Cal Strikes x 2, Playoffs Clinched, Battery 2, Indy one (way ticket home)

A pocket.

A flick from Torres, a.

Touch from Myers, a double, a point and a penalty ending.

Cal Jennings for Jon Battery.

Welcome to Canon Crew and calculated podcast.

Discuss Char.

Your host Granite will be joined by.

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Welcome to the Canon Crew podcast.

I am Granite and I am joined by Patrick.

How are you, Patrick?

What's going on everyone?

Long time.

Yeah, throw up some fireworks for us.

There we go.

Ryan, how are you?

I'm doing fantastic.

How are you?

I'm doing all right.

So we had had Dr. Death come to my door.

It seems like tried to wipe me out.

And during a weekend we had what I call the international break and we missed a couple matches getting on here.

But now we're back.

But life happens sometimes, right?

I'm telling you, just work and all this other stuff.

If somebody wants to throw out a big sponsorship deal so we all three can just do podcasting full time, I'd be more than happy to entertain the idea.

I don't know about you two, but I think it might be kind of fun.

Consider it.

Is there any kind of it's the called less than the ideal Life because I think all three of us have fit right into that.

So Ryan, how's your coaching certificates?

It's going great right now.

I was just given my D license certification.

Our certificate was two days ago, so completed my courses for that.

And then tonight I had my first technical team training session with TSX of Charleston and that was a huge success.

So if there's any teams looking to want to use our expertise and stuff like that, we also give those sessions and record those sessions and then provide that to back to the team and that's very useful for the players to watch them back and always challenging them.

Like tonight we were going after their efforts and like when they saw when they wanted to put the effort in.

So like tonight when I go and send them the videos, right.

They'll get to see themselves right.

When they decided they wanted to put the effort in and then setting that standard.

When, when can you get that?

As soon as you step onto the field or you know what you're trying to get out of it.

So don't follow me around my work unless we can normalize the efforts.

I've always given 100% effort, maybe more.

It might not look at it look like it most of the time.

Patrick, what about you?

Watching myself all day long.

Ridiculous.

I Don't want to do that.

Okay, so let's talk about their favorite team, our second favorite team, our favorite local team, Charleston Battery, and their recent match Saturday night against Indy 11.

What's your general thoughts, Patrick?

I guess we'll just sum it up with one word and that's domination.

Not a real sense of going to falter.

I think in our last five matches we've got four wins and a draw.

So the draw came a couple years ago.

So yeah, not a team super scared of anymore.

And kind of one you can look to get a lot of guys some playing time, which we kind of got to.

And Johnny Klein, Johnny Klein didn't play, but his jerseys were on sale and I will say for $50.

Ryan told me 40 for, for $50.

And what I said, yeah, these, these are good jerseys.

This one's we need, not these sweaty ones that we have to purchase for 85.

So if you're listening out there, battery, you know, maybe put the match jerseys on sale a little bit higher, but it fit Liam very well.

And should I read, should I read what my wife said, Ryan?

Yes.

Yeah, so I'm not gonna read it word for word, but I told her, I said, hey, ask Liam if he wants a jersey, Johnny Klein jersey.

And I said it's only, I said at that point, only $40.

And she basically went along, blah, blah, blah, and says $40 for a match jersey.

What do you do?

Kick puppies.

So we thought that was kind of fun.

So we know Johnny kicked rocks.

So I mean, unfortunately we know that.

Johnny Klein did not kick puppies, not at least not while we witnessed anything.

But his jerseys were on the rack.

And it's a really nice jersey, breathable, everything else.

So Ryan, what is your general thoughts on.

Not on jerseys but on the match?

I thought the match, thought it was, it was an entertaining one at times.

It was definitely frustrating.

I would say for the first 10 to 15 minutes as a fan, expecting goals to be scoring in this one as possession was very one sided and I just felt like it was lackluster in the first half and then we got what we wanted in the second.

That's funny because usually I'm the upbeat one and you guys and especially Patrick is the one a little more critical this time.

I'm the critical one.

I think we played like shit.

But that's just me and Indy come in heavily rotated.

We struggled to score.

We have a keeper that has to let one through every time.

Only five clean sheets on the, on, on the season and we struggled and we're struggling.

How many matches do we have left in the regular season?

11.

Yeah.

And we're struggling.

We should be hitting our stride right about now to go into the playoffs while we're on a, on a plane very well.

I don't think we played that well.

Well, let, let me bring you back real quick.

This means we're playoffs clinched.

So yes, the job is at least the first hard part of the job is completed.

Now it's all about keeping your seed and then going into the playoffs.

