Join the Cannon Crue as we laugh at Tampa Bay as Cal Jennings shows his former team that he is a force to be respected.
[00:00:14] Welcome to Cannon Crue, 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 Crue. Welcome to the Cannon Crue podcast. I'm Granite, and I'm joined by Ryan. How are you, Ryan? Good. How are you, Granite? I'm doing well. Patrick, how are you?
[00:00:44] Doing pretty well. How about yourself? Hey, we're doing fantastic because we just picked up a sponsor. It's called Right Here, Right Here, Right Here. That was kind of fun. Cal Jennings, thank you very much for that entertainment. So what did you think of that, Ryan? As a keeper? Cojones? I think it was fantastic, and I think it's a great way to get back after your club. An old club that you've given so much for, and they decided not to bring you back because of your age.
[00:01:15] You know, he's got a lot to prove, and he wants to win championships, and that's why we brought him here to the battery. We know that the heated rivalry, we are excited for this game to come up, and especially at the fact that we have another game at home against Tampa later this season, and that game will be in the Jรคgermeister Cup. So we'll get to face Tampa three, maybe a couple more times this season. So, exciting.
[00:01:42] You mean right here? The key? Right here? In Charleston? Hey, it could be more good. Right here, right here. Right here, right now. So Patrick, what did you think of that silliness, that funness?
[00:01:55] That's what makes football amazing. It added one more element to a rivalry that we weren't expecting, but I love it. That's exactly what you want. You want a player talking shit to his old team, a keeper trying to be the best of him on a PK, and he hits it where he tells him to, and he just beats him.
[00:02:16] He beats him. I mean, that's the best part. It wasn't like he went the other way. It was like, okay, I'll take you on. My cojones are larger than your cojones, and I put it in the back of the net. And then, yeah, stand there after, and I don't know if you see this guy, but just be pointing at it. Oh, that's fantastic.
[00:02:37] And then the little scrum that happened after wasn't much of anything because the keeper was smiling. He knew, like, I mean, this is all, it's not fun in games because it's a real game, but it was kind of a little fun getting that little chit chat back and forth and then seeing the video again and again and again adds to it. Yeah, you know, maybe if he didn't make that PK, it might be a little bit different from our side, but he did, and so it doesn't matter.
[00:03:07] That put us up 1-0. So we're here to talk about Charleston Battery, latest victory over Tampa Bay, and we beat them 2-1. The scoring line doesn't really tell the whole story because I think we played a lot better than Tampa Bay, and we did a pretty good job this time. What do you think, Ryan?
[00:03:30] Yeah, no, I think we did fantastic, and especially working with players coming off the bench, getting them some minutes in early, working with their substitutions. I thought we did great. I thought we came out with a much better lineup. You know, we see Akaza in there. We still see, you know, am I pronouncing right Houdini? No, you're not, but let's go with Laundry. All right. Yeah. Laundry.
[00:04:00] Out wide in the back. I think it's Landry. That's, you know, Landry's a midfielder, so we want to, and he continues to, we continue to slide and pivot him to where we have three in the back. Exposing the outside back, and that's the thing we talked about last game. I think that's something that Tampa didn't do well in exposing against us, and we continue to press them the whole time. I love them.
[00:04:29] You Manny Myers got back in the game. Yes, exactly. Patrick, what do you think, overall thoughts on the match? I think we came out as a squad that watched some film, and we attacked where we needed to attack. We got Tampa Bay to suck into us to wherever the ball was, and we didn't hesitate. We pushed the ball to the open man right away, and we had five to ten yards of space every single time.
[00:04:56] I thought we exploited that really well, especially Landry. Landry pushed pretty high up, and he was a key part of that. He was open on the wing quite often for Allen, Malloy, when Torres would shift over or continue runs elsewhere. It was nice having kind of that makeshift, almost Mark Segbers that we've been missing show up and kind of play in that role.
[00:05:25] It was also nice seeing Chris Allen get some of that vision cross in, which I'm sure we'll talk about later. But, yeah, I think we did an awesome job, except for one or two hiccups at the back with the keeper. But that's about it. Yeah, one of the things that maybe y'all didn't see that I saw that was quite emotional. Okay, it wasn't emotional. But at halftime, they were throwing T-shirts, and Mark come out, and he's coming out. They're going to sidelines.
