And like that...there were only 12

Many questioned the inclusion of the "International Division" into USLPro this season.  And with good cause,  As of today the three teams from Puerto Rico are no longer part of USLPro.

After several issues with each team, USL has announced that it has formally removed Puerto Rico United, Sevilla FC Puerto Rico and River Plate Puerto Rico from the remaining USLPro schedule.

After serious economic difficulties and medical issuses involving two of the three team owners, the teams were unable to meet league standards and obligations.   Details of the issues can be found over at IMSoccer News in the great series by Jay Long.

All past matches against will continue to count toward league standings and future games will be rescheduled amongst the remaining 12 teams.  Those details are expected later this week.

In the press release from USL, CEO Alec Papadakis said,  "In the best interest of USL PRO and its teams, it was necessary to remove the three PRSL (Puerto Rico Soccer League) teams."  He continued,  "USL Pro has established high standards which are an integral component of the league model, and we are determined to preserve the integrity of these standards on and off the field."

The omission of the Puerto Rico team will have Charleston schedule three new matches to their calendar.    The June 9 and Jun 11 away matches against Sevilla FC and Puerto Rico United and the home match on July 1st against Puerto Rico United.   The July 1st match is to be aired live on Fox Soccer Channel.

As soon as we hear more we will pass it along.

We've had Better Weekends

After a disappointing weekend and only picking up one point out of six, the Battery return to Charleston and will be looking for a way to find the back of the net.

Friday night's match against Pittsburgh ended in a 0-0 draw.  The cold and wet night saw Jamaican midfielder Evan Taylor getting a straight red in the 53 minute of play.  Charleston still out shot the host 12 shots to Pittsburgh's seven.

The Battery created several chances and took a point from the match.

Coach Anhaueser made several change to the line up in the Rochester match on Saturday nights, typical of back to back games.  The Battery started out very cautious against Rochester.  The Rhinos had several good chances coming down the flanks and were rewarded for their efforts in the 24 minute as Rochester midfielder Tony Donatelli took a shot from outside the box which hit off the goal post and then rebounded into the net off the back of Battery keeper, Keith Wiggins.

The second half saw the Battery looking much more dangerous but were unable to find the equalizing goal.

The lack of goals is concerning but it isn't as if the Battery aren't creating chances.  That would be far more concerning.  Playing back to back matches is never easy and getting points on the road isn't easy in this league, but Charleston loss puts it in third place in the American Division. The Battery will want to turn it around this Friday night at home against FC New York to keep pace with the Richmond Kickers, who will face a tough road schedule the end of May and first part of June. 

Friday night's match will see the Battery hosting newly formed FC New York for the first time this season.  FCNY are currently 0-2-2 and looking for their first win.  The match will be available live on www.usllive.com for those unable to make it to the stadium. 

There will not be a tailgate for Friday's match but I'm sure there will be a few Regiment members in the parking lot near the East Stand Entrance having a pre-match beverage.  Feel free to join us in E10 and help support the Battery. 

Up the Battery!

Charleston v. Rochester 5-7

On the road again....

The Battery takes to the road again for two more matches this weekend.   Heading to Pittsburgh Friday night to take on the Riverhounds once again and then onto Rochester to take on the Rhinos Saturday night at their home opener.

The boys will head into to Friday feeling like can win the match.  Basically a rematch of the Saturday night, the Battery dominated larger portions of the match and put 17 shots on the stat sheet.  Also adding to their confidence is the fact that Stephen Armstrong should be ready for selection.

Saturday's match is the first meeting between Rochester in Charleston since 2009.  Rochester retained some key players from last year but have been somewhat snake bitten this year winning just one of their first three matches.  Additionally, they have had one match postpone one day (Wilmington) and one cancelled and moved to May 19 (Harrisburg City).  And if they are they least bit superstitious, they won't take comfort knowing that they haven't won a home opener in five season.

On the positive for Rochester, local beat writer, Jeff DiVeronica is reporting that the club has sold more than 5,000 tickets for Saturdays opener. 

Auggie will likely play similar squads as to last week, with the addition of Armstrong and liberal use of substitutes. The Battery will be looking to get some points out of the weekend to at least keep within distance of the Richmond Kickers, who are now 5-0-0 on the season and number one in the National Division.

Friday's match will not be on USLlive but you will be able to listen to the match via 1340am locally and from the link of Charleston Battery website, kick off is at 7:00pm EST.

Saturday's match will be available on USLlive starting at 7:00pm EST.

Charleston to play Portsmouth?

A recent online article in a Portsmouth newspaper Pompey boss Steve Cotterill seems to suggest a pre-season tour of the US with a week-long stop and a match in Charleston and a week in Orlando.


"If it all comes together, we could be based in Orlando and Charleston, a week in each, which would be really good," said Cotterill in the article.  "Hopefully, there will be three games sorted out – one in Charleston, two in Orlando."

