Charlotte FC will clinch a playoff spot if it beats CF Montréal on Wednesday night at Bank of America Stadium. "We can't rely on anybody else," head coach Dean Smith said Monday.
Charlotte (13-10-8) is fifth in the Eastern Conference with 47 points and three regular-season matches left, two of them at home. The top nine teams in each conference make the playoffs, the eighth and ninth through a wild-card match. A win would put Charlotte on 50 points, and 10th-place Columbus can finish with no more than 47. Smith said the club is also "still pushing for that top four." Charlotte comes in off a 3-2 loss at Portland on Saturday, decided by a header in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
Montréal is last in the East at 6-18-7 and already eliminated. Charlotte has eight home wins this season and won the first meeting 2-1 in Montreal on Sept. 9.
Abdoulaye Doucoure, the former Everton midfielder Charlotte signed this month, could be part of it. Asked how long he could play Wednesday if needed, Doucoure said 15 to 20 minutes "will be a good start for me."
Asked how much Doucoure could give him, Smith asked back: "How much did he tell you he could give me?" Told 15 to 20 minutes, he said, "There you go then," and added, "I will try and squeeze a little bit more."
Doucoure did not travel to Portland. Smith said he had flown back Thursday night from Canada, where he went for his visa, and the trip to "maybe play" 10 or 15 minutes was not "time well spent for him." He stayed in Charlotte to work on his fitness for Wednesday.
Smith's injury report:
- Defender Tim Ream "is still in the treatment room at the moment with his Achilles."
- Midfielder Brandt Bronico "probably won't make" Wednesday but should be ready for Saturday.
- Defender Will Cleary is still ill.
- Captain Ashley Westwood still has a sore Achilles tendon but "should be okay."
- Forward Allan Saint-Maximin has "got over his sickness from the weekend."
Doucoure said that after his contract with the Saudi club NEOM ran out, he went four or five months without a club, training on his own for three or four of them. Then an agent called about Charlotte, and he had two days to answer. He said he knew Smith from the Premier League. His contract runs through the end of this season, and he said he wants more: "hopefully to see if I can stay here at the club."
"Even on my first training, I was almost shouting at people here because that's the way I am," Doucoure said. Smith said Doucoure has picked up the team's small details quickly. "His football IQ is high," he said.
Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. Eastern, on Apple TV. Orlando City visits Saturday.
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