{"id":832236,"date":"2025-03-07T10:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T16:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/07\/wilfried-zaha-nowhere-near-his-best-for-charlotte-fc-mlssoccer-com\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T10:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T16:12:14","slug":"wilfried-zaha-nowhere-near-his-best-for-charlotte-fc-mlssoccer-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/07\/wilfried-zaha-nowhere-near-his-best-for-charlotte-fc-mlssoccer-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilfried Zaha “nowhere near his best” for Charlotte FC | MLSSoccer.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soccer <\/p>\n

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Wilfried Zaha<\/a> was electric in his Charlotte FC<\/a> debut last weekend, scoring and creating the opener in a 2-0 win<\/a> over Atlanta United<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The scary part, according to MLS Season Pass analyst Bradley Wright-Phillips?<\/p>\n

That performance was only the tip of the iceberg from the Ivory Coast international and Crystal Palace legend.<\/p>\n

“I played against Zaha, I watched him all throughout his Premier League years and he was nowhere near his best,” Wright-Phillips said on This is MLS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“If he can have that kind of performance on a day where I\u2019d say he was at 50 percent, we\u2019ve got a lot more to come from Wilfried Zaha. We didn\u2019t see him dicing up players, running at players too much, just causing havoc down the wings.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Charlotte signed Zaha this winter, completing a loan deal with Turkish side Galatasaray, and are hoping the Designated Player attacker takes them from an Audi MLS Cup Playoffs team to a legitimate contender.<\/p>\n

For his part, MLS Season Pass analyst Sacha Kljestan views Charlotte as the second-best team in the Eastern Conference. And they could prove worthy of that status when visiting reigning Supporters’ Shield champions Inter Miami CF<\/a> on Sunday (4 pm ET | MLS Season Pass<\/a>).<\/p>\n

“They remind me a lot of LAFC<\/a> right now and what I mean by that is they\u2019re not flashy or exciting,” Kljestan said. “They\u2019re not beautiful on the ball. But they\u2019re so solid defensively and now they have difference-makers in attack.<\/p>\n

“Solid through the midfield, tough to break down, a very good goalkeeper \u2013 that\u2019s a recipe for success as you head towards the playoffs. And like Bradley said, that was not Zaha anywhere near his best. He is a match-winner.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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With a win against Lionel Messi<\/a> & Co. in Matchday 3, Charlotte would make a statement that reverberates across the league. It’d be arguably their biggest result yet under head coach Dean Smith.<\/p>\n

“This will be their toughest test of the season so far and a Charlotte team with something to prove,” analyst Calen Carr said.<\/p>\n

“Zaha coming in changes them. \u2026 That\u2019s the piece where, as he grows with confidence, he can make the difference to take Charlotte up a notch.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>Tama Howe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soccer Wilfried Zaha was electric in his Charlotte FC debut last weekend, scoring and creating the opener in a 2-0 win over Atlanta United. The scary part, according to MLS Season Pass analyst Bradley Wright-Phillips? That performance was only the tip of the iceberg from the Ivory Coast international and Crystal Palace legend. “I played […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":832237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35335,2005,114542],"tags":[16595,114540],"class_list":{"0":"post-832236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nowhere","8":"category-soccer","9":"category-wilfried","10":"tag-nowhere","11":"tag-wilfried"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}