CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Allan Saint-Maximin scored the first of Charlotte’s three second-half goals, Kristijan Kahlina made seven saves for his seventh clean sheet of the season, and the Crown beat Orlando 4-0 on Saturday before 28,538 at Bank of America Stadium.
Charlotte (15-10-8 with 53 points), which clinched a playoff spot Wednesday with a 4-0 victory over Montreal, improved its home record to 10-3-4 this season, good for 34 points.
Orlando City (12-14-7 with 43 points), which had a five-match unbeaten streak come to an end, was hoping to clinch a playoff spot with a victory. The Lions entered the game in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. The top seven teams in each conference qualifying for the postseason. The teams who finish eighth and ninth will play a one-game knockout match to determine the eighth spot in the playoffs.
Orlando City interim head coach Martin Perelman was not pleased.
“Very disappointed with the result at this moment,” Perelman said in comments provided by the club. “The game is opened by a free kick … a mistake that we shouldn’t commit when we play this type of game at this stage on the road against these opponents.
“We know how to see the big picture. We don’t like this result. It’s not the way we want, but for sure as we did in the past, we will recover and prepare for the next one because this team started the season in a really difficult situation, went through very difficult moments and was very resilient, so this is not going to be the exception for us and we’re going to be ready for the next one.”
Orlando City started the season poorly, losing its first three matches and five of its first six.
The Lions came into the match with a club-record scoring streak of 25 consecutive matches across all competitions. It was Charlotte that took a 1-0 lead in the sixth minute when Henry Kessler was left wide open to head home Ashley Westwood’s free kick.
Saint-Maximin made it 2-0 in the 49th by dribbling from midfield to the top of the 18-yard box for a shot past goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau.
Saint-Maximin had a penalty shot blocked by Crépeau in the 84th minute but Abdoulaye Doucouré was first to the rebound for his first MLS goal. Then, Saint-Maximin was issued a straight red card five minutes later for an obscene gesture toward an opponent.
“We know what’s happening at the moment; we need to win against New England,” Crépeau said. “That being said, today is not acceptable for every player that got rostered. It’s not good enough. A lot of people deserve better than what we have put out there today. That’s the reality of things.
“The season is on the line on Saturday. We could’ve punched our ticket earlier, but the reality is at this time is that it’s happening on Decision Day. … Now it’s time for us to answer the bell on next Saturday.”
Rodolfo Aloko capped the scoring in stoppage time with a one-time finish of Tyger Smalls’ cross.
Orlando City generated plenty of attacking chances with seven shots on goal but could not get anything past Kahlina. Martin Ojeda and Antoine Griezmann each had three shots on target.
Orlando City will look to clinch a seventh-consecutive postseason appearance as it hosts the New England Revolution on Saturday — Decision Day — at Inter.co Stadium. Kickoff for the final match of the regular season is 4 p.m.
Charlotte ends its regular season at Inter Miami on Saturday.