Charlotte FC stops Philadelphia, but loses a key player just as playoffs begin
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Charlotte FC clinched No. 4 seed and home advantage for first round of MLS playoffs.
- Wilfried Zaha’s 90th-minute red card means he’s suspended for Game 1 against NYCFC.
- Charlotte FC hung on to 2-0 win with superb play from GK Kahlina, Vargas (goal, assist)
For 89 minutes Saturday night, just about everything went right for Charlotte FC.
Before a crowd of 31,191 at Bank of America Stadium, playing in its season finale against the best team in Major League Soccer, Charlotte was rocking and rolling toward what would soon be a 2-0 victory over the Philadelphia Union. The win secured a No. 4 seed for Charlotte in the Eastern Conference playoffs and homefield advantage in the first-round, best-of-3 playoff series against New York City Football Club.
But, in the 90th minute, something unraveled for Charlotte FC that will have repercussions for at least the next week.
Left wing Wilfried Zaha, one of Charlotte FC’s biggest stars, got into an altercation that ended up with him shoving a Philadelphia player in the face. Zaha got a yellow card for that and, since it was his second yellow card of the match, it automatically turned into a red. That means Zaha will be suspended for Game 1 of the playoffs against NYCFC, which tainted an otherwise near-perfect evening for the home team.
“Sometimes the red mist will come down on you,” Charlotte FC coach Dean Smith said of Zaha’s ill-timed burst of anger. “And, you know, he’s human.”
Charlotte FC didn’t immediately have its playoff schedule from the league Saturday night. MLS will officially announce that on Sunday, with Charlotte hosting the first game, then NYCFC the second and then Charlotte, if necessary, the third and final game.
After that, if Charlotte wins, a single-elimination Eastern Conference semifinal match at No. 1 seed Philadelphia would be the most likely scenario. The MLS playoffs change to single elimination after the initial round.
Charlotte FC hopes to play its first home playoff match on Friday, Smith said, but it could also be scheduled on Tuesday, Oct. 28. Either way, there will be two days in between the Charlotte FC home match and the Carolina Panthers hosting the Buffalo Bills in an NFL game Oct. 26.
And either way, for that first playoff match in Charlotte, there will be no Zaha.
Smith pointed out again Saturday night, as he has repeatedly this season, that Zaha is the “most-fouled player in the league.” This is indeed statistically true, and it isn’t close. Zaha is Charlotte’s designated player, and he is also such a dangerous player that other teams get physical with him constantly.
“They constantly went through the back of him, which isn’t normally allowed in football,” Smith said of Philadelphia’s defensive tactics on Zaha Saturday. “But it was allowed tonight, unfortunately.”
With the game well in hand, Smith was actually trying to sub Zaha out in the 90th minute (and arguably should have done so sooner).
But then came the altercation, in which Philadelphia midfielder Jesus Bueno batted Zaha’s hand down in the middle of the pitch and Zaha responded with an open-handed push to Bueno’s face, and Bueno of course went down to the ground as if he had been punched by Mike Tyson. But that is just what soccer players do to sell fouls, and everyone knows it, including Zaha (who wasn’t made available to the media after the match).
Said Charlotte FC goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina of Zaha: “He knows that in the last minute of the game, when we lead 2-0, he doesn’t need to react. But sometimes you cannot control yourself.”
Zaha had already scored the first goal of the match, in the 24th minute on a gorgeous offensive series from Charlotte FC. Right wing Kerwin Vargas took a perfectly placed long ball up the right side, then crossed it. Idan Toklomati had a guarded shot on the ball, but instead cleverly faked as if he was shooting and let the ball run right by him (dummying the ball, in futbol parlance). Zaha, coming hard on the left, then knocked in a right-footed shot and it was 1-0.
Only six minutes later, Vargas scored himself, off an assist from Harry Toffolo. Charlotte FC made that lead stand up for the rest of the match, in large part due to the heroics of Kahlina, the keeper who was benched briefly in midseason by Smith but now is at the top of his game.
“He looks like a hell of a goalkeeper again,” Smith said of Kahlina. “He makes saves look simple at times, when they’re not so simple.”
Kahlina quite literally saved Charlotte several times in the second half, when Philadelphia outplayed Charlotte by all accounts and yet could never find the net. So it ended 2-0, with Charlotte FC securing the No. 4 playoff spot.
Said Charlotte midfielder Ashley Westwood: “It just shows what a good thing we’re doing here, and we want to keep on to it. It’s time to go and win a trophy for this city.”
A run like that will have to include Zaha. Charlotte has already lost one of its stars, Pep Biel, to a season-ending injury. Now Charlotte FC will lose Zaha, too, albeit only for a game. Nevertheless, Charlotte has gone 11-2 over its final 13 games and is brimming with confidence, with or without Zaha.
“I don’t think there’ll be any team that’s probably going into it with as much form as us,” Smith said of the playoffs, “in terms of 11 wins over the last 13. It’s incredible form. And we can take a lot of positivity because of that.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