So I understand where your frustrations come from.

You don't want a team who's got the playoffs locked up to start letting things slip.

But you do want to see some of your guys who maybe don't get playing time come in and maybe build on some performances and get ready for that playoff push, which is, I mean what are we like a month away?

So yeah, it's pretty crazy.

Like we're there and I think it's great that you can rely on the team already having something locked in that we can start to not necessarily give games away or not put in the effort, but we can heavily rotate.

We can do stuff where give guys breaks who need breaks and not overwork them, overuse them.

But like Juan David coming in in 35 minutes, you know, use them but he doesn't have to start the game.

You don't need that full effort right away.

You can kind of ease in Graham Smith late sub.

You can get some minutes on a guy who hasn't seen the field and just maybe build confidence which is going to be a huge factor going into playoffs.

Yeah, especially had have any injuries at the center back arena because we'll need that.

Yeah, I'm looking at.

We had 60, we had the ball 64 minutes of the 90 and we got some shots on goal.

But the two, the two that we scored, I don't want to say they were lucky but we got a PK and we got one where a defender who was, I think it was his first match for Indy kind of headed a little too high, too much for the keeper and we got lucky on that one.

We're not being the attacking team that we need to be and that's what's concerning me.

I think you take a look at like this game, there was how many opportunities, especially after their goal, we came right back down the field, had what, three clear cut chances.

We're probably should be hitting the back of the net but already winning the game.

It's less of a factor if this was the tie game.

Where we're losing.

Those are huge moments.

But since we were winning and we can look back and we won the game, these are moments that we just need to improve that little bit of a percentage.

We're getting them.

Ikaza looked great.

We're getting these through balls.

Malloy looked great.

Like this is like classic Malloy getting these split passes through the middle of the field, splitting defenders and being able to turn a team.

Those are all aspects that I look at and just like a really positive thing to take from this game.

Everyone looks mentally sharp on what, what they're seeing on the field and not losing possession easily, which was a concern not super long ago.

But I mean again we came right back down the field after getting scored on and, and we still had chances.

I think we should have converted one or two of them.

Yeah, there was an excellent.

We'll talk about a little bit later that we should have converted on.

So back to your, your passing.

It's looking like we had 91% passing accuracy.

That's with 506 passes.

So that's, that's pretty damn good.

I mean usually we're in the 80s, 70s, 80s.

That's, that's getting above that 90% dial market is a big achievement.

I mean they were at 87 passes at 57%.

So Ryan, some of the big talk we did up there was how many fouls were happening against us.

Oh my goodness.

I'm not in favor of what's like I went back and look and looked at it too.

Granted after, after our game and it was the New Mexico game and I want to say it was Monterey who played late night and they were very heavy in the fouls as well.

And the referees are just, I don't know if they're not wanting to show cards early, if they're wanting the players like to play like they're just the pick me up fouls.

You know, you start racking two to three of them up, you get a card quick.

Referee did not want a card at all in these games until it was a series like an actual unicorn offense was given.

So just the repetitive fouls on our players absolutely took a, took a toll on us.

Yeah.

Because we had, we lost two players that we had to sub on for injuries.

And I don't think, I don't know if a card was given either one of those cases.

No, no, no card was given in neither one of our injury.

Yeah, yeah.

Martinez, I don't know.

It's hard to get information on anybody to know how well they're doing or if.

If it was just, you know, just kind of precautionary, take him off.

But we lost Martinez and who else do we lose there?

Kelly.

Kelly took.

He took a shot to the head, did he not?

I can't remember who it was.

That was a head injury.

They pulled him off.

But Kelly is going to be key for us in the future.

Now, one thing I will say is that Cal, when it was time for him to do what he needed to do, he did it.

So what'd you think about the.

The pk?

First off?

Let's talk about the pk, that moment going in there and how it was earned because I think it really was earned.

And looking back at it today, I was like, wow.

I.

From the other end of the field, it's hard to tell.

Watching it in slow motion replay, you could see the whistle should probably been blown a lot earlier than it was.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, this is what MD doing, what he does.

He.

He tries to fight for the ball, he tries to keep it going.

I think this is a good takeaway from the game is we.

I think we've seen him not strong enough in recent performances.

I think the last game him and Cal played together starting was Louisville and we all know what happened there.

So I mean, it's nice to see that he's going in for the ball and he's not just going down while being fouled, but he continues it.

And yeah, I mean, it's a ton.

It was hard to see where I'm sitting because you just see the guy is blocking me.

My view, the defender is blocking md, but it's a pen and it was well earned.

But I think, I think that's a tough situation that Cal gets to take that one because I think MD should get rewarded for his work.

