Charlotte FC - FC Cincinnati (26-03-2022)

 

Charlotte FC is the newest “franchise” in Major League Soccer (MLS), the first tier of US soccer, and this is the third home game in its inaugural season. Like many other new “franchises”, Charlotte FC plays its first season(s) in a football stadium, in this case the Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers.

 

I arrive about 30 minutes before kick-off, after a 3-hour drive, and see many people walk to the stadium. Parking is ridiculously expensive, but I find a spot in a neighborhood, hoping my car won’t be impounded during the game (and potentially saving $30-40). From my spot it is a 5 minute walk to the entrance.

 

Everything is done electronically and getting in goes very fast as it does not seem very busy. I have bought a ticket online, as they don’t sell them at the stadium. Even worse, the tickets are all resold by either season ticket holders or others, making them ridiculously expensive. I pay $90, which includes $25 “service costs” to Seat Geek, the monopoly seller.

My seat is row 2, which is actually the third row, in the corner. Pretty good view when the ball is on my side. The official attendance is 30, 242, which makes the stadium less than half full. As the upper tier is left empty, the lower tier feels pretty crowded. The audience is fairly mixed, by age, gender, and race, with notably few kids. The vast majority wear CTL gear, most notably their beautiful blue-white jersey. The CFC "ultras" are behind the goal. I see a few individual away fans.

In the 6th minute, in their first attack, Charlotte scores from an excellent counter: 1-0 and the crowd goes really wild — amplified by the unmatched sound system of the stadium. This keeps the fans in good spirits. The weather is also pretty good: mild temperature (17C) and sunny, but very windy.

The game is played on (seemingly dry) astroturf, which makes passing and controlling the ball easier, although the strong winds make particularly high balls problematic. Overall, the quality of the game is not too good. After a few minutes of injury break, the atmosphere drops considerably. Only the section behind the goal keeps going. The pace of the game also drops  considerable.

Although Charlotte FC has almost two-thirds of the possession, it feels the ball is mostly on their half and FC Cincinnati is at least as dangerous.  There are a few chances on both sides, but the hosts remain 1-0 ahead at Half Time -- mostly thanks to their goalie and the poor finishing of the guests.

A few minutes into the second half a Concinnati cross is pulled back by the wind and leads to good volley that goes just wide (but the goalie had the corner covered). In the 56th minute Charlotte scores another out-of-nowhere goal. A free kick just outside the box goes high in the far corner, picking up extra speed because of the wind: 2-0. While not really a mistake, it is also not the strongest goalkeeping.

 

After the sudden 2-0, FC Cincinnati keeps pushing, but remains ineffective. One long Cincinnati attack leads to a hidden shot from 10 meter, which is excellently saved by the goalie. As time passes, it becomes more and more clear that they won't score, and this leads to a quite lucky home victory, in which Charlotte FC scores 2 times from at best 4 good chances.

All in all, it was a quite pleasant experience. The atmosphere felt more like American football than soccer though, in part because of the stadium. It is difficult to foresee the future of Charlotte FC at this moment. It felt that many fans were there for the first time, like me buying extremely expensive tickets from "season ticket holders" who are just scalpers. I don't see that leading to a solid support base. I know I won't be back as long as the inflated prices are at around $100 or even higher.