Saturday night at Bank of America Stadium, score tied 1-1 with D.C. United, 66th minute. Pep Biel stood over a corner and swung it into the box, where Will Cleary rose and headed in the first MLS goal of his career. Eleven minutes later, Liel Abada dribbled into the box and slipped it to Biel at the top of the area, and Biel bent a curler to the far post. Ballgame. 3-1.
On Monday the league made it official: Biel is on the MLS Team of the Matchday, the league's best-eleven honor for the weekend, for Matchday 22. Third time this season, eighth of his career, one shy of the club record of nine held by goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina. And the weekly honor barely scratches the season underneath it.
Let me tell you something about what the 29-year-old Spaniard is putting together. Eleven goals, a new single-season best for him. Eight assists. Nineteen goal contributions, goals plus assists, tied for third in the entire league. The two names ahead of him: Evander with 24, and Leo Messi with 23. That is the list Pep Biel is living on. THAT list.
The club record book is starting to feel him breathing on it. Saturday was his 12th multi-goal-contribution game for Charlotte. He sits two goal contributions from tying Karol Swiderski's all-time club record of 48. He is one goal from tying Swiderski's single-season club record of 12 in league play, set in 2023. And per the club's own game notes, two more assists give him back-to-back 10-goal, 10-assist seasons, a thing only 21 players in MLS history have done. Earlier this month he reached double-digit goals in 19 matches, the fastest in club history, breaking his own mark of 23 matches from last season.
And the team is rolling right along with him. Your Charlotte FC sit fifth in the Eastern Conference, unbeaten in three straight league matches and in seven of their last eight, after leaving Toronto with a point last Wednesday and putting three on D.C. United in front of 28,257.
Next up: Saturday night in Atlanta, 7:30, against an Atlanta United side sitting last in the East. The curler to the far post was number 11. Number 12 ties the record. Saturday cannot come fast enough.