Charlotte FC Report: Week 4, 2022
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I think we all thought that Charlotte was going to walk out of Atlanta with a Draw when the 90th minute struck, but it turns out that Jake Mulraney had other plans. He scored in the 6th minute of extra time and it secured the 3rd loss for Charlotte FC this season. We can agree that Charlotte gave a great effort, but it just wasn’t enough. We are definitely seeing improvements each week and that is a very encouraging sign. Another encouraging sight is the fact that they finally put their first points up on the board. Adam Armour scored the first goal in Charlotte FC history last week in the 66th minute after being subbed in for Titi Ortiz to start the 2nd half. Now that the monkey is off of their backs to score that first goal, hopefully they can light up the scoreboard in the contests to come. The first draft pick in Charlotte FC history, Ben Bender, assisted Armour on that goal and even earned himself a spot on the MLS Team of the Week’s bench squad. Hopefully we see Charlotte players getting honored in weeks to come.
Charlotte FC
Like I said earlier, we are seeing steady improvement for this club and if anything, that’s all you can ask of an expansion club. We saw a more attack-oriented lineup against Atlanta United last week, so I think we can expect that in a decent number of matchups. I don’t know a lot about soccer, I’ll be the first to admit, but I do know that goals can motivate a team. As the great NFL analyst, Trent Dilfer says, “You can’t lose games… and still win.” You can’t win games without putting goals up on the scoreboard. They need to set the attack team up with better scoring opportunities. Also, if you pride yourself in being a defensive team, you must make life easier for the Keeper. Charlotte committed a good bit of penalties last week and it costed them one goal. That could’ve been the difference in this matchup. Being aggressive is one thing, but you have to dial it back a little bit and not risk anything like giving a penalty shot to one of the best strikers in the league.
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Charlotte will be back at home this week to face the New England Revolution, who happen to be coming off of their best season ever. The Revolution were the best team in MLS regular season play last season and even though they haven’t exactly gotten off to a hot start, you know that they are clamoring for the opportunity to pick up another win. They’re led by Adam Buksa, Carles Gil, and Gustavo Bou, all of which led the squad in goals over the last 3 seasons. I tell you what, Charlotte is getting a real taste of the MLS in their first month of action. They’re playing some real tough competition, but that can be a wonderful thing. If they are actually competing against tough teams, that will make the matches against lighter competition that much easier. One encouraging thing to note is that New England hasn’t had the majority of possession time in any of the MLS regular season contests. That could give Charlotte a chance to get some scoring opportunities. A win or even a draw against the best team last season would be a huge boost to morale for the squad and the fans. Hopefully we will get either one of those, preferably a win.
Yacs