Next challenge for 'proper' coach
Charlotte FC won first game under new 'gaffer' Dean Smith, now hits road for three straight; plus Berchimas debut, Vargas' PK miss, wine promises, fan updates and previewing Saturday game in Vancouver
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Smith wins opener with ‘compact’ style, bringing assurance to roster infused with young talent and only one designated player.
A noticeable addition to a postgame locker room celebration photo for Charlotte FC: the head coach was in the photo. Dean Smith is in the back row, center, after the 1-0 win over New York City FC in his debut as Charlotte’s coach. (Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC.)
As Charlotte FC was putting the finishing touches on the on-field celebration of its 1-0 season-opening win against New York City FC, an English journalist leaned down and uttered “Welcome to Dean Smith football,” as he walked behind me along press row at Bank of America Stadium.
Simon Peach — who has a great name, by the way, and covers soccer for PA news agency for the U.K. (think Associated Press) — was one of a handful of British journalists in town on the league’s dime to get a feel for Major League Soccer and share their impressions with English audiences. Their two stops? Miami to watch Lionel Messi and company. And Charlotte to watch new coach Dean Smith, an Englishman, in the Charlotte FC opener (and visit with captain Ashley Westwood, also a bloke).
Peach had predicted before kickoff that Charlotte FC was going to score on a set piece — a dead ball play like corner kicks and free kicks. Eight minutes into the game he was proven right: Adilson Malanda put the finishing touches on a Iuri Tavares header off the crossbar, to give Charlotte FC a 1-0 lead on Kerwin Vargas’ corner kick.
Charlotte FC had scored on set pieces just twice all last season in MLS play. (They scored on a Westwood free kick and Ben Bender finish vs. FC Dallas in Leagues Cup.) Converting set pieces, and taking advantage of designated scoring opportunities, are just part of the brand of “football” Peach was referring to; Smith brings an “organized” style in which players know where they’re supposed to be and stay in the right positions when they need it the most. The result is a simpler system players can understand and more dependable defense.
“The position on the field, for me, it’s amazing,” said Junior Urso, the 34-year-old midfielder who made his Charlotte debut Saturday. “We don’t have [gaping] space between defenders and the middle and in front so it’s a compacted team. I love it. It's more easy for me and for the other players who have to take over the ball.”
Using a more basic system, under a coach who has already developed a strong rapport with his players (see photo above), Smith has already done something neither Miguel Angel Ramirez or Christian Lattanzio did as head coaches for Charlotte FC — won a home opener.
And Smith did it despite having only one designated player on the roster (a star player signed without regard to the salary cap) and with three players ages 22 and younger making their MLS debuts — 22-year-old Iuri Tavares, 20-year-old Joao Pedro, and most notably 16-year-old Nimfasha Berchimas.
Gone are Polish stars Karol Swiderski (on loan to an Italian team) and Kamil Jozwiak (permanent transfer to a team in Spain), which left Argentian striker Enzo Copetti as the sole DP. Smith said Thursday that Charlotte is in negotiations with a potential designated player who could be signed within the week.
One source close to the team has referred to Smith as a “proper” coach, compared to the inexperienced Ramirez, who failed to earn the trust of his players; and Lattanzio, who seemed more interested in tactical appeal than the final result. And it’s showing.
Smith won with Charlotte performing at what he rated was about a 6 out of a 10 overall — and 8 out of 10 on defense.
“We just need to keep improving because we’re far from the finished product,” Smith said Thursday. “I think everybody saw that on Saturday. As good as it was to keep a clean sheet (shutout) to win the first game, we’ve got to be better with the ball.”
Charlotte travels to Vancouver, Toronto, and Nashville in next three games
The next challenge is even greater for Smith as Charlotte FC plays its next three games on the road, starting Saturday in Vancouver.
Smith has said one of the big adjustments to coaching in MLS would be the travel, considering much of his English Premier League and Championship travel was short bus rides. He’s got a whopper for his first trip when Charlotte goes to Vancouver — flying out Friday — the farthest outpost from Charlotte in MLS. It’s a five-hour flight and two time zones to the west in another country. He won’t have to be concerned about snow on the ground there, though, because the Whitecaps play in a stadium with a retractable roof.
