Leagues Cup lessons going forward for Charlotte FC

PHOTO | TROY HULL

Charlotte FC's run to the Leagues Cup quarterfinals offers incentives for the Crown when they resume MLS play Aug. 26.

Christian Lattanzio is taking a long-term view into the MLS stretch drive.

Charlotte FC’s unlikely run to the quarterfinals of the Leagues Cup ended with a 4-0 loss to Inter Miami, who with the addition of international star Lionel Messi, is poised to shake up the MLS East when they return to league play. But for Lattanzio, Charlotte’s coach, the experience is a glimpse of what’s possible.

“We showed mainly to ourselves how good we can be,” he said. “We can go everywhere and play our game. The big lesson today is … I’m very proud of the way they played, but we need to improve our sharpness in the last third and that comes from training and work even harder because we give our best when we train, and we need to find the results to give more.”

The Crown overcame its share of adversity just to reach the round of eight. They went 3-0 in the state of Texas and won a pair of penalty kick shootouts on the road along the way. Those four wins were by far the best stretch of soccer in Charlotte’s two seasons as a franchise.

“We played away a lot,” Lattanzio said. “To travel every time – to Texas – it was hard on the boys. They were living on adrenaline, living on enthusiasm. Good recovery, but in the end, you start to become tired mentally and physically. One thing we can take is we played away well. We played well [in Miami] against a team that is completely transformed. They live on enthusiasm and magic because of the new acquisitions. Everybody is buzzing because of them.”

What most of the soccer community is buzzing about is Messi, who is always in conversations about the best player of all time. His presence has been great box office for Miami, which has the worst record in MLS but has looked like title contenders since the former Barcelona star’s arrival last month in time for Leagues Cup. A pair of Messi’s Barcelona teammates, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, followed him to the U.S., and former MLS most valuable player Josef Martinez is showing the form that made him the league’s best attacker during his Atlanta United days.

First-half goals by Martinez and Robert Taylor all but closed the door by intermission, followed by an own goal and Messi’s finale sealed the result. Charlotte didn’t help its cause with a penalty that led to Martinez’s tally and the own goal. Those unforced errors undid any attempt to rally.

“I thought we did quite well in the first half,” Lattanzio said. “Unfortunately, we gave away a sloppy goal on the penalty and the second goal in my opinion also could be avoided. I thought the contributions of Messi in the first half and Busquets wasn’t great, and we were working well. Unfortunately, we were 2-0 down. Our plan was to park it in the second half and change things; unfortunately, when you’re 2-0 down, it looks like a desperation moment.”

Still, there is plenty of lessons learned for Charlotte. The task is to put them to use in league play starting Aug. 26 against Los Angeles Football Club.

“I am sorry about the result mainly for the boys because I don’t think it was (indicative) of 4-0,” Lattanzio said. “We can be proud to hold our head up the way we played all tournament. This result leaves us a little bitter in the mouth. You feel like you’ve been punched in the face, but we take it; we move forward. We’re going to be like ‘Rocky’ – we go down, but we get up again.”

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