USL Charleston Battery

Battery vs. Saint Louis FC Preview: Push to the Playoffs Starts Saturday

August 12, 2015 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Charleston Battery News Release


CHARLESTON, SC -- When the Charleston Battery kick off the final quarter of their 28-game 2015 regular season Saturday night against expansion Saint Louis FC at MUSC Health Stadium (gates at 6 p.m., kickoff at 7:30, tickets from $10 at charlestonbattery.com or 843-971-GOAL), the biggest question on the field will be this: Which Battery team shows up?

Will it be the Battery team from the first quarter of the season? That high-flying squad staked its place among the league's leaders in goals and assists and went 5-0-2 despite an uncharacteristically leaky defense. Coach Mike Anhaeuser's unit fixed those defensive flaws in the second quarter, but somehow lost the ability to put the ball away on the attack and slumped to 1-2-4.

The third-quarter team? It scored four goals in a game twice, but also failed to score four times. The only constant in the Battery's 3-2-2 third quarter was a quality defense that now ranks second in USL in goals-allowed average.

It's that anomalous third quarter that confounds observers as Charleston (9-4-8, third place in USL East) enters its final seven-game stretch. On the one hand, the players have gone without a goal to their credit over their last three games. On the other, "we've had plenty of chances," Anhaeuser said. "I'd change things up if we were just getting two or three shots. Against Montreal we had more than 20."

Perhaps the most telling stat from the past three games is this one: Other than the 1-0 loss at Rochester -- where the first-place Rhinos are on pace to set an all-time league mark for goals allowed -- the last two goalkeepers the Battery have faced went on to earn Team of the Week honors.

This week's opponent also features a quality goalkeeper, and this one is quite familiar to Battery fans: Former Charleston man Alec Kann, playing on loan in St. Louis from the Chicago Fire. This time the hosts hope to make the story of the match into something more than a tale of the opposing keeper's heroics, but they'll have to overcome some obstacles to succeed.

SCOUTING THE BATTERY

There are some other worries, but here's the obvious Battery headline for Week 21: Charleston, which hasn't exactly enjoyed a glut at the position even during the best of weeks, enters the first of two back-to-back, home-and-away matches with Saint Louis FC suffering from a severe shortage of forwards.

Rookie star Ricky Garbanzo? He's serving a one-match suspension for yellow-card accumulation. Sometimes-starter Heviel Cordoves? He'll likely miss this one after re-aggravating an ankle sprain that has dogged him since the final play of Charleston's 4-1 win over Harrisburg on June 27. Though he could suit up Saturday, the team's medical staff is considering shutting Cordoves down for two weeks in hopes of bringing him back to full-strength for the season's final push.

Homegrown striker Austin Savage? He sprained his ankle in Friday's intrasquad scrimmage and is expected to miss about a month of action.

That leaves the club with only 2014 All-League striker Dane Kelly available at forward. He's been great this season, with 11 goals in all competitions and nine in USL play. Replacing Garbanzo in the No. 10 spot is Job No. 1, but depth behind Kelly is probably Anxiety No. 1 for Anhaeuser.

Given the Battery's success with the 4-2-3-1 "Christmas Tree" formation over the last 12 months, running with only one true forward is not an overwhelming concern. After all, midfielder Memo Rodriguez has regularly subbed in at the No. 10 spot, and scored his only goal of the season in his one start at the position. Landon Donovan also started the Houston product in a central attacking role during the MLS Homegrown Game last month, and Rodriguez rewarded him with a spectacular steal-and-assist highlight clip.

Outside midfield is actually in better shape than it's been in recent weeks, with Maikel Chang, Zach Prince and Navion Boyd all healthy and available. Both Boyd and Prince are also options at second forward.

But if there's an in-house surprise in the making, it could be midfielder Sebastien Thuriere. Both the Battery and the Haitian National Team have been grooming the athletic third-year player as a holding-mid this season, and Thuriere's natural tendency to move up has at times been a concern. Now Anhaeuser is considering giving that attacking instinct a green light.

"I mean, (Thuriere) is not an out-and-out striker, but we've been working on it, and if you saw him in the scrimmage (with Bluefield College on Tuesday), Seba scored three goals. And I played him there in our (intrasquad) scrimmage Friday, and I think he has that ability. He has the knack to run into the channels well. He reads it.

"And you know, Memo has played up ahead. And Zach is back (from suspension), which is big for us. So we have two or three options, depending on what we do on the outside."

Another likely change this week will be at right back, where Jamaican veteran Obi Woodbine has been quietly putting together a solid season. He has a sore knee the team would like to give a little more rest, and with versatile fullback/midfielder Quinton Griffith back in the mix, that's an easy switch.