[00:05:54] And he grabbed one of the T-shirts, and he went and threw it up in the supporter section. And they went completely over the supporter section, almost hit the beer stand back behind where Jay's the bartender back there. And everybody's just oblivious to it. And you could see the look on his face like, oh, my, that was a hell of a throw. So if he doesn't have a career left in football, maybe he needs to pick up football. I don't know. Kind of fun. So let's talk about the first half. We're talking about Landry.
[00:06:23] One thing I noticed, he likes to get it on his left foot, and he likes to cut inside, kind of adding to that middle and sliding over. They should be sliding over to that three in the back, but they don't really do that, and it's left us open a couple times. But I like that he's adding that kind of midfield presence, even though he's coming from the right back. What do you think, Ryan? Well, no, he definitely likes to cut in, and he favors that right-hand side because he loves switching the play.
[00:06:51] And switching in deep and allowing him to play further back allows him to get more assists this season. So I'm hoping to see that coming forward, and especially this weekend with Pittsburgh coming up. And, again, you still didn't see that threatening ball from him going over the top, and, you know, that's something that they want to keep testing with as the season goes on. And I don't think that's โ I think it's probably because he's a midfielder, right? Because he's not thinking necessarily of that ball over the top.
[00:07:21] And so I think the other thing that hurts him on that too, and I could be totally wrong, is he'll press up, and he'll kind of forget that he's a back and he's got to come back. And he's caught us out once or twice where there should have been a goal by Tampa Bay, but there wasn't due to just some, I guess, luck. But as a midfielder, I think he's going to do fantastic when we get him in the rotation.
[00:07:42] Yeah, I think he really adds to that attack more so for Torres than anyone else of leaving kind of that wing roll open for someone to fill the space. And he's going to get a lot of exactly what we saw, dribbles into the box where he gets fouled and creates a penalty for us. Or just these situations where he takes the space and he can drive it quickly five yards ahead and maybe see a ball to play across.
[00:08:12] I think it's going to be a really fun thing to watch future this year for us, just because Torres loves to float around a little bit. And we may have an answer of someone to cover for him as long as we get kind of that movement on our back line of like, hey, we're more likely going to play a back three. We just need to be prepared for it. And I think we're slowly starting to morph into that. Well, I enjoy him coming across the middle.
[00:08:38] Well, the thing that I think is hurting Torres right now is he doesn't have that other counterweight of Nick Markannick. And so he's not as free flowing as he was before because, you know, now it looks like he feels a lot more pressure because it looks like it's almost all on him trying to get that attack. You know, of course, Cal's got to do his job and he's doing his job. But I think we need somebody to counterbalance.
[00:09:05] We need a Nick Markannick type personality on the other side so they can switch, so they can float back and forth and really add to each other. And I mean, maybe when Segsburg is back, this is something where Torres switches back to the left side and maybe starts attacking from there and Landry's on the right.
[00:09:25] And we're able to mimic what we did most of last year with that attacking presence, but without it all being focused on Torres because we have other guys that can create. I don't like I don't think Landry is the guy who is just going to dribble, dribble, dribble, take some spectacular shot.
[00:09:46] But his ability to just create that three yards of space to get a ball across is something very special that a team like us has been missing. We haven't really had that even with Nick. Nick was more of a possess, possess, possess. I've found a space, not created it, but I've found it, which is a different aspect to these guys. But I think that's something we can look for in the future of the season.
[00:10:12] And it's going to be I think it's really going to be cool that we have kind of that threat that we've never seen before. Ryan, what are your thoughts? You know, I kind of said it a little bit in the last one. And if we're missing, you know, yes, we're missing that counterpart to Torres. But say the focus off Torres, it'll put it back on Cal. As you mentioned, you know, Cal is going to go out and do his own thing.
[00:10:41] If you found the counterpart to Cal and that's why you brought Cal in, it's because he's going to partner well with MD. And as you saw in the Tampa game, who got both goals? Cal and MD. MD. Beautiful, smart, well-timed flick. That's all I'm going to say. Beautiful. That's the partnership we need, though.
[00:11:04] Like for them two to feed off, feed more off of each other going forward and allowing each other to get underneath of each other. Play more one-two balls with each other. And then that gives more freedom to Torres and allows Torres to play side to side. So it's going to come in due time for Torres. He's going to be like a late season bloomer. You know, stat wise. Yeah, I think when they all get comfortable.
