2026 Preseason Begins: New Faces, New Expectations, and the shape of the Battery Part 1

Welcome to Cannon Crew, a weekly podcast discussing the Charleston Battery.

Your host, Granite, will be joined by other defenders of the fleet from the Black and yellow supporters section.

And together they will help fortify and conquer.

They are the Cannon Crew.

Welcome to the Can Crew podcast.

I am joined by Patrick.

How are you, Patrick?

I'm great.

How are you?

I'm doing well.

And joined by Ryan.

Talk to us, Ryan.

Doing good, Granite.

How are you?

I'm doing well.

So this is Our season premiere, 2026, first podcast of the season.

Looking forward to having another good recording and talking about the Charleston Battery.

And do we want to talk about what we've been doing over this over the last couple months or do we just go straight into it?

I think we have to address Ryan's new situation he's got going on.

Ryan, tell us about your new situation.

He got off.

You got off the plane, correct?

Yes, I did.

I did get off.

Now, for those of you in the Charleston area who have not heard yet, but there is a new indoor soccer facility called Soccer 5.

We are a 5 a side indoor facility with three fields to be rented out via youth field pricing.

And then we also have Soccer X membership.

And then we're also getting two new outdoor fields built at the current moment for the summertime.

So walking in there, there's something up in the front, front field.

What's all that fun stuff up there?

So that is our Soccer X field.

Players youth academy of all ages can sign up for a membership or drop in on a daily pass and they can come in and use the passing boards, the shooting wall, the shot clock, the sprint lanes, and then there's also half a field for them to practice their ball skills and everything that they would like to use for a bit.

Cool.

Brand new pitches, nice, nice turf, all caged in.

You have any food problems?

No, no food problems there.

Let's talk.

So I stopped by the other day.

You were not there because you were coming back from coaching.

And one of the young men there let me go out there and look around.

And when I pulled in, first thing noticed was parking was kind of tight, but the signs were not yet.

So if you go there and you go to visit, there's some parking up front, but look to the right and you'll see a big parking lot kind of across the street, cat a corner.

I think that's a great place to park over there.

Signage should be up now, if I remember right.

Yeah, signs.

No signs are up right now.

Yeah.

Okay, so website.

Yeah, website.

You can book a.

You can Rent a field anytime on our website or you can give us a call.

Tomorrow's President's Day, so we'll be open all day.

Open all day for President's Day.

Do you have to dress as presidents?

We should dress as the ex presidents.

Hey, if you're going to slide over, I'd say I suggest that.

Okay.

Very good.

So, Patrick, talking about moving.

Yeah.

Full moves.

I am now on the Charleston commute side.

I don't have the nice little cushy lifestyle I'm used to.

I now have to put on my big boy pants in the morning a little earlier and drive on down into the heart of it.

Yeah.

But, yeah, we bought a new house.

Congratulations on the new job.

Congratulations on the new house.

There's a golf simulator somewhere in your vicinity.

If I remember right, you sent some pictures yesterday.

Today.

Correct.

So Ryan's teaching our youth on artificial turf how to play soccer.

And I am just honing my skills on artificial turf, on hitting the ball straight and longer and faster.

And it's super fun.

So I too, have made a move.

If you haven't seen behind me, my.

My CEO of my podcast company sent me upstairs in the room above to keep me isolated so I don't scream and yell all the time and cause problems.

So I think it's a better position because.

Well, I have to think it's a better position because my wife told me so.

I mean, the CEO told me so.

So let's jump right in.

Right.

Talk about last season, how it finished up.

Well, we talked about it.

You know, we'll talk about what happened a few weeks prior to the season ending and how it kind of just wrapped up for us and for that season for us did not go as the way we wanted it to, of course, but having the players, the death that we thought we were going to have, and then the player injuries that we occurred and the length of those injuries that proceeded to impede on our season, and not having a secondary or some sort of scheme for the playoff run, just it.

We were scared two to three weeks out going into the playoffs, like, worried them what could happen.

And it's exactly what we saw.

Which, you know, seeing that happen, it kind of just leaves a sour taste going into the off season.

Yeah.

Cause we talked about it quite a bit, about how we weren't playing a top form.

Is it better to go in players rested or playing at your top form?