Smith said he’s relying on his new assistant coach Miles Joseph — a veteran of more than 10 seasons as an assistant coach in the western conference with Portland and Real Salt Lake — to help him find ways to help the team adjust.
“I’m trying to decide if it’s going to be like a five-hour bus journey in the U.K., or is it literally a five-hour plane journey that’s going to take it out of you,” Smith said. “…But we’re trying to be as consistent as we can be for the players. We land and eat, so our body clocks aren’t out too much.”
British-to-American English dictionary: gaffer
Gaffer (n.) - British slang for “coach”: Smith has made it known with his new players he prefers to be called “gaffer” rather than the American colloquial “coach,” so we were curious about the etymology of the word. Asking the English journalists who were visiting Saturday night caught them off guard — it’s such an accepted part of their soccer lexicon that they weren’t sure. So we looked it up. The word gaffer, meaning boss, supervisor or manager, is believed to date back to the 16th century and to be derived from the word "godfather." It usually referred to a foreman or overseer of a group of workers on a construction site or in a factory.
Quotable: ‘He’ll be a Scotsman’
Smith on midfielder Scott Arfield, who missed the first couple of practices this week with a sprained ankle. Arfield has dual citizenship in his native Scotland and Canada, where he played for the national team because his father is Canadian:
He rolled his ankle a little bit after three or four minutes of coming on on Saturday (vs. New York) so he didn't train in the early part of the week. But being the true Canadian he is, he put himself forward for the last few days of training. He’ll be a Scotsman this Saturday.
In case you missed it: Berchimas debuts as ninth youngest ever, Vargas missed PK, wine membership and more
Nimfasha Berchimas, 16, became the ninth youngest player to make his debut in MLS history. (Photo by Kevin Young of The 5 and 2 Project.)
In case you missed it Saturday, 16-year-old winger Nimfasha Berchimas (pronounced bare-key-mus) came off the bench for Charlotte in the 85th minute last Saturday to become the ninth youngest player to make his debut in MLS history. He did it in front of 62,291 fans at Bank of America Stadium.
Smith had been considering giving him a start but said he ultimately decided he wanted Berchimas off the bench after striker Patrick Agyemang was unable to go with a minor hip injury.
“I felt confident,” Berchimas said afterward. “I didn’t feel nervous. I was calm.”
He was buoyed by the confidence he gained playing for the U.S. in the U17 World Cup and from advice he got from fellow Academy product Brian Romero, who drew a game-tying penalty in an exhibition against Chelsea in 2022 at age 16. Berchimas was focused on treating it like a normal game.
He managed to get off one shot in six minutes of action.
Vargas’ missed penalty: Winger Kerwin Vargas missed a penalty kick, which would have given Charlotte FC a commanding 2-0 lead midway through the second half Saturday night. He still managed a 1-on-1 scoring chance later in the game but seemed to lose his mojo after the PK miss. He was visibly distraught as he came off the field when Berchimas subbed in for him.
Smith made a point to encourage Vargas as he left the field and again in front of the team in the postgame locker room.
“We are disappointed for you, Kerwin, but we’ve got you, we’re with you,” Smith said in his postgame speech captured by Charlotte FC’s social media content team. “Your mistake is our mistake. We’re in this together.”
Normally striker Enzo Copetti would have taken the penalty kick but said after the game Vargas had asked him if he could take it and he obliged because Vargas was like a little brother to him and he wanted to help build his confidence. Vargas is the one who drew the penalty in the first place. Going forward, though, expect Copetti to take those kicks.
When asked about it Thursday, Smith said. “There’s conversation that will be had. We’ll dedicate the penalty taker, and we’ll make sure that they take the next one.”
Kerwin Vargas reacts to his penalty kick miss vs. New York City FC. (Photo by Kevin Young of The 5 and 2 Project.)
Wine club: After Saturday’s 1-0 win Smith revealed he had promised his defenders a bottle of wine after every “clean sheet” or shut out. After the backline made him stick to his promise this week, Smith said he decided he’d best join a wine club, so he signed up for a membership at Foxcroft Wine Club.
“The lads are getting into this,” Smith said. “They said after we get 10 clean sheets, do we get a bottle of Opus One?”
Midfielder Ashley Westwood pleaded his case for getting a bottle himself for his contributions on defense, including his efforts playing between the two center backs in Smith’s formation Saturday.
