Episode 17 - They were kung fu fighting!

[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.

[00:00:37] Welcome to the Cannon Crue podcast, I'm Granit and I'm joined by Ryan. How are you Ryan? Doing fantastic, Granit. How about yourself? I'm doing well. And Patrick? What's going on? Hey, we're just having a good time here. We're here to discuss Phoenix Rising, FC vs Charleston Battery.

[00:00:56] And since it was such an exciting match, I thought we'd spend a lot of time talking about what you do this weekend Ryan. And then around sums it up. So we'll see you at the next podcast.

[00:01:14] So it was a nil nil clean sheet for Granit at least and Granit had a fantastic save. I think the ball would have went out anyways but he got a hand on it against our West

[00:01:25] Coast rival and last year's champion of the USL championship that we unfortunately lost against the final match last year. I think this was a great game for Granit if you want to highlight on him and touching

[00:01:44] the fact that we haven't seen this type of high level since Louisville where Granit had been really tested and since he was injured out for a couple of weeks seeing him back in

[00:01:57] action and making some really good saves and keeping us in the game and getting his sixth clean sheet of the season. That's a good start for the battery right there but yet again still falling short in the final third. Yeah, I mean good bounce back for Granit.

[00:02:15] I mean obviously Detroit was what his first came back from injury where he finally got to play but I mean it's just the fourth game in a row no goals so obviously the defensive

[00:02:27] unit is not the issue but we're once again talking about offense not getting it done. Yeah we do very well about clean sheets. I think it's the eighth of the season and Granit didn't have a whole lot to do back

[00:02:40] there but the one time he was called to do something he did something fantastic. I think what we saw Saturday night was a fantastic job by Leland and Smith defending the back

[00:02:51] and having a good time doing it seems like well except for a couple kind of scary points there. So this is a weekend we should have made up some ground Louisville lost and Indy lost but we just gained a point. Big miss opportunity there.

[00:03:10] It just goes to show you that it's not just us who may be going through a tough spell right now. You see now Louisville is going through one. Going against Rhode Island up in Rhode Island it's not a tough match and a lot of teams

[00:03:26] are going through that difficulty that we went through. We were fortunate enough to get a draw 0-0 up there but it was great watching Rhode Island put five away on Louisville. And always fun to watch Louisville get beat and this time they got beat pretty soundly.

[00:03:44] Louisville is on 35 points in first were still in second with 30 and Indy drifted a little bit behind us on 29. Now interestingly right behind Indy is Tampa Bay Detroit and Allegiant and they all won this past weekend so there are 28 some points behind us.

[00:04:01] You got to look at what both here because Tampa still has a game in hand. They do and so they're right on top of us. They win the next one we don't we don't get any points from guess what we're sitting at least third right.

[00:04:13] I'm curious because obviously I'm not one who pays the most attention to the goalie but I didn't think he really faced that much in this game to get him back to what he needs to be.

[00:04:26] Didn't they only have like one shot on goal which is the save you kind of talked about where it looked like it might have gone wide but he got a fingertip to it to end the first half.

[00:04:38] Yeah he only had one there was only one shot on target and that was the one he stopped if it was going to go in. He saved it the other one he didn't save that we just got I don't know how to

[00:04:49] say it the incompetence of the Phoenix player probably showed through and that's the reason why we walked away with the draw but that's the only one he really faced that was a tough shot or any shot is the only shot on target for him where we had

[00:05:03] four through the whole match. Man no they they did have one hit the woodwork and but so did we I mean I definitely thought Nick was putting that one in the back of the net. But what do we do I mean we're not scoring goals.

[00:05:20] Yeah I think what you do is Nick needs to stop touching the ball 15 times before he takes a shot. He's have more confidence himself and take this shot right on you know immediately

[00:05:29] at one point he had to come past to him right there in front of the by himself and he immediately took the shot. Just it was fantastic keeping by the Phoenix Rising's keeper to stop that one but we kind of can't be messing around for the goal.

[00:05:44] I don't know why we think we need to have the perfect shot to do it. And then even when Nick had the perfect shot he set it up for himself to be the perfect shot. He still hit the woodwork.

[00:05:54] Yeah I guess just chalk it up to unlucky on that but I mean four games in a row without scoring a goal at some point it's not luck it's just lack of I guess accuracy. Well our eight is coming in and getting the most shots on the target

[00:06:12] and we have you know two people that like to make goals and they were you know doing well when the competition was easier in the first part of the year but it seems like they're struggling now. Granite I am curious because this is your expertise area.

[00:06:30] Did you think there should have been a sending off even with the tackle on the cause of like a minute and a half into the game. I mean there are quite a lot of hard falls in this one.