Some players were getting a little rest.

We weren't playing that well.

And I don't know if that's just A combination of the two.

Yeah.

It's tough to rollout injuries having a bigger impact than what they did.

When you just look at our form for the few games prior to postseason and we didn't tactically change anything, we didn't try anything new, we didn't move anyone around.

We kind of showed anyone who could be our potential matchup in the first round what we're going to do and I feel like that was the difference.

We played Rhode island, they came out, we weren't a threat at all to score in that game.

And we end up going to penalty kicks, which seeing our keeper at that time wasn't the best at making saves and especially not in a shootout which we touched on on one of our last pods.

So yeah, I just feel like the tactics weren't there.

We didn't, we didn't fully attempt to knowing that we had the two seed locked up.

Go out there and move some parts around, see if something else would work and see who would come out of their shell as an X factor, who would maybe change the game.

We all just kind of sat back, held our breath as if we were the lower seated team and just wait for pks.

Yeah.

And I, I didn't want to go to pks.

And we talked about that.

And then the stadium set up.

Shame on the Battery leadership for making that end that we ended up taking PKS at to be the quiet zone down there, if I remember correctly.

I get that.

Another reason.

But again, that kind of.

It's almost like the officials for the USL did that to the Battery to say there's a reason why you shouldn't have removed those stands.

Because in my opinion as a fan, there wasn't.

I understand that there was pricing, there's.

There's the money issue.

Right.

And being able to afford it.

And that stadium's not necessarily theirs, but have like a different type of push rather than completely removing it.

Because if you look at the big games, you look at all the, A lot of the pictures that the Battery have posted in the last couple months, years or whatever are pictures from that sideline or pictures from those stands with people and everything celebrating.

They took a lot of.

I felt like a lot of the fan atmosphere went last year when that went out.

It definitely impacted the game because it made it easier to hear the players, made the players feel at ease.

They didn't feel scrutinized easier.

They didn't feel under pressure by fans literally right on top of them.

Whereas it's a disadvantage where we go to other stadiums and we're proven to that pressure.

It's not like the USL came in and put a.

And put a new rule in saying it.

No, we just got rid of it like.

And, and I think you, you can still, you can still stand back there and see over the boards.

So there's no reason why you don't have to have the stance.

It's like, it's like try, try to come up with a new creative way to bring that back.

I think that will actually play on both sides for the battery, benefiting both the.

Not only the fans but also the players.

Look at how he ca on the 2024 run.

Look at how he acted every game, every homie.

How he acted.

Well, the other change, other change I think I would have done is is sub Zamudio out and put CG in there.

But we'll talk about Christian Gardner here in a minute because I think he's, he's stops things.

Yeah.

I think just to tack onto that, this is a huge issue for a club that doesn't own their own space.

Like we see of a lot of right clubs in the USL championship who sign these deals with the city are in bigger cities that are so soccer forward that they're able to generate sold out crowds and revenues.

It's not a family Friday night to take the kids.

Just to get the kids out of your hair like.

And we'll talk about it in future pod.

But we're going to be moving in the correct direction from here on out.

So these aren't going to be issues.

Yeah, but it's something that I believe.

Absolutely.

Like you said, Ryan hinders us and it takes away part of our identity when it comes to our team hosting a game.

Like we should have a pec stadium, not just on three fourths of the stadium.

Correct.

So let's talk about.

We talked about some of the stands there.

Talked about how we didn't finish like we wanted to finish.

And let's move into talking about what the front office decided to fix.

And part of that is discussing what we lost.

Well, let's.

Granite.

Before we move to that, can we at least agree last season, as disappointing as it is, was a club record for wins, which that in itself should be celebrated.

We weren't this distressed team.

We did have death and injuries played a part at the end.

At the end.

Right.

But for the majority of the season we had injuries and we covered it and we were fine.

We moved forward.

Louisville was on another planet.

So I don't think anyone was ever going to touch Them But a club record 19 wins is incredible for a team that just lost their main striker, was on the outs with their second main attacking threat and then our third abandoned tacky threat who was going to be our main one going in.

Had to take a backseat for another guy that we signed.

So just kudos to the team for breaking that record, proving a club is bigger than a player and that we can go and set a new record.

