Bender talks departure from Charlotte FC
Club's former No. 1 pick, now with Philly, says he wasn't 'one of Smith's guys,' plus Zaha connections improving, scheduling insanity and advancing Saturday game in Philadelphia
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Ben Bender, who battled back from knee surgery, says he came to the realization heâs ânot one of [Deanâs] guysâ; now making full-circle return with Philadelphia, where he played in academy
Former Charlotte FC No. 1 draft pick Ben Bender drives the ball in an exhibition last Saturday against Atlas FC of Liga MX. (Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.)
By now, four years into the evolution of Charlotte FC, weâve been desensitized to players coming and going. An expansion build and two coaching changes will do that.
Players are loaned out and not heard from again. Even designated players donât seem to stick around long. On an opening day roster of 30, only three players remain from the original 2022 bunch. (Spoiler alert for the trivia buffs: Thatâs Kristijan Kahlina, Brandt Bronico and George Marks.)
But something felt different when Ben Bender left. It hurt.
Charlotte FC waived its first-ever draft pick, No. 1 overall from the University of Maryland in the 2022 SuperDraft, in mid-April. Gone was the soft-spoken fan favorite who would rather fish than post on social media and likes to bake bread for teammates and anyone else who wants to try it. He made headbands and corner flag kicks fashionable after etching himself into team lore by scoring the put-away goal in the clubâs first-ever win, 3-1 against New England on March 19, 2022.
Bender signed with the Philadelphia Union last month, the team Charlotte FC faces on the road Saturday night. He will wear No. 16 in green.
Bender underwent surgery to repair a meniscus root tear in October of 2023, which undercut the trajectory of his first two seasons in MLS. In his comeback attempt last season under new coach Dean Smith, he played just six games, averaging 32 minutes, before being loaned to the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL Championship. Bender says he felt his injuryâs effects all of last season.
âI didnât start feeling like myself until this off-season,â Bender told The Ledger in a phone call from Philadelphia this week. âSo it basically took almost a year and a half.â
Bender, a technical, offensive-minded young player, might have found himself without a position. He wasnât producing enough to thrive in a central midfield role and didnât have the defensive presence Smith wanted on the wing.
âI think Dean said it best when I was leaving,â Bender said. âHe said, âFootball is a game of opinions,â and I just donât think I was one of his guys, and he didnât see a future for me. Didnât fit his system, and the team was playing really, really well. They brought in guys like [Wilfried] Zaha and Pep [Biel] and as a younger player, itâs tough to get in. Itâs tough anywhere, but when you bring in a guy like Zaha, who was a world-class player, like, Iâm not going to play in front of him, so thatâs a difficult spot to be in.â
Charlotte was 6-2-1 and in first place in the Eastern Conference when Bender was waived on April 25 and has gone just 3-6-2 in a tough stretch since. His roster spot was used to make room for new defender Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, but Bender said he felt the departure coming for a month.
â[Smith] called me in the day it happened, but I had an idea like a month before that I wasnât going to be there,â Bender said. âI knew I was training well, but I wasnât getting the opportunity in the game, so I was going to try and move on either way. ⊠No bad blood or anything. If he doesnât see me in his plans, then he has to move on, and I have to move on. Yeah, it was sad to go, because I felt like I had a special relationship with the fans and the community and everything, but thatâs how it goes in the professional sports world.â
Bender injured his knee on the turf at Bank of America Stadium on Sept. 20, 2023, five months after Columbusâ Will Sands tore his anterior cruciate ligament there. (Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Union.)
Landing in Philadelphia was what Bender calls a âfull circleâ moment. His parents live just 1 hour and 10 minutes away in his hometown, Baltimore. He spent a year in Philadelphiaâs Academy after signing as a 14-year-old. He even hurt his knee playing against the Union.
âItâs been very refreshing,â Bender said. âThe month of May was really busy with nine games, and to be integrated with the team has been really good.â
Benderâs wife, Hannah, works remotely for a small accounting firm, so the transition for her wasnât too complicated. Bender gets to play in front of his parents and his brothers, one of whom has a new baby boy who made Bender âUncle Benâ for the first time. Bender debuted for Philadelphia with 25 minutes against Pittsburgh in the U.S. Open Cup and played 90 minutes at FC Dallas, taking advantage of teammates being gone for international duty.
He sounds understatedly upbeat, as always, and wiser than his 24 years.
