Don’t Mess with the Zoran
Charlotte FC’s General Manager Meets the Press, Doubles Down on Pep Biel, and Goes Off the Record. Plus, the Playoff Picture for All of the Carolinas' Teams.
On Tuesday morning, after the club’s best season since its inception, Charlotte FC general manager Zoran Krneta sat down with members of the media to talk about the organization’s journey so far.
Though the presentation element was minimal — most of the time was taken up by a question and answer session — the club did show off a slide demonstrating the first team’s growth over their first four years.
More Points, More Power
Aside from some defensive statistics — it’s hard to beat the club’s defensive performance last year — the team’s upward trajectory is pretty clear, and all of the team’s best years in selected statistical categories came under current head coach Dean Smith.
Krneta explained the chart this way:
I just wanted to put this in front of you guys. This is [the] evolution of Charlotte FC from the 2022 season to today. It’s pretty self explanatory, I think. This is our best season ever, but what I’m really proud of — that you can see … that every season we are getting better and better and every season we are improving and every season is doing exactly what we said at the very beginning, to try to get better. And instead of being a “yo-yo” club, we will try to kind of hit the top echelon of the of the elite MLS clubs. And I still think we’re not there yet, but we are close. We’re not far away.
Krneta didn’t shy away from making news during the conversation. Despite his injuries, Pep Biel has met all of the “triggers” to go from a loan player to a permanent Charlotte FC player.
Pep is our player … the certain triggers that need to be triggered have been triggered, and Pep will be joining us in the preseason next year as a Charlotte FC player.
Krneta would not tell reporters whether or not Biel will be a “Designated Player,” but given the economics of the deal, Biel will likely join the ranks of the DPs.
“I think Biel is [an] elite number 10 in this league,” Krneta told reporters.
One of the reasons Krneta may have been coy about Pep Biel’s likely DP status next season is because the team has to make some roster model decisions, and there are many scenarios in which Abada would be the odd man out.
Wood from Forest?
Last season, we heard rumors last season Charlotte FC was very interested in Premier League player Chris Wood, the New Zealand forward who played with Charlotte captain Ashley Westwood at Burnley and had a career year last season at Nottingham Forest.
Since Krneta reminded us during the conversation that he’s good friends with Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, we asked him about the Wood rumors. Krneta asked to go off the record, so read into that what you will.
More in Store
We’ll share more from our chat with Zoran in the weeks ahead.
Playoff Updates
As always, we’re tracking soccer teams in the Carolinas as the regular season comes to an end. Here’s the latest.
MLS Cup Playoffs - Charlotte FC
Charlotte FC guaranteed a 4th place finish in the Eastern Conference, as well as home field advantage in at least the first round, with their 2-0 win over Philadelphia Union on Decision Day.
Scheduling details for Charlotte’s first round, best-of-three playoff series against #5 New York City FC are as follows:
Tuesday, October 28
Bank of America Stadium
6:55 PM ET KickoffSaturday, November 1
Yankee Stadium
3:42 PM ET KickoffFriday, November 7
Bank of America Stadium
Kickoff TBD
#1 Philadelphia will face play-in match winners Chicago Fire in their first round series, and if Charlotte prevails against NYCFC, the Crown will face either a Decision Day rematch in Philadelphia or host #8 Chicago at Bank of America Stadium.
Starting with the second round, all MLS Cup Playoff matches are winner-take-all, with the higher seed hosting.
Finally, congrats to Matt from the Soccer Sheet team for correctly guessing Charlotte FC’s final points total back in February. If the Eastern Conference weren’t significantly stronger than the West this year, he probably would have gotten the seeding right as well.
NWSL - NC Courage
The Courage are in a rough spot, and they need a lot to go their way to make the playoffs. They’re currently 9th, and they’re two points behind Racing Louisville, so their Sunday, November 2 contest against Gotham FC is a must-win, and Louisville can’t win.
Otherwise, it will be USWNT goalkeeper Casey Murphy’s last match in a Courage kit - she’s making the move to Boston’s NWSL expansion side next year.
USL Championship - North Carolina FC & Charleston Battery
North Carolina FC of Cary have punched their playoff ticket, and are currently in sixth place. They have one final regular season match tomorrow in Loudon, Virginia, and with a win they could finish as high as third in the Eastern Conference. With a draw or a loss, they’ll likely finish sixth, and travel to Charleston, S.C. in the first round of the playoffs.
Speaking of which, South Carolina’s Charleston Battery has one of the USL Championship’s least interesting matches tomorrow against Birmingham Legion. Win, lose, or draw, the Battery will finish with the #2 seed, and Birmingham will miss the playoffs.
USL League One - Charlotte Independence and Greenville Triumph
After a strong start to the season, a poor run of form during the late summer really hurt the Independence’s chances of making the playoffs. The Jacks are currently in 8th place (the last playoff position) in the USL League One standings, so they control their own destiny in their playoff match against FC Naples at 7:00 PM tomorrow night.
Draw and they’re in (since they own the tiebreakers against AV Alta and Forward Madison). Lose, and the Jacks need both AV and Madison to draw/lose.
If the Independence make the playoffs, they don’t have to travel far: they’ll face either One Knox or the Chattanooga Red Wolves in Tennessee.
Finally, with a loss last week, the Greenville Triumph are eliminated from the League One playoffs.