Not just the Nick Marcanic records but we can go set a new club record of wins.

Club worker and I think it's.

I think it's key.

You're right.

Because it was a team record, not just an individual.

Which is how you just said that is.

Is, you know, one of the main factors of why Ben Pearman got a contract extension again.

You know, a lot of people were like is this the coach to go and win us the championship?

Right.

Some people can kind of view this past season as it was a failure or it was still successful but they're still as even though it didn't end the way we wanted to.

First round playoffs knocked out by Rhode island and Pence again.

You just said we had a record win season that we've never had before.

Since he's been with this team for the last three to four seasons now he has nothing but improved this team in some way.

Right.

And three to four years in and he's improving the total win column.

I think this year he.

He's got to put a young team together to establish the next record he's going to achieve.

I think there's.

There's always going to be a record he's chasing each year.

But the thing I've noticed with him is that each year is something different and it add lipizazz.

I don't know.

He come in a couple years ago with a core group, Aaron Malloy in that group and he kind of stuck with him.

We added here and there and got to a level where we're winning and going to playoffs and performing very well.

And so maybe now it's just.

It's time maybe views it's time to make a change.

Yep.

See the highest point turnaround then you had the most points at home or it was something like that last year and then this past season it was most wins in the season.

So.

And that we're doing all right.

We're doing better a lot than Tampa Bay.

That's you know.

But anyways, I need to get seconds.

It's okay.

Yeah.

So now are we ready to talk about some of the changes, some of the people had left the team.

Start off with somebody that.

That did us a favor and jumped on a podcast with us.

Christian Gardner, keeper extraordinaire.

I think he's.

His time here was not as appreciated by.

I think by the coaching staff is that I have enjoyed watching him play.

He's a shot stopper.

He stopped a couple PKs where other keepers couldn't.

And I think he could have been sorely needed at our last, you know, the playoff PKs at Rhode Island.

Now, granted, this was one of these people that we were fortunate enough to not only get to meet in person and do an interview with, but we got to take a, you know, closer look at who he.

Not only who he is as a person, but his entire career and his journey.

And how would you not fall in love with a player in a story like that?

Not only that, his ability in the net led me to believe, like, okay, what is truly separating between him and our first ring?

The only thing I could truly think of was maybe it was the confidence and composure when it came to being vocal and saying a few things.

Came to penalty kicks, it came to shot stopping, and it came to keeping the ball out of the net between the sticks.

I'm choosing CG all day long.

And we, we saw the one game where he had a pen save.

He had two one on one saves and kept a clean sheet.

I think that was one of the first clean sheets we had on the year and he didn't play until October.

Yep.

So we talked about how we need to keep clean sheets and hopefully we improve this year.

Yeah, Gonna miss him.

I think he's still.

Right.

I saw that he was, he was at one of the practice sessions or something like that.

So hopefully he's still hanging out in Charleston.

We can meet up with him again.

He's still got a little bit longer release.

He's gotta.

He's gonna.

Okay, well, cg, if you're out there, we'd love to hear from you again.

Yes.

Patrick, you want to talk about Aaron Malloy, talking about a huge loss to the midfield or maybe not.

No, this is, this is it.

I mean, this is our captain.

This is who Ben Pearman builds his teams around.

And he is the only factor you don't have to worry about.

You don't have to worry about his playing time, his injuries.

He's going to get out there.

Defensive work, attacking work.

He is the engine that drove the battery.

We talk about those 19 wins.

We wouldn't have any of them without this guy.

On the pitch, you can talk about defenders, you can talk about attackers, but without this guy running the entire team, we don't touch that.

So this is the biggest loss and I feel like this is going to be where the team is going to struggle and fans will struggle with the new identity of the team we're going to go forward with.

Is missing this huge link.

He was great in the community.

He was just the battery through and through.

And this wasn't a guy that we didn't renew a contract.

We didn't want to have a negotiation.

We kind of got hung up.

He had a release clause.

It was met and that's what they're there for.

The club said it as, hey, if you guys meet this, it's fine.

It was met.

And I think there's no love lost on either side.

You want players to go and chase their heart.

He obviously had the option to decline the move, but good for him.