Yeah.

The reason why you couldn't see him because the defender was like twice the size of MD and he was crawling on his back.

So you might have saw some like white socks or whatever color MT was wearing, but that's all you could see because he was just laying all over him and it.

And it was like MD's arms were flailing like trying to get everybody's attention, trying to keep his, you know, stay upright and everything.

And then this guy just plows him over and lands right on top of him.

And still I. I don't think the whistle went immediately after that either because we were all kind of a little confused.

But Ryan, what was your thoughts thoughts on MD's excellent abilities to get into the box?

Because He.

He was about ready to cut inside.

There's nothing short of what I think of him and his standards, of what he has brought to the table.

Since the beginning of last year, he has been this absolute pound for pound fighter in the box for us.

It's just lately, Louisville and a few of the other games, yes, he's been on a cold streak, and now we see him starting to.

Is he getting back into form?

I'm not saying he's been formed.

Is he getting back into form?

Is this a new formation that we're starting to see?

Is this what we're going to develop into going into the postseason?

Like, these are good questions to ask, and it's good seeing that he's still prevalent and prominent in the box.

He's still a dangerous threat, whether he's shooting or he gets the.

Or he gets the vowels drawn.

Both are very threatening.

And, you know, it's.

It's great to see.

Great to see that he wins it and is also great to see his reaction in giving up the ball for Gal to go and shoot.

I don't know if anyone even sees that.

That needs to be studied.

It's like a gynecologist, you know, he just understands what to do around the box.

Yeah.

He's a doctor for a reason.

He's a doctor.

OB gyn.

Yeah.

If you look at some of the stats he had from the other night, he had two shots.

One of them was on target.

His passing was 78%, created one chance and, you know, won a penalty.

And the other notable thing, he says, I don't know what they.

Exactly what they were, but two defensive contributions.

Because he's always, you know, he's kind of playing back.

And we're talking to some people up there that don't necessarily know how he plays and just, you know, like, he's kind of his back to the goal type of beast, and he's going to power in there.

And when people start understanding that, they're like, oh, so he's not one of these guys going to be running in 100 miles an hour.

I said, no, he'll do that, too.

But he's got other, you know, things in his repertoire that he uses.

Yeah, I think his defensive contributions not being memorable are a good thing because we had, what.

Leland with one where he headed it to himself so he could thigh it up in the air and then yell at his entire team like, what are you guys doing?

It's like, come on, man.

Yeah, I thought he was going to juggle there for a While.

Very scary stuff to see from your center back.

Yeah, yeah.

We all meet.

Everyone was scratching their heads.

They're like, wait, Leland, what are we doing?

Well, and I get like, sometimes that ball just pops up.

You can't get to it, so you're trying to head it.

But, like, you got to stay strong on that ball.

Yeah.

You can't let someone come in and just take it from you.

Yeah.

And that's what he thought too, though.

And the reason why he died it, though, was because the ball came down so close, but it was just too close to him.

Yeah.

So what do you do?

Do you hit it?

Do you try to hit it and then all of a sudden it's going down the ground.

Yeah, but he dropped it, so then he immediately had to thigh it.

So, I mean, it went where it went off a thigh.

I think he was just showing off.

He's like, come get this.

Oh, sorry, my bad language.

Yeah, but he said it in a different way to his own teammates.

Like, please, come get this.

Yeah, get it.

Exactly.

Get the off me.

Let's quickly talk about when we were looking down from the supporter section, the old supporter section.

All of a sudden there's people along the fence.

What's up with that?

Remember Ryan, we were talking about that.

It was like they had a little party pad down there, and then all of a sudden there's people right behind the goal, and we're a little perturbed.

Yeah.

It looked like if apparently.

I'm guessing, I have no clue.

But it looks.

Seems to be me that if you are to rent out that private party area on the south stand section that you apparently get to walk.

That whole grass area directly behind the gold now.

Yeah, free reign.

Free reign over there.

The whole private area and the whole grass.

So it's.

You can.

You can definitely stock some people over there.

Maybe we.

Maybe we need to make friends with people down there or just cut a hole in the fence.

Just pop through.

They're probably still cleaning out all the beer cans from.

From everybody's down there.

They're just throwing them in between the bleachers on the ground.

Oh, there's probably still like 6, 7ft of.

Of Heineken cans down there.

Just recycling.

Just cleaning Mother Earth.

Exactly.

Can we rent it out next game and then just charge everybody five bucks to come in and go sit on the grass side?

Yeah, we.

Sure.

Why not?

Like, we rent it out ourselves.