[00:11:31] One of the weaknesses, I thought, this is just me, is Cline. Cline's not putting out what he needs to put out. I've got a little disappointed in that. And why are you disappointed in that, Ryan? Because I thought he was going to be a lot better. Well, do you think he's just getting warmed up? Do you think it's just we need to give him some more time? Because a lot of the play was down the right. It wasn't on the left where he was. Is that right?
[00:12:01] Yeah, he was on the left. So maybe we just need more time, more confidence. He needs to get more confidence. Well, I think that kind of goes in with that player roles. And if it was Torres in that position, Torres would have had more freedom to come across. Whereas Cline doesn't. So it kind of goes in with the youth right here and telling kids certain players when they're growing up, this player is going to have more freedom.
[00:12:30] Whereas when you come on, you need to stay more in your position. And when parents see that as how we're seeing it right now too as fans, it's definitely eye-opening when you see more players frustrated at their playing time and where their structure and their limitations are on the field, especially. Patrick, what do you think about Cline?
[00:13:00] He's okay. Okay. We've also had this discussion before. Some players need a little time to adjust. I mean, we talked about it. A lot of these guys were new coming in. It takes something special to still be playing, right? Because it's easy to be like, Arturo go back in now and you play. Something's there that we just haven't seen click yet on the field in a game.
[00:13:25] So something's obviously there that he's getting picked for these matches and starting and going. I don't know. When did he get subbed off? Late? It wasn't 45th minute like he was the first match. Yeah, it was 60-cent, I do believe. So he's getting more minutes at this rate. He's getting more playing time. He's becoming more comfortable with it.
[00:13:50] And some players, like you touched on, Ryan, some players need that more. That's their style of play. Maybe as they get a little more comfortable with the team, they start showing who they are on the ball, showing what they can do. I mean, just think of anyone, if you went in new guy on the team, you're not going to go out and be like, Volhog, give me the ball. I want to show you all right now.
[00:14:15] You're going to try and earn your way in a little bit and kind of show them what you can do, but earn their trust as well. So I think that we're going to see a little more from him. He's not there yet, but it's good to have him and Arturo switch up because I think Arturo needs that just to make him a better player. When he comes back, probably starting the next game, but I think he'll be coming back with a vengeance and wanting to earn his keep. Now, Pat, with you...
[00:14:43] Sorry, Clive came off 80-second minute, not 60 seconds. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of minutes. Now, Pat, with that in mind, right, we're getting into... We've already played three, four games deep now. This is around the time last season where the battery let go of Gutierrez. We traded him.
[00:15:09] Do you see one of these players going out? Potentially, like, you know, because Gut was a blind side. To me, that was a blind side. I thought Arturo, in my opinion, I mean, everyone has thought Arturo was out. Yeah, I don't think anyone's on the chopping block right now.
[00:15:33] I think as far as Gutierrez, the way he played really killed our attack in a lot of those matches. Because he liked to slow that ball down and bring it back where Pyraman's like, no, we're forward. Let's go forward. The guys are committed forward. So I think that was a big reason because, remember, Jake stuck around for a while, LeCava. Just because he played that style, I don't think he was there. He was getting the minutes.
[00:16:01] He wasn't really probably putting it in because he knew he wasn't getting the minutes. But, like, I think it really just comes down to style. And I think Klein probably plays the way he wants to control a little bit more on that left side, I guess. Well, I saw in Gutierrez, he was playing to get a lot of minutes. And you can see him starting to taper off, getting less and less minutes. He'd come on and it would be limited how long he was on there. Just a different style of play. And I think you're exactly right.
[00:16:31] He just slowed down play on that side. And what we're looking for, or what Ben's looking for, is some fast movement going up the sides. Because, like he says, you widen out, it opens up the middle. As you just mentioned, and we'll talk about it a little bit later, about the two goals that we scored. Because I think that's exactly what happened there. So let's talk quickly. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
[00:16:53] Let me ask you for, since we're on this discussion, would Martina's not be kind of this guy who would challenge on the left side as well? So you almost have a rotation of three guys. Yeah, I think so. Got the speed. We just need to get the speed over there. And like you said, the confidence to, maybe from the other players. Maybe that's what we're missing right yet. Because I feel like, yeah, I feel like Pierman last season brought these guys in.