Go on to great things and it's going to be the biggest piece of our puzzle as we go through these players that we're going to be missing.

Yeah, I agree with you because he was the engine.

He was the heart of the team there in the midfield and when you put him and Chris Allen together, they were just almost unstoppable.

So, Ryan, any thoughts on Aaron?

I'm gonna miss watching the the ball master, not just the ball mastery with his skills on the ball, but watching his vision and watching the knowledge and IQ that he has to move two to three plays ahead of time and deceive the the opposition when it came, especially when it came to his worldview of free kicks, when it came to sending the balls nd and Cal and then getting himself into the right positions, top of the box every time.

And then as Pat said, too defensively, he was just an absolute workhorse on both ends of the field.

That is going to be an absolute piece that you can't really fix or replace.

But that also comes in with finding new identity in a team.

And as we mentioned before, I think for this team to be very successful this year, it's going to have to be a young team that Ben can build like Ben is going to build a young team.

And it's going to surprise everyone how well they're going to do this year.

And that's what's going to kick these fans up, like keep their moods up and everything because that's going to create longevity, hopefully, if they're sticking around.

Yeah, I think if we can look at one silver lining is a player who is coming off of two very high seasons back to back and his, his value as a player isn't higher.

Probably you we don't have a way of knowing he's going to be the same player next year.

He's 29 so he's getting up there as fan base.

You can at least understand that this cash in helps us rebuild a squad because he's.

He would be a main piece.

He is a big chunk of that financial burden but this also allows us to build the rest of the squad out.

So it's kind of that double edged sword.

Yes we're going to miss him but he is aging and it's going to be a player that financially helps rebuild the club without having to just dump a ton of money in and guess

right like you know for temporary fix you would have like players like Itaza and and Landry like be as your two new sixes to kind of like replace that boyfriend right now until you can get those new replacements in and build that new system.

Maybe you switch formations.

We'll talk about that a little bit about you know how we fix whatever big holes we're leaving and Aaron's a big loss.

We also lost some other people in the midfield.

I think it's going to hurt us a little bit.

Talk about Arturo.

Yeah, I mean Arturo is a huge playmaker.

He I think this is one we'll miss a little less because he had his hit or miss games.

He the first year struggled to find that split time with Juan David as Markhanna kind of locked up that right side.

Him and Juan David split the left side this past season as it was all on him.

I don't think he found the consistency enough for us to say let's go ahead and move forward with this player instead of let's move younger and take some more chances.

He's not, he's not the guy that we can 100% every game get what we want to get out of him.

So it's a loss but it reminds me of like the Jake La Cava loss.

It's a guy who was a peace player and he had his chance to prove it and kind of didn't prove it enough to keep his spot.

I think in my opinion the battery may have gone a little wrong with Arturo a season or two ago when they released Gutierrez rather than letting go Arturo.

I think goody we chose Arturo over Gutierrez and I think Gutierrez may have been the better choice to have gone with for both players careers and kind of like looking at how it has Turned out now not just for Arturo, where he's, you know, now departing.

Not really.

He has declined.

And how Gutierrez is.

I feel like if, you know, roles were reversed, I felt like Gutierrez could have done.

Had a better career here and Arturo would have been more successful if he had departed sooner.

What about.

What about.

What about another player?

What about another player we lost.

That was a big hole that I, I firmly believe lost us in the.

Going beyond where we did in the playoffs and that's Juan David.

But we could.

What we kind of.

We were already preparing for this.

Right?

Like, are you.

Are we really shocked?

I wasn't preparing for.

I wasn't preparing for it.

I mean, but we knew he was gone once Louisville, like what, three weeks after Louisville.

We knew in our form dipped massively after that match.

Yes.

Oh, I'm not going to die.

That.

But again, it goes into what you both just said earlier.

We did a great job this year showing the fan base that this is a club that's bigger than just one person.

I, I think you hit the nail on the head there.

This is a guy who, unbeknownst to any of us, we don't know what's going on in that locker room with him, but there's clearly a issue that's with him in the coaching staff because he was sitting behind me in the playoffs in the stands.

That is.

I mean, that should be a telltale sign there's something really happening with him.

I'm not thumbs up.

Do that again.

Patrick.

So not thumbs up in that.

