Charlotte FC’s options at winger have taken off
Plus: Sergio Ruiz a short-timer?; Fuchs back to practice; MLS All-Star voting begins — and more
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Where do you go at winger, with Jozwiak back and Vargas waiting in the (ahem) wings?
Winger Andre Shinyashiki has scored three goals in six regular season games for Charlotte FC and one more goal in two U.S. Open Cup games (Photo by Kevin Young of The 5 and 2 Project.)
Believe it or not, there was a time when Charlotte FC was short on wingers — the outside forwards who patrol the sidelines, create scoring chances with crosses, stretch opposing defenses and support their own. Ousted coach Miguel Angel Ramirez went so far as to play a two-striker front to disguise the dearth.
That was before Charlotte signed Kamil Jozwiak as a second designated (or star) player from Poland, acquired Andre Shinyashiki from Colorado and inked Under-22 initiative player Kerwin Vargas, a native of Colombia. Now when Charlotte FC takes the field, interim coach Christian Lattanzio has options for his 4-3-3 set-up.
As Charlotte travels to Montreal for Saturday’s game, Jozwiak has had a full week of practice since returning from international play (as has fellow countryman, striker Karol Swiderski), so the possibilities grow. Plus there’s veteran MLS player Yordy Reyna on the bench as well.
Once Ramirez got more wingers to work with, his go-to substitution was often boosting his offense with fresh wingers about halfway through the second half. Lattanzio, in his first two games since taking over for Ramirez, has shown his “Italian style” of bolstering defense late in games. So far, his second-half substitutions read more replacing “like players for like” and freshening up legs, rather than adding offensive spark. He came under fire from some Charlotte fans last Saturday in Columbus for not bringing in Jozwiak or Vargas in the second half of a 1-1 game, “settling” for a tie and one point on the road, rather than going for three points and the team’s first road win.
Lattanzio’s explanation afterward was, in part, that the wingers he had out there — Shinyashiki and McKinze Gaines — were playing well. The speedster Gaines has been one of the players showing more confidence under Lattanzio and playing well. Shinyashiki had scored Charlotte’s only goal that night in Columbus and now has three goals in six regular season games with Charlotte. Lattanzio also pointed out leading up to the Columbus game that Jozwiak had been at only one practice under the newly-organized staff since returning from Poland.
(Personally, I’m just grateful for the grace with which Lattanzio answered the questions about his substitutions from those of us looking to share his reasoning, rather than having him get prickly at the notion he was being criticized. Trust me, Braves manager Bobby Cox was never quite so generous during his storied tenure in Atlanta.)
Given the chance to follow up with Lattanzio on Thursday, I asked about Vargas. Lattanzio had this to say about the 20-year-old:
Kerwin is a young player. He’s adapting to a new country. He is doing well. He’s training well, but he’s still a young player. (We have) players that play that position, and we need to respect those players. Because if one player plays, it means it takes somebody else's place. I like Kerwin as well. We all do. And we think he can contribute greatly, but we need to be patient as well.
Charlotte FC is entering a stretch when it has three games in a span of nine days, with games at Montreal, at home against Austin and on the road in Houston. This “problem” might take care of itself here shortly. Meanwhile, it’s not a bad one to have, either.
“These are the challenges of a coach, and these are the good problems, as they always say, to have,” Lattanzio said. “When you have good players like we do in different positions, we have to find the right balance to make sure that whoever plays is in his best moment … and there is competition between them.”
Sergio Ruiz’s days numbered with Charlotte?
Sergio Ruiz came off the bench to assist the game-sealing goal in a 2-0 win against the New York Red Bulls earlier this month. (Photo by Kevin Young of The 5 and 2 Project.)
Reports surfaced out of Europe this week that midfielder Sergio Ruiz, the first-ever player signed by Charlotte FC, is drawing interest from European clubs looking for roster additions from Major League Soccer during its upcoming transfer window. One of those clubs is Las Palmas of La Liga 2, the club in Ruiz’s native Spain, where he spent last summer on loan from Charlotte FC — this according to Spanish news outlet cañarías7, which also reported that the interest is mutual.
Jorge Gonzalez of TopBin90.com wrote:
Sources have confirmed that Charlotte have received multiple offers for Sergio Ruiz, and according to Spanish outlet cañarías7, La Liga 2 side Las Palmas is interested in bringing the Spaniard back on loan with the player interested in returning as well.
Ruiz took a leave of absence from Las Palmas last September to focus on his mental health, after struggling with anxiety. Since his arrival in Charlotte, Ruiz has said repeatedly that he’s felt great. He celebrated the birth of his first child — a son, Lucas — who was born in Charlotte. But the highly skilled midfielder hasn’t played the minutes expected of him when Charlotte made him its first acquisition in July of 2020.
Ruiz has played in 13 of Charlotte’s 16 games but made only four starts. He’s yet to score a goal while contributing two assists, including a crafty leave for Derrick Jones on a game-sealing goal against the New York Red Bulls on June 11. Ruiz is averaging 32 minutes in the games he’s played.
