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USL Charleston Battery

Charleston at Bethlehem Preview

April 21, 2016 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Charleston Battery News Release


Charleston Battery in Training
Charleston Battery in Training
(Charleston Battery)

CHARLESTON - The Battery will make its second consecutive road trip this weekend as the team's home stadium recovers from the largest event in its history. Its opponent: Bethlehem Steel FC, one of USL's most up-and-down teams of the young 2016 season.

The game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. kickoff on Sunday at Goodman Stadium on the campus of Lehigh University. Steel FC will webcast the match via YouTube and the USL Game Center here.

Charleston opened the year with two home wins and a draw on the road, but last weekend entered a tough stretch of schedule distinguished by four of five on the road. While the travel isn't likely to make things easy on the players and coaching staff, it's designed to give a break to the MUSC Health Stadium pitch, which played host to a record 14,000 country music fans on Saturday, with another large crowding filling the house on Sunday.

The grass under the Southern Ground Music and Food Festival stage and temporary flooring looked green and whole as it re-emerged on Monday, but the stadium grounds crew aerated the pitch on Tuesday and has plans to do an additional round of fertilization on both the stadium and training field pitches this week.

But while MUSC Health Stadium appears to be none the worse for wear, the Battery spotted Charlotte Independence a 3-0 lead and dropped its first match of the season, falling 2-3 at Ramblewood Soccer Complex. Its next task looks no less daunting: Take the bus out of Charleston Friday night, train at Bethlehem on Saturday, then face Steel FC at Goodwin Stadium on the campus of Lehigh University.

"The big thing is how we play," Battery Coach Mike Anhaeuser said. "We weren't as sharp as we could have been in Charlotte. We got caught a little bit by their physical play.

"We want to get back to the basics, really, and get back on track as being one of the best defensive teams. That's the focus."

SCOUTING BETHLEHEM STEEL FC

Steel FC is Philadelphia Union's new USL entry for 2016, replacing its longtime partnership with independent club Harrisburg City Islanders. The new club, located in the Lehigh Valley not far from the Bethlehem steel mill that gave birth to one of America's most historic soccer teams, is off to an up-and-down 2-2-0 start.

So far, it's been the kind of team that wins ugly on the road one week, loses at home to a fellow expansion club the next, goes back out falls apart, then comes home and puts together a composed, balanced victory against a quality opponent.

It's hard to pick a pattern from that track record, but two things come through when you look at Bethlehem's current roster: It's deep, and there's plenty of USL talent in the starting XI. Something else comes through when you watch them on tape: Coach Brendan Burke's unit doesn't look like it's too far from putting the pieces together, at least on offense.

The Steel won its franchise opener 1-0 on the road at FC Montreal in a game that produced only one highlight: Bethlehem midfielder Walter Restrepo chipping a short cross to forward Fabian Herbers as he drifted relatively unmolested run through the FC Montreal defense on a counterattack. It was Herbers' only shot of the game, deciding a forgettable affair that even he won't want to watch again.

A week later Bethlehem stumbled 2-1 in its home opener, falling to a talented but inconsistent FC Cincinnati team at Goodman Stadium. Though fairly organized throughout, the Steel were undone twice by moments of quality from Cincinnati forward Andrew Weideman, most cleverly in the 34th minute on a give-and-go to forward Sean Okoli that confused Bethlehem (and former Sacramento Republic) center back Michael Daly for a critical instant.

If that looked like progress, Bethlehem put its season into retrograde in the first four minutes at Red Bulls Arena the following week, ultimately losing 4-0. Though not massively outplayed on the stats sheet, Bethlehem's players couldn't assemble a meaningful response after scoring an own-goal just 11 seconds after kickoff and allowing Alex Muyl an unmarked chance in their penalty area less than four minutes later. Down 2-0 before the 5th minute in an empty MLS stadium, Bethlehem looked done.

Had the Steel played poorly at home against Richmond Kickers last weekend, this team might have defined itself as a mid-table also-ran club for 2016. Instead, Burke's unit took the lead after the 20th minute, caught the veteran Kickers napping just after returning from the break, and held the visitors to eight shots (seven of them on goal) for the duration. Bethlehem finished with a modest 10 shots, but made its chances count.

The ingredients for success are apparent. Goalkeeper John McCarthy was a breakout star for Rochester Rhinos two years ago, winning USL Goalkeeper of the Year as a rookie before transferring to the Union, where he made 11 appearances in 2015. When he gets support, he can be spectacular - as he proved in the loss to FC Cincinnati.

Former Battery fullback/midfielder and Steel team captain Ryan Richter, 27, leads the defense. He left Charleston for MLS after the 2012 Championship, but didn't stick at the top level and wound up in NASL's Ottawa Fury last season.

The top of the lineup carries the biggest names. Restrepo and attacker/forward Leo Fernandes played big roles in helping the 2015 New York Cosmos to last year's NASL championship, with Fernandes tying for the team-lead in both goals and assists. Fabian Herbers, a Generation Adidas signing and the No. 6 pick in the 2016 Superdraft, played for the Union until the USL season got underway.

But the most effective player for the Steel so far has been midfielder Eric Ayuk, a 19-year-old attacker from Cameroon. He leads the team with two goals, and is already demonstrating special qualities.

