Making Leagues Cup quarters a long shot for Charlotte FC 

STEVE GOLDBERG | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Idan Toklomati's header sails wide in Charlotte FC's 4-1 loss to Juarez July 31, 2025, in the opening match of the Leagues Cup at Bank of America Stadium. Charlotte plays Chivas de Guadalajara Aug. 3.

Charlotte FC and Chivas de Guadalajara go into Sunday’s Leagues Cup match needing to win outright to have any chance at making the final four in their respective tables. 

If nothing else, both teams need to prove to themselves that their first games do not define who they are as they head back to their regular seasons. One of Mexico’s big clubs, Chivas were 1-1-0 two games into the Liga MX Apertura before losing 1-0 to New York Red Bulls. Charlotte won their last four MLS matches coming in, but all that good form failed to show in the first 45 minutes against FC Jaurez in an embarrassing 4-1 loss.

With just three games to earn a spot in the knockout round, it was effectively a playoff game, and a bad day to have a bad day.

“An abysmal first half cost us the game,” Charlotte coach Dean Smith said immediately after the match. “Abysmal goals cost us the game. Second half, we made a bit of a game of it, but a very, very niggly game.

“We didn't play well [Thursday] but the goals were horrendous,” he reiterated on Friday. “And I mean horrendous. The goals that we gave away were really, really poor. My feeling … was that they wanted it more than us. You could see that the reaction to their goals, the reaction from their bench. The game just seemed a little bit more to them.”

National pride

It is important to understand how teams look at matches between Mexican and American clubs. Liga MX teams are predominantly Mexican – Juarez has a few players from Colombia, Brazil, and Panama, but the majority are domestic. MLS teams are primarily multinational quilts and Americans (or Canadians) are not the majority. Since the U.S. national team finally caught up to Mexico, which had dominated Concacaf for so long, and for many stretches moved ahead of El Tri in continental and global competitions, it has become an intense rivalry. Whether national or club level, Mexican teams do not want to lose to American teams. Current politics have only intensified that.

While MLS clubs want to win just as badly, they do not share the nationalistic fire, as being a club in America and being an American team are not the same thing. Only two Americans started the match for Charlotte on Thursday, along with three Brits, two Israelis, a Canadian, a Croatian, a Frenchman, and a Spaniard.

The nationalism will not always be a successful motivation, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. 

The better team

Let’s be clear. Juarez was the better team on the night. 

Juarez came in with a game plan to irritate more than intimidate, with persistent pushes and pulls after the fact in the effort to throw Charlotte off. It wasn’t anything that a professional player hadn’t seen before. 

As if it were the book on him, Wilfried Zaha has been persistently fouled since coming to MLS this season, but many, if not most, have not been whistled. That doesn't mean that every time Zaha feels he has been fouled, he should get the call, but even a non-partisan observer would agree that he may not be wrong much of the time.

Early into this match, Guilherme Castilho had both hands full of Zaha’s jersey, tugging at the neck and side as Zaha tried to pull away. With no whistle forthcoming, the frustrated winger spun and tossed the oversized mosquito to the ground, where he suddenly acted the victim. Referee Natalie Simon could have, should have set the tone there, but didn’t.

It wasn’t that Simon lost control of the game, but more so that she never truly took control and put an end to the gamesmanship when she had the opportunity. 

That hurt Charlotte most when Idan Toklomati, who has played far more mature than his 20 years during his time with the club, showed his age with a foolish retribution head-butt on Rodolfo Pizaro, who had just thrown him to the ground. It wasn’t the first time Toklomati had been fouled in the match. Of the 14 fouls that were called against Juarez, five were committed on Toklomati.

Simon showed Toklomati a straight red card, which he deserved, but failed to discipline the foul that started it. 

Not that Charlotte couldn’t have handled it better. 

“I thought we failed with our emotional control for periods of the game,” said Smith.

Up next

With a short turn between games, Smith would have been rotating players regardless, but now he’s without the team’s primary striker. Adilson Malanda, who did not dress for the Juarez match, is out with what Smith described as a cyst on his knee. Souleyman Doumbia is still out with an injury. 

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:50 p.m. at Bank of America Stadium. Along with Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass, the game, as well as the final first-round match against Monterrey, will be aired on FS1.

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