[00:17:21] So he can use them in different game situations. And maybe they just weren't getting the minutes and weren't committed to doing it. Just speaking for the play. Horses for courses thing, yeah. Right. So, I mean, we have these options for different styles of play. I think this game was, if we need someone to be a little more true on that outside and honestly maybe give Klein a little more confidence to say, hey, I want to keep picking you. And maybe a little more freedom too.
[00:17:51] Let him not just have to go up that outside channel. Maybe let him float around a little bit. They obviously let Landry do that. Cutting into the middle on his left foot. Because I always like those inverted players. And he did quite a bit of that. Almost, and like we talked about, kind of slid us back to a back three. I don't necessarily believe that. But that's what it kind of looked like a lot of times. Maybe Klein needs to have that ability to float. Yeah.
[00:18:19] So, let's quickly talk about floating El Pupo. Eight minutes in. Shot. He bobbles it. So, Ryan, how does he bobble? That's right. He's doing everything right. It just come off his hands. I don't know what happened there. Because it didn't seem like it was a blinding shot. Any insight? It takes his eyes off of it.
[00:18:41] But as a keeper, when the ball is coming across from you, as soon as you take your eyes off of the ball for a half second, your eyes can get drawn off the players moving in front of you. You know, you can just take your eyes off for a slight second. You bobble it just a little bit. It comes in front of you. But, you know, it's unfortunate. He covered it. But it was just a really stressful situation for all of us.
[00:19:07] And that's why you're taught, though, to just kind of go down on top of it, too. Right? Front smother. And I think he's going to do fantastic force. I think he's got to get some of these hiccups out. I don't know if it's just stress right now. I don't want to say stress, but just being new to the battery. I don't know. Maybe new to the field. I think it was the... I'm going to be honest. I'm going to call it and say it was the 5 o'clock Charleston sun. Playing in it first time.
[00:19:38] Sunny. South Carolina heat. I mean, what was up with that? Why did the sun switch to the 5 o'clock? Yeah. I like the 5 o'clock. I do not. I don't mind it. As long as it's planned. Why does it hurt the players? Put some hats on. It definitely hurts the players. Can he wear a hat? Only the keepers. I know. That's the person's bobbling.
[00:20:08] It was the keeper. Maybe he needs to wear a hat. I don't trust anybody wears hats on soccer fields. That's just... That's just not right. So let's go on. Let's talk about the PK. Right? Landry gets in there. Guy gets in behind him. Was it a PK or not? Now that we had a chance of looking back at it and watch the replays. What do you think, Patrick? Yeah. It's a PK.
[00:20:37] Dangerous spot. Takes it in. There's something there. I'll say that. It's a PK. We've seen enough against us. We've seen enough stuff against us. It seems annoying because I've seen it in high school where that's not been called on numerous occasions. And I've seen much less given at the same time. Yeah. It's all discretion, right? I think if you look back at it, the contact that caused the foul,
[00:21:07] that was the foul, was outside the penalty area. It just happened to land inside the penalty area. I think that's the reason why. But I agree with you, Patrick. I've seen a lot softer and a lot worse not get called and get called against us. So I'll take it. I'll take it. And then that leads up to, well, what we talked about earlier about Cal seeking another one. I think he is first in the league in goals, right? He is. Is that five now? I think that's five.
[00:21:37] I think it's four. Is it four? I thought he was at four last time. I thought this moved him up to five because he was tied for second. We should know these things. We should. Let's go with four and a half. I think he has five. Pretty sure. We're asking our stat guy to check it. He is not doing a good job. Hey, Bob, can you check that for us?
[00:22:06] I'll let him. What was that, Bob? Texting it right now. Oh, goals four. It is four. Attacking. It seems like the stat guy had it right at the beginning. We lost Ryan. Is Ryan going to check on Bob? Oh, okay. Yeah. Did Bob agree with the VAR? Is it four goals? VAR agreed. VAR agreed it was four goals. He's tied with Loudon, and I'm not going to pronounce his last name or his first name.
