Crown Legacy FC beat Red Bull New York II 3-0 in Montclair, New Jersey, on Friday night and sits first in the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference. It has 40 points from 19 matches. Columbus Crew 2, in second, has 39 from 20. A win at Huntsville on Saturday would take Crown Legacy to 43.
The gap is wider than the table's top line suggests. Crown Legacy has scored 47 goals, more than any other team in the conference, and its goal difference of plus 20 is nine better than the next best.
Crown Legacy is Charlotte FC's development team, playing in MLS NEXT Pro, the developmental league run by MLS. Head coach Kevin Sawchak's side is in the middle of a four-match road trip.
How the match was won
Twice, Red Bull New York II tried to pass the ball out of its own defensive third and lost it. Both times, Crown Legacy scored.
The first goal did not come that way. Hugo Mbongue drew a penalty in the 56th minute, took it, and watched the goalkeeper save it. He followed his own shot in and put the rebound over the line a minute later. It was his first goal since returning from injury and his ninth of the season.
Five minutes later the home goalkeeper aimed a pass at a defender on the left flank. Nathan Richmond read it, cut it out, carried it into the box and finished with his right foot. It was Richmond's seventh goal of the season, and he is up to 15 goals and assists combined.
The third, in the 70th minute, came the same way and finished in the hands of two players from Charlotte's academy. Baye Coulibaly intercepted another attempt to play out. He found Magic Smalls, and Smalls hit a first-time pass to Adrian Mendoza, who beat the goalkeeper. It was Mendoza's first goal of the season and the second of his career, and Smalls' first career assist.
Behind all of it, Jahiem Wickham, an MLS SuperDraft pick, kept the first clean sheet of his career. It was Crown Legacy's sixth of the season, its tenth win, and its third on the road.
The captain came off at halftime
Willian Sangoquiza started and wore the captain's armband on Friday, his first appearance since he injured his knee on March 22. He lasted 45 minutes. The club's match report notes the substitution and does not say why it happened, which leaves an open question about whether a team leading its conference has its captain back.
Andrej Subotic came on in the 58th minute, his own first appearance since May.
Next
Crown Legacy plays at Huntsville City FC on Saturday, August 1, at 8 p.m., streaming on MLSNEXTPro.com and OneFootball. Huntsville sits eleventh in the conference with 28 points.
Red Bull New York II, the team Crown Legacy beat 3-0 on its own field, is seventh with 32 points.