Episode 14 - Laundry Day! Kuz and his clean sheets!

[00:00:00] Welcome to Cannon Crue, a weekly podcast discussing the Charleston battery. Your host Granit will be joined by other defenders of the fleet from the Black and Yellow Supporters section and together they will help fortify and conquer the other Cannon Crue.

[00:00:35] Welcome to the Cannon Crue podcast I am Granit I am joined by Patrick how you doing Patrick? Well what's going on everyone? How are you Ryan? Doing fantastic great how are you? I'm doing well so we're here to discuss the most recent match of Charleston battery

[00:00:52] versus Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC that happened last Saturday June 8th and it was a great nil nil draw. Pittsburgh comes down to the Patriots point takes away a point we're left with a little

[00:01:08] meat on the bone and we got the one point so Ryan general thoughts on the match? Disappointed generally I thought we played decent at times but again we fell into these little spirals or little spells where we just couldn't get anything going forward or

[00:01:29] connecting with us and there's nothing flowing there was nothing especially in the final third we looked so completely lost up front no one knew where to go no one knew where to make a run to everything was being blocked up by defenders it looked like we need to

[00:01:45] try something new possibly up front. I mean you said left a little meat on the bone I think we left all the meat on the bones we didn't even touch the plate of dinner because that was the most boring game I had themed from the

[00:02:00] battery all season. Another game probably should have been losing in the first 20 minutes just getting dominated on the ball and a pretty steady theme from the battery just not knowing how to

[00:02:12] stop the attack from doesn't matter who the team is a good team a bad team we just don't deal with it and then eventually we settle in and then storybook in the past couple weeks we don't create

[00:02:26] chances we don't finish chances and I don't know that is pretty lackluster in this one for me. You know I agree and one thing the positive and we'll talk about a little bit later because

[00:02:37] I want to end on the positive part is our back four especially our two center backs and Cous Cous had a phenomenal match I thought wasn't like he had a lot of stops but the stops he had to make

[00:02:48] there's a couple of them you really had to dig deep in and you know punch the ball away and do a fantastic job so let's talk about why can't we score any goals why can't we put in

[00:03:00] the back of the net. Ryan you and I talked about it a little bit you know at the match and it just seems like like you mentioned we just can't can't seem to get our forwards or

[00:03:11] wingers in there creating chances so how do we change that. We kept pointing out during the game that the battery they play in two simple ways right now they're either taking it to the corner flag

[00:03:25] and trying to do a move out there and put it across that's nine times out of ten went to the back post and went out of bounds or it got blocked by the front post there's very few that

[00:03:36] actually got through that were very threatening during this game. The second thing that we would do is that we would get to the top of the 18 instead of having a decent shot on target or trying

[00:03:46] to put a decent shot on target and look for the rebound we would simply just move away and try to pass them and go immediately to the outside. We were I don't think we were nearly as aggressive

[00:03:56] as we should be in the middle of the shield and that's where I think we need to break the space is going right down the middle and attack their center backs. We haven't really put any challenges

[00:04:07] on any center backs since the fourth or fifth game of the season and you notice that in the first three games of the season their center backs the other teams that we played were all in

[00:04:17] trouble. I think there was like two games where there was a center back middle team that had a yellow card early in the games because of just simply getting getting after them and stuff and we haven't done any of that towards the back lines that we faced against

[00:04:30] this season so far. I don't know Ryan it's that's boiling down to when we're defending and you see the guys kind of like just completely out of position bombarding wherever the ball is and

[00:04:43] that's fine with the press but then you need to create some time and possess the ball backwards you give your guys the opportunity to regain their shape which we're just not doing we're

[00:04:54] immediately pushing the ball and no one's in the box or one guy's in the box against three defenders never going to get a clean shot or a clear chance from options like that. Like I don't know maybe

[00:05:05] we just need to start recycling the ball off this high press but the high press is great I mean when the ball back we get into good opportunities but there's just no one there to get on the

[00:05:15] end of the cross or to be on the back side of the post like you can't ask one guy to do all the work up top. Yeah and it's almost like we were like scared of Pittsburgh in a way like we just

[00:05:29] didn't want to take that extra step even though Pittsburgh came up in a very odd formation this week they came in with a 5-3-2 formation they came out clear as day having five people in the