The Battery got a welcome break this past weekend, with Anhaeuser giving his players a rare two-day weekend off. The result, he said Wednesday, has been "a very sharp week of training." Anhaeuser singled out goalkeepers Odisnel Cooper and backup Kevin Corby, who not only dealt spirited shutouts in Friday's intrasquad but chipped in with third-keeper Robert Beebe for a clean sheet in the 4-0 scrimmage against Bluefield.

SCOUTING SAINT LOUIS FC

American fans with a sense of soccer's convoluted history on these shores understand that St. Louis, Missouri, holds a special place in the American game. Football put down roots in the Gateway City more than a century ago, and this great Midwestern city has been a fertile garden of soccer culture and talent ever since. Its return to the professional ranks this season was welcomed not only on the banks of the Mississippi, but across U.S. soccer.

Meanwhile, Saint Louis FC has been one of USL's unequivocal success stories. Eleven games into their first season at World Wide Technology Soccer Park in the St. Louis suburbs, Saint Louis is averaging 4,769 in home attendance, with spirited fans and passionate, knowledgeable supporters.

The results on the field, however, have yet to match the rest of the rosy picture.

"They're a new team, that has some quality players, trying to find its way in the league," Anhaeuser said. "They've got ... some guys who have been around the (professional game) for a while. But then they've got some rookies and some guys who are just coming in to it."

Saint Louis arrives in Charleston on a two-game slide to 5-9-7, with 22 goals for and 32 against. They're nine points off the pace for the final USL East playoff spot, clustered in a longshot group with Charlotte and Montreal. No one considers them a bad team, but they've probably lacked seal-the-deal quality at some critical moments.

"They've been in every game," Anhaeuser said. "Even last week (a 1-3 home loss to Montreal), the last two goals came late after two red cards.

"The funny thing is they've been better on the road (4-3-3) than they have been at home (1-6-4). When it's your first year and you're playing in front of big crowds, you maybe put that little bit of extra pressure on yourself to do well, whereas when you're on the road, you just go out and you just play. That's where we have to be sure we have that extra little bit, because they could be coming in here with some confidence."

Confidence aside, three things SLFC won't be coming in here with are fullback Nick Bibbs, midfielder Jacob Bushue, and English defender James Musa -- the players who lost their cool against FC Montreal. All three will miss the return game next Thursday, too.

Whoever Coach Dale Schilly picks to replace them, there's a better than average chance those players will be from either Missouri or Illinois. Sixteen players on the first-year squad are from those two neighboring states, with seven hometown players.

For Saint Louis, the multiple suspensions this week represent the latest disruption in a season already pot-holed with stop-and-go injuries. First-signing Brandon Barkledge -- a St. Louis native and a veteran MLS defender -- has missed much of the season. Former Harrisburg star Jamiel Hardware has made only 15 appearances on the wing. Veteran Japanese holding-mid Kentaro Takada, 32, has a mere six starts in 11 appearances.

Bright spots for the team include former LA Galaxy prospect Bryan Gaul, a 6-3 forward with four goals and three assists in his 2015 account (he's also their free kick and corner kick specialist), 24-year-old Jamaican striker Jeremie Lynch, and savvy second-forward Mike Ambersley, a 32-year-old St. Louis native with stops at 10 previous professional teams on his resume.

Ambersley's stat line speaks to what's probably the primary issue with SLFC: Though not a big-bundle goal-scorer, the former Hoosier has made a lengthy professional career as a smart player who opens things up for the teammates around him. Yet in St. Louis, he's produced just a single assist in 20 appearances. As a team, Saint Louis averages one assists for every two games.

To Anhaeuser, that stat speaks a great deal about the challenges of moving into a new league. "It just takes a while for a team to gel," he said. "

THE EMPHASIS: CLOSE THE DEAL

The Battery's remaining schedule gives this match some special significance. After Saturday the Battery play their next four on the road -- a two-game swing next week with stops in St. Louis on Thursday and second-place Louisville on Saturday, followed by single-match trips to fourth-place Richmond on Aug. 29 and sixth-place Pittsburgh on Sept. 5.

With those road games out of the way, Charleston closes out the regular season at MUSC Health Stadium. There's an absolutely critical match with second-place Louisville City FC on Sept. 12, and a finale against new rivals Charlotte Independence on Sept. 19.

Anhaeuser shrugs off the team's recent scoring woes. "It's about what we do now. Come out, score some goals, get everything rolling. That's going to be our focus."

Charleston hasn't lost at home in a league match in 21 games, a streak that now extends over 16 calendar months.

"The way we look at it, we win those three home games, we're in the playoffs," Anhaeuser said. "And that's probably enough for a home game, just looking at how things are going and who plays each other. (If) you do that, then those four road games, if you can pick up four to seven points in those games, you've got a chance to finish in the top two."

Getting back into the USL East's second spot -- Charleston trails Louisville by three points -- not only means hosting a playoff game, it means a first-round bye. That quest begins in earnest on Saturday.

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