It’s unclear if Christian Lattanzio is a fan of James Brown, but the Charlotte FC interim coach borrowed a famous phrase from the “Godfather of Soul” after the expansion side’s thorough 4-1 win over Nashville SC Saturday at Bank of America Stadium.
“I couldn’t feel better. I think I feel really good,” he said. “I thought it was a complete performance from our boys.”
It’s understandable, of course, to see why Lattanzio was so pleased. Charlotte won back-to-back games for the second time this season and did so by scoring a season-high four goals against a Nashville SC side he considers “one of the best teams in the league.”
“They show that they are ready to go and give a game to everyone,” he said. “When we can play, we play and when we have to defend, we do and when we have to suffer together, we do. Today, was another example of that.”
Charlotte FC have enjoyed an uptick after Lattanzio, who joined the coaching staff as an assistant, took over for departed head coach Miguel Angel Ramirez. They are 3W-2L-1D since the coaching change and currently sit sixth in the Eastern Conference, one point above the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs line with 14 games remaining in the regular season.
“I’m feeling really, really good because for me one thing that is very important in a team is to have many players who can score and make assists,” he said. “We had four different goal scorers, four players making assists. This is so important because it means the team is rich.”
One of those goal scorers was Karol Swiderski, who struck for his fifth goal of the season and first since consecutive braces in consecutive wins against the New England Revolution and FC Cincinnati back in March.
“I hope I can score more goals because of course I’m DP player and I need to score,” the Poland international said. “I know this. This was also not easy for me because I want to give my best, but I am happy to win today and I think we can keep this way until we finish the season.“
Swiderski’s headed goal, off a service from Yordy Reyna, doubled the hosts lead in the 61st minute. It also capped a 25-pass sequence which, per Opta, was the most passes leading to a goal in MLS this season.
“It's difficult because I don't think. In one second, I saw Yordy he crossed and i try to make some movements at first post,” Swiderski said. “The delivery was fantastic. Of course, it was also not an easy ball to score, but i’m happy to be back to score.”
And while Lattanzio is thrilled with what he saw on the night, even more so than the 2-1 win over Houston Dynamo FC at PNC Stadium last weekend that represented the club’s first road win of the season, he believes Charlotte are just touching the surface of what they can accomplish.
“We were doing all the great things in the difficult part of the pitch and the last part where we can enjoy, we didn’t,” he said. “So I think for this reason there is more to come from this team. More to come.”
The challenge ahead of Charlotte now is to win a second match away from home with back-to-back road matches on the horizon against Inter Miami CF and Toronto FC before a three-match homestand at Bank of America Stadium where they are 7-3-0 and tied for second in the league for home wins.
“We will try to keep momentum,” Lattanzio said. “I’m sure when they will come back to training they will be ready to give momentum to our season. I can see that they want more, they want to play more together. I think today we went one step forward as well in terms with the ball.”
