It was deja vu all over again for the Charlotte Independence on Saturday night. If you’ve followed this team all season, you’ve seen this game several times, especially in the last month. The Jacks started well, dominated the ball, created many quality chances and then ultimately fell 0–1.

I’ll keep this short and sweet; the Independence have been baffling as of late. During their five game losing streak to end the season, they have scored just one goal. This time, instead of poor final balls, poor finishing or just an overall bad game, the Jacks were held scoreless by the best goalkeeping performance they’ve faced all season. Charleston’s Odisnel Cooper put on an absolute show at the ‘Plex on Saturday night making jaw dropping saves left and right.

The Charlotte defense made a bad mistake to allow Charleston’s goal: leaving Kotaro Higashi wide open at the top of the 18 yard box is not ideal, and he was able to easily slip Atualla Guerra through for the shot. That shot was a teasing chip that bounced off the post and bounced along the goal line across the mouth of the goal and didn’t cross until it was in the opposite corner. It was agonizing to watch it dribble in after all the bad bounces the Jacks have had to suffer during this poor run of form.

The Jacks had many opportunities to score on Charleston, but nothing was doing. It’s as if there’s an invisible force-field surrounding the opponent’s goal lately. If Cooper wasn’t making a diving fingertip save, the shots were bouncing off the cross bar.

Stop me if you’ve seen me write this before: It just wasn’t the Independence’s night. Not our night, not our month and not our season? We could know that as soon as Saturday around 8pm Eastern time, when the Jacks now travel to Rochester for their opening playoff game… on the road.

Man of the Match

Jorge Herrera

Herrera was excellent on Saturday night. He forced most of those jaw dropping saves by Cooper; with three of the Jacks 4 shots on target.

(Photo Credit: Alex Warren)

He also created three chances and showed a lot of creativity and strong chemistry with Caleb Calvert. Sweet tea on me… and hip hip Jorge!

Takeaways

Scoreless

I think we should start calling this stretch of the season “#scoreless.” The Jacks have scored just once in their last five games and three of those games ended 1–0. It’s been an absolutely brutal stretch.

Opportunistic Battery

Charleston had one chance to score on Saturday night… ONE… and they put the ball into the back of the net. That’s been the story for most of Charlotte’s opponents lately, but it was extra evident on the night as Charleston literally put only one shot on target all game and that was all they needed.

On the Road Again

The Independence will have to go on the road to Rochester and face their demons head on next Saturday. After stumbling through the end of summer, leaving plenty of points on the field, the Jacks have come to a crawl through September and October. Almost everyone in the league was sure that Charlotte would be hosting the first round of the playoffs, potentially challenging for the top seed… and yet here we are. After the 3–1 win over Louisville ended, we all thought that this season would be the team’s best ever, but they’ve set themselves up with a much more difficult road to make that statement true: they must win on the road in a place that they’ve only scored once in three games.

Up Next

Saturday at 6:05 P.M. the Jacks kickoff against the Rochester Rhinos looking to avenge last season’s 3–1 playoff loss in which Charlotte was the fifth seed and Rochester was the fourth. Have I mentioned deja vu yet?

The team has vengeance on their minds, several players and coaches mentioned it after the game on Saturday when their playoff seed was finalized. I hope to see that attitude turned into actual goals. That’s all that has been missing lately, as they’ve created a multitude of chances only to be kept off the scoreboard. For at least one more week, COME ON YOU JACKS!!