[00:22:36] And two of them, I think, from PKs, correct? Yep. But he's getting goals. So the PK, do you guys want to talk about the PK a whole lot? It's just kind of funny. I just thought it was hilarious. It kind of goes back to my son. We were leaving West Ashley after the football match, and him and the other left back, my son was driving a Jeep, and the other left back drives a Jeep,
[00:23:06] and they're parked out next to each other. And I said, oh, look, all the left backs over here all by themselves in a little Jeeps. And my son points out, and he goes, oh, there's the striker over there, and he's in the Corvette on the other side of the parking lot. So it's kind of strikers have that audacity, I guess, and the back's just kind of like, we'll chill out here by ourselves. So it's kind of the same thing. I'd like to see that fire in him, and hopefully we keep seeing it. I don't care how old he is. He keeps scoring goals. Going to love it.
[00:23:33] Yeah, I would say, is this not the confidence you want in a starting striker for your team? Like, I don't want a guy going up there and being like to the goalie, but like, oh, you want me to hit it there? Say nothing. Hits it there, and then he's like, oh, right there, right there. That's it. Points at the spot, you know. Ryan, have you ever done that as a keeper? Ryan? Yes.
[00:24:02] And how did it turn out for you? I've done one where, so the one time I've done it, the kid kicked it, and I was luckily able just to kind of fall back and use my feet, but he kicked it right down the middle. So I kept pointing to the left, and then right when I went to go dive, he kicked it down the middle, and I just kind of kept my feet there and was able to hit off my ankle. And go out.
[00:24:32] That's all that matters. He stopped it. Yeah. He tried to fool you, and you fooled him. Yeah, there's some other stuff that keepers like to do, and it's funny hearing from a lot of other keepers. I heard from my keepers today what they like to do, so it's just a lot of different techniques out there. Well, do share. Are these state secrets? Should we do this on signal? We can have a signal conversation later on. So speaking of signal and national interest,
[00:25:02] Aaron Malloy does a great job anticipating a pass, picks it up, and then misses almost an empty net. Yeah, that was... I think we're going to hurt him more, even more, by talking about it. The dramatic fashion he fell to the ground immediately after that strike. Yeah, he knew it hurt. But who was the first guy there? Cal. Cal went and picked him up. Said, come on, let's go. You're good. Let's go. Strikers used to miss it. They miss most of the time.
[00:25:31] You're going to score an absolute banger next week against Pittsburgh. Yeah. We're going to see... We're going to see... We're going to see a free kick goal. Inside 10 minutes, free kick goal, Aaron Malloy. Let's talk about the doctor. That's because the doctor was the big story for me. Besides the theatrics of the PK. With the doctor coming on, I was like, oh, man. How many minutes has he had so far this season? It's been very few. That was his only minutes, wasn't it?
[00:26:01] Yeah, this is it. Yeah, that was it. First appearance. This is like his debut, and it was on his birthday. So his first touch, he goes wide. Another one, great step. He cut the two center backs, and he goes wide with it. Yeah. What are we supposed to do with that, doctor? Ryan, explain his miss. You're his biggest fan. Explain his miss. Just came across the toe a little bit. He was going, you know, too much momentum going across.
[00:26:33] I mean, that's really about it. He's just trying to hit it one time, which I think is the right way to do it because you have so much momentum going. Not a bad time. Not bad for literally and physically your first touch of the entire season. Yeah, it was his first touch, wasn't it? Now, his second touch. Well, let's... We'll get there. Because the other thing I want to point out, because last week I was kind of hard on Juan David about his passing, and he received the ball, passed it up to Emilio.
[00:27:03] Emilio had the sense where to put the ball, and Emilio did a fantastic pass. But without those two, like pre-assist pass and that assist pass, he wouldn't have been in the right position. But so back before it even got to the doctor, I think we did a great job of linking both sides of the midline and the midfield to that forward. And that's what we really needed. And it come down the middle, not the outside. So I think it's another point. And it was a great team effort, right? And it allowed us to continue to press them
[00:27:32] and continue to put the gas on them, right? So, you know, and that led to MD's second touch. You know? We're not getting there yet. We're still talking to Patrick. We're not going to talk about the goal yet. We're going to prolong your anxiety. Patrick, you want to say something? Yeah, I got to be the only person to reel granite back in on this podcast from praising Juan David for something that only counts in hockey.
[00:28:03] It was an Icaza. Yeah, penalty minutes? Correct. Great attempted assist by Icaza. No, we don't count the hockey assist in soccer. No one remembers the guy who made the first pass. Doesn't matter. There it is. There's the hat. Either way, I think incredible turn, incredible strength. And I think there was a pretty good nudge on the back while he was hitting that to disrupt him enough.
