Something old, something new

After facing one of North America’s oldest and most successful football clubs in our opening tour game, we now meet the continent’s newest top-flight team.

Chelsea’s freshly appointed president of business Tom Glick played a big role in the establishment of the club four years ago. The American was president of the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers when he was tasked by the team’s owner David Tepper with organising a Major League Soccer expansion bid.

MLS officially awarded the team to Charlotte in December 2019 and although the team’s debut was delayed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, they played their first competitive match in February when they were beaten 3-0 at DC United in their season opener.

A first-class venue

The Bank of America Stadium opened in 1996 as the home of the Carolina Panthers but it has hosted several soccer matches throughout its history including a pre-season encounter between Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain in July 2015 which the Blues prevailed in a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 draw.

The stadium has been renovated extensively since it first opened its doors 26 years ago and Charlotte set an MLS record in March when a huge crowd of 74,479 watched their first home game, a 1-0 loss to Los Angeles Galaxy.

While the upper tiers of the stadium are not usually opened for MLS games, the team has averaged good crowds of more than 30,000 so far this season.

Turnover at the top

Although Charlotte made a decent start to their first MLS campaign, they surprisingly parted company with head coach Miguel Angel Ramirez in May after only 14 games. The club did not give a reason for the sudden move but there were rumours of discontent within the squad and from the front office over comments by the Spaniard about the quality of his players.

Rather than naming a full-time replacement, the club put assistant coach Christian Lattanzio in charge as their interim boss for the rest of the season. Although it is the first time the Italian has held the top coaching job, the 50-year-old has a wealth of experience after previously working with Roberto Mancini at Manchester City and Patrick Vieira at New York City and French side Nice.

In the play-off hunt

Charlotte have continued their decent form under Lattanzio with three wins, one draw and three defeats in his seven matches in charge thus far.

They enjoyed their first-ever away win in the league at Houston Dynamo earlier this month but the key positive in their campaign has been their excellent home form with the club winning seven of 10 games at Bank of America Stadium including a 4-1 victory over Nashville in the most recent game there on 9 July.

However, they suffered a setback in their last outing at Inter Miami on Saturday when they opened the scoring after 25 seconds but allowed a two-goal lead to slip in a 3-2 defeat which dropped them to eighth place in the MLS Eastern Conference, one point out of a play-off spot.

The Crown’s key men

The Charlotte player that Chelsea fans may be most familiar with is their captain, former Austria international full-back Christian Fuchs, who moved to the Queen City last summer after the 36-year-old’s contract with Leicester City expired.

Both of the club’s designated players are Poland international forwards with striker Karol Swiderski signed from Greek side PAOK and winger Kamil Jozwiak arriving from Derby County earlier this year.

Swiderski has five goals this season, one behind Brazil-born Andre Shinyashiki who has netted six in 11 games since the former MLS Rookie of the Year arrived from Colorado Rapid in May.

The team’s leader in MLS assists with five is 21-year-old Ben Bender who was selected by Charlotte as the first overall pick in the 2022 MLS SuperDraft.