Wilfried Zaha scored in the 80th minute Saturday night to break a draw and Charlotte FC kept the visiting Philadelphia Union winless with a 2-1 victory.
Running unmarked down the left side, Zaha received a pretty centering pass from Pep Biel and wired a shot into the far right corner past diving goalie Andre Blake. That enabled Charlotte to improve to 3-1-2, good for 11 points and a tie for third in the Eastern table with Inter Miami.
Charlotte is 3-0-1 in its last four matches and has outscored its foes 11-3 in that span.
Danley Jean-Jacques tallied his first goal of the year and only Philadelphia’s fourth in six fixtures to pull his team level in the 78th minute. Jean-Jacques finished off a pretty passing sequence that saw Nathan Harriel hit Cavan Sullivan with a long pass that Sullivan flicked to Jean-Jacques right in front of the goal.
But the Union completely lost their defensive shape on Zaha’s game-winner and fell to 0-6-0 despite controlling play for most of the second half. They finished with a 17-9 advantage in total shots after managing only two shots in the first half.
Blake finished with three saves for Philadelphia, while Charlotte goalie Kristjian Kahlina came up with two stops. The Union’s best chance to equalize after Zaha’s goal came in the 86th minute but Sullivan’s header sailed wide left.
The main storyline prior to kickoff was what Philadelphia’s response would be in the face of its nightmarish start, a 180-degree turn from its fortunes last year, when it earned the Supporters’ Shield for finishing with the league’s best regular season record.
The Union spent most of the first 45 minutes in a defensive shell. Charlotte possessed the ball at a clip of close to 65% and finally made all that time with the ball pay off in the 30th minute.
Jumping on a loose ball near the top of the box, Ashley Westwood lasered a shot into the left corner for his first goal of the year. That allowed Charlotte to head for the break with a 1-0 advantage.
–Field Level Media