[00:06:40] Yes I will tell you what it's I'm glad you brought that up because there was one down drag and if you look at the laws of the game you can be sent off for serious foul play and I don't know if you have to put

[00:06:55] all the studs of the cleat upside somebody's head to be considered serious foul play but to me that was serious foul play. That was just that was incredible that he walked away with the and I don't understand

[00:07:07] why the referee let that go by especially after you know Amilio has been been tackled hard in the first three minutes and she's been building and building all match and then goes to that one and he's just kind of like weighs the yellow card

[00:07:20] and that's it. Yeah it's just unfortunate there tough break for the battery to not you know get away with anything on that but looking at how the battery utilized their bench in this game are we kind of shocked or surprised that we didn't see Rodriguez

[00:07:37] on his way onto the pitch. Yeah I mean I'm a little surprised just from the fact that we're not putting something in the goal so why not just switch it up get a guy who's a bigger presence maybe disrupts

[00:07:51] the ball play into the box because you watch the game the battery aren't stopping what they're doing. We're just going to continue to litter the ball from the outside in add another player

[00:08:01] in there who can attack the ball or anything just create a little more chaos and be a bigger figure so I'm a little surprised we didn't see him. But is Rodriguez really the big just like how you said Patrick this is what

[00:08:15] Granite and I had spoken about Latin last week is that we do need a bigger presence but is Rodriguez that bigger presence Rodriguez can bring a certain uplifting presence to the pitch don't get me wrong I'm not knocking that but are we missing almost an enforcer type

[00:08:34] of person because we got bullied against Detroit you cannot sit here and say we we did it because it was clear cut and dry we did. And we got bullied Saturday night too the outsize this their physicality just puts the shame.

[00:08:51] I mean I would think with a player like Rodriguez he's a little I mean he still has a knock of some type like we didn't even see him on the bench in the previous game.

[00:09:01] So like something's still lingering where maybe he's just not fully back or like maybe he tweaks something again but I mean if you're only counting on Myers as your central point and no

[00:09:14] one else is kind of crashing in and then you have a causa who's not the biggest guy in the field he does have a lot of heart but at the end of the day a heart doesn't give you height

[00:09:23] and create a little more chaos for the defender to try and figure out shit like I'm worried about maybe a cross coming in because this guy might be able to out jump me on this and get to it.

[00:09:34] I just think in that sense he is a threat so I don't know maybe he's just still on the knock and he's not back at full fitness yet. We really don't have a whole lot of players

[00:09:45] that that give the size like like Detroit had a couple players like Phoenix has a couple players that just just outsize us and out muscle us and they didn't even say they're sorry. There was a couple tackles they just took our people out in the milio unfortunately is

[00:10:01] is the one that's on the ball a lot and he gets smacked around a lot and he's probably used to because you have to face that when you're a little bit more diminutive than the other

[00:10:11] players but we don't have anybody else in coming to force like you're talking about. Yeah and I think we all spoke about this for a while. I mean even getting rid of someone like Jake

[00:10:20] LoCava he does bring something at least the presence of like constant pressure for the last 20 minutes so I don't know I'm surprised we don't have them surprised we let him go but I think

[00:10:33] I'm more surprised we haven't brought someone in or even any rumors on someone who can fill a spot because clearly we have a big gap up front if we're not scoring goals there's an issue.

[00:10:46] One thing that Phoenix did really well that really knocked us off our game a lot I think it was their press and they were pressing us the whole time we used to pressure people the first couple matches

[00:10:56] we've dropped off that now so we're not scoring goals we're not even pressing them to get pick up that one lucky ball that might come from the press and put in the back of the net because everybody's just staring watching and I'll give you a great example everyone's

[00:11:08] staring at the watch and when it come off the woodwork there's at least four battery players watching the ball come off the woodwork standing there watching it ricochet off and still stand there and in the only person that was moving was the Phoenix Rising player

[00:11:24] screwed it up but we can't be caught ball watching this is simple basic stuff that that you learn in U10 U12. Yeah I mean I thought the boys would have came out a lot harder

[00:11:35] for this game especially considering the history of it so I mean you have what three or a loss in two draws in the last three games and then you would think they'd come out firing on this one and

[00:11:50] make a statement when or at least I mean honestly get something out of it don't just walk away with more questions than answers. I saw a little bit of the interview transcript from

[00:12:03] Ben Peerman talking about how going out there they weren't going to run as much because of the heat and I've been in plenty of deserts in my lifetime plenty of deserts when they say it's a

[00:12:15] dry heat and it doesn't affect you as much it doesn't affect you as much when we're playing down here in a swamp all the time and practice sessions and training sessions we should have

[00:12:25] been well prepared for that little bit of heat that had very little heat in it. Yeah I guess we're not playing any more games in Charleston right because that would be just chalk it up as an L.

[00:12:37] Step outside today and we'll talk about heat I guarantee you that heat down in in Phoenix has nothing compared to what it is out west today. Well just looking forward to our game this upcoming Saturday with the heat you know it's going to be 95 almost 95 degrees.

[00:12:54] Maybe we're just you know been trying to change things up and put us more on a little different footing and if that's the case I'll accept that I'll accept that change. Here's an

[00:13:06] interesting thing I just found out so the USL championship does not have a set transfer window rather it goes based off all the other leagues in the world so for international play coming in

[00:13:26] there's a second that window closed on April 23rd and there's a secondary window opening up July 18th through August 14th so the battery have that window opportunity to sign an international player.