[00:05:41] back line not trying to hide the fact that they're playing they're literally playing for the point and yet them giving us the time at the top of the box because we can go back and re-watch it and I

[00:05:52] can name out there's at least three to four times where we could do a solid full turn on the box and have a shot with nobody on us and we still pass it around. Yeah if you look at if you

[00:06:06] look at the possession we had we had 66% they had 38 and it didn't seem like teams are just sitting back and parking the bus and just trying to hit us on the counter attack. We're

[00:06:18] possessing the ball and they'll move it to the midfield there's nobody making runs there's everybody just standing and watching and that's just frustrating and maybe the other teams are just we they figured us out now they just sit back there and wait wait for the counter

[00:06:32] but they're not packed in the box like I would expect them to. Yeah, Drenna you can even look at that we had 13 attempts only two on goal I mean we still ended up with six corners the corners

[00:06:45] were a bread and butter to begin this season where guys like why are you getting muscled off the ball why are you not fighting in the air and going to win the ball like a corner should be

[00:06:57] I want to see us down there getting maybe at least a second corner out of every corner if not a goal like just fight your man and try to get to that ball if it's in the air that's

[00:07:07] in the easy opportunity to get a goal we have guys that are bigger stronger mess archer who can win and dominate the air and we're just not doing it. Yeah, I think that was

[00:07:19] one of the most disappointing factors of coming out of that game on Saturday was the simple fact that our corner kicks and free kicks were terrible they were bad they were so bad they're

[00:07:32] it's either we're not clearing it past the first guy on the front post or it's over the back post and it's out of bounds I think we had two corner kicks to stay in bounds one of them

[00:07:42] weren't right to the keeper and the other one got cleared out and it was actually a pretty decent opportunity free kicks we had one decent opportunity one let that go was going to go in

[00:07:52] but it wasn't on target the rest not not so much we just weren't making plays on it and D definitely had an opportunity on one of them and he just didn't put his body on the line but

[00:08:02] he also didn't think that ball was going to come through we talked about that before they they should be making the runs it should be anticipating they shouldn't be like oh I don't think that ball

[00:08:11] is going to come through they need to be there they're in that position that mentality if that that should never come across the players minds I didn't think it was going to be there

[00:08:21] you still need to continue your run and act like as if it's going to go through because if it does go through you're there and you're through because nobody else is expecting it to go through either yeah it's almost like the confidence is gone in these guys right

[00:08:36] we we saw them start to gel so what the first two games they they weren't putting it together but they were making these runs and we said these guys are going to get it and they're

[00:08:46] going to gel and they're going to start getting on the end of these balls and then we have Nick Markanik go and go off on a scoring spree for this time being and now it's like hey

[00:08:57] where did all this confidence go where did the runs go where did the mentality of the ball is going to be there just make the run if it's not there do another one I'll get you on this next

[00:09:08] one like I it's kind of sad to see because there's just no real options up front like no one seems to be working hard enough to try and create a chance do you think this could be an internal

[00:09:20] issue I don't know if it's like I think lack of light let me rephrase this let me rephrase this to me sound what I want to do so is it internal issues to where players are now not playing for the

[00:09:37] team or for the culture but rather than themselves and they're only worried about themselves now seeing that like Kava is going to San Antonio is that culture in the locker room

[00:09:48] kind of shifted and it's more of a it's a me me me mentality instead of an II or like a team mentality kind of like it looks like on the field with our forwards in our midfield and everyone just

[00:10:01] looking lost and clueless not connecting it just seemed like they're just playing for themselves I understand what you're saying and I hear you I hope not that's why I'm reluctant to say

[00:10:12] because I hope not but it sure seems like MD slowed down it sure seems like Nick is not doing what he has been doing in the past and not just the beginning of this year but last year

[00:10:22] also you're looking at shots on target out of the top of the front five there out of Aaron Icaza, Marcanic Torres and MD there's one shot on target and that's from Torres nobody else had a shot on target group

[00:10:40] all credit to Torres too he's the only one who even looks like he's out there playing in a USF champion jib team everyone else looks like they're I don't know like your buddies from the bar