Can we sublease our lease?

Can we sub rent?

Can we assign.

I'll look into that.

I'll Ask him for the contract and take a review of that and figure out how we can.

I know that really strict on selfie sticks.

Not on flags, but on selfie sticks.

So I don't know.

I want to know.

I want to know.

They won't let you throw the cup though, or any horn unless you're with a band.

I guess I'm the law abiding citizen here.

Yes.

You.

Wait for you, the big one.

Come in with baby something or other, you know, pop out like flare.

I think that's just what happens when you just walk by and you say, I'm good.

Scan this.

I like.

You give them the super tired eyes.

With a baby in your, your hands, they just go, all right, whatever.

Well, I think that does help having to have the baby on your arm.

Yeah.

So let's talk.

I want to talk quickly about in the first half.

I think it was first half ball went through Zamudio's mitts because the more, you know, I used to think, hey, just happens with keepers.

But Ryan, you're the one that planned this.

In my head, it's like he's always good for one goal and we're going to start playing teams where one goal is going to make a huge difference.

And first half, he let one go through his hands.

There was nobody blocking him.

It just, I don't know what happened.

And then if you look out, they scored the second goal, their first goal.

I, I need somebody to explain to me what happened.

We need to pull it back up and watch it all together and do an analysis on it.

Because I, I have been saying this since the start of the season.

I, it.

This is why I don't choose clean sheets.

For us to have clean sheets, it's, it's a susceptible thing.

I think he.

I don't know if it's in his head mentality or what, but you just see how he carries himself on the pitch and he's just not with it.

His head is constantly down.

When a ball comes in from a corner, when the ball comes in for a corner.

I am not a keeper.

All I hear is what people talk in gibberish.

And it's always like, if you're going out to get the ball, you better get the ball.

Yes.

Or you get a piece of it.

Where it goes out of danger.

Yeah.

Yep.

And if you can't do that, then don't go out.

Correct.

Ryan.

Ryan, is it like shooting a shotgun?

If you don't commit, you're probably going to be up.

But if you do commit, you're fine.

More so than not.

More so than not.

There you go.

That.

That's it right there.

More so than not.

There you go.

Well, I've watched.

I mean, one weird, you know, so anything can always happen.

But you have to fully commit, because if you don't, then that's.

You get either injured or you get made silly and get an easy goal sword on you because you're kind of no man's land.

Because getting caught in no man's land as a keeper is absolutely embarrassing.

Like time and time and time again, like Louisville, I counted three times.

Got caught in no man's land, like in.

In between of where you should be or where you're wanting to be.

That getting caught in that transitional side is where Zoo is.

Is having a hard time with.

There was one shot, Adam, where he was too far forward and had that person had a little better, little better accuracy, would have scored a goal for him.

It would have been a different game because he wasn't back in the goal.

But this one, he just seemed like he come out to punch it or catch it.

And I don't know if he ran the back of somebody, one of our own players, whatever ends up on the ground.

And that's when he hit the ball.

I feel like this is where you need a keeper with a voice.

Like, we watch so much soccer keepers scream and your teammates know, get out of the way.

He's coming, he's punching, or he's doing something.

And the way that the referees these days protect the keeper first, no matter what happens, it's kind of like, hey, it's a file against you.

Keeper's going for the ball.

Even if it's 50, 50 and they hit, it usually goes to the keeper.

So how do you not just.

I mean, maybe that.

He's just not vocal in my sense.

Like, you should be screaming, claiming that ball, and your center backs or defenders get the out of the way.

Like, it's.

That's mine.

Yeah, it seemed like a really cheap goal to give up.

Let me ask you this.

How many in Louisville felt like a cheap goal?

All of them, frankly.

At least with Louisville, I'm not going to single out just the keeper because the whole team played like shit.

Yeah, I'm not either, but I'm just saying, like, for what?

The shot he is facing at hand.

That is it.

That is it.

It's just the shot at hand.

It's nothing else.

Because you can't.

You can't put anything else on him when it comes to that.

It's Just the shot at hand for Louisville compared to what the shot he had against Indy.

That's the same types of shots he's facing.

And he is getting scored on.

He's either deflecting it in the goal, it's going through his hands, his head.

If you watch him during warmups, his head is constantly down.

I don't know if his mentality, I don't know if he's in a depressed or what, but he's not himself and he needs to raise the intensity because every time I see him during warmups, his head is down and he looks depressed.

I'm going to say this in fairness of him.

That was a well struck ball that not a lot of guys are going to be just getting to.

I'm more upset with that first ball clearing everyone and randomly bouncing off one of their players.