[00:28:35] But man, have we missed a player like this up top who is just a little more bruiser and Cal can run these guys in and make them worried and tired. And then you bring on this guy who has not speed, but he has that wherewithal to get into these positions and body the guy off and create a chance. I mean, this is going to be a deadly combination. If they're... I don't see them starting as a two up top,
[00:29:04] but whoever's subbing on is going to be the beneficiary in whatever match because there's going to be these chances where... Yeah, it went wide, but it went wide by a yard. It was right there. It's amazing because he doesn't look that fast when you look at it. He's a big guy. And then we see the step he did and the way he splits the defenders and he was out in front of both of them and all kind of by himself, you know, by a couple steps.
[00:29:33] So yeah, maybe we should see them both up, you know, starting. I don't know. Because there's two... It's not a like-for-like kind of trade, you know, substitution. So there are two different players in two different styles, even though he did look a little cowish. Okay, so Ryan, let's get to your favorite part. The doctor finally does his job. Finally does it. He finally does it. The most beautiful flick of the year. That's the way you do it.
[00:30:03] Just casually, just flick it right off your head. Casually. Beautiful. Right to the back panel. No one's touching it. And it adds to... I think that's the battery's first goal of the season by a header. Oh, I don't know about that. Incorrect. Gransmith got an own goal off a header. No, I thought Cal... Yeah. Yes.
[00:30:33] Yes. If we're counting on goals. So... Yeah, our own goals. I don't know if you guys are watching, but Juan David passed to... No, I'm just kidding. Here we go. Yeah. It was a crazy flick up, just kind of ball up in the air from Chris Allen. It kind of came back out to him, and he just put it up there, and it just... It wasn't like it was a flat trajectory and had a lot of power and speed behind it, but somehow when it creamed off of MD's head, it hit the right spot.
[00:31:04] Yeah, I mean, this is one you could definitely say Malloy did a fair amount of work grabbing that ball and just... Instead of just attacking, attacking, saw Chris Allen with like 30 yards of space and being like, what do you want to do? And he goes, uh, MD's over there, I think. I'll just hit it over there. Goal. Yeah. MD was like on stealth mode, stealth mode, because again, there was nobody really around him to challenge him. Uh, the two defenders, it's like they were,
[00:31:33] he was oblivious to the doctor walking in. Maybe that's what it was. He said, we feel safe. He's a doctor. We feel safe with him being here, so we're not going to cover him. Wow. How bad did we need that second goal, though? This is like, all we talk about is like, if the battery get a goal, you need a second, because like, we know something's going to come, something strange is going to happen, and finally we set ourselves up for the first time this year in a good position to be like, like Rhode Island, yes,
[00:32:03] but Rhode Island didn't look that great. Yeah, but I felt that sense of relief, because it's like around 75th to 80th minute, feel this tension of, something's weird is going to happen. Something's going to happen, and you felt, it had reassurance, knowing that you're up two to one, and knowing that the battery, we're able to build something out of nothing,
[00:32:32] and able to get that goal, that was a very well-teamed goal, very well-deserved team goal, and, you know, we definitely could get a third. Yeah, I think at that point, it's 2-0, right? Yeah. You didn't get the first goal. So let's talk about, you know, we're talking about all the great things, let's talk about, Defender of the Year, last year, does a very uncharacteristic stab at a ball,
[00:33:02] and the player gets around him. Was it a deflection? It was a mistake, it was a mistake that backed back weeks. Yeah, I don't consider the header, I think he was just trying to clear, it was just bad luck. This one was a mistake. Goal counted for the other team. Yeah, but I don't count that as a mistake by him. But this one, he definitely lunged forward, and the player got around him. And then it just seemed like,
[00:33:33] the keeper, and Leland, weren't communicating, because it looked like, Leland let up a little bit, because he thought, El Pupo was going to have the ball, and he didn't. Now, I'm definitely a Graham Smith, ride or die guy. I think he's incredible. And, I'll go to bat for him on this one, because for most of the season, so far, Leland's been a step behind, on a lot of stuff. Right?
