Goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina of Charlotte FC returns for the 2026 season, which begins Saturday on the road. Jacob Kupferman Getty Images
Charlotte FC’s path the last two seasons under head coach Dean Smith has been largely the same.
Play a regular season that has more ups than downs. Finish the regular season with a playoff spot and decent postseason seeding. Flame out in the first round of the Major League Soccer playoffs, leaving a lot of “what might have been” questions smoking in the embers.
The 2026 season opens for Charlotte FC on Saturday at St. Louis (2:30 p.m., Apple TV), and Smith thinks this one is going to be different.
“My expectations are that we’re going to improve on last season,” Smith said in our interview. “We want to compete for trophies.”
Charlotte FC head coach Dean Smith wants to improve on last year’s performance, in which his team made the MLS playoffs but lost in the first round. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
If you haven’t been paying attention, Charlotte FC is further along in that trophy quest than the city’s other two high-profile, top-level pro sports teams.
Charlotte FC has actually made the MLS playoffs the last three seasons in a row. The Carolina Panthers made it too in January, for the first time since 2017, before bowing out in a thrilling wild-card game. The Charlotte Hornets, winners of 10 of their last 11 games, are currently sitting in an NBA “play-in” spot with a third of the season left (they haven’t made the postseason since 2016). If the Hornets make the actual NBA playoffs, it would mean that the city’s top three pro sports teams all made the postseason in a seven-month span.
“It’s great for the city,” said Smith, whose Charlotte FC team won’t play at home until March 7. “Let’s hope it becomes a sporting hub for America. I went to the Panthers’ playoff game, and the atmosphere was tremendous. So much noise. And if we can go and try to get a trophy this season, I think it would give the Carolinas a big lift.”
With largely the same core as last season, Charlotte FC didn’t make a lot of high-profile offseason moves so much as try to help its depth. Midfielder Luca de la Torre is an exception, in that he will be a newcomer who will be an immediate and significant factor. But the primary goal-scorers are big-time players who are familiar to the team’s fans: Pep Biel, Wilfried Zaha and Idan Toklomati (who had a rare hat trick in 2025 and just signed a new contract).
Charlotte FC left wing Wilfried Zaha is one of the team’s primary goal scorers and was the most-fouled player in Major League Soccer in 2025. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
Ashley Westwood, the 35-year-old captain and veteran midfielder, is back for another season, as is defender Tim Ream (who likely will make the roster for the United States World Cup team). Kristijan Kahlina remains “a brick wall” and one of the best keepers in MLS.
The roster, in other words, has a lot of talent. But the brick wall that the Crown hasn’t been able to climb over yet is the MLS first round. Seeded No. 4 in the Eastern Conference last season, Charlotte FC frittered away its home pitch advantage by losing two playoff games in a row to New York City FC at Bank of America Stadium.
Charlotte FC players Ashley Westwood (left) and Nathan Byrne walk off the pitch in November following a loss to New York City FC that knocked the team out of the playoffs. Team owner David Tepper is in the background. JEFF SINER jsiner@charlotteobserver.com
“I must apologize for tonight,” Westwood said at the end of the final match, which ended with some Charlotte FC players collapsing on the artificial turf, unable to believe they had lost in the first round again.
This season will be one of the weirdest in MLS history. Because the World Cup will be contested all over North America this summer, MLS will take a seven-week break right smack in the middle of the season — Scotland’s national team will make Charlotte FC’s facilities its base camp during that time. Think of it like the NBA all-star break, except it lasts for almost two months. Whatever team handles that odd pause the best will have a leg up on the second half of the season.
If you look at the larger picture, Charlotte FC is definitely the more successful of owner David Tepper’s two teams (he also, of course, owns the Panthers). Entering its fifth season, Charlotte FC has made the playoffs 75% of the time in franchise history and regularly ranks in the top three league-wide in average attendance. Charlotte FC’s fan demographics are enviable, its atmosphere rowdy, its pregame traditions creative.
Still, there’s a nagging sense this team hasn’t reached its true potential.
In Charlotte FC’s fifth season, there’s a real chance to change that.