CHARLOTTE – Charlotte FC heads to Seattle to play their third match in seven days. The Seattle Sounders are one of the best teams in the league despite what they currently stand in the Western Conference table. Head coach Miguel Ramírez knows this, and attributes their success to their system and individual quality.
“They have a formation and system that they use to repeat. But from this formation and system, they have a lot of mobility and different behavior in the three different lines.
“Then it is the quality, the individual quality that they have that they are able to unbalance and to make a difference in lane, in every sector of the pitch. It will be very, very different from the last game, defending and attacking.
“Again, we need to understand what we need to do to be effective defending and try to see where the spaces are we can take for us to be able to create chances.”
Before the match against the New York Red Bulls, Ramírez had told his team he wants to see the team make strides when playing away. That goal remains the same against the Sounders, but hopefully with a different result than the one against the Red Bulls.
“After the first half of Red Bulls, and before the match, I told the team about making a step forward as a team, as individual players, and as a coach away [from home]. I told them at halftime that we were making this step, we were competing much, much, much better in that game than in any game before.
“For me, it was the most difficult game away we have had until now. Their response was really, really positive. So, they made a step, but of course now I want the consistency of this response. I want another step, as individual players, as a team, and myself as a coach. To get a better result, a more positive result but not only just how we compete. But of course, to get a good result we need to compete well.”
The team is having to deal with fatigue from two matches in five days but what Ramírez expects from his team against the Sounders doesn’t change... winning the match.
“I’m not taking a plane almost six hours to just fight for a point.”
“If I go there it’s because I want the three points. If not, I stay here. I never wake up in the morning thinking Saturday maybe we get a point. I don’t have this s* mentality. I go always for the three points, if not, I’m not doing my job.”