Ruiz has been among the first, if not the first, midfielder Lattanzio goes to off the bench. But it would be easy to see where Ruiz might prefer to return to the comforts of his native Spain, especially if it means more playing time.
The second MLS transfer window runs from July 7 through Aug. 4. Charlotte will have a decision to make: whether to take up a European club on its offer and use the financial flexibility and extra roster spot gained to go in another direction.
Asked about the reports on Thursday, Lattanzio said:
I have a great relationship with Sergio. He knows that I value him a lot as a player, that I believe he is important to this team. But then after that, there are different considerations to be made and these are partly (things) I will not be involved (in) because this is the role of the club as well as the player. But Sergio seems to me to be in a happy place. He is a great guy to have around. We all love Sergio, and he’s a very good player, so it doesn’t surprise me that teams in Europe are looking at him.
“Play or doesn’t play, he is the same,” Lattanzio continued. “He always shows great professional attitude. … Sergio is a guy that you can count on, even if he didn’t start. He is a guy who picks up the speed of the game straight away, like all good pros do, and you can count on him 100 percent.”
Fuchs back in action
Christian Fuchs (right) back on the practice field this week for Charlotte FC. (Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC.)
Captain and veteran center back Christian Fuchs returned to the practice field this week after missing the past three games with an ankle injury. After starting the first 11 games of the season, Fuchs has missed four of the past five — first due to a thigh injury he suffered against Inter Miami then the ankle against Vancouver.
Fuchs was still listed as questionable on the game report, and Lattanzio said Thursday morning while Fuchs was ready to travel to Canada for Saturday’s game that he hadn’t decided if Fuchs would be back in the starting 11.
Vote for MLS All Stars before July 1
Voting for the MLS All-Star game started this week, which means fans have a chance to send Charlotte FC players to their first-ever MLS All-Star game on Aug. 10 in Minnesota. The game features the top players from MLS against a team of All-Stars from Mexico’s top soccer league, LIGA MX, which gives it intrigue that even a Major League Baseball All-Star game doesn’t have.
The game kicks off at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN and Univision and will be broadcast throughout Mexico and Latin America and in more than 190 countries worldwide.
The MLS team will be chosen by a combination of MLS players, fans and media (who will choose 12 players); Minnesota head coach Adrian Heath (12 players); and MLS commissioner Don Garber (2 players).
The ballot is loaded with Charlotte FC players, given that the only requirement is to have appeared in at least 50% of your club’s matches as of June 1. So you could have Guzman Corujo at center back, Fuchs at left back, Jaylin Lindsey at right back, Ben Bender and Titi Ortiz at attacking midfielder and Alan Franco or Brandt Bronico at defensive midfielder, and an all-three Charlotte FC front line because Karol Swiderski, Andre Shinyashiki, Daniel Rios and Yordy Reyna are all on the ballot. Of course, Kristijan Kahlina is a great choice at goalkeeper.
If you’d rather take a more objective route and vote a team of All-Stars you think represent the best in the league, you could make a great case to include Charlotte FC players like Bender, Corujo and Kahlina.
The top player at each position will be named an All-Star, and a 12th man will be the next-highest vote getter overall. Even players who did not qualify for the fan vote can be chosen by Heath or Garber.
Fans have until 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, July 1 (or 2:59 a.m. Eastern July 2) to vote. You can vote on MLSSoccer.com/vote or via the MLS App and you can share your picks on social media. Here’s a link to vote. For ticket information for the game, click here.
Tifo that wasn’t
The Charlotte Fire Department pulled the plug on a fan-made banner, or tifo, that was supposed to be unfurled at halftime of the June 11 game at Bank of America Stadium vs. the New York Red Bulls. It was confiscated because of smoke bombs in the fan section, which would have been a dangerous combination, given the tifo’s flammable material. But we thought we’d share an image of the tifo here so our readers could see the hard work that went into it. For full details on what happened, check out last week’s Futbol Friday.
Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC.
Up Next: Charlotte FC (6-8-2) at CF Montreal (7-6-2)
When/Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Stade Saputo, Montreal, Quebec
How to watch: WAXN (Channel 64), Telemundo, or live stream at www.charlottefootballclub/live or on the Charlotte FC app. Local restrictions apply.
Notable:
Charlotte FC is still in the hunt for its first road win, now 0-6-2 away from home compared with 6-2 at Bank of America Stadium. CF Montreal handed Charlotte one of its only two losses at Bank of America Stadium, 2-0 on May 14.
Charlotte FC defender Harrison Afful is questionable with a left thigh injury.
CF Montreal got shutout 4-0 Wednesday in a loss to Toronto FC in the Canadian Championship semifinals. That was the second shutout loss of the week for CF Montreal, which lost 1-0 to Austin last Saturday. That snapped a streak of 13 straight matches in which CF Montreal had scored at least one goal, dating back to the season opener.
Previous editions of Fútbol Friday
You can find previous issues of The Charlotte Ledger’s Fútbol Friday newsletter online.
Carroll Walton is a longtime baseball writer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution now cutting her teeth on soccer and the Charlotte FC just as fans in Charlotte do. She would love to hear from you. E-mail her with questions, suggestions, story ideas and comments!
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