Charlotte FC closed out the Major League Soccer regular season with a draw against Inter Miami on Saturday and narrowly missed moving into fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
Despite falling just short in the standings, coach Dean Smith said the team's late-season form is what matters heading into the playoffs.
"You've seen from the World Cup break how much we have grown," Smith said. "We'll go into the playoffs knowing that we can certainly score goals. We've just scored 11 in three games. Going into the playoffs, we know we've got that behind us, and we've got two clean sheets in that stretch as well. We've got some momentum and are looking forward to it."
Charlotte FC will open its best-of-three first-round playoff series against the Chicago Fire on the road Sunday.
Game 2 will be played the following Saturday in Charlotte.
