CHARLOTTE – The last time Charlotte FC played C.F. Montreal, they lost 2 – 0. Midfielder Brandt Bronico said he believed despite where Montreal sat in the East that not only that match, but any match in MLS is winnable one. And interim head coach, Christian Lattanzio, shares that same mentality of his players.
“I think they are right. That’s why I think we need to stay humble, to keep working well and hard everyday. Not just hard, hard is the minimum, but well is key. So, we are clear about what we want to do, everybody has to be clear about their role and responsibility in different phases of the game.
“And this is our responsibility as a coaching staff, to make sure they are really clear about what they need to do and about what we want them to do for the greater good of the team.”
The last time these two sides met was a little over a month ago. Lattanzio and his players believed they’ve made strides since then and have every intention of going to Montreal and coming away with a win.
“We will go there to give them a game and to be as competitive as we can. And our aim is to always go onto the pitch to win a game. This is for sure. Sometimes will be possible, sometimes not because of opposition, because of many factors but we will always go on the pitch to try to win the game until the end.
“Montreal are very well organized, they play good football, they have good players, good coach and therefore it is a team that we need to respect like everybody else but we want to play also our game, home and away, we want to go to Montreal and play our game.
“The boys have been really great again, working hard all week, and I can sense there is a sense of growth. They are assimilating more what we are trying to do together and what we are trying to build together.”
Not having won an away game continues to plague the team but when questioned how it’s affected the mentality of the players, Lattanzio is adamant that it hasn’t whatsoever.
“I think this is more a point for journalist and not for the team. We go to the games and you want to put this point across but I think the boys go on the pitch to try to play their best every game. We always focus on our performance on how to approach every game, how to try and improve our own model of the game.
“I can guarantee you that we are not thinking about mental blocks or anything like that. We are thinking about how to be more and more confident about our system of play, our model of the game, and how we can improve in all phases of the game. And then we will go and give a game to any team in MLS.”
