Charleston start a two match road trip tonight as they take on red hot Harrisbugh on the island at 7pm. Jose Cuevas and Ben Fisk didn't make the trip with injuries but newly arrived from Vancouver on loan is Bryce Alderson Specualtion on my part but I expect Auggie to rotate several players in the two matches. great stuff from CHS Soccer http://www.chssoccer.net/here-we-go-battery-head-north/ From the Battery front office http://charlestonbattery.com/news/battery-heads-to-harrisburg-and-dayton/ Watch party tonight at Molly Darcy's on East Bay Street near the Market starts at 7pm. They treated us right fro the first match with four big screen TVs and great service.
Hey Battery fans, Good luck tonight, we have a thread going on the City Islanders forum if you want to check out news about your opposition. There are several injuries to Harrisburg players and a few other notes you might want to read. Cheers!
thanks Hax Here is a great preview by CHS Soccer on tonights match with a good quote from Nicki Paterson on Coach Bill Becher. http://www.chssoccer.net/game-4-battery-at-harrisburg-preview/ looking forward to a good match
Wonder strike from Mike Azira in the 10th minute. Scores on a volley off of Wiltse's long cross from the sideline.
Handball in the box, so Nicki Patterson takes the PK and snakes it in off the post. 2-0 Battery and in the 41st minute Islanders score to make it 2-1.
Stupid yellow card by Morgan Langley will probably drum up some testiness. Harrisburg has carried a lot of possession but Charleston looks dangerous on nearly every counter. Should be interesting to see if McLaughlin, Touray, and others sub in to give a spark. Azira's goal was ridiculous, btw, what a volley!
Battery wins 2-1, despite some questionable officiating going both ways, but all in all a clean game.
The hole in the net made me nervous. It looked at first that the ball didn't go in cause it rolled up the bank behind the goal. And the center ref didn't look like he called it a goal at first either. Not sure if he got help from the asst but that could have been a nightmare. What a great start to the road trip. Onward to OHighO. Wonder if Brook will be there....how far is it from Cleveland to Dayton? Couple hundred miles?
Congrats on the win, guys. Tough game to lose for Harrisburg considering how much possession they had, but your counter-attacks were so dangerous all night. If not for some terrific saves by Nick Noble, the Battery wins by a much larger scoreline. Harrisburg has to stop allowing former players from scoring against them. This season they allowed goals to three former players: Jose Angulo (Pittsburgh), Bilal Duckett (Rochester), and now Nicki Patterson. Anyway, safe travels and good luck!
thanks Hax. the last 20 minutes or so where definitely squeaky bum time but overall a pretty decent match to watch when you take the officials out of it. Great goal by Mike Azira. here is a post match write up from our end http://www.chssoccer.net/battery-sink-host-islanders-2-1/#comment-130
Great recap and nice website. It's always good to get different perspectives, I don't think we saw the game too differently, Charleston certainly earned the win and took Harrisburg out of their game, and I completely agree that the City Islanders weren't so good in the first half. I don't remember Falvey's non-goal being disputed too much last night by the Battery bench, offsides was called pretty clearly, but I do agree that the officiating was poor on both sides. I think some of the disjointedness of Harrisburg stemmed from missing several key starters (Ekra, Brandt, Anding, McLaughlin) and the team played much better with their second-half substitutes. That being said, the Battery proved why they're the defending champs and Harrisburg has much to learn from last night's game. One last thing, has there been a video of Azira's goal beyond the USL archive? I'd love to see that again as well as Hernandez's strike for HCI.
I thought I was going to miss the whole game. I was able to arrive at halftime even though I had some previous commitments. I missed all the good stuff but here are my photos and videos from the match. One video is a play your keeper made clearing the ball from the goalmouth. It was nice seeing Nicki on the island again plus he scored the PK goal. I thought the Battery played a hard fought, aggressive (but fair) match and they also played smart with the lead. http://blog.pennlive.com/upper90/2013/05/city_islanders_and_battery_mat.html
My recap for a Harrisburg sports website: http://thesportsburger.com/2013/05/02/battered-city-islanders-drop-first-game-of-2013.aspx
game archive is up http://www.uslnation.com/USLPro/archive.aspx?v=9131&eid=5.1 Charleston @ Harrisburg# Great production and overall the video team did a great job. My only two complaints was one of the announcers kept calling us Charlotte instead of Charleston and they mispronounced Mike Azira name. good job to Invicta
some previews of the match Friday night against Dayton. Battery FO http://charlestonbattery.com/news/battery-continues-road-trip-at-dayton/ CHS Soccer http://www.chssoccer.net/battery-go-dutch-well-not-really/ Dayton FO http://www.uslsoccer.com/scripts/ru...E+47116+News/Display/+20204291+58092651+12049
Battery win 1-0, not too much to talk about, after this one. Except, the glare coming off of the plastic grass.
Impressive roadtrip indeed, yielding only one goal in two away matches to earn the six points. You guys are definitely one of the teams I expect at the top of the table, although it's tough to get a read on the standings because of the unbalanced schedule. Seem teams have played three more games than others. That being said, Orlando, Charleston, Richmond all appear like legit contenders, I hope my City Islanders are but some of their rosters decisions are beyond their control so we'll see (Don Anding was already recalled by Philly for example). In any case, see you all in a few weeks for the rematch, cheers!