COLORADO 鈥 Charlotte FC is playing their 3rd match in seven days against the Colorado Rapids who play in Denver, known as the Mile High City because of their elevation. Head coach Miguel Ram铆rez thinks it will be a challenge but one that the team is fully prepared for.聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 a challenge of course but we try not to overthink too much. Now we are just focused on game preparation, what are the keys to this game, and try to compete at our best level.
鈥淥f course, we will have players who didn鈥檛 play Wednesday, so they are fresh and ready. I would say most of them. I鈥檓 not worried about that, and we have a deep squad to face this game.鈥澛
As for what he sees in his opponent, Ram铆rez describes the Rapids as super aggressive and physical and in a way unpredictable because they change their behaviors with every match.聽
鈥淒efensively they are super aggressive, they have a physical profile which always them to go man to man across the pitch... They have a very physical which allows them to do that because they are strong, fast, and willing to work. They are very disciplined to be able to keep up that energy for a lot of the game.鈥
鈥淭hey are also very, very vertical. Super vertical. They always want to push the ball forward whether they have an advantage or not or whether they have spaces or not. They have no problem in the individual duels, they have the quality to do so.
"They change a lot within the game. Sometimes they go for a very deep defense and wait for you in their half. Sometimes they go man-marking full pitch. Aggressive, high. They are really, really different behaviors, so we need to be ready for any of those behaviors.鈥澛
The storyline plaguing CLTFC is their lack of points away from home but Ram铆rez says they don鈥檛 focus on home or away, they are strictly focused on winning no matter where or the occasion.聽
鈥淲hen I have been preparing for games, I don鈥檛 think about us playing away or home. Or whether it is the Cup or 91快活林最新版. We prepare for games to win. And the players only think about winning whether it鈥檚 at home or away.聽
鈥淲e don鈥檛 move with those opinions, that just results-based, and that mold according to what they see. We have a very clear route. We always feel the pressure to win, it鈥檚 always good, that鈥檚 why we play, to win. Does a kid go out of the street to play soccer to lose? We all play soccer to win.
鈥淲e have it really clear that we always want to win. Sometimes you do and sometimes you don鈥檛 because the result doesn鈥檛 exclusively depend on us. Never. Games have so many open variables, some are factors of聽luck, tactics, and technical. There are so many factors that we can鈥檛 control, but what is in our hands we will always try our best to be closer to winning than losing."
