Dean Smith not happy about MLS playoff scheduling 

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Charlotte FC coach Dean Smith took exception to MLS scheduling Game 1 of their series against New York City FC on Tuesday instead of the weekend. NYCFC won 1-0 with Game 2 set for New York

It wasn’t the reason Charlotte FC lost 1-0 to NYC FC, but manager Dean Smith wasn’t happy playing on a cold, rainy Tuesday evening.

“By the way, MLS, thanks very much for a Tuesday night game,” Smith said. “That was very nice of them, so that was a bit disappointing to be on a Tuesday night. The weather wasn’t great, and there were no games Saturday, but now we have to go to New York and get a result there, which is not beyond us by any means, because that was a game of two halves. We saw in the second half what we can actually do.”

To Smith’s point, the Crown was able to generate more attacks in the second half compared to the first, where New York really controlled the tempo and pace. Despite four shots on goal, none found the back of the net as NYC FC goalkeeper Matthew Freese was busy in net in the second half, saving all attempts on goal.

The lone goal came in the 34th minute when NYCFC forward Alonso Martinez dribbled through Charlotte back line and found the bottom right corner of the net. 

“It was a very poor goal to concede,” Smith said, “but it probably summed the first half performance. I just felt we didn’t quite handle the pressure of being the home team in a playoff game. It’s the first time we’ve done it, and I didn’t think we handled it well enough. We stood off the play and (Martinez) skipped through and scored the goal. It was really disappointing.”

Charlotte star Wilfried Zaha was unable to take the pitch due to accumulation of yellow cards. Zaha, who scored 10 goals and six assists in 31 matches, will be back for Game 2 in New York, and Smith is relieved.

“He is a quality player,” Smith said. “He was probably our best player when we played there in the last game. We had two penalties given against us, one that I thought was a really poor decision in the first half.” 

After Liel Abada and Kerwin Vargas came off the pitch, Smith relied on Tyger Smalls and Brandon Cambridge to help spark the offense. Neither had great touch on their passes when trying to create an offensive break.

“They had a couple of bad touches today,” Smith said. “But, they weren’t the only ones that had bad touches today. Tyger’s got incredible technical ability and he’s wanted to be a real match winner for us on his day. Tonight wasn’t his day, but he’ll get better for us. Brandon hasn’t had many minutes but with the suspension, our hands were tied a little bit. We put him on and he got behind [the defense] a couple times and won a couple corners.”

Smith’s message to the team after the game was a bit unique.

“[New York] probably thinks it’s over,” Smith said. “The beauty or madness of having a three-game series is that we’ve still got a chance to bring it back here. And, if you do, I believe there’d be a much better performance here and much bigger attendance so we can actually put on a show for our supporters on a day that is probably appropriate. So, we’ll go to New York not feeling like we can’t win, that is for sure.”

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