Wilfried Zaha scored his ninth MLS goal of the season before halftime to lead Charlotte FC to a 1-0 victory at nine-man D.C. United on Saturday.
Charlotte FC (18-13-2, 56 points) struggled to capitalize on playing an hour with a two-man advantage but still snapped a two-match losing streak after they got the goal they needed to move up to third in the Eastern Conference, above Miami and New York City FC on the tie-break of total wins.
Those clubs will play later on Saturday as the fight for playoff positioning continues. The top four East finishers will have home-field advantage in their Round 1 series.
Charlotte led 14-9 in total shots and 5-2 in efforts on target, with both of goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina’s saves coming in first-half stoppage time. His D.C. colleague Luis Barraza was sent off in the 21st minute for handling the ball outside the area to deny an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Then defender Aaron Herrera received his marching orders nine minutes later for directing a headbut at Zaha, as the Black-and-Red (5-18-10, 25 points) slid to a third consecutive defeat.
Having been eliminated from postseason contention for more than a month, D.C. finished its home schedule at 2-8-7.
Zaha gave the visitors the lead only three minutes after Herrera’s dismissal.
Cutting in from the left, Zaha played a ball into the box for Nikola Petkovic, who kept his back to goal and returned a pass into the path of Zaha’s slaloming run.
Zaha finished the move with a first-time, right-footed strike that sailed past substitute goalkeeper Jordan Farr and inside the right post to record goals in consecutive games for the first time since moving to MLS before the season.
From there, The Crown failed to generate many chances for an insurance goal. The best came when Petkovic forced Farr into a save from a tight angle in the 67th minute after another combination with Zaha.
Then in the 88th minute, Archie Goodwin got his timing wrong on an excellent aerial chance, somehow failing to direct his close-range header goal-bound.
–Field Level Media
