USL Charleston Battery

Charleston Battery Match Preview: Orlando City B

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


CHARLESTON -- The Battery head south to Melbourne, Fla., this week for Friday's date with a second consecutive 2016 USL expansion club. Yet this one doesn't feel like a first visit to an unknown opponent.

Sure, Titan Soccer Complex on the campus of Eastern Florida State University is a new venue for the Battery. But it's only about an hour's drive southwest of the Orlando Citrus Bowl, home of Major League Soccer's Orlando City SC.

Before Orlando City made the jump from USL to MLS, the Battery made annual trips to the Citrus Bowl (and its temporary replacement, the Disney/ESPN Wide World of Sports Soccer Complex) from 2011-2014. Not once in any of those trips did the Battery come away a winner.

On Friday night, when Charleston plays its first-ever match with OCB -- that's Orlando City B, the new USL entry owned by Orlando's MLS club -- Coach Mike Anhaeuser and the Battery will be working to open a new, more successful chapter in the club's history with Orlando. The match kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and will be webcast live over YouTube and can be found here.

Scouting OCB

Of course, Charleston wasn't the only USL team to struggle in Central Florida. The original Orlando City (the USL franchise moved to Louisville in 2015 when expansion Orlando City SC joined MLS) won the USL Pro regular season three times in four years, and the league championship twice (2011 and 2013).

Then again, Orlando City was never built to be a USL club. The ownership group led by Phil Rawlins moved its successful franchise from Austin, Texas, after the 2010 season because it had MLS ambitions. With a big-league payroll and Orlando's metro population of 2.2 million, OCSC was a Goliath in a league of Davids.

OCB is one of two new teams in the parent club's Central Florida soccer empire. The other 2016 entry: The Orlando Pride of the NWSL. While the Pride gives the city a second top-tier soccer team, OCB offers the MLS team the advantage of a nearby USL roster for developing players and logging competitive experience for unproven prospects on MLS contracts.

The new team is coached by 31-year-old former Orlando player Anthony Pulis, son of West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis. His on-field partner is 34-year-old English midfielder and OCB captain Lewis Neal, who joined the parent club last season after being picked from D.C. United in the Expansion Draft. He's also a coach in Orlando's academy system.

The MLS team bolstered its USL roster by sending three MLS players -- goalkeeper Mason Stajduhar, defender Tyler Turner and striker Bryan Rochez -- on long-term loans to OCB. It also sent four more MLS players -- including goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr. -- down for last week season-opener against the overhauled Wilmington Hammerheads.

It didn't end well for the Lions, who lost 2-1 in a game marred by a lightning delay.

"It probably should have been a draw," said Battery Coach Mike Anhaeuser after watching the tape. "It was wet conditions and rainy and they had a delay, which means you can't get any rhythm going.

"I think they'll be a lot better the second game. You have those nerves, and young players have more nerves maybe than the older ones. And sometime it maybe takes three or four games to get those nerves out of you."

Despite the choppy conditions, OCB showed signs of quality. Neal is a calm, smart presence in the middle. Former Harrisburg/Pittsburgh/Charlotte defender Andrew Ribiero is a solid veteran and scored the Lions' lone goal in the opener. Big center back Craig Nitti is a 6-5 physical presence on defense and an asset on either end of a set piece. Forward Pierre da Silva, who played 79 minutes against Wilmington, is a 17-year-old academy product and U.S. youth international. Twenty-one-year-old forward Rochez is a Young Designated Player from Honduras who got off a shot at the Hammerheads in 20 minutes of relief duty.

Turner didn't play on Saturday, but has previously proved himself to be a dangerous overlapping fullback. And with the parent club hosting Portland Timbers just an hour up the road on Sunday, the possibility of some late, single-game loans for Friday's match is always on the table.

Anhaeuser said OCB tried to play the style that USL fans remember from the old days, but didn't dominate possession or generate great attacking flow in their opener. He doesn't expect that to be the case forever.

"We've got to be prepared," Anhaeuser said. "I think they're going to come out with a lot more intensity than they did against Wilmington. They were two teams trying to feel their way. Now I think they're going to get after it. We've talked already about how we need to be sharp, we need to be fast."

Scouting the Battery

Like OCB, Charleston opened 2016 on a rain-soaked field Saturday night. With the sub-optimal conditions and a veteran, talented opponent, the Battery played tactical, probing football in an evenly matched game. The hosts snatched full points on a dramatic last-minute match-winner by Montreal Impact forward Romario Williams, whose heroics earned him a reserve spot on the USL Team of the Week.

But the story behind the story in the Battery's season opener was adaptation. First the team lost two players -- fullback Quinton Griffith and defensive midfielder Neveal Hackshaw -- to international duty. Then, when fullback Emmanuel Adjetey's foot bruise didn't respond to rest and treatment, he wound up an injury scratch. Down three starters for the season opener isn't exactly the way a coach likes to draw things up.

With the team reduced to one listed fullback -- O'Brian "Obi" Woodbine, who can play either side -- Anhaeuser rotated star center back Taylor Mueller to the right spot and inserted second-year man Forrest Lasso next to team captain and All-USL defender Shawn Ferguson. All three came through with huge performances. Lasso was a rock at center back, Woodbine delivered the match-winning assist to Williams, and Mueller earned Team of the Week honors while playing out of position.

To man Hackshaw's No. 8 spot, Anhaeuser pulled newcomer Ataullah Guerra out of his usual role as an attacking-mid/forward and posted him in the deep central patrol next to Justin Portillo. The experiment worked well the week before against the New York Cosmos, and once again exceeded expectations at MUSC Health Stadium.

Whether the missing men will be available for Friday's match remains unknown. Adjetey returned to limited participation in training this week, and both internationals had matches on Tuesday night.

"I think we'll have all three available, but they probably won't start," Anhaeuser said Tuesday. "Having a good player available on the bench can be just as valuable as a starter. A lot of people don't understand that.

"We've got to see how it goes in the international games. Hopefully they don't pick up an injury. Adjetey, we'll probably put him on our probable list. We didn't want to rush him last week, and we did OK."

Hackshaw, 20, came on as a late substitute for the Soca Warriors Tuesday night in Trinidad and Tobago's 6-0 home World Cup qualifying win over St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Griffith and the Benna Boys of Antigua and Barbuda lost at St. Kitts and Nevis 1-0.

FC Cincinnati held Charleston's forward tandem of Heviel Cordoves and Ricky Garbanzo -- with Cordoves in the lead and Garbanzo working underneath -- scoreless, although Cordoves came within inches of blasting a goal in the 11th minute. Whether Anhaeuser will continue that pairing or provide more time for Williams at Melbourne will be a coaching decision.

Another interesting angle to watch will be how Anhaeuser plans to manage his goalkeepers. Newcomer Alex Tambakis got clean sheets against the Cosmos on the 19th and Cincinnati on the 26th, earning six and three saves, respectively. He's the obvious choice to continue as the starter based on those performances, but Charleston also boasts 2015 team MVP and USL Goalkeeper of the Year finalist Odisnel Cooper. Both looked sharp in preseason.

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United Soccer League Championship Stories from March 30, 2016


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