âI remember an interview after one of the Charlotte games when I was a rookie,â Bender said. âI said my faith is the most important thing to me, and thatâs when things were going well. Even in the hard times, I was still praying and asking God to lead me through it. I had the perspective that His ways are higher, and sometimes He brings us through something to show us and shape us into the person weâre meant to be.â
Zahaâs connections with his CLT teammates are improving
Wilfried Zaha is finding more time on the ball, and space to maneuver, as he builds trust with teammates. (Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC.)
Star winger Wilfried Zaha, who went his first 12 games in MLS without an assist, now has three in his past three games. He set up both goals in Charlotteâs 2-0 win in Toronto in the teamâs last game on May 31. Pep Biel scored the first goal after a âpeach of a pass,â as Apple TV play-by-play man Tony Husband put it, from Zaha to Liel Abada, who crossed to Biel. The second was good for an assist on a vertical pass to a streaking Patrick Agyemang for the 2-0 put-away goal.
Zaha said Thursday that being up to full fitness, not needing any more eight-hour trips home to England to see his baby daughter (sheâs here now) and time to gain the trust of teammates have been key.
âGiving me the ball and then giving me options [by making runs] helps me a lot,â Zaha said. âWhen I came at first, I felt like it was âGive the ball to Wilf and just expect magic.â That's not how it works. Thereâs 11 of us in the pitch for a reason.â
Playing nine games in May, while grueling physically, gave Zaha a crash course on chemistry with his new teammates.
âAll the time with us training together and playing together, I feel like thereâs that trust between the players,â he said. âThey trust me that âIf I made this run, heâs going to try [to pass], at least.â Iâll tell some of the players, âEven if you mess up this pass, it gives me faith that youâve seen me and youâre trying.ââ
Another difference has been Zahaâs positioning. Early in the season, he was staying out wide on the left wing, where he was an easy target for double and triple teams. Now heâs playing more centrally, which forces defenses to make a decision.
Smith changed formation to a 3-4-3 in Orland to help free Zaha up inside, but it exposed defensive vulnerabilities, and Charlotte lost 3-1. Zaha took the cue anyway and has taken it upon himself to drift inside more often.
âIt gives the midfielder and the center back a problem because they donât know whoâs going to go [cover],â Zaha said. âThen I can turn and link up with other players. ⊠That split second when I can get on the ball and turn gives me enough time to do what I need to do.â
Quotable: Dean Smith on pendulum swing of schedule
If Charlotte FCâs schedule is baffling to its fans, they are not alone. Coach Dean Smith is still shaking his head after Charlotte played nine games in May â seven of them on the road â and now has only three games in the month of June, all of them away from Bank of America Stadium.
âScheduling has to be better,â said Smith, who spent a weekend off in New York for his son Jamieâs bachelor party. âItâs certainly good for us to get that breather. We needed the rest and recuperation to recover from what was a grueling schedule. Iâve been in the [English] Championship when youâre playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, but never anything like that. [Assistant coach] Miles [Joseph], whoâs been in the league since it was born 30 years ago, said heâs never seen a schedule like that. Weâve come through it a little bit bruised and battered, but we got through it.â
Up Next: Charlotte FC (8-8-1) vs Philadelphia Union (10-4-3)
When/Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Subaru Park, Chester, Pa.
How to watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Find information about how to subscribe for the season here.
How to listen: WFNZ 92.7 in English, WOLS 106.1 in Spanish.
Notable:
After a week off for the international break, Charlotte FC is back on the road for the eighth time in the last 10 games, including two U.S. Open Cup matches. This time, Charlotte faces the first-place team in the Eastern Conference.
Charlotte FC will be without striker Patrick Agyemang and center back Tim Ream, who are with the U.S. Menâs national team for at least another three and possibly four games during Concacaf Gold Cup play.
Backup striker Idan Toklomati has been back in practice all week after missing five games with a hamstring injury and will be ready to start Saturday. Left back Souleyman Doumbia has been back in action for two games from a hamstring strain and is returning to full fitness.
Philadelphia is missing its share of players, too. Striker Tai Baribo, who leads MLS with 13 goals, was injured on international duty for Israel and is out, as is striker Mikael Uhre. Nobody else has scored more than two goals for the Union, and three of the seven players with two are still on Gold Cup duty: Quinn Sullivan (U.S.), Nathan Harriel (U.S.) and Danley Jean-Jacques (Haiti).
Philadelphia goalkeeper Andre Blake is playing for Jamaica in the Gold Cup.
Smith sat goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina for Charlotteâs last game, a 2-0 win in Toronto, to give him a mental break from recent uncharacteristic play.
Carroll Walton is a longtime baseball writer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution now in her fourth season covering Charlotte FC. She would love to hear from you. E-mail her with questions, suggestions, story ideas and comments!
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