"Ashley Westwood’s like ‘C’mon,’” Smith said. “I said, ‘Did you create anything?’’’
Westwood, who didn’t assist any goals on Saturday, had to settle for Smith’s suggestion to go to goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina, who is not drinking right now, and ask for his.
Fan news: Tifo canceled, Green Day jams, new songs and more
Charlotte FC doesn’t play at home again until March 23 against Columbus, so there’s time to evaluate what went wrong Saturday night, what went right and what new plans they have in store this season.
The supporters groups had to abort hoisting the tifo — a giant banner of fans’ artwork — because of the weather. The wind was blowing at about 17 mph, so stadium officials ruled out raising the tifo and waving flags in the seats behind the East Goal.
“They had to make a decision, moments before the tifo was gonna go up that the wind was just too high,” said Charlotte FC Chief Fan Officer Shawn McIntosh. “The last thing we want to do is put any fans in danger.”
McIntosh said supporters are planning to raise the same tifo (which he has insider info on: “It’s beautiful,” he said) before the next home game March 23 against Columbus.
Start of Brain Stew: While the Poznan pregame tradition of jumping and dancing to “Pepas” is still going strong — and was highlighted by MLS Saturday — fans are trying to generate the same excitement for their own version of Green Day’s “Brain Stew,” at the start of the second half. Charlotte FC fan Ryan Bailey, who works in sports communications by day, and plays in bars, breweries and restaurants around town on the side, got to play his first “stadium” show when he led the supporters section on his guitar from a capo stand as fans sang along soccer-specific lyrics to Brain Stew.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to play in a stadium to over 62,000 people and something I’ll never forget,” Bailey wrote in a Twitter message.
He and a few other talented fans will rotate playing guitar for the foreseeable future. But isn’t it fun to think about one day having a member of Green Day do it too?
Wouldn’t you know Green Day is playing in concert at Charlotte’s PNC Pavilion this summer. The show is on Monday, Aug. 26. Charlotte has home games the Saturdays before and after, but the band has tour dates in other cities around those times.
“We’d love for them to see it,” McIntosh said. “And maybe…who knows…come out that weekend and see [Green Day founder] Billie Joe [Armstrong] out there.”
McIntosh expects the song to take a little time to catch on, but he dubbed “Brain Stew” the best new fan tradition in MLS on Twitter.
“The Poznan took a couple of matches, started with a small group and then it extended,” McIntosh said. “I think there's probably a lot of fans that think that was just the home opener, but we're planning on doing it for the rest of the season. I'm excited because I think it has a lot of promise.”
New chant: Fans have started doing a new “I’m Blue” chant in the 76th minute (beginning when the game clock hits 75:00) accompanied by a saxophone and trumpet. Also, you might have heard more consistent chants of “Charlotte……FC” because supporters have begun chanting it for every offensive corner kick.
Up Next: Charlotte FC (1-0-0) at Vancouver Whitecaps (0-0-0)
When/Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, BC Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
How to watch: FREE on 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:
Charlotte FC travels to Vancouver for the first time in its three-year history. Weather won’t be an issue because they’ll play at the 54,500-seat BC Place Stadium, which has had a retractable roof since the stadium underwent renovations following the 2010 Winter Olympics. The upper bowl will be open for what is the Whitecaps’ home opener.
Charlotte has faced the Whitecaps once, defeating them 2-1 on May 22, 2022, which was Ramirez’s third-to-last game before he was fired as head coach.
Charlotte FC is looking for its first win north of the border. The club is 0-3-1 in two matches in Toronto and two in Montreal.
This is the first MLS game of the season for the Whitecaps, though they played the Tigres UANL of the Mexican League in the Concacaf Champions Cup in early February. They finished sixth in the Western Conference last season before getting knocked out in Round One in a Best-of-3 series against LAFC.
Vancouver led MLS is goals allowed from set pieces last year (18 of them) which should have Charlotte and Smith, on the offensive.
Charlotte FC striker Patrick Agyemang is available after missing the opener with a minor hip injury.
Carroll Walton is a longtime baseball writer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution now cutting her teeth on soccer and the Charlotte FC just as fans in Charlotte do. She would love to hear from you. E-mail her with questions, suggestions, story ideas and comments!
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