Dean Smith has Charlotte FC rolling on its best season to date. And it’s not close.

Around this time in the Major League Soccer calendar, Charlotte FC’s beautifully boisterous fans tend to have reason to quiet down as their favorite franchise struggles as it charges into summer.

But there’s no reason to quiet down this season.

In fact, as Charlotte’s 1-0 victory over D.C. United only reinforced on Saturday, it’s quite the contrary.

Eighteen games into the 34-game 2024 MLS regular season, Charlotte FC is off to the best start in the team’s 2.5-season history. And it’s not particularly close.

This year’s squad, led by newly hired coach with Premier League-winning credentials Dean Smith, has eight wins, six losses and four ties. That puts them in fifth in the Eastern Conference Standings with 28 points. That’s only one behind New York City FC, two behind New York Red Bulls, five behind Cincinnati FC and 10 behind Inter Miami — the MLS super team led by international superstars Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.

Here’s a brief look at how this year’s CLTFC squad compares to the previous two iterations of the team.

Charlotte FC’s record speaks for itself

First, a cursory glance: How does this year’s 7-6-4 record stack up to previous years?

Quite well.

In the team’s inaugural season in 2022, Charlotte FC had six wins, 10 losses and two draws through its first 18 MLS matches. And really, the record didn’t truly reflect the growing pains of the first-year team. In May 2022, Charlotte FC opted to fire its first head coach Miguel Angel Ramirez despite his ostensible support among the fanbase and promoted assistant coach Christian Lattanzio to serve as the interim. There were other issues early on in 2022 that the not-so-bad record papered over — including an aging back-line and a flurry of personnel decisions that didn’t materialize until the team’s epic late-season resurgence.

Similarly, in 2023, Charlotte FC struggled out of the gate — again nothing like this year’s group. The second-year team, after being loudly optimistic in the offseason, started 0-3 that included a 3-0 throttling to Atlanta in Bank of America Stadium and that resulted in Lattanzio apologizing to the fan base. Through 18 games that season, Charlotte had six wins, eight losses and four draws to its name.

In 2022, the team narrowly missed the playoffs. In 2023, the team squeaked into the expanded playoffs but lost in the first round. Fifth in league standings is by far the best ground the team’s held — will that translate into a big leap come fall postseason time?

Charlotte FC’s defense is phenomenal

Beyond pure results, there’s something else that this team has that it didn’t in 2022 and 2023 — an identity. It’s something top defender Adilson Malanda commented on last week as he prepared for Saturday’s contest.

“We don’t defend one v. ones on the whole field. That’s, I think, easier for us physically,” Malanda said on Wednesday, when asked specifically about the team’s defensive improvement from last year. “We are more balanced, and I think it’s helped us concede less goals.”

That identity was on display against D.C. United. Charlotte’s back-line is set up in their Smith-patented mid-block, which essentially means they’re set up tighter in the defensive- and midfield-thirds and aren’t prioritizing pressing high. They were particularly organized and disciplined Saturday: Charlotte FC only allowed one shot on goal — and the only chance arrived in the first half, on a deep try that goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina easily captured.

Some season-long stats also substantiate Charlotte’s defensive prowess. The Queen City side is the only team that has played 18 games and allowed 18 goals. That mark was made possible thanks to five straight games in May where the team didn’t concede a score; the team now has an MLS-best eight clean sheets on the season.

This is a huge upgrade from last season, too. Twenty games into 2023, Charlotte FC had allowed 35 goals — which was most in MLS at the time.

“We got a structure now that we feel is going to make it difficult for the opposition,” Smith told reporters postgame Saturday. “We had a lot of chances today; our conversion rate needs to be better. So the final third is also something that we’re working on. But the players are getting better. And that’s what I want our identity to be.”

It’s conceivable the roster-building isn’t done yet

The most promising part of this start is that the team isn’t done building.

Many point to Charlotte FC’s lack of scoring as an immediate issue. And it’s true. While the team boasts one of the best defenses in MLS, it also boasts one of the least-efficient offenses: Charlotte has scored only 18 goals on the year — the least among teams who’ve played 18 games.

But that lack of offense requires context. Charlotte FC, as the roster stands now, has a ton of flexibility to add impact creativity to its attack in 2024. The team has only one designated player now — Liel Abada, who has come into his own as of late (and even he has a Young Designated Player distinction) — meaning that the team has two more DP slots to spend as much as necessary to attract and retain massive talent that doesn’t count against the team’s salary cap.

The openings came thanks to the preseason departures of Karol Swiderski and Kamil Jozwiak and midseason departure of Enzo Copetti.

The summer roster transfer window opens July 15. And while ambitious for offensive reinforcements, Smith is happy where his team is.

He said as much postgame Saturday before making another trip to the store to pick up red wine for his defensive squad. After all, he told his defenders before the season that he’d get them a bottle of wine for every clean sheet they produce.

“We even got (the song) Red Red Wine playing at the end as well,” Smith said with a smile. The song echoed as the players walked off the pitch. It’s another facet of Charlotte’s 2024 identity taking hold as a hopeful summer awaits.

Nicky Wolcott contributed reporting.