Coach Christian Lattanzio tries to make sense of Charlotte FC’s brutal loss to Atlanta
There was a prevailing sense of doom and gloom after Charlotte FC’s 3-0 loss to Atlanta United FC at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Players expressed it with slow trudges to the locker room, heads hung low. Many of the 31,000 fans acknowledged it throughout Saturday’s match — first with a smattering of boos at the end of the first half and then with their early departures near the end of the second.
It left those who’d just watched Charlotte’s third — and undeniably its worst — loss of the 2023 season contemplating an uncomfortable question: What went so wrong?
Christian Lattanzio contemplated the question, too.
“I am happy to take all the blame, no problem whatsoever,” an impassioned Lattanzio told reporters after the match. “I’m happy to take everything. But (the players) also have to own this because they are on the pitch, and they have plenty of chances to show the quality that they have.”
Here’s a quick rundown on what Lattanzio said post-match:
▪ Lattanzio preached patience, just like the steady coach did as the interim coach when the team was reeling last season before making a late-season resurgence. He also said his team didn’t “deserve the score line” — not to discredit Caleb Wiley’s two goals but to suggest that Charlotte was in position to do more in the attacking third.
▪ Lattanzio said he elected to keep the same Starting XI out there to start the second half because he wasn’t necessarily displeased by his attacking third’s opportunities — he was more so discouraged by the finishing: “We went down 2-0 very early. After that I felt like we had a number of chances to put the ball in the box at least, to arrive high, and with many players in the box. And they didn’t work, and I wanted to give them the chance again to continue the work that we have done.”
▪ Lattanzio on unlocking goal-scorer Enzo Copetti: “I think he has to better understand the league. ... I’m not going to condone him going to the ref all the time. If he goes to the ref to complain, OK, but then you need to play. Why are you still focused on that? This is not a behavior I want. Our leaders, our DPs and our leaders with more experience — they have to show with behavior, not our words, what the team has to do. If they want to be leaders, they have to be leaders in the right way.”
▪ Lattanzio on playing Brandt Bronico as a left-back. Bronico is a midfielder by trade: “I thought he gave us good things. Other than (one time), I don’t think he suffered a lot defensively. I think with the ball that he can give us something different. More than anything, it’s the spirit that you have on the pitch more than the ability. I think that Brandt can play that position, and I don’t think it’s the reason with which we lost the game.”
▪ Lattanzio offered an apology of sorts for the 31,000-plus fans who were disappointed on Saturday. “I have a big trust in our squad. I have a big trust in our players. But then they have to show it. So we will all take the responsibility for that. I feel sorry for the fans because this is the (rivalry), and we wanted to give them a result. We wanted to give them a win. So I feel sorry for them, and we will take all the responsibility for that. Me first, but then altogether.”