I'm thumbs downing that.

So for all you that.

That are not watching us and listening, Patrick has this nice little hand gesture set up to where he can make bubbles that do things.

When his hands give a thumbs up, it gives a nice little thumbs up bubble.

You're making me sound tech savvy.

I don't know how to turn it off.

So it's just there.

And I very much talk of my hands, but just from a.

From a perspective.

He's still under contract, so he goes out on a loan transfer per se.

So I think if you're doing a full rebuild, we'll get into it.

But it's like 15 guys are leaving from our previous squad.

Yep.

A full rebuild.

So you kind of.

It reminds me as an Arsenal fan of the Obama Yang situation, if you have a guy who's not going to buy in and maybe not be a helpful leader to your younger guys, show

up late to matches.

They're very important.

Yeah.

You need to say, all right, then we're just going to be done.

Like, I wish we could have worked it out, but it's not going to work for us.

And that situation.

I think he went downhill too, wherever he went.

But anyways, so that's kind of our midfield.

Real quick.

Hold on.

Pat mentioned something real quick.

Do we gain or retain an international spot with one David going on loan now because he.

He takes an international spot on our roster.

Right.

So with us sending him on loan, are we able to bring in another international guy?

I don't know.

I. I would think Aaron Malloy did that too, because he's.

Yeah, he's Irish.

Right?

Yeah.

Okay.

This is curious.

So let's.

We definitely clear up a spot with Ruben, who's in El Paso now.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Let's move on to Rubin.

Did he.

Was it a loss?

Was it a detrimental loss?

We did miss some of his headers because he did a fantastic job putting the back net whenever he put on his head.

That was about it.

I think he added some value to some of our youth in the club and kind of showed fans in the Charleston area how to properly use a head.

The other cool thing was there was.

There was fans.

Yeah, I like that.

There's fans.

All sudden you started seeing Guatemalan jerseys, which was pretty cool too.

Honestly, I'm a huge fan.

I'm going to need to get one sometime.

I kind of like them like the light blue ones.

They're really nice.

And what.

Maybe the Battery should.

Whatever players, whatever nationality are.

Maybe they should sell their nationality jerseys there in the.

In their little kit area.

I guess he's a little bit different because he was actual international player.

Yeah.

I think his international break when he came back changed everything and he was getting these goals, but he still wasn't that guy.

And he doesn't fit into Pyramid's playstyle play.

He's not a big cross the ball 50 times.

Like we had guys that did that.

But it was when we weren't playing our big center forwards in and then the times we did have them in, we would just try and Tiki Taka around.

So I think he was another aging player.

He brought experience, but I think just personally we need to look at this team of the guys we're losing or had lost as the Battery.

Putting all the chips into the center of the table and being like, either we win it or we don't.

Probably won't retain half you.

And maybe that's the conversation with most of these guys last year of, we're bringing you in.

We want to win a Championship in the way they looked at it.

And then after that we'll assess.

Well, when you go out in the first round, you're not really assessing with these guys.

You're going to clean house.

Yeah.

Another aging player that left us is.

But he had a huge impact for our team is Cal James.

This, this one I'm surprised with.

Yeah, I really think a second year in this system, he would be amazing.

Phenomenal.

The guy that is like, yes, he's going to break the goal scoring record.

I don't understand this one personally, but again,

I think it had to do with money.

I think it had to deal with money.

And honestly, quite frankly, you look at who we'll get into, who we're starting to go after right now in the off season, but you're starting to look at who we're going after from the College cup series.

And for those who haven't, I highly suggest going and just watching the highlight tapes, watching NC State make the beautiful run, watching Washington and everything.

And there's a lot of key players who are currently being signed right now for.

From that College cup in usl.

And I, I believe Charleston's actually trying to sign.

We've signed two of them looking to sign potentially some more.

So you're guaranteeing those types of players then those, those big minutes rather than telling them they're going to be sitting the bench behind Cal.

And then you're also able to then free up money because you're not really paying them.

I wouldn't say you're paying them like they're getting paid, but they're not getting paid like Cal money.

And you're able to then spread that money elsewhere.

Yeah, I mean he.

Cal's off to Japan.

I think he's in J2 or J3, so it's not like he's in the first division.

