CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Only in second place in the USL's Eastern Conference due to trailing on matches won, the Charlotte Independence will seek to gain top spot as they look to beat a struggling Toronto FC II at the Sportsplex at Matthews on Saturday night. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.

Matchcenter: Click Here| Tickets: Click Here | Broadcast: WCBB (CLT)

Charlotte Independence news and notes

• Current record: 12-4-8, 44pts

• Charlotte Independence began the week on top of the east but following results midweek, and their draw with Orlando City B last week, find themselves in second place.

• It was that 1-1 draw with Orlando which opened the door for Louisville City FC to jump over them, after they couldn’t fight back to win after conceding an early penalty.

• The goal for Charlotte was scored by David Estrada in just the seventh minute, and despite dominating possession (64.1%) and having 21 shots in the match they could not fight back for a winner.

• Impressing through last week was Cody Mizell who earned the goalkeeper spot in the USL Team of the Week for his performances, while Enzo Martinez also earned a place on the bench.

Toronto FC II news and notes

• Current record: 4-14-6, 18pts

• It has been a difficult year for Toronto FC II who now props up the bottom of the eastern conference following their 2-1 loss to Richmond Kickers last Saturday.

• After opening the scoring through Jordan Hamilton after just four minutes Toronto couldn’t hold on, conceding just one minute later, before giving up the winner in the 68th minute.

• That loss continued a poor run for Toronto, who has now won just two of their last ten matches, now two points away from lifting off the bottom of the table.

• Toronto will need to improve their away record, still looking for their second road win of the season with a 1-11-2, having not won on the road since a 1-0 win over Phoenix Rising in their first match of the season back on March 25th.

Series Notes

The Independence have never lost to Toronto FC II, holding a 2-0-3 record against the visitors in Saturday’s clash

Squads

• Charlotte – GK: Cody Mizell, Kainoa Likewise, Kyle Renfro; D: Dennis Castillo, Austin Yearwood, Bilal Duckett, Joel Johnson, Henry Kalungi, Luke Waechter, Ashani Fairclough, Donnie Smith; M: Zev Taublieb, Jun Marques Davidson, Yann Ekra, David Estrada, Lewis Hilton, David Spies, Alex Martinez, Callum Ross; F: Casey Townsend, Jorge Herrera, Jaime Siaj, Enzo Martinez, Jacob Bender

• Toronto – GK: Angelo Cavalluzzo, Mark Pais, Gianluca Catalano; D: Jordan McCrary, Brandon Onkony, Brandon Aubrey, Oyvind Alseth, Julian Dunn, Mitchell Taintor, Ashtone Morgan, Anthony Osorio; M: Matthew Srbely, Malik Johnson, Sergio Camargo, Aidan Daniels, Brian James, Liam Fraser, Tsubasa Endoh, Luca Uccello, Ryan Telfer, Dante Campbell; F: Ben Spencer, Jordan Hamilton, Cyrus Rollocks, Shaan Hundal, Aikim Andrews, Ricardo John

Discipline

• Charlotte– Accumulation warning: Enzo Martinez

• Toronto – Accumulation warning: Liam Fraser

Officials

• REF: DUSTIN THORNE

• AR1: Jordan Davis

• AR2: John Rush

• 4TH: George Frey

Game hashtag:

• #CLTvTOR

Twitter social handles

• Charlotte Independence - @CLTIndependence

• Toronto FC II - @TorontoFCII