Heads back in.

Like that needs to be dealt with.

This goal shouldn't have happened from that standpoint.

Exactly.

Yeah.

The ball is struck well.

It goes into the corner like it's a tough one to get.

Like Landry's there too.

He jump.

He can't get it.

Like.

Yeah, those are.

Corners are hard to deal with as it is as keepers.

But you know, I'm.

I'm not even necessarily talking about that.

I'm just talking about, you know, him letting the ball go through his hands and luckily it goes out of bounds for a goal kick.

But those types of consistencies in being inconsistent is where I'm getting at across multiple games.

Do you think it's.

Do you think.

Do you think it's a confidence thing?

Yes, 100%.

Yeah, we.

I have not seen him play a game where we have faced against keepers.

I mean, we have faced some tough keepers this year and who have not.

They're not on great teams.

The teams are struggling.

Other teams can have ways and goals with them, but when they play us, when they play us, I swear to you, they have the game of the season.

Yeah, Nick, we all know our defense is.

Our defense is so good that I.

People get limited shots on us.

So even though he's letting one through, it's a, it's a kind of limited shot if they're.

If they're getting a bunch of shot on goal.

I think that's what we saw on with Louisville.

Louisville.

Is it just too many good players in training.

You can't stop any of those like you guys have.

You got Juan David, you got Rodriguez, you got Cal, you got md.

We see the training videos.

They're all just hitting these wonder goals.

In it.

Well, I'm looking.

I look at the little football score, and even though we won, Sao had a 6.3 to Salty on the other side, a 6.8.

So it's.

It's kind of telling.

I think you go down two full points if you let the ball through your hands, if you're allowed to pick it up.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think maybe you should.

Okay, so last one.

The last thing I want to talk about is Juan David come back in, and towards the latter part of the second half, he put a ball in on Rodriguez's forehead.

That was absolutely beautiful.

Was that the one where he.

When he subbed in?

Yeah.

Was it?

Yeah.

They were attacking the supporter section in, and he put up on and just crossed the ball in there.

And Rodriguez, he just.

It just narrowly missed.

But it was beautiful setup.

Everybody's like, oh, what's he doing?

Oh, my goodness.

And then all of a sudden, he heads it and just a little bit wide.

It's.

Well, let me back up first because I want to talk about what Juan Davy come in on a free kick, walks over.

This was the best part.

This was so fun.

Walks over, looks at.

I guess it was Aaron, and he said.

I guess he said, I'm taking a free kick.

I'm like, that's some.

Some cojones come in right off of being nice cold off the bench that I'm gonna take the free kick here.

It wasn't that bad at the.

At the end of it, but.

But back to the.

The cross to Rodriguez.

Say again.

I said he immediately took two steps onto the field.

Said, I'm taking it.

Took two steps back.

I'm talking like two seconds.

So.

But the.

The crossover to Rodriguez, that was.

That would have been a super wonderful goal if it would have finished up right.

And I'm not blaming either one of them because the.

The cross, the.

The service was good.

Rodri.

His header was.

Was nice and sharp.

It was just a little bit wide.

The great thing is he was on the back post by himself.

Nobody even with him.

I don't know why we didn't replicate that over and over.

The vision there is insane.

Like, you're going to pick that guy out.

You're not going to hesitate.

That ball's coming across.

But I also think most of the team had a great night with playing the ball when it needed to be played into the attacking third and not holding it too long or waiting for a defender to kind of challenge them a little extra and maybe lose it.

So I think overall, most of our attacking Players did phenomenal with just, I guess, spatial awareness and getting the ball off their feet quickly, which we've seen too many times with some teams like, yeah, we want to play possession based, but you can't pass the ball around and that counts as a goal.

You still got to get it down there and take a few shots, so.

You gotta have that finish.

Yeah.

Eight passes more, boys.

Well, I, I still don't think we did as well as we should have been able to do, and that's what's got me concerned.

We should have manhandled Indy easily, especially given that I think they rotated out seven other players.

That's the reason why I think, I think they were just sitting back trying to look for a counter or corner or something, a set piece to keep them in the game, and we just couldn't take advantage of that, which concerns me.

Okay, we got a win, though.

We got three points onto this Saturday night coming up and we are playing Oakland roots.

What's your predictions, Ryan?

I was looking at this and Oakland is actually sitting in kind of a different spot over in the west side.

They're sitting, they're sitting 11th right now with two games back from the West.

So this is, this is a huge game for them at home, right?

Isn't it in Oakland?

No, it's in Charleston.

Yeah, home.

Oh, yeah.

No, Charleston.

Charleston taking it?

