Brandt Bronico is affectionately known to Charlotte FC fans as The Mayor because he grew up in North Carolina and he's been with the club since it joined MLS in 2022.
So he's got a good perspective on the club's current eight-game winning streak, and the upward trajectory of the team after a midseason slump.
It certainly feels like Charlotte's rise hasn't garnered a lot of attention, perhaps because expansion San Diego is in the midst of a historic season, or because Inter Miami's Lionel Messi is,
well, Lionel Messi.
But Charlotte is one win shy of matching Major League Soccer's longest winning streak since the Seattle Sounders in 2018 — a record in the post-shootout era after 1999.
“I definitely feel like we don’t get as much credit as we deserve or as maybe some other teams do, but I think with our identity and our style, and the players that we have, we’re a very dangerous team that knows how to defend and also win games," Bronico said.
Charlotte has jumped to third place in the Eastern Conference, good for home-field advantage in the opening round of the playoffs if the team can maintain a top-four position in the final five games of the regular season.
But it will still be a challenge. Following the international break, Charlotte's next match is at home against Messi and Inter Miami on Sept. 13.
The Philadelphia Union have a hold on first in the Eastern Conference and are edging expansion San Diego in the Supporters' Shield race for best regular-season record.
Charlotte started the season off well, then slumped in May and June before the surge up the standings.
"I think we really wanted to bounce back from that, and then heading into July, we had a decent amount of home games, which presented a big opportunity for gaining more wins,” Bronico said. “It was like we really needed to get back to form of how we started the season, and then we kind of just built that momentum over the last eight games and strung wins together.”
They've done it without necessarily playing the prettiest soccer. It's more of a grind-it-out mentality.
“The idea is to go and win football games and you have to be pragmatic at times to do that. We have a style that suits us," coach Dean Smith said. “But I watch a lot of games week in, week out, and a lot of them are not aesthetically pleasing. And that’s just the game of football.”
Charlotte did not make the playoffs its first season, then the next year the club made it to a wild card match but was eliminated by the New York Red Bulls. Last season, Orlando City advanced over Charlotte in a best-of-three first round.
Charlotte has found cohesion under Smith, the club's third coach, who took over ahead of the 2024 season. Midfielder Pep Biel leads the team with 10 goals and 11 assists.
Bronico scored in the latest win, a 2-1 decision over New England.
“Our goal at the beginning of the season was to finish in the top four in the East, and right now we sit at third after the eight-game win streak," Bronico said. "So, hopefully we can continue this run of form and achieve the goal that we set at the beginning of the season of top four, and then once you’re in the playoffs, anything can happen.”
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