Also, this almost qualifies as an aside, but 36-year-old former D.C. United/Union star Fred (Helbert Frederico Carreiro da Silva) signed with Steel FC as a player/coach last month. He has yet to make an appearance.

"These are tough teams (to scout), you know?" Anhaeuser said. "When you've got MLS teams they may have two or three guys they bring down, you know, if they don't play (on Saturday). But they do have some older guys - Ryan Richter, who was here. We're going to be prepared."

SCOUTING THE BATTERY

One of the big questions for Battery observers last week wasn't who would start, but who would fill out the bench at Charlotte. With goalkeeper Kevin Corby and defender Forrest Lasso ruled out with injuries, and with midfielder Maikel Chang and forward Ricky Garbanzo held out from training as they rehabbed, the team's 19-man roster was down to just 15 healthy bodies on Friday when forward Heviel Cordoves collided with trialist goalkeeper Robert Beebe during a finishing drill. Beebe left with a concussion, Cordoves with a neck injury.

To meet league requirements, Coach Mike Anhaeuser rustled up three of the four S.C. Battery Academy players signed to the team via USL amateur contracts: Defender Cole Gulledge, winger Conor Sloan and forward Robbie Robinson. They joined goalkeeper Odisnel Cooper, midfielders Dante Marini and Maikel Chang, and forward Austin Savage on the Battery 18.

Sloan made his USL debut late in the proceedings, earning the first USL regular-season minutes that Anhaeuser could remember giving to an S.C. Battery Academy player.

Charleston's health status has improved, with Chang and Garbanzo back to unrestricted training status this week, but a two-game suspension to Zach Prince for a red card at Charlotte has the small squad back on the skinny side.

If Chang and Garbanzo prove both healthy and fit enough to start, the Battery could be in position to give Ataullah Guerra a run at right midfield as the replacement for Prince. Guerra has started all four of Charleston's games - twice as a defensive midfielder in relief of Neveal Hackshaw, twice in the place of Garbanzo, who plays a second forward/attacking midfielder role in Anhaeuser's 4-2-3-1. Guerra describes himself as an attacking midfielder, most comfortable working on the flanks and working the ball in to teammates.

Fullback Quinton Griffith could also make a bid for a second consecutive start at right mid, but with Lasso only beginning to return to weight-bearing exercise, the Battery is out of professional defenders. Gulledge, a high school student, is the best available option.

Charleston entered last week's loss with one of the best defensive records in USL, surrendering just one goal in three matches. It seemed a safe bet to continue, given the continuity on the backline, which was second in the league in 2015 in goals allowed.

Yet the Battery suffered through a strange series of defensive failures at Charlotte. All-USL Defender Shawn Ferguson twice set up goals with mistakes following successfully defensive plays: First a penalty kick drawn on Ferguson by Man of the Match Enzo Martinez, later a giveaway under pressure to veteran Jorge Herrera. Charlotte's other goal - forward Brian Brown's second-touch volley - came on a play that included a nutmeg pass on the build-up and a shot that somehow slipped through the legs and torsos of both Ferguson and Player of the Week Taylor Mueller.

One thing that seems to be working is Romario Williams in the No. 9 job. The 21-year-old Jamaican got his second goal in his second start last weekend, and had another goal in his first two substitute appearances. With Cordoves out indefinitely, the Battery needs the Montreal Impact prospect to carry the burden offensively. He's tied for third in USL in goals with three, one behind the leaders.

Goalkeeper Alex Tambakis, who faced his first real test last week, continues to turn in quality shifts. He left the match with credit for five saves and demerits for three goals (he now has four allowed in four games), but it's difficult to fault him. Penalty kicks go to the shooter 80 percent of the time. Tambakis actually had the back post covered on Calvert's header, and had it not hit the crossbar and fallen perfectly to Brown, there likely would have been no play for the Jacks. The young Greek reacted well to the Herrera goal, too: Had it been anything less than laser-guided, Tambakis would have reached it.

KEY MATCH-UP: Shawn Ferguson vs. Gabriel Gissie/Fabian Herbers. Put another way, how will the Battery's steady captain bounce back from a rare unsteady performance? Charleston's success on the road almost always begins with its traditionally excellent defense, and if there's a weekend when the Battery needs a shutdown performance, this would be a good time for it.

Herbers didn't figure in last week's match against Richmond, but the 19-year-old Gissie did well. Restrepo and Fernandes are equal opportunity killers on the wings, so the Battery need to keep the middle buttoned up and trust its athletic fullbacks. When Ferguson is at his best - demonstrated last year against USL MVP Matt Fondy - he is dominant.

PLAYER TO WATCH: Maikel Chang. Simply put, Charleston started a match without Maikel Chang for the first time this season at Charlotte, and the results were not pretty. The Jacks out-shot the Battery 10-to-1 in the first half, and even that number feels generous.

Chang is a gifted midfielder, particularly with the ball at his feet. But forget goals and assists and "successful dribbles." The aspect of the game where his genius often shines brightest is when he's combining with central mid Justin Portillo to gain, keep and advance possession.

If Chang starts - and that's no sure thing - and if the Battery looks like it's in control of its own fate, remember the first 45 at Ramblewood. That might just be the Chang factor. He makes the people around him look better.

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Charleston Battery in Training
Charleston Battery in Training
   



United Soccer League Championship Stories from April 21, 2016


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