Charlotte FC can maintain their 100% record at home versus New York City FC when they open the 2024 MLS regular season against them on Saturday at Bank of America Stadium.
The Crown made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history a season ago, losing their Wild Card fixture versus the New York Red Bulls (5-2), while the Pigeons missed the post-season for only the second time in club history, finishing 11th in the Eastern Conference.
Match preview
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It was an unpredictable 2023 campaign in Charlotte, with the Crown winning just one of their first eight MLS fixtures but squeaking into the playoffs by winning their final three regular-season affairs.
Dean Smith becomes the third head coach in club history to start a season in their third MLS campaign, and the 52-year-old has lots of experience under his belt, previously managing Aston Villa, Norwich City and Leicester City in the Premier League.
Smith will need to address a significant issue between the sticks this season, with the Crown conceding 52 goals in each of their regular season campaigns, the second-most among the playoff teams last season behind Atlanta United (53).
Charlotte have been a lot better in that department this month, ending the 2024 pre-season with three successive clean sheets.
Throughout the 2023 MLS regular season, the Crown suffered just three defeats at Bank of America Stadium while winning on six occasions.
They have never lost a regular season contest versus New York City, winning both of their previous home games against them by a single goal (3-2 in 2023 and 1-0 in 2022).
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The 2023 campaign was far below the usually high standards we expect at NYCFC as this team finished 22nd overall, their lowest position since entering MLS in 2015.
Scoring goals was a big problem for them last season, with the Pigeons netting a mere 35 times, 22 fewer than they managed in 2022 and the fewest-ever for this club in a single MLS campaign.
Last season, they had fewer wins (nine) than in any previous MLS regular season, while dropping 10 points in 2023 when scoring the opening goal.
Despite coming off a tough 2023 campaign, the expectations for Nick Cushing will be high heading into his second full season as head coach, with the Boys in Blue adding plenty of exciting young attacking pieces this year.
While they are a relatively young group, many of the key pieces were together in pre-season this time around, which was not the case a year ago, so the hope is that will enable them to be more cohesive than they were a year ago.
NYCFC have never beaten the Crown in four previous meetings against them in the regular season, conceding the opening goal in each of those encounters.
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Team News
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Over the off-season, Charlotte added Djibril Diani from Ligue 2 side Caen while singing Nikola Petkovic from their MLS Next Pro team.
Karol Swiderski has been loaned out to Hellas Verona in the Italian Serie A, while Kamil Jozwiak left to join Granada in the Spanish top flight.
Guzman Corujo missed most of the 2023 season because of an ACL tear, and the club transferred him to Cukaricki in Serbia, where he will be joined by Vinicius Mello, who was a part of Charlotte's MLS Next Pro side last season.
Maxi Moralez missed the final six matches of the 2023 MLS season for NYCFC after injuring his knee in their 1-1 draw with the Vancouver Whitecaps last September.
Andres Perea joined the team on a permanent move this off-season, Hannes Wolf came to NYCFC from Borussia Monchengladbach, while Agustin Ojeda arrives from Racing Club and Jovan Mijatovic joined for a reported price tag worth over $8m (£6.3m).
Last week, NYCFC traded Gabriel Segal to the Houston Dynamo for a 2025 MLS SuperDraft pick and a sell-on percentage, while the loan move for Richy Ledezma expired and Alfredo Morales became a member of the San Jose Earthquakes.
Charlotte FC possible starting lineup:
Kahlina; Byrne, Malanda, Privett, Uronen; Diani, Arfield, Westwood; Dejaegere, Copetti, Vargas
New York City FC possible starting lineup:
Freese; Ilenic, Martins, Risa, O'Toole; Parks, Sands; Fernandez, Rodriguez, Wolf; Bakrar
We say: Charlotte FC 1-2 New York City FC
There are a lot of new faces in Charlotte, and it might take them a while to gel as a unit, while we are unconvinced they have sorted out their goalkeeping issues.
After a difficult 2023 campaign, having a long off-season to familiarize themselves with their new surroundings should be helpful to the Pigeons, who have plenty of attacking depth which should serve them well in this match.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