[00:34:02] So I don't think that confidence, is there yet, with the pairing, like it was last year. How, they kind of knew, I have your back, you have mine, we're good. Like, I'm going to step up, and try and get this. If not, you're kind of going to cover, and the keeper's going to cover, and you'll clear it out, if he makes the save. We're not there yet. Um, I don't know. No offense to Leland, he's just, there's been a few, few instances, where we've seen it, where he's just kind of flat footed, or,
[00:34:31] a little off. And, yeah, this is a mistake by Graham, but you kind of, want a center back, to go for the ball. You don't want him to lay off, like we saw so much last year, of like, all our team laying off, and a guy just dribbles, and keeps dribbling, and dribbles, until he just decides to shoot. So, I'd at least rather, see them attack the ball. Yeah, maybe Graham wouldn't have, um, maybe wouldn't have done that, but for him thinking, that Leland had his back.
[00:35:01] And, he wasn't necessarily, in that position, to help support him. And I think, I think Keeper did everything he could. Uh, he went down, tried to make himself wide, and he just chipped it up over. Well, the good thing is, we didn't give, we didn't give up a second. Nope. We held it right there, and closed it down. And then I met some really, kind of, people had a lot, were having a lot of fun, during the match, after the match, walking out. One guy was doing a bridge run.
[00:35:29] His buddy was just having a blast. Crazy people at the match. All types of characters. All types of characters. Uh, it was, it was a good evening. I enjoyed it. Uh, I liked the 530 kickoffs, cause, you getting, you know, maybe it's my old age, getting back home. Uh, you know, at a decent hour. And, uh, just get the little sunshine. When it gets a little warmer, I might, might change my mind. We might need like a 1030 kickoff, when it's like 300 degrees out at Patriots Point. The other cool thing is, there's a wind going,
[00:35:59] right? Uh, I think one of the first, first times down the other end of the field, somebody kicked the ball, that basically just come, the wind picked it up, and brought it back the other direction. And you can see everybody like, chasing around, like it was a butterfly for a second. Uh, we thought that was kind of fun. Any other thoughts, Ryan? No, nothing else for me. Okay, good. Then tell us about your thoughts on next week's match, 730 kickoff, unless they change it, of course,
[00:36:27] against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, who are struggling. Your thoughts, Ryan? No, it should be another good match. Um, I think it's, huh, it stumbled. Um, I think it's going to be a great match. Um, I think that it's going to be, you know, another tester,
[00:36:56] but I think we're going to have actual four, four people, four, four defenders in the back. Um, we're going to have a different attack. And I see battery coming on top three to two. I think it's going to be a shootout at home. Yeah, they're ahead of us by one point in the table. Um,
[00:37:23] not as tough as the schedule as we had to face so far. Definitely not. Uh, so yeah, I, I believe we're going to win this one. We probably should. We need to, let's keep this winning streak going into two games. And I don't know. I like, I don't have much more to add. I don't think they're a really solid team. I don't think they really did much the off season to project them up above a
[00:37:50] Charles Charleston battery team that should just dominate them. Yeah. They played a Birmingham Legion and the Birmingham just looks so weak. They were just, they were just having their way with them. Uh, Augie was kind of not really in it other than being offside or once in a while. And the goals they, the, the, the Legion gave up or just, I'll use the word pedestrian. That's right. I'll use Pittsburgh now. Yeah. So, so hopefully we'll, uh, come again.
[00:38:22] Okay. We talked about the last match. We talked about our next win. Uh, I'm going to go to nil. I'm going to go Cal Jennings and one Davey. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you want to go last today? I already, I'm just second. No, what'd you say? Yeah. Oh, it's a five nil, five nil to the, uh, Pittsburgh. No, he always, he always gets up a goal.
[00:38:52] Three, two battery. He said three, two. Oh, I'm going to go. I apologize. I think I'm going to go again. He's no chance. No chance. If there's a game, the defenders are going to think back up. It's going to be against him. So, uh, I'm going to go one nil, but it's going to be a very dominating one nil where we have to bite our fingernails for the last 10 minutes. Oh, okay. Yeah. We're used to that. Patrick,
[00:39:22] Patrick and I are used to that. That's our story of our life. Okay. That's all I've got. If that's all you all have, and we'll see you out there. Seven 30 kickoff. Page your point. Showing up early doing, do a little tailgate. I will be coming from our baby shower hosting people. I don't know my plant. I don't, I'm not in charge of my life. My wife is so you're forgiven, sir. You're forgiven.
[00:39:53] But I will be in the yellow lot. Don't even trouble. I will be in the yellow lot. With the surveys. Fantastic. Okay, y'all. Off the battery. All right. Off the battery.