No, we taking it.

We taking it.

We taking this.

3 1.

What do you think?

Oh, man.

Yeah, they're, they're coming off a loss to Pittsburgh.

So I think anytime a team plays Pittsburgh, you kind of bounce back.

You're pissed.

It's a tough team to, to come out of there with the win and just, it's a gritty team to play against, and I don't think we're going to be as prepared as we should be.

So I'm going to go with the 2, 2 draw.

Damn.

You're not going to take into account any of the, the travel by Oakland having come to the east coast back to back weeks?

No, no, because I think, I mean, we're right after that game, we're on our three week in a row, west coast, out of town, mountain country.

Like, we're, I think we're too focused ahead on that and we're going to let this one get away from us and just, I hope we at least get a point, but, I mean, I hope we win, honestly.

But I don't, I don't think our head's going to be ready for this one.

All right.

I think, yeah, I, I, I Think we're going to be ready.

I think.

I think coaches hopefully straightened up the team a little bit and said, hey, you want to win again?

You went against a really weak team, and we got lucky.

And this time I think they come out for blood.

And so I'm doing two nil.

He's gonna.

The Octopus is gonna get his clean sheet.

Now.

There's a prediction.

Yeah, I'm gonna say our wingers playing absolute stellar with Juan, DB and Rodriguez, one of them scoring and the other one getting Multiple assists and MD scoring.

Oh, MD.

Yeah.

He needs one.

He needs one.

He really.

I mean, he.

I don't say he needs one because he's.

He doesn't lack confidence.

Anytime you see him playing, even he's in the slump, it doesn't seem like he's lacking.

No, it just means that much.

Yeah, he'll get himself right.

This is with that standard of trying to make yourself better than you were the day before and raising yourself to reach that playoff potential.

But not only that playoff potential, because we've been there the last two to three years.

We want that championship now.

We've been to the final.

We've been.

We have now played for three trophy finals now.

You know, played in the Eastern final twice and played in the final.

Losing two out of those three isn't a great feeling.

And that is what we're playing to get back to, right?

Yep.

That's exactly what everybody needs to realize.

So we need to get people, healthy.

Brooklyn out of the playoffs, really, because it makes them three games back now with only, you know, six to play.

I mean, let me.

Let me add this.

The west is only a, what, six points between fifth and 12th place.

Like, you have a team that's going to be hungry.

They're going to come after you and try and get the win.

Bare minimum.

They're going to, if they get a goal, settle down and try and keep.

Make you come at them, foul them.

Probably one of those games that we hate to watch as fans where it's more the referee doing a lot of talking than the players playing.

I mean, it's the same.

We just saw it with Rhode Island.

Rhode Island's in a similar spot.

So they're fighting for points.

They got their win against us.

No, I don't think teams fear us as much as they used to.

They don't look at us as that dominant top force.

I think Louisville's taken that spot from us, and rightfully so, because they've shown why.

But I just think teams don't have that fear coming to play us, they will attack us.

Plus, we're still a top team, so you're going to get everyone's best.

But I don't think anyone sits back and waits for us to make a mistake anymore.

Do you think that opponents that faces now when they come into Patriots point, they laugh at it now?

Ah, I'm just saying the mere fact of like when players used to walk across the pitch, they used to see a actually pretty terrifying cluster of yellow and black flying flags.

A band playing band absolutely jarring on the stands across the field.

Like absolutely hungry with the flare, smoking.

I mean, that's just kind of like dead when you look over on the other side of the field.

Just walking over.

Okay, good.

But I don't want to buy into.

Density from the opponents.

I don't want to go back to your yellow.

Yellow wall thought, but I.

When you put it like that.

Yeah.

They're walking out from under the tunnel.

Backs to all the supporter section.

Yeah.

We need to start a little more ruckus down our supporter section.

There is absolutely zero ruckus.

All the ruckuses behind them, they're getting locked in.

It's like cakewalk.

I am focused.

There's no distractions for them.

You have to distract the moment they step on the field.

And how do you do it?

A freaking black and yellow wall.

May I throw this at you, Ryan?

What do you think of maybe switching the benches?

Why is the home team sitting in front of our fans more often?

So we not have the away team a little closer and warming up down by the.

The end where everyone's sitting where all the flags are, the smoke, the hecklers, everyone, they go warm up by the field of.

By the scoreboard where it's just like no offense, like they're making their money and they're doing these parties.

But it's a lot of kids and a lot of spread out.

Daniel Island, Mount Pleasant.

Mom's talking.

There's no real cycling.

Yeah.

So it's not.

It's not real footy.

It's not them being over there.

