Charlotte FC vs Charleston Battery
Kickoff: Saturday, Feb. 12 at 7 PM
Where: Patriots Point, Charleston, South Carolina
How to Watch: Livestream available at charlottefootballclub.com/live. This stream is free and available to viewers within the Charlotte FC broadcast territory.
Tactical Foundation
Charlotte FC heads into the Carolina Challenge Cup in Charleston, South Carolina looking to make their final preparations for the Club’s debut MLS season.
Earlier this week at CLTFC’s open training session, head coach Miguel Ramírez said he’s happy with the tactical foundation the team has going into the first game against the Charleston Battery.
“I’m happy because we have a base. We have the basics of the positional game,” said Ramírez. "You could see it today [in training], how they already know what to do, and where they have the options, so they already have the base.”
Ramírez has only had a little less than a month to prepare the team for the preseason tournament but just through watching the training, one can see what he is trying to instill in his players: using movement and passing to create numerical advantages around the pitch.
The game against the Battery will be an opportunity for the team to showcase the foundational principles of positional play that have been drilled over and over the past few weeks.
New Year, New Coach
After a disappointing 2021 season, which saw the Charleston Battery finish sixth out of eight teams in the Atlantic Conference in the USL Championship, the Carolina Challenge Cup hosts turned to a new head coach for a fresh start.
They hired MLS veteran and former US international Conor Casey to take the helm in late December of last year. While Casey was an assistant and then interim head coach for the Colorado Rapids, this will be his first-ever full-time head coaching job.
However, Casey has the benefit of having played under great coaches such as Jurgen Klopp, the current coach of English powerhouse Liverpool, Gary Smith, currently of Nashville SC and with whom he won the 2010 MLS Cup, and Jim Curtin, who has transformed the Philadelphia Union into a consistent MLS Cup contender.
Casey has stated that it was Curtin who really transformed the way he viewed being a head coach and shaped his own style of coaching.
Under Casey, the Battery will look to be aggressive vertically and play direct, taking advantage of transitions and trying to get up the pitch as fast as possible. With that said, Casey’s main goal is to create a winning culture at the Battery which can begin to take shape at the Carolina Challenge Cup against MLS competition.
Fans!
Up until now, Charlotte FC has only played friendlies behind closed doors. But, for the first time in Charlotte FC history, fans will be able to watch their team play a match in person.
It will be a special moment for not only fans, but also for the players and coaching staff, with everyone getting a taste of what is to come on matchdays at Bank of America Stadium.