[00:10:50] playing on a Sunday league and just kind of like watch him go with the ball and be like man I hope he does something sweet yeah it's frustrating and and I don't know this this is where

[00:11:00] pyramid needs to be the coach that he is and he the motivate players do something I'll throw this stat out because you love this that granite the battery were 0.27 and it's for were 0.28 expected goals at the 60 minute mark of the game insane

[00:11:24] we it's our house when they when people come down from Pittsburgh they should be coming down here they should feel the heat they should feel the humidity they should be intimidated

[00:11:34] the place was packed the other night practically so I mean there was a lot of people in there and it wasn't really 100 but it was warm enough and yet we're not taking the advantage of all those

[00:11:47] you know additives to put these matches away and I don't know we're not running the death maybe that's the maybe that's the problem with the possession ball you're not running the the

[00:11:56] enemy to death and so they're slowing down and making mistakes maybe that's what we need to start doing maybe we need an Augie back maybe we need somebody you put over the top every once well

[00:12:07] and he runs those two center back now until they run out of gas but we even look to do we I saw us try to do that time to time try to chip it over the outside back chip it over the outside

[00:12:20] back md would run onto it or marcanic would run onto it then they would do an outside overlapping run laid off into the corner run into the box and then it'd be a terrible cross into the box

[00:12:34] there was one time three times also md is fantastic okay and it's in its heart breaking to talk negative about your own players and your own kind of like kinfolk but md had there was a ball

[00:12:49] into him and he had a horrible touch I mean absolutely horrible touch you know and it ended up losing possession of the ball and I'm like this guy's got to do better than that he can't if he's going to

[00:13:00] get the ball with his back turned to go he's got to be able to have a miraculous touch and be able to either pass it off or spin and shoot and he can't do that right now I don't know maybe just

[00:13:09] a slump but he just can't do it right now Ryan I think to touch on your point but why do we continue to do this why do we continue to go down the sideline but we don't

[00:13:20] have that big target man kind of what you talked about granite with augie like we don't have this big target man why do we continue to hurt ourselves on an attack our front three aren't

[00:13:31] the biggest guys in the league you're going up against big center backs in this formation that we play cycle it back out like two of our best chances came from right outside the

[00:13:41] at our blind and I'm not saying that's what we want to settle for but like there's going to be a little more chance creation if you take a few of those shots people are going to come out to you

[00:13:52] where you can lay the ball in to say your center forward getting in behind some guys we need to just switch up our chance creation I think exactly that four that four two three one

[00:14:04] formation that we're in that is a very can be a very aggressive counter formation and that was the intent in the beginning of the season we were playing very quickly with each other we're

[00:14:17] getting the ball from sideline to sideline up and down the pitch and into the back then after the new mexico game and we were connecting very well and now you see in this game where we

[00:14:27] were completely slowed down the game was completely shifted and we couldn't do absolutely anything and it was I think it was simply because we couldn't play quickly we couldn't play on a counter

[00:14:38] and every they had everybody back in now that should never be an excuse because we should be taking shots from the top of the 18 and they got to be good shots I mean yeah Charest did a shot

[00:14:50] that he scuffed it and he does that every once in a while as soon as he connects with him I think they'll start going through the back then that looking at Nick's numbers he had one shot

[00:14:59] off target and the only other thing he really added to on the attack was he was offside once but that's what that's all appeared just look at the numbers that's that's what he added when you look at mv he had one chance created one offside

[00:15:16] and so our chance is being created three from Aaron one from Emilio and two from Torres I think we need more versatility we need to ask more from our wagers like you don't just get the standouts wide the entire game if our center mids are creating more chances

[00:15:35] why don't we have a little more position swap with these guys for a five-minute spell it doesn't need to be 20 minutes 30 minutes but like get get more canik and into that cam roll like he's a

[00:15:48] big strong presence who has ball control have Emilio switch outside and work a little bit with segburs or something but it's not even necessarily pat that you have to even switch those positions it's that exploit those positions exactly how you said take ikaza and take him right

[00:16:06] down the middle stop going to the outside so much and go right down the middle beat them make it a 3v1 in the middle beat one man with a kaza pass it off to Myers and then it's a it's a 3v2 going

