Blog

Mar 18, 2023

Jacks drop three on Omaha to stay atop USL1 table

It was a split decision for Charlotte FC and the Charlotte Independence in their

It was a split decision for Charlotte FC and the Charlotte Independence in their matches on Saturday with the Jacks winning big at home and the Crown's comeback from three goals down thwarted in Columbus.

The weather – 88-degree air temperature, over 120 degrees on the artificial grass – wasn't the only thing that was hot Saturday evening at American Legion Memorial Stadium. So was the Charlotte Independence offense in a 3-0 win over Union Omaha.

Joel Johnson in the seventh minute, Tresor Mbuyu in the 55th, and Khori Bennett in the 90th all scored with Austin Pack notching another clean sheet for their sixth shutout. Charlotte has the league's stingiest defense, only conceding eight goals in 12 games. They’ve scored 16.

The third consecutive victory ensured that the Jacks (6-4-2) would stay even on 22 points with North Carolina FC (7-3-1) in first place in USL League One. NCFC beat One Knoxville 1-0 on the road.

The scoreline was in contrast to the stat lines where Omaha controlled 64% of possession and outshot the Independence 18-12 (5-5 on target). That wasn't much different from the previous bout between the two teams in Charlotte on April 19 where Omaha also led in shots (20-9) and on target (9-3), with 53% possession. Still, the Jacks earned a 0-0 draw.

The first goal was beautiful team play. After Nick Spielman took the ball off an Omaha midfielder, the Jacks Brad Dunwell collected it and neatly split two defenders with a through ball to Miguel Ibarra in flight. Ibarra took touch to his right to elude the onrushing goalkeeper and could have taken the shot but saw Joel Johnson crashing in and left it for his teammate to score.

"Nick stepped in and poked the ball out and put me in a super position to counter," said Dunwell. "Miguel made a fantastic run; I mean he probably saw the gap before me. I slipped it through, and the rest is history."

Mbuyu's goal was an individual effort by the former Garinger High School and Liberty University standout. He regained the ball defensively in the Omaha half and dribbled in to score from a very sharp angle, beating the keeper on the near post.

Bennett closed it out, taking a pass from Luis Alvarez, drove into the penalty area. His left-footed shot bounced off a defender and into the net. Both Bennett and Mbuyu have three goals on the season. It was Johnson's second score.

"I think it's a great home stand for us and certainly a lot that we feel good about and can build on," said coach Mike Jeffries, whose team is on the road for the next three matches. "The rest of this stretch has some tough road trips, and we have to continue to play as well as we can, and as well as we have been, and be solid defensively."

Charlotte FC coach Christian Lattanzio is a movie buff and has expressed his fondness for Italian director Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood. What he didn't appreciate is how his team more exemplified the latter two of elements of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

It started with the ugly just five minutes in when Bill Tuiloma's decision to make a questionable square pass across the back line was poached by Cucho Hernandez before Harrison Afful and Jan Sobocinski could deal with it in the middle. Bounding towards the Charlotte goal, Christian Ramirez jumped on it and beat Kristijan Kahlina to give Columbus the early lead.

Then came the bad.

With three defenders blocking his path to the goal Max Arfsten's left-footed shot from ten yards out on the right still found its way into the net in the 21st minute. While Afful tried to push him to the line, Arfsten cut back to his left to get open, still with Jan Sobocinski and Tuiloma covering. The ball eluded both and Kahlina could not react in time.

"We didn't start with the intention and the focus that I wanted," said Lattanzio. "We were playing toe to toe with them and then we made it difficult for ourselves."

It looked like Charlotte pulled one back at the 25-minute mark when Kerwin Vargas's cross was met by Justin Meram whose sharp header bounced down and up into the roof of the net. On video review, the goal was ruled offside by an overlap of inches. But that's the way the game is being called these days.

Another chance from Karol Swiderski in the 33rd minute was deflected past the goal by Multe Amundsen Afful's shot was parried by keeper Patrick SchulteBad went to worse when Cucho beat Kahlina to a lobbed pass over the defense – soccer's version of an alley-oop - from Lucas Zelarayan was just outside the box, stretching his right leg out to get enough of a touch to push the ball past Kahlina's right and into the net.

After 45 minutes, Columbus went into halftime leading 3-0.

"It was unacceptable," said team captain Ashley Westwood. "We take full responsibility for that. We can't start a game like that. It was completely unacceptable, so we take that on the chin, and we learn from it."

There was some good. Down 3-0, the Crown mustered two goals in two minutes to make the home fans quite nervous.

It was a very good pass, a long, flighted ball from Westwood at the midfield line, over the top of the Crew defense in the 56th minute that Swiderski took down over his shoulder with an even better touch of his favored left foot at the top of the penalty area with Steven Moreira on his back. He then slipped it through Schulte's legs to get Charlotte on the board.

Two minutes later, it was Columbus's turn for a little ugly when Amundsen's backpass was picked off by Justin Meram running in to one-touch it past Schulte to make it 3-2. Very good.

"We got in the changing room (at halftime). A few words were said which were rightly so," Westwood said. "We showed character. That's the main thing. This group showed character tonight. It was tough. It was really tough."

Alas, that brief ray of hope broke bad when Charlotte conceded just 105 seconds afterwards to go down 4-2, the final score.

"There are some teams in this league," said Lattanzio, comparing Charlotte to Columbus, one of the original MLS teams, "and we need to understand that they build, over the years, good squads with great quality players. And we need to respect that we are not there yet."

"We have to be realistic, and we have to build our squad in a way that we are going to have the same level of quality in all the positions and then we can then compete."It doesn't help that the team has been playing the past several matches without two of their three designated players, Enzo Copetti, who joined the club this year, and Kamil Jozwiak, in his second season with Charlotte.

Copetti hasn't played since coming off against Nashville on May 20, missing his third consecutive MLS game, and fourth altogether including the last Open Cup match. A starter in the 13 games he's played, Copetti had 4 goals and an assist and was becoming increasingly comfortable in Lattanzio's high press system.

Kamil Jozwiak, who has been a very influential player this season, hasn't seen the pitch since the away win in Atlanta on May 13, five straight games all told. In nine MLS matches this season, he started eight and had scored two goals with four assists. He added two goals in two U.S. Open Cup matches.

Since May 6, the Crown has played nine matches in 29 days. "We are doing what we can with what we have," said Lattanzio.

Other key players missing games have included Ben Bender, McKinze Gaines, Bill Tuiloma, and Ashley Westwood. Centerback Adilson Malanda was a late scratch from Saturday's starting lineup out of precaution for an injury.

Charlotte is now ninth in the MLS East as both DC United and Orlando City won and jumped them in the table. CLTFC returns home with a full week to recuperate and refocus before facing the Seattle Sounders at Bank of America Stadium on June 10.