Player Spotlight: Darren Smith
How Detroit's new striker has hit the ground running and elevated Le Rouge to contender status
In 2023, Ben Morris led Detroit City with seven goals scored in a 34-match USL regular season. Darren Smith has six goals already this year, and it isn’t even the end of April.
That isn’t a knock on Morris, who’s been a terrific partner for Smith this season. Le Rouge simply haven’t had a striker like Smith since making the leap to the Championship. He’s the linchpin of Danny Dichio’s system, and his performances are changing Detroit’s outlook for the rest of 2025.
29 years old, Smith is a native South African that came up in the Ajax Cape Town system. He made his pro debut as a teenager and earned CAF Champions League experience during his time at home, but he never scored more than three goals in any of his first six seasons. That changed in 2020, when Smith moved to Finland. The striker spent most of the next five years in northern Europe, culminating in a 19-goal season in 2024 with Inter Turku.
It was easy to look at Smith’s track record and ask questions. It’s difficult to map Finnish performances onto a USL setting, after all. Instead, Smith immediately laid the worries to rest.
At the time of writing, he’s tied for the Golden Boot lead, ranks sixth in the league in terms of xG, and has tallied the fourth-most xPlace (i.e., xG gained by shot placement) in the division.
The numbers go deeper. Smith has put two-thirds of his shot attempts on target. He’s creating 1.3 chances per match. All of that success has come without any hint of an aerial threat – the No. 9 is a mere one-for-10 in the air this season. It’s fascinating to note that Morris is only hitting an 18% aerial win rate to boot, which is probably why Connor Rutz (58% in the air, 2.3 headers won per match) has been an increasingly common partner up top.
Still, the Dichio system is more focused on keeping the ball on the ground anyway. Detroit builds quite fluidly, using a shape that I’d loosely call a 3-1-4-2. Midfielders like Ryan Williams and Jay Chapman that start in the pivot are allowed to step forward into the half spaces; Jeciel Cedeno operates freely between the lines in a hybrid No. 10 and/or forward role. The wingbacks constantly make clever third-man runs in support of the central activity.
Amidst that mix, strikers like Darren Smith need to stay active. A Detroit No. 9 is charged with making classic runs into the box, but they’re also expected to support overloads on the edge of the 18-yard area. Smith fits that bill. He’s terrific about timing his runs, wrong-footing opposing center backs, and using all that motion as a distraction to open up his teammates.
That’s the case here in the recent Detroit win over Rhode Island. Le Rouge are attacking up the left side with defender Devon Amoo-Mensah carrying the ball at the onset, and Smith flashes into the left channel to make himself available as a passing outlet. In the act, the striker draws the attention of two players: a center back and a holding midfielder.
Because the guests fixate on Smith, other DCFC players have the chance to work behind. Ryan Williams makes a cut off of the striker’s shoulder to shoot the gap, while wingback Rhys Williams is now in a one-on-one toward the left sideline because that central defender steps to Smith. Detroit doesn’t earn a shot here, but they look eminently dangerous because of their forward’s gravity without the ball.
Smith illustrates a similar cleverness in finding looks close to the net. Nowhere was that clearer than in Detroit’s comeback win in Phoenix, a match where Dichio’s side scored thrice after the 85th minute to steal a 3-2 victory.
These frames break down Smith’s tying goal from the 89th minute of that match (which gave him a brace) and highlight how he’s constantly probing to make himself available.
At the start of the sequence, Detroit is pushing upfield, and Smith is taking up a central position with defender Pape Mar Boye’s hand on his back. At this point, the South African is scanning for space and notes that the Rising center backs are split relatively far apart.
To take advantage, Smith slides rightward to get between the two defenders. Instantly, he turns his hips to make himself available for a potential through ball from the midfield that he can control and right-foot into the net. Phoenix’s center backs are only just beginning to turn in their own right, but Smith is already in stride and will be able to use his strong acceleration to meet any pass that comes his way.
The angle into the No. 9 is ultimately a bit too tight, so Detroit moves toward the left rather than risk a turnover. All the while, their striker keeps on moving.
Initially, Smith hews toward the far post as the ball moves toward an open Rhys Williams at wingback. His first goal against Rising came on that sort of run, a late-breaking cut toward the far side to meet a cross.
Here, though, that movement is a feint. Just as Williams is about to first-time a low, driven pass across the box, Smith executes a defensive end’s swim move to establish a physical position ball-side of his marker. He gets central, meets the cross, and ties the game in one fell swoop. You can see the full clip here, which serves to highlight the speed with which Smith reads the situation and continually seeks out space.
I’ve not yet hit on the most important factor of all: Darren Smith is a great finisher! This play breaks down similarly to the first example above, only it’s Conor Rutz diving from the striker spot into the halfspace to force a defensive reaction instead of his South African partner. In contrast to that sequence, Le Rouge now have a No. 9 ready to take advantage of the one-on-one match-ups that the motion creates.
Rutz gets a touch after making his drop, and by the time he turns and beats his defender, Smith is already starting a full sprint in behind. Rhode Island’s center back assigned to the striker isn’t prepared for that sort of run, meaning that the 29-year-old can get a clean touch in behind.
You can’t say enough about this finish. Rather than take a controlling touch or try to round the opposing goalkeeper, Smith first-times a curled and chipped finish on his right foot to score. It’s absolutely terrific technique.
Smith is playing with utter panache at the moment, but he ultimately won’t maintain his near-50% conversion rate. No striker is capable of finishing that consistently. There are questions at a team level as well; Detroit’s xG numbers are actually below 2022 and 2024 levels. The signs point to a potential slow-down.
Despite this club’s USL track record, I don’t know if that slow-down is actually coming. Dichio’s system is extremely well-considered, and it’s built to create high-quality chances on the end of patient, possessive passing sequences rather than a flurry of mediocre shots. In that sense, Smith is the perfect No. 9 to complete Le Rouge’s lineup.
The best strikers overperform their expected numbers, and they know how to make an impact on a match even if their scoring dries up. Smith has that indescribable something, that ability to influence games in numerous ways and come up with the timeliest of goals.
His skillset – the ability to probe the channels, body-feint defenders, and put himself in space in front of net – has meaningfully changed Detroit City’s outlook in 2025. Darren Smith may not win the Golden Boot come October, but he meaningfully elevates his team’s ceiling.
Cover Photo Credit: Detroit City FC / Twitter