HOUSTON – It’s been a long time coming but Charlotte FC finally managed to win their first away match in history. Interim head coach, Christian Lattanzio, stresses the importance of it for creating belief in the team for future away fixtures.
“Very important, very important because it’s the first one of our young history. So, you create belief. Like it was important to win that first game at home, when we did, it creates belief. It creates belief that we can go away and win.
“Not only that, I’m very proud of the way we played, because we showed two sides that is difficult to see in a team. We showed a side that when we can play, we play with a lot of personality and attacking play and we have to defend we can do that as well.”
Lattanzio’s biggest decision this match was opting to sub off an attacker for another defender to play with five defenders in the back. A tactical decision that Lattanzio says has nothing to do with his Italian heritage but everything to do with putting his players in the best positions to succeed.
“These are all stereotypes... I think my main role as a head coach is to be the trustee of the team. I have to make decisions that benefit the boys who give everything to put them in the best position to win a game. They can say whatever they want, I think we created more chances.
“Also, I heard about that when we went five against Red Bulls and we scored when we changed. We created against Columbus a chance when we switched formation. Whatever they want to say, for me the most important things is that the boys they showed that they can adapt to different formations and they can do it with a lot of grit and determination capabilities, this is the most important thing.”
It was probably CLTFC’s best attacking game of the season but at the same time it was also a game that required the team to dig deep and scrap on defense to hold on to all three points. A positive display on both sides of the pitch that makes Lattanzio that much more proud of his players.
“This is a group capable of many things, and is a group that is developing nicely, we learned more from them I think, in many different ways. Today they showed that they can also win suffering in a different way. So they did defended really well together, they played, we played, we had chances.
“We had I think 14 shots against 12... We had many may chances, they had more half chances than big chances. And so I’m very proud of my team, of this team, because it’s a team that showed that they can play and succeed in different ways. When they have to play they play, and when they have to defend and suffer for each other they do that as well.”