Right.

Like.

I absolutely agree with you.

I think the bench is.

It's a good thought.

Or remember how it was last year or the year before?

Because I sure do.

When I was down there on the other end and we used to heckle the crap out of everybody.

And it's not like heckle the crap or whatever.

You were able to talk to the player.

We talk back to you.

You can.

It was so nice listening to how the defenders and goalkeepers Would talk.

And then that's how I would be able to teach some of my players and also get to take them to games and have them just listen and be around that.

And the fact that you.

You completely lost that.

Do you think this, that the stands are going to be back open for playoffs?

Because that's a huge factor.

Like having the people just behind the opponent's net just constantly going and talking and chanting and drumming like.

Right.

I would be really bummed and find it hard to want to go to a playoff game at home if that's the case.

If they don't have it back, I will feel that way.

I mean, because I remember what it used to be.

Battery have posted my picture of me on that south stands numerous times.

It's a phenomenal atmosphere.

And I think especially for playoffs, if they were to bring it back and the fans took to it, I think that's a great opportunity for fans.

Show the Battery that what it actually means to us to have it back, you know?

Well, why not let people just go down there, right?

They don't have to be part of that group.

They could have them walk around, whatever that's that that party platform is, and they can start filling that part of the behind the goal again.

And that's a good thing too.

That's what I was saying.

I was like, shoot, I'll go and rent it out and just start charging people $5 so I can cover for the rental space.

I ain't gonna rent it out.

I see the logistical issue of why it probably went away is not seeing any groups in particular but beers being brought into the stadium through a fence and just handed over.

Not a great look.

Not great for revenue, not great for the whole environment of people being over intoxicated.

So I mean, maybe you just put a solid wall there and then that's the solution.

You just have the security guard who's sitting right there at gate three, just kind of look down towards gate two outside of the fence and make sure that no one's passing stuff over the fence line.

I mean, it's a, it's a straight shot.

It's not like you can't see anything.

Everything's well lit.

If it's not a selfie stick, it's not, it's not important.

I bring in a fucking selfie stick.

I bring in three of them, tuck them in my pants, my socks.

They got to search me, hand search me.

They got to like really just hand search me.

This guy's going out in cuffs.

Yay.

So.

So my Thought was.

So.

Yes, during the match.

But before the match, they used to line up underneath the stands.

Right.

And at one point, Icons, that was asking people, hey, make as much noise as you can when we're standing the stands because it's deafening for down underneath it.

But now they line up back.

Yeah.

So it's a kind of maybe a call to action.

All the supporters in that support section need to stand up and get that top rail while they're lining up and just race some hell with them.

Let them know that they're walking into our house and when they walk out of the stands, then we beat the out of it.

And so they know they can hear that sound when they're going through and they can hear it as they walk out on the pitch.

And then we all shift down.

It probably sounds like Gladiator Stadium.

While you're standing there, you're just hearing the noise in front of you.

I get what you're saying.

Maybe we just have more people down by the ropes too.

Continuing.

But.

Or make them stand, like bring them forward.

Pause them for a second.

Oh, we gotta take a picture.

Yeah.

Talk to him the whole time.

Yeah.

Can we talk about that?

Can we talk about their mothers?

Can we talk about their mothers?

I say for the Oakland game, that's where we do.

We do we take a chance at the Oakland game and.

And try to explore that south end and.

And see what's about.

Or is this what we're gonna have to phone in for?

Some battery answers?

You have to phone a friend for this one, I believe.

Yeah, we had my.

But a couple friends.

I don't know.

We'll see.

We'll see.

Yeah.

Maybe we just take it over.

Maybe get a.

A pro.

A protester pregame.

Go hang a banner that says, please save me.

I'm lonely.

I have a little ripe laugh on me.

Okay, y', all, I am finished for this podcast.

Sounds good.

You guys ready?

We got our predictions out Saturday.

Where are you gonna be?

I have a wedding out of town.

So.

Where are you going, Charlotte?

Good old clt.

Nice.

Okay.

Good place, Charlotte.

Ryan, you gonna be there?

I may.

May not be.

I have a.

My first game of the travel season is against Tormenta FC down in Savannah.

So we have an away game on Saturday.

Damn.

You guys going to have a good time?

I was sick laying in bed and you guys are out traveling, missing matches.

Damn it.

I guess I was in Charlotte.

That was in Charlotte the first Met Rock Hill, but Charlotte the first.

I had some great Colombian food.

So if you want Some Colombian.

Colombian food.

They have some good stuff up there.

I'll let you know where it's Cali something.

It was really good.

Okay.

That's all I got.

