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Charleston Battery

Charleston Battery Preview: Toronto Friday, Rochester Sunday

July 22, 2015 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Charleston Battery News Release


Charleston Battery Coach Mike Anhaeuser
Charleston Battery Coach Mike Anhaeuser
(Charleston Battery)

CHARLESTON -- With the Battery trailing Rochester by six points and scheduled for two games this weekend to the Rhinos' one -- and that match is with Charleston -- its easy to grasp the importance of this weekend's road trip.

Win both, and second-place Charleston (9-2-7, 34 points) can pull even at the top of the Eastern Conference with undefeated Rochester (11-0-7, 40 points).

The Battery don't want to consider the alternative. Third-place Louisville City FC is in top form this month, and sits just two points off Charleston's pace with a game in hand. Fall short on the road at Toronto FC II on Friday and Rochester on Sunday and the Battery could relinquish the coveted second-place spot. Louisville plays at last-place Wilmington, where the Hammerheads have yet to win a match, on Saturday.

With Rochester-vs.-Charleston looming as the Eastern Conference's marquee match-up, Battery Coach Mike Anhaeuser will have to keep his short-handed squad mentally focused for its Friday date with Toronto FC II (3-8-3) at Ontario Soccer Centre in suburban Vaughan, located about 25 minutes north of Canada's largest city. The Baby Reds have been in a serious summer slump, but are due a big personnel boost this week.

For the Battery, it's their second cross-border, two-game road trip of 2015. Like that previous mid-May swing (a 1-0 loss at FC Montreal, followed by a 1-1 draw at New York Red Bulls II), the first line of defense for the Canadian host is the international border -- a barrier that will force several Charleston players to skip the first match and meet the team in Rochester, instead.

Friday's match kicks off at 8 p.m., with a Toronto FC broadcast crew handling the call here. Sunday's match in Upstate New York is set for 4:05 p.m., and can be watched here. As always, Battery fans will be congregating at two locations: The Sparrow, at 1078 E. Montague Ave. in North Charleston, and My Father's Moustache, at 1405 Ben Sawyer Boulevard in Mount Pleasant.

SCOUTING TORONTO FC II

Four months ago, when Toronto FC II jumped out to a 2-0 lead at Blackbaud Stadium on the first night of the 2015 USL season, it was easy to imagine Charleston's year heading in a very different direction. Maybe the Battery's quality preseason was a mirage. Maybe the new MLS "Two" teams were going to shake up the league's traditional balance of power.

But with 20/20 hindsight (and an assist from YouTube archives), it's not too hard to understand what happened on March 21. Defender Clement Simonin's long, defense-splitting pass dropped like a laser-guided artillery shell to MLS forward Jordan Hamilton in the 8th minute, and academy forward Mo Babouli's opportunistic finish eight minutes later punished the hosts for a rare goalkeeper's stumble.

In other words, the goals were anomalous, the young visiting squad expended a great deal of energy early, and once the Battery shook off their Opening Night yips they were simply the better team. Anhaeuser rallied his veterans during the break and Charleston out-shot the Baby Reds 12-1 in the second half to take a tone-setting 3-2 come-from-behind win.

Since the start of the second half on Opening Night, TFCII's highlights have been few. Two of their three wins have come against fellow cellar-dwellers FC Montreal and Wilmington. Holding Rochester to a scoreless draw at BMO Field on May 23rd was an accomplishment, but not a wildly unusual one given Rochester Coach Bob Lilley's pragmatic approach to road-game tactics. A 2-1 win at St. Louis on May 14 stands out on their season resume.

Rather than improving over time, as young teams often do, the Baby Reds have been in retrograde. They've scored only once in their last eight matches, and not at all in their last four. It's by far the worst current streak of futility in USL, and it has largely occurred since the delayed opening of their home stadium in Vaughan, an event that was supposed to boost their fortunes.

So what's wrong with Coach Jason Bent's team? One possibility is that its steady stream of new faces from Toronto FC Academy has struggled against veteran USL competition. Another is simply turnover. Heading into Tuesday night's rematch with Montreal (a 1-0 home loss), the Baby Reds had fielded 32 players this season.

