Battery's first match on Fox Soccer Channel this year. Location: the Buad, Charleston SC TV: FSC Kick-off: 8:00pm EST Radio: 1340AM Fireworks following the match This will the Battery's fifth match of the season and the second match up between Charleston and Miami. The first meeting saw a 2-2 draw. The Battery were playing without a couple of starters for that match and should have a full selection available with only Cianciarulo (the brace goal scorer of that match) questionable. Miami will be without the services of Sean Frasier. New addition Avery John failed to impress last week against the Railhawks and the midfield looked very inconsistant. Alex Alfonso continues to look like the real deal and will be a threat for the Battery backline, but Carolina negated his threat as he needed to drop back to support the midfield alot. The Battery, conversly, have shown alot of promise in the midfield. Cuban Ozzie Alonso has been the unstoried star this season so far. The addition of Armstrong will only improve that third of the field. The increasing fitness level of More, Kings pace and Patterson looking like he is finding his stride in this league, things are looking very good for the attacking third. On Defence, most goals scored where against the run of play and can be attributed to mistakes, Mistakes which can be fixed. Wilson will be back but with Kevin Nylen having a great match and making the USL team of the week, might see Nylen retain the spot. On a side note, Friday will also see free bus rides to and from the Marda Rua pub staring at 5:45 The bus is bio deisel and part of the Battery's GO GREEN night at Blackbaud. prematch articles www.charlestonbattery.com see you at the match!
Buses to and from the Madra Rua? God love us all! Sadly I will be at home in Greenville, watching this one on FSC. I will be anxious to see the environment for the first time though.
should be good, Andrew Millers from the local paper has a blog and while he plans on updating it later today or tomorrow, he did put in a brief entry yesterday. He mentioned that the match is already a near sell out. should be good fun. http://www.charleston.net/blogs/battery/2008/may/07/BatteryBlog/ mikey
prematch reports Battery prematch report key in the article "Fuller, Corcoran and Cianciarulo all reutrn to full trainign last week" Miami FC prematch report Miami add to there injury woes "midfielder Leandro Mineiro is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury...In addition, defenders Stephane Guillaume and J.P. Rodrigues are listed as unavailable due to injury, while midfielders Sean Fraser and Jarryd Goldberg are listed as "probable" and will travel with the team."
I believe you mean Alex Alfonso but he definatly is a threat. From the sound of it, he had to drop back during the Carolina match to help out his midfield, pretty much negating his threat. I think our midfield is better than Miami so maybe we will see the same thing happen. mikey
according to the Battery Blog Armstong still in nursing a ankle injury an dmight be a couple weeks away. Fuller is ready but not quite match fit so might appear off the bench both Corcoran and Cianciarulo should be available. here are some great goals from Armstrong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rfPyxZIkug http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH_HxIVxPYc&feature=related
feature on Kevin Nylen in the paper today Nylen ready to end string of bad luck while we are going to see some pretty serious stoms this am it loks like they will have rolled through by this evening. Charelston hour by hour weather forecast
Didn't realize Armstrong was still nursing his ankle...oh well, thank god for depth in the mf position. Think we might see Alonso team with CC in the middle? If we can ever get all our attackers well, Auggie's going to have a tough time picking his midfielders and strikers. Depth is a wonderful problem to have and you have to have it in this league come August with the heat, travel, suspensions, heat, back-2-back games, heat, playing on artificial turf about 1/2 the time, etc. Batts - 3, Blues - 1
I will tag along on that 3-1 prediction. I think we start to see the Battery forwards really assert some pressure with the help of the midfield.
Ill go 3-0. I agree that our mids and forwards are starting to gel and our defense is solid and learning each week from there past mistakes. Ill go Patterson and King getting another set of goals and then one from a set piece from one of the defenders, Velten I think. here is another prematch article, this one from USL FO Miami v. Charleston on FSC weather looks like it will be good looking forward to a great night. Mikey
You guys are crazy there is no way we are giving up 3 goals tonight. Christiano Dias will be back from his red card suspension and along with Avery John the defense will be tough to break down. Our defense is strong this season, our midfield is another story but we will have offensive threat Eric Vasquez in for injured Miniero. And last but not least is Alex "The Fonz" Alfonso, he will score tonight guaranteed. Prediction: Miami 2- Battery 1
call us crazy! Alfonso is a good player, I expect he will be competing for our own Randi Patterson for top goal scoring honors.
he was a greasey bastard, I dont think it was a great game for him. He seemed to call advantages when none were there and call evey little foul which kind of interups the flow of the match but in the end it was the Battery 3 miami 1 Miami started out well and the Battery looked in disarray. Fortunately patterson scored an equilizer before the half and the Battery regrouped. Alonso got a pretty spectacular goal, Im sure he didnt mean it but to knee the ball over his head and over the the keepre Saunders. over all the match was entertaining Im sure the battery will work on the issues they had and its good to see Patterson find the back of the net. post match reports Dandy Randi Patterson scores twice Miami battered at Charleston Official Match Stats
Watched the game on FSC last night. Good win by the Battery. I go to all the Chicago Fire games and as I was watching the game last night on TV, I was trying to compare this USL game to MLS games I watch. And it seems to me that in last night's game both teams, and especially the Battery are always in a hurry to get the ball down field. There doesn't seem to be a desire for posession or a deliberate build-up in the attack. There seems to be no one to slow the tempo down a bit. Everyone is in a hurry. The ball is lost constantly and there are a lot of meaningless passes to guys who are covered. Don't get me wrong I like the Battery and always come to a game when I'm around the area. In fact I'm planning on coming the week of Memorial Day. Maybe the Wednesday game. I'm really not trying to be critical, just observations.
funny you mention that, Agguie said in the paper that he wanted to play a more attractive (I know mindless passing and give aways dont make the "beautiful game"), attacking style. But from about the 80 min on, most of us were hoping for the backline and the midfield just to pass it around a bit and make Miami run or for a forward to take it to the corner and sit on it....And then the Battery scored a third....
What can I say I guess I was a little crazy. We are on a downward spiral in Miami. The front office is in Brazil and has promised big changes in the coming weeks. If only the game was 11 minutes long we could pull out a victory. Oh well.
Fantastic win. It was crystal clean that the Batts had more class than Miami. I am impressed. Defence was solid by and large but still could stand to be tightened up. Clearly the strength of this Battery team is the midfield and forwards. Great job and it appeared to be a nice environment for the match. Cheers!