Charlotte FC is nearing its hyped MLS debut, but roster gaps remain
Charlotte FC head coach Miguel Ángel Ramírez said he was in no rush. He was willing to answer 200 questions if that’s how many reporters could manage to ask him in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
With the Major League Soccer expansion team a little more than two weeks out from its first game against D.C. United on Feb. 26, followed by a home opener that the front office believes is trending toward a league-record attendance figure against the LA Galaxy on March 5, Charlotte FC opened up a training session to fans.
Ramírez opened up his schedule for questions and provided answers that injected a tone that seemed to temper previous expectations set by the front office in terms of hosting an MLS playoff match. When asked whether he thought the team’s current roster was capable of making playoffs (of which the top seven teams in each 14-team conference advance), he said it would be, “Difficult. Very difficult.”
“Right now, we’re (screwed),” he said in Spanish.
“We need to reinforce the squad of course,” Ramírez said separately. “We need to have something else to be more competitive.”
Ramírez was referring to obvious roster gaps, with the team lacking wingers, especially. At the start of preseason, Ramírez expressed a desire for the club to sign two more starting-level strikers and two more wingers, and he said Thursday that desire hasn’t changed.
“I will still tell you the same,” he said. “We need the same as the beginning of the preseason.”
Charlotte FC landed Polish striker Karol Świderski in a deal worth around $5 million, making him the club’s first of its three allotted Designated Players (DPs). The DP label indicates that a player’s salary and transfer fee exceed the league’s Maximum Salary Budget charge of $612,500, with the club bearing financial responsibility for the amount of compensation above that player’s Salary Budget.
Świderski was considered a big boost for Charlotte FC’s front line, but Ramírez is hoping for similar major signings and deferred those conversations primarily to the team’s scouting department and sporting director, Zoran Krneta. Ramírez said that he was focused on training and preparing for upcoming friendlies in Charleston that begin this weekend.
Charlotte FC had a deal lined up with Venezuelan winger Darwin Machís, reportedly worth around $6 million, but the club became aware of an unresolved legal issue Machís was involved in regarding his alleged participation in a bar fight in Spain. The deal was called off before finalizing his transfer. Machís had already flown into Charlotte.
As the clock winds down before the season opens, Ramírez noted that signing a second DP before Charlotte FC’s debut will be “difficult.”
“And we should,” he said.
“I will let the technical staff and sporting director deal with the rest of incoming players,” Ramírez said when asked about Machís, specifically, reiterating that his focus was on preparing for the season with his current squad.
So where does the team stand?
Ramírez provided additional roster updates, saying that SuperDraft pick Kyle Holcomb, a striker from Wake Forest, was cut since the coaching staff thought it would be difficult for him to see minutes behind Świderski, Vinicius Mello and an unnamed, incoming striker. The roster now totals 24 players.
Yordy Reyna, a striker from Peru, was also present for open training after the visa process stalled his earlier arrival. Midfielder Alan Franco is with the team after missing the start of preseason while with Ecuador’s men’s national team for World Cup qualifiers.
Franco started for Charlotte in its latest closed-door friendly against Nashville SC on Tuesday. The team lost 3-1 with most players getting significant minutes. Titi Ortíz scored Charlotte’s only goal of the match.
“I think for the first game (in February) we have expectations to get a victory and start winning,” Franco said.
It’s unclear how likely that is. The team played its first friendly against Grenada’s men’s national team last week, winning 3-0 with goals by trialist winger Gabi Obertan, as well as SuperDraft picks Ben Bender and Holcomb.
Ramírez said the coaching staff is continuing to assess Obertan’s status throughout preseason. He spoke highly of young members on the squad like midfielders Bender and Chris Hegardt, as well George Marks, a goalkeeper from Clemson who Charlotte FC picked up in the MLS SuperDraft.
“They are doing amazing,” Ramírez said. “They are doing so, so good. I believe they are ready to compete already.”
Injuries have sidelined others temporarily. Vinicius Mello continues to recover from a prior foot injury. It will be at least a three-month recovery process for him, Ramírez said. McKinze Gaines, a winger from Austin FC, trained on the sidelines Thursday with a meniscus issue, but Ramírez said he believed Gaines would be back in a week. Ortíz was also on the sidelines Thursday with knee pains, with no timeline given for his return.
What formation will the team use?
According to Ramírez, there will be no fixed formation for the team. He described it as “alive.”
“I can tell you 4-3-3, but later, during the game, I’ll be in a 3-4-3,” he said. “Last game, we played with two strikers, no wingers at all, also because I don’t have (any),” Ramírez said. “So it’s something alive and it will depend on the opponent.”
That style of play will take time for players to learn, he noted, earlier mentioning the “trust” the team and its players must build with each other. More time together will come with upcoming matches in Charleston scheduled against the Battery (Feb. 12), Columbus Crew (Feb. 15) and Inter Miami (Feb. 19). That’s what the final leg of preseason will be about, he said: Reinforcing his game model and developing players’ comfort level with his system and with each other.
The club is touting ticket figures that have hit 65,000 for its first home match at Bank of America Stadium in three weeks. Based on Ramírez’s comments, it seems that some key pieces are necessary for a better soccer product, and that, too, is likely to take time.
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 7:39 PM.