But I understand what you're saying.

I mean he, he was almost 30 years old as well, right?

Or just over 30.

Yeah, I think that was his.

And this is his first time playing out of the country too, right.

For Cal.

Yeah.

So I think was like a.

Was like a career thing.

I think he wanted.

We mentioned he's going to Japan.

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

I mean.

Yeah, it suits his style, I'll say.

Yeah, I think he's gonna enjoy it over there.

Yeah.

I have a beer here and I was trying to see if it was actually where it was from, but anyways, so let's talk about.

We talk about Cal a little bit.

Let's talk about Marky Mark Segbers.

That was kind of surprised player right there.

Yeah.

And he was, he was dropping off a lot and I don't know if it's due to injuries or just what it was, but he's dropped off to USL one side.

Oh, that's best human.

Best human.

Say again, Ryan.

I said that was one of his former clubs.

That's where he came from.

So going back to home roots and again, just one of those players that I'm not surprised for him going back to a club that he showed absolute nothing but love and gratitude and the club just, just shared and the community shared that with them as well.

Amazing person.

Wish him nothing but the best and I'm excited to see him continue to play in USL 1 and make some, make some surprises.

And the other one talk about went down to USL one is vgo.

This one has to do with minutes.

There's nothing around here that he can, he can play with.

Um, I don't think I'm going to Greenville.

I mean he.

Did he go to Greenville last year on loan that we sent him over there?

I think he went to Greenville, did he not?

Yeah, I thought we sent him over to Greenville and you know, trying to help them get up and out.

I think selling him was the right move.

If the Battery is not going to finally establish an academy, if they're not going to establish like an academy.

By what I mean by academy, I'll define it.

I mean like a U23 team, like a second battery team to where they can go and compete in USL2, where they're competing against Birmingham Legion 2 and all the other USL2 team, like Loudoun county, like almost every USL championship team now has a second team because they're trying to grow the programs, they're trying to foster and send players overseas.

Like Orange County.

Orange county has a system from U6 all the way to U5, 23s and then their protein.

I mean once you're able to establish that, it's.

It's amazing.

But again, not every area is like that and not every market is like that.

But I do see with the World cup and how soccer has been booming in Charleston lately, looking at the new facility I'm currently in myself, I. I don't think it's out of the question in the next three to five years.

Yeah, I think this is just a timing issue.

If we're three to five years down the road and Academy's here, you have these guys who are able to get minutes or go out on loan and we retain them as A parent club.

It's a whole different scenario.

The structure is just not set yet.

And especially with the club situation with stadium and sharing it, not building their own thing.

It's kind of where you're going to lose these young guys because they need playtime.

And if you're a club anticipating going in and winning a championship every year, well, sometimes you're not going to be able to play these 18 year olds and it's just a fact of life.

Like you're going to play your best squad.

I know you want to get minutes as a young guy.

I want you to grow.

But like you said Ryan, it's just the timing right now, isn't there?

But in three years, hey, we'll have a different team that we can go and have an academy where we get these guys playing other academy games.

You know the under 21 games are like if people are familiar, the Premier League 2.

So it's all the under 21s and a couple senior players working back from injury which will help the first team too.

Another young player is Zeke.

He left.

Do we know where he went?

Another one.

I think he's homeless right now.

Him and Jackson Conway.

I forgot to also mention too the goalkeeper Maury.

Congrats to him signing with the in the Peruvian division.

So our USL Academy goalkeeper third.

He was our third keeper last year.

He is now going down to Peru to play for professional soccer.

So congrats to him as well.

Big things there.

Again just another player, young player and it's just isn't going to get minutes here per se because of timing.

I honestly could leave.

We could have had a starting 11 for this USL 2 team right at like to start this season.

If we takes money, we got to

put more butts and seats.

I know it takes money and everything.

I'm just saying like the, the talent that we have to at our disposal and then we're just having to then sell them because we're not able to provide them and really utilize them in a system.

Yeah.

Do you think.

Do you think it takes a lot of money or is it the owner putting his entire life on red or black?

Is that enough?

I think, I think it's red or black.

Black or yellow or one of the two.

I don't know.

Let's.

Let's get some wins in first, right?

Let's talk about two players went to the same, same destination.

