USL Charleston Battery

Battery Settles for Draw with Pittsburgh

Published on April 30, 2016 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Charleston Battery News Release


Charleston Battery Midfielder Maikel Chang Battles for the Ball vs. the Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Charleston Battery Midfielder Maikel Chang Battles for the Ball vs. the Pittsburgh Riverhounds
(Charleston Battery, Credit: Vin Duffy)

CHARLESTON - Missed chances were the story of the Battery's 1-1 draw with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds Saturday night at MUSC Health Stadium.

After two weeks on the road, Charleston was happy to be back playing at home and it showed early. The Battery started on the front foot and high pressed the Riverhounds from the first whistle. Center forward Romario Williams set the tone for the entire game in the second minute when he rushed Pittsburgh goalkeeper Hunter Gilstrap and blocked a clearance that could have gone anywhere.

It was all Battery for the 29 minutes following Williams' hustle play. The team created a flurry of chances in the 15th minute the best of which started from a perfect through ball from midfielder Maikel Chang. Chang spotted the run of Williams and lofted a ball in behind Pittsburgh's back four. The Jamaican forward took a great first touch to set himself up with a 1v1 with Gilstrap, who made a great save to deny Williams his fourth goal of the season.

Charleston created several other quality scoring chances in the first half. Attacking midfielder Ataullah Guerra put on a show in the first 45 minutes and was influential in pretty much every Battery attack. Unfortunately, the Trinidiadian playmaker left the match at halftime due to injury, Ricky Garbanzo replaced him.

Despite being in complete control of the game, the Battery found itself trailing heading into the locker room at the break. Pittsburgh's goal came in the 30th minute was created out of a long ball out of the back that split center back Taylor Mueller and right back Quinton Griffith. Powerful forward Romeo Parkes broke through and smashed the ball into lower corner of the net past a diving Odisnel Cooper, who earned his second consecutive start.

It was more of the same from the Battery in the second half as the team pressed for a goal. Coach Anhaeuser sent his outside backs O'bi Woodbine and Quinton Griffith bombing forward. Both Woodbine and Griffith put in great performances and created a lot of scoring opportunities for the Charleston attackers, but they were all wasted.

Referring to the missed chances, midfielder Justin Portillo "that's just part of the game, hopefully as the season goes on we will get more in a rhythm and they'll start going in."

Although the Battery created chance after chance in the run of play, the game-tying goal came from a dead ball. Defensive midfielder Neveal Hackshaw earned a penalty on a corner kick swung in from Portillo. The third-year midfielder calmly finished the penalty beating Gilstrap who guessed the wrong way.

Charleston had opportunities to take all three points in the final 25 minutes of the match. The best came in the 77th minute when a great build-up through Chang ended with Woodbine fizzing a ball across the six yard box. The Jamaican defender's cross deflected off of a Riverhounds defender and onto the bar. It looked like the ball crossed the line, but the referee waved the appeals away signaling no goal.

It will feel like two points dropped for Charleston who out shot Pittsburgh 18-3, but there's a couple of silver linings from the match. Coach Anhaeuser said, "We had probably our best overall performance of the year so far. We just didn't get the result in the end. In the first half and they caught us on the counter so it was really dissapointing not to get the three points. The thing is we were able to get a goal back and tie it and just unlucky not to get another one."

The draw extended the Battery's home unbeaten streak to 28 games, a run that has stretch over two years. Charleston will look to build on the positives from Saturday night moving forward. Anhaeuser said, "We go on the road next week so we want to do the same things and attack... we might be a little more cautious because we opened it up a lot today and did very well."

The Battery will face perhaps its toughest test so far this season when the team travels to Rochester next week. The team returns home on May 14th to face Toronto FC II.

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Images from this story

Charleston Battery Midfielder Maikel Chang Battles for the Ball vs. the Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Charleston Battery Midfielder Maikel Chang Battles for the Ball vs. the Pittsburgh Riverhounds
(Vin Duffy)		   



United Soccer League Championship Stories from April 30, 2016


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