Portsmouth are currently sitting in 16th position in the English League Championship (Division 2) table after being relegated from the EPL last season almost certainly a direct result of being docked nine points for financial issues.  The club nearly went into liquidation in October of 2010 but was saved by a last minute deal.

John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood

Charleston currently has the weekend of July 16 free of any match games and club president, Andrew Bell said in an interview on this blog in October that they were interested in bringing over another English team during the summer.

But as of now the Battery are keeping quite.

"We are still looking at several possibilities for a summer exhibition; we enjoyed hosting Bolton Wanderers last July and would love to do something similar again." said Andrew Bell when asked about the potential match.  "At the moment, there is nothing definite planned."


Portsmouth typically brings good traveling support, including the famous John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood.  Westwood, who legally changed his name in 1989, can be recognized by his large stove pipe hat, blue curly wig, more than 60 Portsmouth tattoos and by the sound of his bells at Portsmouth matches around the world.

Pompey are rebuilding since their relegation and financial woes and have a very storied history and strong support.   While not as high profiled as Chelsea or Manchester United, it certainly is a club that would be a good match for the Battery.

New Banner

Remember the "Creating Flags and Banners" article a couple months back?  Well since then we have purchased an old school overhead projector from eBay, created a few designs ideas in Photoshop, had those ideas printed out and finished up a new banner.

We started with four yards of 50/50 material (50% cotton, 50% polyester) bought from a local fabric store.  The width of the fabric is about 44 inch wide but we wanted something wider.  Not being a seamstress, we used an iron-on adhesive strip called Heat n Bond to join the two pieces together making a rough square about 72" high by 88" wide.   It was pretty easy and quick to iron the two piece together.

The fabric was then hung onto a wall with some duct tape and the overhead projector positioned to give us the size we wanted.  As we used a black fabric for the background, we used a silver sharpie to make the outlines.  This process went fairly quickly.

After the outlining process was completed, we took the banner outside and laid it flat on top of a scrap of cardboard, many to protect the driveway from any paint that seeped through during the next step.

Then we started the painting process.  We used 1/2 inch foam brushes to apply the white latex exterior paint.  Working from left to right, top to bottom to minimize drips, putting an arm in a freshly painted area, and knocking over a paint can, it was fairly straight forward.  With two people working one cut-in the outline, while the other covered the larger areas.  Some of the corners of the letters we a bit tricky with the 1/2 inch brush but we found that a white paint pen did a nice job of giving the sharp edges and cleaned up some of the line edges nicely.

He is a cost and time break down.

Cost:

• material - $9.00
• Heat n Bond - $2.50 but only used about a quarter of the roll.
• Paint - $6.50 for a quart of white exterior paint and used maybe a 1/2 inch out of the can
• Brushes - $.50 ea we used 4 

Time:

• joining material - 10 minutes
• outlining design - 10 minutes
• painting - about two man hours, but the cutting in the the letters was time consuming

So in about 2 hours and for a cost of about $14.00 we have a new banner, Defend the 'Baud!  We still want to hem the edge of the banner and add grommets to the the corners and center of the top and bottom but we feel it came out nicely.

Look for more projects coming soon.

Charleston draw at home

Dane Kelly the Jamaican Terror!

After a come from behind win Friday night against the Charlotte Eagles, Charleston failed to find the net in front of the home crowd of 4079 Saturday night drawing 0-0 with  the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.

Both teams were coming off a Friday night match (Pittsburgh was defeated by Wilmington 3-1) but the match looked lively enough.  Charleston had 17 shots on goal.

You can catch the match summaries at either the Battery website and Charleston's Post and Courier newspaper.  You can also see some match photos from the paper here

Coach Anhaeuser rested a few regular starters and gave both J.C. Mack and Jon "J.D" Gruenewald starts in the midfield along.  Both seemed to find space on the wings and both did a good job with crosses.  Mack seemed to be a little eager, taking shots from 30-35 yards out but overall we feel they both did a fine job.

Coleman did well too but should have converted at least one chance he had.

"I just think everyone got a little over-excited, I know I did.  The ball popped up on my ankle and went straight instead of the bend I was looking for." Coleman said in the Post and Courier article.  

Everyone is waiting for the archive on USLlive to see a replay of the questionable offside call on Coleman in the 37 minute.  From E10, he looked onside.

It ended up 0-0 after the 90 minutes and the Riverhounds should be ecstatic they got a point out of the match.

The Battery also did a fine job with the field and all the things going on off the field for the Susan G. Komen fund. More than $10,000 was raised for the charity at the match.  The pink jerseys were auctioned off after the match and many ladies were happy as the players took off their jerseys to hand to the winning bid!

The boys face another back to back series this upcoming weekend, this time both matches are away.  Charleston take on Pittsburgh Friday night and then travel to Rochester to take on the Rhinos.

Armstrong should be ready to start this weekend and his experience on the field will help on the road.

Dykstra looks to be out for a couple more weeks.  We wouldn't be surprised to see some coverage brought in for Wiggins in goal.