Johnny Klein and Wesley Leggett.

Johnny doesn't surprise me.

Yeah, we saw that one coming.

Wesley does.

Wesley really surprised me because we went after him mid season.

He was a surprise sign.

Well late mid to late.

He was a very surprise signing being a forward and everything.

And then with our off season kicking off how it did with the immediate dismissal of MD Miners and California, it left that hole there wide open for Wesley.

I didn't see why he wouldn't be the fit.

I think when he.

I thought when he played for the Battery I thought he played really well.

I thought he was very strong.

I thought he had a lot of potential and I was kind of excited that we signed him.

Well maybe.

Maybe we'll see when.

When we talk about how we're gonna.

Our system may change and stuff like that in future podcasts maybe we'll.

Maybe we'll better understand that.

Talking about Peru Juan Davy.

That's all I gotta say.

Yep.

That's all we gotta say about it.

I'm gonna miss him.

Gonna miss him.

Looks like on Instagram he's having a good time down there.

He'll enjoy the refs down there.

He'll have a great time.

He'll be fine.

And then the last see him pop up on ESPN every now and then.

Yeah.

ESPN top 10.

Did we miss anybody?

I think there's everybody's left.

Right.

Well you got Tampa coming in

a big club trying to take our whole team.

The Tampa Bay as a note was just sent to me.

Tampa Bay have made a huge swoop for our guys who they.

Who they catch up in their big swoop.

I scared the news article that the Tampa Bay Battery had signed ND Myers captain Leland Archer and Nathan Dos Santos Nate.

So that one was a very.

That one was.

Honestly I thought they were going to give.

I thought Nate was going to have another season.

So Granite.

Granite and I were talking about this and I don't think that was the one where we're really surprised because he wasn't supposed to be the starter.

Yeah.

And somehow ended up in that role.

Some injuries and he ended up in the right place, right time and towards the end of the season he was.

He was hurting.

I think.

I think we need some stronger backs and.

And you can see the.

The writing on the wall.

I. I could at least with coach Pierman what he expected from.

From backs.

So I, I can't believe these guys want to go and play and just like go to Florida and retire and not win anything.

I'm gonna ask you do you guys think that this is a retirement party?

I don't know.

You know what their ages I'm looking

at snowed down two years in a row.

And I bet Leland said, I'm out of here.

The hell with this.

How far south can I go?

Florida.

Great.

Flights are probably cheaper back home.

I mean, it's just.

Yeah, he does get the direct flag now.

It's true.

Direct flag now.

So.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

So we.

We lost Nate and we lost Leland down there.

Leland has been a stalwart for the Battery for years, and just what an outstanding captain, leadership and everything else.

And losing him just hurts more than just losing a.

A key, pivotal, incredible player, but also such a leader in the team.

Again, I think this one is injuries, like all.

A lot of these guys had some major time off the field, and you would think Charleston's the perfect place to fall in love with the city and stay, but I think too much time thinking and seeing.

Should I make the move?

I mean, he's been here the whole time.

He's an amazing player.

Our rock.

Like, this is crazy, but both of our captains are gone now.

Mm.

And it wasn't like, hey, we split captain seat.

No.

1 of the two is going to be the captain every game, him and Malloy.

So a little surprising, but the way we had Joey play last year, you can kind of see that shift of the confidence build so high, that kind of turning of the leaf.

The new, new era might begin here soon with an aging Leland.

Agree.

Yeah.

And you don't know what their career progression, what they have in their mind, where do they want to end up and everything.

So maybe they want to be at the, you know, the USL home office and then down in Tampa.

Right there.

Yep.

I'll.

I'll ask you guys.

Is it a little surprising that we couldn't retain.

Let's just take Cal out of it, because going to Japan is a huge move, and obviously that's probably something he's wanted, but is it a little crazy to think we wouldn't retain MD or.

Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Artero.

Ryan, do you have your crying towel out?

We're talking about the doctor leaving.

Are you trying to get me to cry?

Yeah, pretty much.

That just boosts ratings when you have host crying about a pilot player leaving.

I had to.

Honestly.

Hard to cry for someone who you constantly, you know, cheered for and, you know, he just left.

And I felt a little betrayed when he left like that.

