Charlotte FC’s Christian Fuchs has been in a ‘dreamworld’ as 1st home game approaches
As a father of three young children, Charlotte FC defender Christian Fuchs knows a lot about milestones.
His team will hit a huge one Saturday, when a Major League Soccer record of more than 73,000 fans will pack Bank of America Stadium for the franchise’s first home game.
But as all parents know, progress isn’t linear and doesn’t always happen as quickly as everyone wants it to. When I asked Fuchs in our recent phone interview what message he’d like to send to the team’s fans, he said: “Tell them this is just the start of a journey. And to be patient with us, because we are trying hard to make everybody really proud.”
Fuchs, 35, is a team captain for Charlotte FC and one of the most experienced hands on a young roster. He’s played in a whole lot of soccer games. Hundreds of them. Maybe even thousands?
“Thousands?!” Fuchs said, laughing merrily. “I’d have to be about 50 years old to do that.”
He was curious, though, exactly how many. And so Fuchs came back with the answer later in the interview.
“Saturday will be my 630th professional soccer game,” he said.
Fuchs has seen and heard a lot. He’s heard his last name mispronounced a lot, for one thing. To say it correctly, you rhyme it with “Dukes,” although Fuchs has fun with the alternate pronunciation with the title of his “No Fuchs Given” brand. He’s also played in front of far more than 73,000 fans, at English Premier League games in London’s 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium. So some parts of Saturday won’t be new to the Austria native at all.
But much of it will.
Charlotte FC hasn’t scored a goal yet, hasn’t played a home game yet and hasn’t found its footing yet. The team’s first loss — a 3-0 road defeat at the hands of D.C. United last Saturday — pointed out some of the team’s flaws, like the very basic one of not being able to put the ball into the back of your opponent’s net. Fuchs doesn’t subscribe to the notion that Charlotte FC got jobbed by the refereeing or that the team was “unlucky.”
“I’ve probably watched the game several times by now,” Fuchs said. “And I don’t want to fall into this niche whereas we say we’ve been unlucky, and that’s the reason why we lost. The goals? Honestly, they weren’t lucky. I think every situation you could argue with, with the ref or whatever, but I don’t want to waste my time and energy on that.”
Instead, Fuchs is moving forward, trying to help instill Charlotte FC’s possession-based style of play and keep his teammates’ heads high during the inevitable down times.
“We had 25-30 new players that needed to be put in the right direction and we only had about six weeks to do it,” Fuchs said. “That’s a really short time. And that’s probably a difference between us at the moment and the more established (MLS) teams. We don’t have 1-2 years of playing together and really knowing each other. On the flip side, it seems like everyone is eager to learn and speed up the process.”
When Charlotte FC plays the L.A. Galaxy at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in front of a record crowd, it will be the first MLS game ever in the Queen City. Fuchs said when the team was training inside the stadium earlier this week that he just kept looking at the empty blue seats, imagining a packed house.
“You’re allowed to dream a little bit,” he said. “When you look up the ranks and you picture them being filled with fans supporting you on the day, that’s something very special. I love it. So I was in a dreamworld.”
In that dreamworld, Charlotte FC wins this first home game and sends those 73,000-plus fans home happy Saturday night. In reality, it may not happen that way.
“We’ll do everything to try and win that game,” Fuchs said. “We want to make Bank of America a fortress. ... But at the same time, you have to have your expectations at the right place.”
In other words, have patience. Charlotte FC is a kid just learning to walk.
Speaking of kids, Fuchs’ wife and his three children will all be among the 73,000-plus Saturday. They will fly in from New York, where one of Fuchs’ soccer academies is located and where the family maintains its permanent home. The Fuchs kids are ages 4, 7 and 13.
“The commute is four hours door to door,” Fuchs said. “So, not too bad.”
It’s a journey, though, as is the one Charlotte FC is taking.
Saturday will be fun for those inside the stadium, no matter what occurs. It’s the end of the MLS build-up in Charlotte that’s been going on for more than two years.
But really, as Fuchs pointed out, it’s just the beginning.
