Charlotte FC ramps up for Leagues Cup group with Philadelphia Union, Cruz Azul

Charlotte FC will get a break from MLS action over the next month as it prepares for the second iteration of Leagues Cup, a competition in which all 47 teams from MLS and Mexico’s Liga MX participate.

The Queen City side will travel to Philadelphia Union on Saturday and return home to take on Mexican side Cruz Azul on Wednesday in the group stage of the competition. The top two teams from each group will advance to a 32-team knockout stage and the top three teams in the competition will qualify for next year’s edition of the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

First-year coach Dean Smith doesn’t plan on taking the new fixture in the schedule of MLS and Liga MX teams lightly as Charlotte FC aims to improve on last year’s unlikely run to the Leagues Cup quarterfinal.

“I don’t envisage me rotating at all, I will treat each game as it comes as the most important one,” Dean Smith said at a press conference in June. “When the games come around, we’ll be going all out to try and win them.”

“I always explain this when you have cup competitions to players, if these players are lucky enough to have a 12-year career … and you’ve only got three trophies to win each year, that’s 36 opportunities to win something,” he said. “I always think players should be fired up to go and win things, that’s my mentality, always has been.”

Charlotte FC topped its group in the inaugural edition of Leagues Cup last season with a penalty kick shootout triumph against FC Dallas and a dominant 4-1 win over Liga MX side Necaxa. The Queen City side progressed past Cruz Azul and Houston Dynamo in the knockout stage before falling to eventual winners Inter Miami and Lionel Messi in the quarterfinals.

Charlotte is in much better form than it was entering last year’s competition and is currently on course for its best finish in its brief MLS history.

Goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina said that the success the team had in last year’s Leagues Cup helped them get out of that rut and qualify for the MLS playoffs. He hopes the team can continue their current positive run into the competition, but also has an eye on the team’s final stretch of MLS regular season play, which returns on Aug. 24 with a home game against New York Red Bulls.

“I would say honestly the MLS is the most important tournament for us,” Kahlina said. “The pressure a little bit goes down because MLS is the main thing. This is a tournament that gives us a chance to show something, to compete with the Mexican teams, to go as far as we can.”

“And we will put all the effort to go as far as we can because maybe we can get CONCACAF Champions League (qualification) through this tournament,” he added. “We will take it serious, but this, it needs to be our preparation for our last nine games in MLS.”

Charlotte FC drew Philadelphia Union 0-0 at home in May before topping the Pennsylvania side 2-0 on the road in June with a pair of goals from Patrick Agyemang. Despite their struggles throughout the middle portion of the MLS season, the Union have won their last two games by a combined seven goals entering Saturday’s matchup.

“They have a couple of players back from injury, I think they’ll be a tougher team to play,” Bronico said of Philadelphia. “But they pretty much play the same system, so it’s about how we can exploit that and then cover their strengths.”

Charlotte will then take on Cruz Azul on Wednesday in a rematch of last year’s round of 32 matchup that saw the Queen City side top their Mexican opponents 4-3 on penalty kicks. Cruz Azul and Philadelphia Union will play the final matchup of the group on Aug. 4 in Pennsylvania before knockout stage matchups and venues are decided.

Should Charlotte FC progress, it would take on one of Orlando City, CF Montréal or Toluca in the first round of the knockout stage.