There’s no place like home for sliding Charlotte FC 

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Ashley Westwood and his Charlotte FC mates return to Bank of America Stadium for the first time since May 24 when they play Orlando.

You can easily visualize it. 

The starting lineup of Charlotte FC, standing in wait, lined up from the locker room door through the Vault to take the pitch on Saturday, clicking the heels of their ruby red soccer boots, saying repeatedly: “There’s no place like home; there’s no place like home.”

The Queen City’s team in exile is back on home turf for the first time since May 24, a 3-2 win over Columbus. It was a brutal time in purgatory. From there, they lost four of five on the road, going 0-for-June with three one-goal losses in games where they should have come out with more.

Charlotte (8-11-1) were top of the Eastern table in mid-April after three straight wins, and then plummeted to 10th, one spot out of the playoff picture, after losing nine-of-11. Kickoff against Orlando City is 7:15 p.m., which will be televised on Fox, FS1, and Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass.

Are they happy to be back? Head coach Dean Smith put it this way: “We’ll kiss the ground before we walk in.”

The good news going forward is five of six matches in July will be at the Bank, and the road game is just down I-85 in Atlanta.

The bad news is that Smith’s team is still saddled by injuries, with left back Souleyman Doumbia back on the M*A*S*H wagon with another hamstring strain. Expect Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty to be back on the left with Nick Scardina outside on the right with Adilson Malanda and Andrew Privett in the middle. 

“If I look back,” said Smith, “that's probably the one thing that we've lacked this season, the consistency of players, certainly in the back line. Certainly, in the last 11 games, we've changed the back line an awful lot. We've changed keepers a couple of times. We’ve had different centerbacks playing, different left backs, different right backs. And that's hindered us a little bit. But they’re reasons, not excuses and we have to make sure that we do our jobs better than we did for the goals last week in Chicago.” 

Every player and every team will make mistakes, but the kind of errors, and the timing for Charlotte’s defense have been both glaring and devastating. If it’s a market correction for all the mistakes Charlotte didn’t make last year in a dramatic upgrade of the defense, then it’s been coming with a vengeance. 

It's not just injuries that will limit options against Orlando. Wilfried Zaha will sit due to yellow card accumulation. 

The fact that MLS does not take an international break for the Gold Cup, or other national team competitions is still something that baffles Smith.

USA all the way

The continuing success of the U.S. Men’s National Team in the Concacaf Gold Cup means that Tim Ream, the American captain, and Patrick Agyemang, who has been a regular starter at center forward, will be in Houston to play Mexico in the final on Sunday. 

The match will be televised on Fox, Fox Sports, TUDN, and Univision. Kickoff is 7 p.m. 

Since not seeing the pitch against Türkiye and getting 45 minutes against Switzerland in two exhibition losses in early June, Ream has played 90 minutes in all five Gold Cup games, often as one of the team’s highest-rated players. The Gold Cup final will be his 75th cap for the United States. At 37, he is five years older than the next most venerable player, fellow centerback Walker Zimmerman. He’s formed an effective pairing with Chris Richards, 12 years his junior, who won the FA Cup with Crystal Palace in May.

Agyemang has been Pochettino’s first choice as the tip of the spear, not just for his ability to get behind the defense, but more so for his growing skill as a proper target man who can receive and hold the ball in transition or play give-and-go around the box. Ageymang scored against Trinidad & Tobago in a 5-0 game and tallied the 78th minute game-winner against Haiti.

Both will be back for CLTFC’s next game at home against NYCFC on July 12.

Will Agyemang finish the season?

There have been multiple reports that Agyemang may be in the English Championship when it begins next month, most saying that Derby County is the destination. The next transfer window for MLS is during the Secondary Transfer Window from July 24-Aug. 21. 

According to the Derby Telegraph, personal terms have been “agreed with the Charlotte FC striker and a medical is planned for after the CONCACAF Gold Cup final against Mexico, which is being played over the weekend.”
While Smith has repeatedly stated that Charlotte doesn’t need to sell Agyemang, the reported $8 million price tag may be too good to pass up before his current deal expires after the 2026 season. While negotiations have been ongoing, Agyemang has not agreed to extend his contract beyond that.     

“We're not in a position as a club where we need to sell anybody,” Smith said previously, “especially if it's going to weaken our team. But saying that, every player will have a value as well.” 
There will be competition for the job. Agyemang will have to earn it as Derby have recently signed Carlton Morris from relegated Luton Town last week, and Lars-Jorgen Salvesen, who joined from Norwegian side Viking in January but missed the end of the season after picking up an injury.

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