Dean Smith slammed his Charlotte FC side's costly mistakes in their 3-0 defeat to the LA Galaxy last time out in MLS.

Charlotte were down 3-0 after just 13 minutes against the Galaxy after conceding in the eighth, 11th and 13th minutes.

The three goals in five minutes was the fastest Charlotte have ever allowed three goals in a single regular-season match in club history.

Charlotte drew 1-1 with St. Louis City SC in their season opener, while their upcoming fixture with Austin FC will be their first home game of the MLS campaign.

Smith has previously criticised the amount of travel between games in the league, but insisted that it had no impact on their recent defeat.

"The result was nothing to do with the travel, that's for sure," said Smith after the loss.

"I'm sure when I get the analytics of the running stats, they'll be fine. You just can't make mistakes like we did.

"We turned the ball over three times, and they scored three goals. Game was done, pretty much. You can't give teams a three-goal head start in the 13 minutes, and we caused our own problems.

"The first goal definitely affected us too much, and we were trying to put it right straight away, rather than being compact like we spoke about.

"We didn't crumble after that. That's the only positive you can take."

Austin are eighth in the Western Conference with four points to their name after two games this season.

After opening their campaign with a 2-2 draw with Minnesota United, Austin defeated D.C. United 1-0 last time out.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Charlotte FC – Pep Biel

Biel, who directly contributed to 22 goals in 26 MLS games last season (10 goals, 12 assists), has scored their only goal of the current campaign.

Austin FC – Facundo Torres

Torres has recorded seven career goal contributions (five goals, two assists) in nine career matches against Charlotte (including playoffs), only recording more against the Chicago Fire (eight).

Only Elias Manoel (eight – seven goals, one assist) has more career goal contributions against Charlotte (regular season and playoffs).

MATCH PREDICTION – CHARLOTTE FC WIN

After totalling one point in two matches on the road to begin the season, Charlotte play their home opener, where they won an MLS-high 13 games last regular season and kept a league-best nine clean sheets.

Charlotte won seven of their last eight home league games in 2025, keeping clean sheets in six of those.

Austin, meanwhile, are unbeaten through the first two matches of a season for the second time in club history (W2 to begin the 2022 season).

They have not kept two consecutive clean sheets since the shutouts of St. Louis and the Portland Timbers last March-April.

Austin have collected four points in two previous meetings with Charlotte, including a 1-0 victory in their only previous visit to Charlotte in June 2022. The most recent meeting was a 2-2 draw in Austin in July 2024.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Charlotte FC – 51.4%

Draw – 24.7%

Austin FC – 23.9%