Dean Smith: Leagues Cup performance worse than League Two

This past weekend, Dean Smith, the head coach of Charlotte FC, led his side into a Leagues Cup group-stage game against the Philadelphia Union. It was both teams’ first fixture in the 2024 Leagues Cup, the competition pitting all MLS and Liga MX teams in one tournament. Philadelphia’s Tai Baribo scored the only goal of […]

This past weekend, Dean Smith, the head coach of Charlotte FC, led his side into a Leagues Cup group-stage game against the Philadelphia Union. It was both teams’ first fixture in the 2024 Leagues Cup, the competition pitting all MLS and Liga MX teams in one tournament. Philadelphia’s Tai Baribo scored the only goal of the game to give Philadelphia a tournament-opening win. However, the game was far from sensational.

Charlotte and Philadelphia are not bad teams. They hover around the middle of the Eastern Conference table in Major League Soccer. Yet, this contest was enough to draw harsh criticism from Dean Smith.

“I don’t think it was one to watch back, it would have scorched my eyes,” Smith said. “If we had won the game, I would have said exactly the same thing. It was just a bad game.”

Smith, who has ample experience coaching in England, was reminded of some of his lower moments. His brother was in attendance, and he compared the performance on Saturday to his stint managing a League One side. It was his first managerial job, and Walsall was in the third tier for each of his seasons. Now, though, Walsall is in League Two, finishing 11th in the English fourth tier in the 2023/24 season.

“My brother came to watch his first game, and he actually said to me after the game, my Walsall team would have beaten both teams, and that was a League One team. So, that tells you. After 20 minutes, I turned around to the bench and said, ‘This is not a good game.’ We have to accept that and take responsibility for it.”

MLS WORSE THAN ENGLISH 4TH TIER?

Charlotte FC coach Dean Smith agrees that his #LeaguesCup2024 game…

Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/dean-smith-leagues-cup-performance-worse-than-league-two/

Author : Kyle Fansler

Publish date : 2024-07-30 21:15:40

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