But maybe what ails them is nothing that the Pan Am Games and a little bit of health can't solve.

Their recent run of poor form has come with six key players away at the Pan American Games: Captain and midfielder Chris Mannella, defenders Adam Bouchard and Kevon Black, academy forwards Babouli and Raheem Edwards, and MLS forward/midfielder Manny Aparicio. Canada was eliminated over the weekend, so at least five of those players should be back with Dent's team by Friday.

Two of the players ranked in the Baby Reds' top five for minutes -- defenders Skylar Thomas and Wesley Charpie -- have missed recent weeks with injuries. Both could return to the lineup on Friday.

And if that's not enough variables, say hello to forward Sal Bernal. Considered one of the top attacking talents in the 2015 MLS Superdraft class, Bernal fell to Toronto with the 70th pick thanks largely to his immigration status: Bernal is the son of Mexican immigrants, and his U.S. work visa comes via the Dream Act. It took four months to get his paperwork sorted to join the team in Ontario this week. He's expected to make his pro debut on Friday.

Bent deploys TFC II in a fairly narrow 4-3-3, and doesn't seem afraid to offer opponents an open game. The back line has been serviceable lately, despite all the personnel turnover, but the three-man midfield has struggled. Bent's players have the energy and willingness to pursue, but with little in the way of sustained possession, Toronto's recent appearances have tended toward the chaotic.

Twenty-year-old Mark Anthony Kaye is a fixture at left back, and the former Toronto Academy/Wilmington Hammerhead isn't afraid to join the attack. Midfielder Massimo Mirabeli, 23, has a team-leading (with Kaye) 14 appearances, and figures primarily as the wide attacker on the left.

But the biggest difference between this meeting and the one in Charleston on March 21 could be in goal. Top draft pick Alex Bono started that first match and at times looked overwhelmed in his professional debut. He's been back with the first-team recently, ceding the Baby Reds' starting job to Quillan Roberts.

Roberts, as Battery fans may remember, was Wilmington's goalkeeper when the Hammerheads swept their series with Charleston in May 2014. Immensely talented and capable of driving goal kicks deep into enemy territory, Roberts has been a bright spot for the Baby Reds.

Given all those moving parts, how do you prepare for a team like TFC II?

"You really can't," Anaheuser said. "It's got to be more about going up and getting the job done, and making sure we keep our focus on Friday night.

"They played a lot of young players last night because they play Sunderland tonight in an exhibition, and (the first-team plays) on the road at Columbus on Saturday, So (one possibility) is that the guys who don't travel with the first team (to Ohio) could be involved in the game (Friday), which adds to their strength. And if they don't, they'll probably be going with a younger team, like they did against Montreal."

So with Friday's focus less on tactics and more on execution, the big message becomes avoiding thoughts about the league's spotlight match on Sunday. "It's difficult, because you don't know what each (player is) thinking," Anhaeuser said. "I talk about it. I talk about it all the time: Always keep focused on the game in front of you."

SCOUTING ROCHESTER RHINOS

With the entirety of the teams' two-game 2015 season series contained in the month of July, don't expect too many changes from the Rochester squad that played in Charleston on July 3 when the Battery visits Rochester on Sunday.

There will be one sure change: Midfielder Mike Garzi -- last seen harrying Battery forward Ricky Garbanzo with single-minded tactical intensity in that 0-0 draw -- will miss this one for yellow-card accumulation. Forward Christian Volesky is on accumulation caution.

Unlike Bent's Baby Reds, Lilley's 2015 Rhinos are no mystery. At home they come out in a 4-4-2, swarm the midfield, stuff the back line, and then sting opponents with a nicely upgraded attacking corps. Any attacker who manages to slice through this talented, physical and relentlessly disciplined veteran formation then finds himself staring down Brandon Miller, the top goalkeeper in USL. Miller's goals-against average is an absurd 0.24. His save percentage? An equally absurd .914.

