Charlotte FC wins home field advantage, but loses best player

WFAE | By Woody Cain

Published October 20, 2025 at 9:00 AM EDT

Charlotte FC beat Major League Soccer’s top team — the Philadelphia Union — 2-0 on Saturday night.

Charlotte FC beat Major League Soccer’s best team — the Philadelphia Union — 2-0 on Saturday night, to secure home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They’ll take on New York City FC a week from Tuesday in uptown Charlotte, but they’ll do it without one of their best players. Wilfred Zaha got a red card penalty in Saturday’s game, meaning he has to miss the next contest, the playoff opener.

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Woody Cain

Woody is a Charlotte native who came to WFAE from the world of NASCAR where he was host of NASCAR Today for MRN Radio as well as a pit reporter, turn announcer and host of the NASCAR Live pre race show for Cup Series races. Before that, he was a news anchor at WBT radio in Charlotte, a traffic reporter, editor of The Charlotte Observer’s University City Magazine, News/Sports Director at WEGO-AM in Concord and a Swiss Army knife in local cable television. His first job after graduating from Appalachian State University was news reporter at The Daily Independent in Kannapolis. Along the way he’s covered everything from murder trials and a national political convention to high school sports and minor league baseball.

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