And if I don't see you Ryan, Saturday night, then you're lost my game.

31 baby.

Let's go.

Shot fired in and fishing wide.

We are the.

How does it feel to deliver in such a big game in front of a sold out crowd?

Yeah, I mean it's massive to win at home.

You know, we're happy to be back in front of our fans.

We're happy to get a good win, a good result clinch playoffs and I thought a lot of guys had a really good performance today and the effort was fantastic out there.

So we're happy about it.

Can you walk me through your mindset on the penalty camp?

Yeah, you know, MD did a fantastic job drawing the penalty.

I don't know who put him in that position, but that's where we want to be.

And then they're just trusting me to put it away.

So I just got to have the confidence, you know, calm the nerves and happy to do that job for the team.

On the second goal, obviously it was weird.

I don't know if it caught you off guard, what was going through your head.

Being slain in detail.

Yeah.

So we picked up the ball at halfway.

Emilio got it and played a nice little ball in behind the back line and gave him a tough decision and you know, I knew if I could just put some pressure on him, it was going to be difficult for them to head it back to the goalkeeper and had a little luck.

He bounced it over and at that point I'm like, alright, now I got to get a touch on this and you know, make sure it goes in the back of the net.

So I'm happy that the work paid off.

Performance out of the question.

You guys really bounced back from last weekend.

How important was this win in talking about the momentum heading into the rest of the season?

Yeah, I mean as many results as we can put together.

You know, obviously we want to do that and have momentum going into the playoffs.

We know it's still lots of games left and we weren't happy with the result in Rhode island and felt we needed to respond.

So I thought we did that tonight and we'll plan to do that again next weekend.

Lastly, the fans have been behind you guys all season.

Tonight was the biggest crowd that you've had all season.

What does it mean to celebrate?

Obviously two goal games for you and.

Another win in front of some yeah, it's awesome.

You know, these are the environments you want to.

Want to play in front a packed house.

It shows how much the city cares, how much the community cares, and it makes, you know, working hard even easier because we know we want to work hard for them.

Wasn't very good.

You know, fair credit to Indy.

They played their soccer off.

They've had a tough week, travel and three games and, you know, we looked like the.

The team that were not up for it.

So disappointing from that end, but in the end of the day, three points, massive, incredible crowd.

Honored privilege, you know, to have this crowd and play here.

Front office did a tremendous job.

You know, only two or three guys played a complete performance tonight for us, and if you do that, you're going to be on the.

The hook for it at the end of the game.

But, you know, I thought after we scored the penalty kick, we stopped playing.

We just weren't good.

We weren't.

We were selfish.

We weren't focused.

And I get it, you know, a couple injuries in the first 30 minutes and you make subs and you go up two to nothing and foot off the gas, but nowhere near the standard that we need, you know, so it's disappointing.

Just flat out disappointing.

That's the honest assessment.

But I'd rather play crappy and win than, you know, last weekend.

We played really well and lose, so.

But we got to get it right.

We talked about the early substitutions.

How do you think Juan Navy and Emilio stepped up?

You know, they're not warmed up.

They just come in.

How do you think they stepped up?

Yeah, just same as the rest.

Just okay.

Jennings scored twice today.

Steve Mappey is now on top of the golden blue race.

What makes.

Yeah, fair play to Cal.

There was a guy.

Cal worked his socks off tonight, so it's no surprise that he scored two goals.

He's been pissed off that he wasn't selected last game, and that's what he did.

He turned up and ran his socks off.

He ran for the other players around him tonight that didn't want to do the running.

And he got two goals so he could score.

But we got a lot of people that could score.

We got three strikers on this team that are having a goal involvement every.

Every 95.

You know, MD drew the penalty.

That was class.

You know, we needed to do that for 90 minutes, 35 minutes, 38 minutes, or whatever the timing was, and then we stopped.

So, you know, good.

Good for Cal.

Appreciate that.

That was excellent.

He had a good performance.

You know, I thought Jolie, Joey and Leland at the center back were quite solid, I thought.

Otherwise we were just okay.

You guys obviously had a tough result last week.

Kidney pulled one back today.

But you guys still came out with a win after last week too.

Coming out with a win.

What does that say about the resilience?

Yeah, I don't know.

I gotta process that one.

I mean, we covered the kids, scored the same goal on Wednesday.

So we got, we got a man.

Mark him.

He's the best second face player in the league.

Like he can put the ball wherever he wants.

You got to mark him like fair credit to Jack and Sean and Indy.

They, they, they outplayed us, so.

But in the end of the day, like I said, I'd rather play like crap and win.

Sam.