[00:13:41] We can go out through the rest of the season and sign in a national player you know a person in the States up until there's a roster freeze and that's going to be about four games before

[00:13:52] the playoff start and there's a roster for it. I was thinking the way we're going Nunes might be the perfect international player to come and play just kidding. He'd fit right in with not scoring.

[00:14:06] Sorry we don't alienate all you Liverpool fans because Nunes is a phenomenal player he just has a little problem getting it in the back then it like the Charleston batter. We get some one

[00:14:16] then because that's what three games until that technically that window would open so I don't know it's a good time to have some guys prove their worth of sticking around and not being replaced by

[00:14:28] the coaching staff and the ownership group looking to bring someone in. Well the good thing is we kept clean sheet defensively I think we're doing really well uh with Leland back there and just

[00:14:41] him and Smith were just were so calm and cool almost in every situation the only time I'd criticized either one of them was the one they were the bulk off the woodwork but other than that

[00:14:52] both of them did a fantastic job back in the back and up in the box. We were talking at Edmond Towsbury Company because they were open, TV's on, slinging beer and we were talking about how

[00:15:05] well our defensive backs were probably the best players on the pitch for the battery both in defense and attack. Emilio did a fantastic job out there he was moving the whole time if he

[00:15:16] wasn't dead by the end of that 90 I don't I don't want to hear about heat because Emilio just took it to everybody maybe it's because he grew up Florida and he's used to actual heat

[00:15:27] he did a fantastic job had two shots on target out of the three uh he was just hustling the whole time so he was the ball of energy out there we're used to and other players on the

[00:15:37] field need to look at him and emulate his actions all right he's just a workhorse and you want to see him continue to with this heavy workload that he's carrying on you just hope that he you know

[00:15:50] he just takes care of himself off the pitch and continues to keep going forward you're good on that I don't really have much to add on that I mean I think we all know he was the only one

[00:16:01] busting his ass the whole fucking game so yeah I was just gonna say I wasn't able to join you guys for that game Saturday night uh had some in-laws in town and we had some stuff scheduled but

[00:16:16] Sunday I went and watched the USA game which coincidentally they have music bingo every Sunday so not only was it just a huge party singing along guessing some old classic songs some

[00:16:29] nostalgia that just gets your brain jarred again think thank you forget a lot of things but uh it was nice to celebrate a USA win with a lot of fans just soccer fans of general line to watch the

[00:16:43] copa that's really cool you know Edmond Zos is kind of becoming kind of a soccer hangout I don't know it's the hotspot man you know what the one thing they're not afraid to put on the tv

[00:16:57] watch the football and turn up the volume no matter what they're watching and maybe they didn't do it during the bingo but every other time you go in there ask if there's a soccer match on and you

[00:17:07] want to watch it I've never heard anybody say they were turned down from watching it yeah I mean they had it on the outside the left and right tv above the bar and then I think a maybe

[00:17:20] a round of golf was finishing up on the middle tv and as soon as that kicked off popped it right on and it was full go from there so you let you love to see just the support especially for

[00:17:32] every type of soccer no matter what you're a fan of might be able to pop it on for you and you can go and enjoy a little bit there now that's cool so coming up friday

[00:17:44] come big match wrong you want to let the match whoa I'm sorry I just saw this came up on my phone Birmingham Legion acquired descender Derek Dott and on loan from Minnesota United

[00:17:59] and we played Birmingham Legion not next game of the game after that cool July 5th yeah so before the July 5th there's a June 28th friday matchup here in Charleston versus North Carolina FC

[00:18:19] yes this is a rivalry game this is the Carolina this is the fucking Darby right this is our Darby yes this is the Carolina Darby right here and for this game there will be hardware on the line

[00:18:35] this would be the first time this trophy is up for grabs in three years as North Carolina FC had gone down to us a league one and competed down there for three years before being promoted

[00:18:45] back up so even though we've already played them once this year we held on to the trophy after winning it the last time so they have to come to us to win the trophy back I know we drew them

[00:19:01] earlier in the season nil nil if not mistaken that was what like our first game maybe second game so yeah we didn't really have much to go on I think everyone was not nervous but just settling

[00:19:13] in a little bit with kind of here we go again starting the season up but yeah I look forward to us getting revenge and getting our points that we had dropped a little bit yeah that was a very odd

[00:19:27] game a very typical season opener as you would expect because nobody wanted defenses were so good that nobody wanted to have the first blood drawn so it just kind of stayed neutral and

[00:19:45] they're boring from there on so hopefully we can get after it and get the uh get the goal in this one and they fouled us a bunch so hopefully that doesn't happen again I think it's time to wrap it up

[00:19:55] and we'll throw out a pre-match podcast later on the week thanks for listening and that's all we got yeah go battery and uh go USA make it out of that group stage