[00:16:18] right down the middle and all you have to do is guess what be two center backs and those two center backs are going to be the biggest dudes on the team and also not going to be the fastest

[00:16:26] players in the team and you're going up against your fast and you have your fastest players on your on your side going on the counter i like those odds a lot better and you can then play it

[00:16:36] out wide if you want to but through the middle is going to be the quickest way to go now so the defenders are going to not want you to get but if you beat them put them on ice skate they're

[00:16:45] going to foul you and that's where you draw cards that's where we get the game escalating the intensity risen so we had two shots on target right as we discussed earlier the other one was from

[00:16:57] smith or one of our center backs so we've got no production from anybody else other than a center back and torus i'm not saying you know air playing that kind of defensive center mid and same thing with with allen but everybody else they're going to be doing something

[00:17:19] granted do you think it's a lack of competition from the depth of the squad to even put pressure on these guys like i almost feel like they know they're guaranteed this spot and like only one or two

[00:17:29] guys are going to rotate in i don't know i it maybe it is because you look at the bench and there's nobody who you're gonna put in for md or nick conway right good tears good tears did

[00:17:43] a fantastic job out there and he's working his butt off for sub and in 65 minutes same thing with drach but we've got to have somebody consistently is going to make these runs that their back is not always the goal we've seen that before in another team where

[00:17:58] their our forward was their number nine was back was always the goal and if you're not going to score goals then you need to be playing the ball a lot better than what our forward is doing right now do we take this opportunity or just been

[00:18:15] peerman take this opportunity and take advantage of this transfer portal and bring in a new signing for the battery and compete in the challenge he might need to he might need to scare shit out of some players that i think i in my opinion i i think that's

[00:18:32] what it has to take right now you've shipped one guy out you have to bring somebody in you need to bring someone in but who that is you know that's up to them i i have a few players of mine

[00:18:46] one or two could break our bank i'm not entirely sure where our budget would be so i would love to see who we end up going for but i think it is crucial for the battery to

[00:18:56] to make a new signing not only for um just to revamp our current roster right now but then to also add to the depth because like you said we're one injury away from having nothing but academy

[00:19:09] players as our substitutions and then playing as well you know we're one more tis four game away from having academy can start i mean i'd switch everything up you know get in get some minutes

[00:19:21] show why you want to be here and remind these guys why they deserve to be here let's quickly talk about because i don't i don't think erin's the problem i don't think chris allan's the problem because they're they're part of the reason why this is another clean sheet

[00:19:39] kuz did a fantastic job there was a shot he they come in knuckleball and i think deflected off somebody and he punched it out and i was like that's fantastic so back the right thing back people are

[00:19:51] doing a fine job so let's talk quickly about amoeba hill i know he's our fan favorite he is just a fantastic person he's always excited he's always moving but is he doing what an eight or ten

[00:20:05] should be doing is he producing the chances that eight or ten should be producing i think he's more than that right he's our first pressure guy he's the first one to cover whoever else loses the ball

[00:20:21] so i mean it's tough to say because obviously with maloy that's our guy that's the guy who's creating the most chances he pushes forward he doesn't really play that defensive mid role

[00:20:33] he plays more like a center mid i don't know i i see like if you switch up our number nine put marcanic up there maybe put rodriguez or guillier is on the side we just get a different

[00:20:46] flow and i think it kind of plays the ball well but when your option is you play the ball and then no one else kind of moves and you have to show to the ball to get it back it kind of makes

[00:20:58] you look bad too as if it's a bad ball even though it's just no chance creation from anyone else on the field well let's look let's look at erin's he did 92 passes graham smith had 82 passes and

[00:21:10] there and there are our two top passers and then you have amoeba doing 24 you have kuzma with 21 should he be producing more he just shows the balls on the wrong end of the field

[00:21:24] we played with it too much in the back get it forward like ryan said earlier play longer balls just attack like we don't need to take our time to just cycle this fall all day when we're expecting

[00:21:36] too much from melio because our two other center mids are playing more defensively and the workload is on a melio to have that transition that link between those two and the forwards and the winners maybe i don't know hey you just have you have to support

[00:21:55] you can you continue to have your star or have the circle around a melio but you have to support him now because great if he can't turn who someone has to show underneath of him

