Soccer
North Carolina FC midfielder Mikey Maldonado: "I don't see that much of a difference"
North Carolina FC midfielder Mikey Maldonado discusses what changes he's seen with the club since NC FC's return to the USL Championship.
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North Carolina FC midfielder Mikey Maldonado discusses what changes he's seen with the club since NC FC's return to the USL Championship.
Mike, couple days in the preseason so far, a lot of new faces out there, a lot of returns from last year as well. Just kind of what you thought about how the groups coming together so far. It's good right now though. I mean, all the vibes are high. Everyone's looking to progress already. I mean, it's two days in, but everyone's looking to get better no matter what, very, very intense environment so far out there. Have you thought about the level race last year? Oh, of course, we, everyone's moving up another level. So you have to raise the level no matter what. And the guys coming in already have experience at MLS and championship level. It's just gonna make everyone better. I think there's also a need just to, because you have guys that are familiar with NCFC and you have guys that are familiar with playing at this level. So it's almost kind of like different expertise that everyone's bring to the pitch. It does come to a factor. But I think with Bradford just telling us right off the bat, we're gonna play like this. We're gonna do this. Everyone has to buy into it or else, I mean, you're not gonna play, I mean, it's what the coach wants. So it's just the foundation of how we, how we play. Everything wants to be simple. Nothing is gonna be crazy. We're not gonna be playing kick ball or anything like that, but we're just, we're gonna play simple. We're gonna play how we know how to play. Do you feel this time last year to this year at the higher level or does it just kind of feel like, uh, I mean, from the start, I mean, everyone's, everyone's wild, everyone's crazy to go for any tackle. So, I mean, the thing, it levels up to what we want this philosophy and everything to be is like, we're gonna fight for everything. There's the, the, the bar raises, obviously, but do you feel like it's still the same, like spiritually NCFC team? Where do you think it's, it's had to change now that the, uh, promotions happen? I would think that it's still spiritually that we all are still wanting to do. I mean, for the club just to progress all over. But I mean, honestly, I don't see that much of a difference. I was like, everyone's still bought into the same task that we have. Of course, we won a championship again and, but I think everyone's bought in from the very beginning. What's, uh, what's it been like getting used to the, the new guys that are coming in there? There's a big chunk of uh what is, you know, kind of the teams coming together. I heard there was an escape room. Is that, is that, yeah, everyone has, everyone has a character. Everyone's different. I was like, like me last year, I was like, I was trying to talk to everyone and then some people are quiet. Some people are not, that's on them. But now this year, I think everyone's open to just do whatever with the team. As long as it has a team, uh, pepper in the, is there a new teammate that's coming so far? We really like competing against in these first two days, all of them. I'm ready for it.