be at the start of the season, that at the end of the season that I've got players fighting for positions and playing in good form as well. So, it's a really good position for me to be in.”

The path is hard. The survivor of this series will face the winner of the Inter Miami-Atlanta series on Nov. 23 in a quarterfinal knockout game. Should the Crown get there, it will be a special Thanksgiving indeed.
Or should that be, in-Dean. As in, in Dean we trust.

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