[00:22:08] but then someone then has to show on top of a melio on the outside and then a melio runs out create space you have to continuously move but a melio if he just moves out and no one else is

[00:22:20] above him moving you're just wasting space and then that's where the whole game slows down and gets stalled there's no everybody's not working together and that's what i'm talking about the

[00:22:31] entire time is that we all need to be on the same page and be coordinated together and want to help each other because we got to get back on the same page and have a melio as the star center

[00:22:41] and turn the turn with the ball into the middle and play quickly and then tack right up the middle we attack up the middle we score goal next game it's as simple as that and we're going to get

[00:22:52] the fire lit back underneath of us and i'll tell you what too i'll call i'll call this out too it's not going to be a pretty goal probably going to be one of the ugliest goals in the world

[00:23:02] but it's going to happen i would just like a goal i don't care if it's an own goal exactly it's not gonna be pretty well we could talk about one positive right kuz kuz your song saying to him

[00:23:16] my man's on fire in the back right now i think with kuz our two center backs and an errand and sitting in front of them they've done a fantastic job because what the other teams

[00:23:28] aren't doing is scoring we're keeping clean sheets the kuz can't do much about scoring because that's on the other end and the center backs are just nice and calm and smith i think was

[00:23:39] awarded man of the match on the battery side he's just nice and calm in there same thing with lilin what one name we didn't see on the bench this week though was rodriguez

[00:23:52] no we haven't this is a very interesting point because leaving the match i was talking to somebody and he's like yeah when rodriguez gets back in there i was like yeah we're missing the key player

[00:24:03] there too so i don't i don't know what happened you know what happened okay yeah and it's horrible because he was he was injured and he came back in for a couple matches and he absolutely balded

[00:24:16] those couple matches and maybe he's the relief that umilio needs so he can have a little bit of rest but i don't know what i don't know why he wasn't playing the other night it's even just a

[00:24:28] bigger player profile just stature of the guy to make defenses have to play a little more defensively and maybe ask more of the other team center mids to drop back for a guy who can hold

[00:24:40] people off where we see a milio he has all the fight in them and he goes so hard but at the end of the day he still can get bullied off the ball unfortunately just from his stature

[00:24:52] yeah so we talked about the bad we talked about the good let's talk about some other things the crowd was fantastic like you said with 3,800 the river dogs were playing that night too and so to get a crowd of that number and still with the competing professional

[00:25:13] team and down playing it's fantastic one of the other cool things is i was leaving got to see an old battery player got to talk to him got the shake his hand and his name is tall tall a new guy

[00:25:28] who now plays mls and plays for nashville sc so i was talking to patrick and he said hey meet this guy and had a great conversation uh if he was off week for nashville so he come back here

[00:25:41] and he won becomes a battery match which i think is freaking awesome so let's talk quickly about the next match coming up we're going to do a pre-match podcast so it's not talked too much into it but we're looking at detroit on saturday kickoff our time four o'clock

[00:25:58] we will be at edmunds dose watching the match uh i'll be doing a giveaway from canna crew and doing some other fun things there four o'clock kickoff so plenty plenty of time to show up i believe edmunds dose has power hours starting at four o'clock so

[00:26:18] nice little shout there if you want to get a little half off your beverages what power hour starts the same time as kickoff from what a deal i'm telling you it's going to be a

[00:26:26] hell of a deal a little special giveaway at halftime we're going to do a pre-match podcast and try to get out probably saturday morning or friday night y'all have anything else i do up

[00:26:42] the battery i love our boys they're doing fantastic job i hate being negative i'd rather be positive all the time lord at least we're not losing matches and we're keeping clean sheets

[00:26:55] so we just got to fight through it and we'll end up at the top of the table before two give us some goals we're good we're goal thirsty goal thirsty hey power hour we need some goals

[00:27:08] maybe we do a little juggling contest outside oh yeah where your jerseys come in where your scarves and uh maybe yeah maybe we'll do a little canna crew juggling contest outside if not before the match maybe halftime and maybe the winner will get some uh

[00:27:24] beer on the canna crew do you never know what could happen you never know okay y'all appreciate it all right boys later