And he came in, had the spark, everything.

He was a great guy.

Yeah.

I'm just very disappointed.

And honestly, I believe looking at the games that we have coming up, when we play the batter or we play The.

I'm sorry, the.

The freaking.

What are they?

Tampa Bay Battery.

Now, we played them the three times this upcoming year.

Because don't you forget, we played them three times.

Now, you play two times regular season, then you play in the Jaeger Meister cup, and then we could play him in the US Open.

I mean, we could play him other times, too.

I think it's like six times we can play him.

I want to beat him six times.

I want to shut out Joey on him.

Joey ain't letting him turn.

I'm not saying.

I'm not saying anything.

I'm just saying Joe's not gonna let him turn.

That's it.

That's what I'm saying.

Look, Gr.

You know what to do.

I don't.

I don't know.

I don't know what's going on.

Yeah, it's kind of crazy because I would think he would be, for him, trying to break through from MLS all the way to his journey to the Battery in just like mls.

Next pro on top score.

All right, I go to the Battery.

All right, I get outshone by this young kid.

All right, the next season.

Damn it.

Cal Jennings is here.

Yeah.

Everything's gone.

You would think he would be like, all right, hell, yeah, I'm going to be the centerpiece.

I'm that guy.

I've shown it.

I put in my dues.

No, I mean, honestly, he could go to Tampa.

Because I started looking around Charleston Medical and started realizing, wow, he's not a real doctor.

Well, no, I started realizing.

Well, sort of realizing how crazy good Charleston Medical is and that, you know, maybe going to Tampa is where he could get a job and, you know, in the doc, in the.

In that field.

But he's not a doctor like that.

He's like a.

He got.

Got.

He.

They found out his.

His license wasn't real.

Possibly.

Give me that stethoscope.

I don't know what you think you're doing with that.

Did you try kicking it really hard?

Yeah, well, I wasn't a big fan of MD anyways.

I. I just.

I just humored Brian because I know he liked him.

I thought MD Was never part of our system.

That was going to work out.

Well.

He scored some goals, and he was a good poacher type guy, and he.

I don't think he was what we needed.

No.

And anybody else that we lost that we should cry over.

That's it.

No, I'm done crying.

I'm ready to.

No, you went from love to hate.

I mean, this.

The very strong Emotions.

You went from I love EMD to like, I hate you, you bastard.

That's the power of this sport.

That's what fuels this.

The love, the passion for this sport.

That make you want to keep coming back.

Because guess what?

I'm.

Now I just locked myself into watching the next six matches between the Battery and the Rowdies.

I already said it here, so there you go.

They just made money off that.

Okay, we've been going at it for about 45 minutes.

We were trying.

I had a dream that we'd get this all into one podcast.

I don't think we will.

So we'll call this one part one of preseason 2026.

And when we come back for our next podcast after this, we will be talking about what the team's gonna look like.

Some people we added on, as somebody pointed out astutely, like, we've got rid of so many players.

Could we field a team without adding more?

No, we can't.

We cleaned the bench.

We're going to have to call some of our ex playing coaching staff back onto the pitch.

So anyways, so let's close it out for this podcast and we'll come up with section two, or whatever we want to call it, title it and.

Good to be back.

Good to see you guys.

Yeah, looking forward to it.

I get excited for the season, but I don't know.

I mean, we do this every year and at least we had a little more of a vision last year going into it of like, okay, these guys.

And this year I feel like it's like all of us, it's just huge changes all around.

Well, I think.

I think our vision is.

Is greater this year than it was last year.

Now the batteries, I don't know, but ours.

We have great vision.

Do we?

No.

I don't know what Pat's more nervous about, the battery's vision or his vision getting the turf installed in its back.

He's got it.

He's got it.

Yeah.

What the issue is is now you just want to turf everything.

Everything except.

Except Patrick.

The problem with turf and everything is if you have a spaghetti dinner, it raises hell with turf.

I eat spaghetti all the time on turf.

If you have a dog,

we need to have Ryan on the start of part two.

Explain spaghetti cake to everybody.

Spaghetti gate.

Okay, until.

Until we talk about spaghetti gate.

Catch you all later.

We are the.

We are the battle race

Bad.