Sports stats



USL Charleston Battery

Charleston v. Wilmington Preview: Do Or Die for the Southern Derby

July 15, 2015 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Charleston Battery News Release


Charleston Battery vs. Wilmington Hammerheads
Charleston Battery vs. Wilmington Hammerheads
(Charleston Battery)

CHARLESTON - From an event perspective, there's no bigger soccer game in Charleston this weekend than the Battery's meeting with West Bromwich Albion of the English Premier League on Friday.

But when it comes to the competitions that count toward the 2015 Battery's relative success and place in club history, there's no doubt that the most significant game this weekend kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. That's when Charleston hosts Wilmington in the final match of the old rivals' four-game season series, and there's more at stake than the Battery's season-long pursuit of the Eastern Conference title (tickets at charlestonbattery.com, or over the phone at 843.971.4625).

Charleston (8-2-7, 31 points, second place in the USL East) rolls up to this one needing three points to keep pace with undefeated first-place Rochester, which has moved from a five-point lead with a game in hand to a nine-point lead and an equivalent number of matches. This is the kind of game championship contenders should expect to win: At home, against a bottom-of-the-table team, while riding a 19-game, 14-month home unbeaten streak.

Wilmington, however, has just never been an easy win for Charleston. It was Wilmington, after all, that last beat the Battery at Blackbaud Stadium (1-0 on May 10, 2014). And despite the Hammerheads' woeful 2-9-6 record (12 points, 11th place in the East, tied for 22nd-worst record in USL), Charleston has only scratched its way to a 2-0-1 advantage via a meager +2 goal differential in the series so far. Were it not for a freakish own-goal by the Hammers in the teams' 1-1 draw at Legion Stadium, the margin would be even thinner.

Plus with the Battery coming off a heavily touted exhibition with West Brom only the night before, it's anyone's guess what team will show up to face their old foes from Cape Fear.

LEADING THE SERIES, TRAILING IN SOUTHERN DERBY

The Southern Derby Cup is a fan-sponsored competition (similar to the more famous Cascadia Cup contested by Portland, Seattle and Vancouver in MLS) that has involved multiple professional teams since its inception in 2000, when it comprised the Charleston Battery, the Atlanta Silverbacks, and the now-defunct Raleigh Capital Express. In 2015, the three teams chasing it are Charleston, Wilmington and the expansion Charlotte Independence. The Battery has won the Cup more than any other club (five times), but Wilmington is the defending champion.

One of the quirks of the Southern Derby Cup is that each preseason the fans from the three competing teams confer over the upcoming schedule and determine which games will count toward the championship.

Charleston's combined record against Charlotte and Wilmington? 3-1-2. Its record in matches that count toward this year's Cup? 0-1-1. Consequently, halfway through this year's Cup schedule, Charlotte leads the competition with 4 points to Wilmington's 2 and Charleston's 1.

That makes Saturday absolutely crucial to the Battery's hopes of regaining the Cup for the first time since 2011. Anything short of a win essentially knocks Charleston out of contention.

It's probably too late for Wilmington to mount a serious USL playoff surge, but a win at Blackbaud on Saturday would put the Hammerheads in the lead for this year's Southern Derby. In a year when little has gone right for this proud franchise and its supporters, that's something to play for.

SCOUTING THE HAMMERHEADS

Oddly enough, Saturday's match is a collision, of sorts, between two trends. Charleston is better at home (5-0-4, compared to 3-2-3 away), while Wilmington has been relatively better on the road (2-6-1 away, 0-3-5 at home). It's not much, but second-year Hammerheads Coach Carson Porter needs something to lay down as a foundation. When it's mid-July and you haven't won a game at home, you've got to start somewhere.

The place you don't want to start, if you're Wilmington, is on the attack. Despite playing in a league with 13 expansion teams, the 2015 Hammerheads have somehow managed to score just 11 goals in 17 games. That's fewer that the individual totals compiled by two USL players - Danni Konigof Oklahoma City (13) and Rob Vincent of Pittsburgh (12). Wilmington has the lowest average goal output in the league, and almost a third of those scores came in an anomalous 3-0 win against NYRB II in April. They've been shut out 10 times,

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Flash back to late summer 2014, when Porter replaced longtime coach Dave Irving and lifted the Hammerheads to a 3-1-3 finish that earned the team an improbably playoff spot. With the Hammers on the rise to end the season, Porter looked like a bridge to a more modern, attractive era in Hammers football.