Rather than personnel, the more interesting question on Sunday may be Lilley's tactical emphasis. At Charleston, the Rhinos' coach used Garzi to mark Garbanzo out of the game and dropped another midfielder back, producing a 4-1-4-1/5-4-1 look using the usual players from his standard XI. But by playing not to lose on the road, Lilley held the Battery's ambitions at bay.

Lilley could follow the same approach at home, where the Rhinos are 6-0-1. Circling the wagons and denying Charleston the space to spring Dane Kelly could be a logical tactic for Sunday. With seven of his remaining 10 matches at home, Lilley has few reasons to take a risk against the Rhinos' No. 1 challenger.

Still, Anhaeuser doubts it. After all, they've defended well with their no-gimmicks 4-4-2 on their home turf. The goal they surrendered on July 8 in a 2-1 win over Montreal was the first they've allowed at Sahlen's Stadium all year. Until Charlotte earned a 0-0 draw there last weekend, no team had gotten a result in Rochester.

"I think he'll go straight with a 4-4-2 and try to counter more, which should open the game, because it doesn't clog the middle up," Anhaeuser said. "I'm sure he'll sit his defense back, because that's just the way they play.

"So our task is obviously to get a goal, and put them under pressure, which we tried to do here. But we have a few little things, and a few players we didn't have at our disposal in the first game."

Even if the Rhinos go into their shell and take a draw this weekend, they'll have to find wins somewhere. With Charleston and Louisville playing for three points in every match now, even playing cautiously entails a risk.

SCOUTING THE BATTERY

If you're looking for the most well-rounded team in the league, the Battery offers a solid case for the title: Fifth in average goals per game, third in average goals allowed. Only Louisville City FC is better (third and second, respectively), and no other team can claim Top five spots in both categories.

At 1.72 goals per match and 0.94 goals-allowed per match, the Battery head into Week 19 playing at a significantly higher level than the 2014 unit (1.29 gpm, 1.10 gaa for the season).

On the attack that upswing is largely attributable to Dane Kelly's recent surge. It's mid-July and the Jamaican forward has already exceeded his output through August of 2014. Supporting players (rookie Ricky Garbanzo, Heviel Cordoves in Weeks 2 and 3, Zach Prince in late spring) have done a good job of chipping in when needed.

It's the defense that bears closer attention. Few casual observers would have bet in the off-season that the team would improve after losing veteran defenders Colin Falvey, John Wilson and defensive-minded midfielder Amadou Sanyang. Yet that's exactly what's happened.

What makes the Battery defense that much more impressive is Anhaeuser's willingness to push the game forward. There's no central defensive-midfield destroyer in this formation, either. That means Taylor Mueller, Shawn Ferguson, right back Obi Woodbine, left back Emmanuel Adetey and returning starting fullback Quinton Griffith typically face multiple one-on-one defensive assignments over the course of a match.

As the season has progressed, so has the Battery's defensive prowess. The team allowed two goals three times in its first six matches, but has given up more than one goal only once over the last 12. Charleston heads into this road trip with three consecutive clean sheets to its credit. The mental errors and flukes of the first month of the season are now fewer and farther between.

Much of the credit goes to the team's goalkeeping staff, which -- due to Odisnel Cooper's June shoulder injury -- enters this road trip with two quality, in-form players. Cooper earned Team of the Week honors in his return to the lineup Saturday, and not only is he a Top Five player in goals-against average (No. 3, 1.00) and save percentage (No. 5, .744), he's also undefeated in 11 league starts.

As good as those stats are, backup Kevin Corby's goals-against and save-percentage numbers are even better. Four of his six starts came during Cooper's injury. The rookie's last two starts have been shutouts.

Corby will get the start in Ontario because of Cooper's Canadian visa limitations. "El Gato" is expected to play at Rochester.

Charleston will travel to Ontario with 16 players, but the full 20-man professional roster is expected to convene in Rochester on Saturday.

"Everybody's healthy, so everybody's probably going to be involved in one game or the other, because we're gonna need it," Anhaeuser said. "Because we gotta go up there and try to get six points."

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Charleston Battery Coach Mike Anhaeuser
Charleston Battery Coach Mike Anhaeuser
   

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