They began 2015 respectably enough, too, scoring seven goals in their first five en route to a 1-2-3 record. Then the bottom dropped out. In the 11 games since, they've scored four times.

Part of it boils down to the team lacking a consistent goal-scoring threat. Forward Nick Zimmerman leads the team with three, two of which came in that 3-0 win at Red Bull Arena on April 12. The team's second-leading scorer is a center back, Anshani Fairclough, with two. The last time either Zimmerman or Fairclough scored for Wilmington was May 16.

But the other side of the downturn in the Hammerheads' offensive fortunes might well be a calculation. With 13 players returning from a 2014 roster that reflected Irving's defense-first philosophy, Wilmington might not have the ammo to win a shootout, but it might have just enough bricks to build a wall.

Remember Charleston's 2-1 victory at Legion Stadium on April 26? The Hammers played to win at home, offered Mike Anhaeuser's team an open-game, and paid the price. They were far less charitable a month later at Blackbaud Stadium, surrendering only a penalty kick and scaring the daylights out of Battery fans despite playing down a man from the 37th minute. They should have won at home again on June 6th after taking a late lead in a game that resembled trench warfare for the first 70 minutes, but gifted a frustrated Battery team a 1-1 draw via Fairclough's own goal instead.

Wilmington's best - or at least most reliable - players tend to be defensive-minded veterans, guys like versatile defenderTroy Cole and Scottish right back Tom Parratt, or English defensive-mid and team captain Paul Nicholson. Though he can be streaky, left back Andrae Campbell can also be an effective player.

The team's best attacking players are probably winger Sunny Jane and midfielder Corben Bone, formerly of the Chicago Fire, with explosiver forward Christian Bassagog figuring primarily as a substitute.

Rookie goalkeeper Andre Rawls deserves a special mention. He's allowed 13 goals in 11 starts, on a team where the other starters have given up 10 goals in six starts, In that context, Rawls' 47 saves and .783 save-percentage look downright heroic.

SCOUTING THE BATTERY

Battery forward Dane Kelly enjoyed his breakout year in 2013, scoring 11 goals to lead a Battery team that had previously relied on midfielders Nicki Paterson and Jose Cuevas for much of its production. Kelly spent most of that spring trying to get back to fitness and form after a muscular injury, and didn't really find his scoring groove until relatively late in the season.

Last year - when Kelly earned USL PRO All-League First Team honors - was in many ways a step backwards. He finished the regular season with 10 goals, but needed a hat-trick in the season finale to get there.

This year's model has already accounted for 10 goals and three assists in league and U.S. Open Cup play. Eight of those goals came in USL matches, so he needs only four more in the next 11 games to break his personal record.

The Battery's goal production is generally up this season, but its Kelly's run of form that gives the team its most dangerous edge. He's put up four goals and an assist in the last three games. And if emphasizing Kelly defensively causes teams to lose sight of rookie Ricky Garbanzo, there's a price to be paid.

Charleston's defense enters this game on a hot streak of its own. The team has allowed only one goal in its last three matches - and that one came off a penalty kick awarded to Harrisburg at the end of 4-1 demolition. The return to fitness of fullback Quinton Griffith is an X-factor. He started the season at right back, but after injuries robbed him of the spring and early summer, he's figured into Anhaeuser's plans as a part-time midfielder. That could be part of working him back to match fitness, or it could be a result of the back line of left back Emmanuel Adjetey, center backs Shawn Ferguson and Taylor Mueller and right back Obi Woodbine rounding into one of the league's best units.

Check out the Charleston Battery Statistics




Images from this story

Southern Derby Cup
Southern Derby Cup
 Charleston Battery vs. Wilmington Hammerheads
Charleston Battery vs. Wilmington Hammerheads
  

• Discuss this story on the United Soccer League Championship message board...

United Soccer League Championship Stories from July 15, 2015


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central