Join the Cannon Crue in their quick discussion of the Pit v. CHS match and the Battery's loss and the upcoming RI match here in Charleston. Up the Battery!
[00:00:15] 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. They are the Cannon Crue.
[00:00:35] Welcome to the Cannon Crue podcast. I am Granit and I am joined by Ryan. Ryan, how are you?
[00:00:41] I am doing fantastic Granit. How are you?
[00:00:44] I am doing okay. We have had some technical difficulties. We fought through them. I think we fixed them.
[00:00:50] It has been a productive morning. Had to fire another tech guy.
[00:00:54] Yeah, exactly. The tech guy has been sacked.
[00:00:58] I was going to mention the cold weather change. You got your little beanie on. I think it has the battery logo in the front.
[00:01:05] My problem with the cold weather change and I say the extreme cold weather change because we're from South Carolina.
[00:01:11] As I was refereeing this week and every time a coach provided the game ball, they were all way under inflated.
[00:01:19] The cold weather has definitely affected my life to the extreme. I'm just kidding. This is a very, I'm enjoying the coolness.
[00:01:28] Yeah, I had a bit of that difficulty this past weekend.
[00:01:32] But under inflated balls.
[00:01:34] Yeah, we had a tournament in Florence and for some reason each game we had to provide the game balls.
[00:01:41] Even though one of the teams we played against was the host of the tournament and we still had to provide the game balls for that game.
[00:01:48] I don't know. It's very odd.
[00:01:50] It is very odd, but maybe it's because Florence.
[00:01:53] I'll be quiet. Florence is a great place to raise your children.
[00:01:58] We went 4-0 and then had a 2-0 in the penalty shootouts to win it in the finals.
[00:02:04] So your team is the little champs?
[00:02:06] Little champs.
[00:02:08] Nice. Good job. They actually have a really good facility up there.
[00:02:11] It's wide open. It's next to the highway. Parking's pretty easy.
[00:02:15] Well, that's actually where I played my last collegiate soccer game at.
[00:02:19] Really?
[00:02:19] Was there for the Carolina's finals back in 2021.
[00:02:23] Wow. Did you reminisce with the boys? Did you take them over and say, this is where it happened?
[00:02:28] I did. And we won our final on that field. The field I lost on. It was good.
[00:02:34] Sweet. Revenge.
[00:02:36] It took you two years.
[00:02:38] But you got it.
[00:02:40] Well, cool. Let's talk quickly about last week when the Pittsburgh Riverhounds beat us up.
[00:02:50] They didn't beat us up. Beat us 2-0.
[00:02:53] Yeah. I mean, they took their opportunities and we didn't.
[00:03:01] That's nameless to say. We both were given about the same amount of opportunities.
[00:03:05] Theirs, they were in a little bit better positions, but also struck it a lot better than we did, obviously, in the final third.
[00:03:13] Now, defensively, and if you look at how our lineup was, you can notice there was quite a few changes.
[00:03:21] You have Sidi and Chapman playing on the wings.
[00:03:25] You have Robbie Crawford playing left back, which I thought was kind of odd still because, yeah, that's normally Dos Santos or Drac, but not to start Drac.
[00:03:37] I feel there.
[00:03:39] I think that's kind of like a missed opportunity because then you just slide Robbie into the midfield.
[00:03:44] Yeah, and Drac wasn't even on the bench.
[00:03:49] Yeah. So, you know, there's possibly an injury there, which we didn't hear about.
[00:03:55] So I'm kind of hoping he's doing okay and we get to see him tonight.
[00:04:00] Yeah. We talked about last podcast about how maybe we should rest some players, especially traveling away.
[00:04:07] And it looks like that's exactly what he did.
[00:04:11] Hey, and Samuel B., you know, I called that around halftime trying to get him in and he got in at halftime.
[00:04:18] Unfortunately, he went in for Graham Smith, so I did not get to see him playing that CDM role.
[00:04:22] But he did play that center back role more of a high line.
[00:04:27] So you can see that he definitely I think he would excel that CDM role because he wants to go forward a bit.
[00:04:32] Okay.
[00:04:34] Well, let's see what happens the next couple games.
[00:04:36] It was a good time to get time and some legs.
[00:04:38] Nick didn't play.
[00:04:39] He was on the bench course, and I don't think I'd play him either.
[00:04:41] The risk of injury is always there and why put your your ace out.
[00:04:47] And I think that was a last second decision by pyramid, too, because at the end of the at the same time to a lot of people would say, why even travel him if you're not going to play him?
[00:04:56] But I think the intent was to still get some minutes underneath of him.
[00:05:00] But with how the game was progressing, you know, to zero and it was pretty physical.
[00:05:05] Yeah, not not going to take the risk there.
[00:05:07] Don't really want to.
[00:05:09] Maybe he was there to carry the team's boots that he get lost.
[00:05:13] I don't know.
[00:05:13] That's maybe a point.
[00:05:15] I think that's it.
[00:05:16] So when you look at all the stats, you know, we were killing it like we normally do.
[00:05:21] The passing was kind of really lopsided.
[00:05:24] It was six hundred ninety seven to their three ten and but everything else was just normal business.
[00:05:29] We just didn't put in the back of the net and let to it pass this.
[00:05:32] And the first one was just kind of people were out of positions.
[00:05:35] We were attacking forward if I remember right and just a chip over granny.
[00:05:38] The only thing that kind of worries me a little bit going forward with the battery is how we're hanging in with teams.
[00:05:47] We dominate them on the field possession.
[00:05:50] She shots not shots on goal sometimes shots on goal, but generally shots possession corner kicks, etc.
[00:05:59] And yet teams we still take teams all the way to the full 90 minutes.
[00:06:05] Unlike this past weekend, but just generally speaking.
[00:06:07] So now you go into the playoffs, you know, granted, I'm kind of looking at it and I it's hard to build hard to imagine the battery not going to at least two penalty shootouts in the playoff run.
[00:06:22] So do you think that they've practiced on their penalty shootouts following the Atlanta game exit in the US Open and in the final last year?
[00:06:30] If they haven't every day of their lives, then they all should be fired.
[00:06:35] Everyone.
[00:06:37] We've lost some huge matches due to PKs.
[00:06:41] That should be a day that I've hopefully been has them out there working everybody, not just the top five that would take him, but everyone, because you never know if your name's gonna be called.
[00:06:51] They need to.
[00:06:53] Hopefully it never gets to that.
[00:06:54] But just in case, because that's easy to work on.
[00:06:56] Right.
[00:06:57] That's just spending a little bit of time.
[00:07:00] Yeah.
[00:07:00] Our form is, is not, you know, it's not been as good as Rhode Island's has been over the last couple of matches, but I'm going to say this past, this past match was kind of, I don't want to say a throwaway match, but it was a kind of a throwaway match for us.
[00:07:15] Well, you also got to look at the standings and look at how we are, you know, we're in second place, 10 points above Detroit.
[00:07:22] So we have second place locked.
[00:07:24] We can't move.
[00:07:25] We can't move up to one.
[00:07:26] We can't move down to three at this point.
[00:07:29] Rhode Island is strictly making a playoff push and they went from being ninth place.
[00:07:35] Now they're sitting in fifth place with one point behind Indy.
[00:07:39] And that's a massive point because if Rhode Island were to jump over Indy, Rhode Island would be able to get to host the first round of playoffs.
[00:07:48] And that's massive for their inaugural season.
[00:07:50] Oh, absolutely.
[00:07:51] And I remember we went up there earlier in the season.
[00:07:54] Uh, it was kind of a miserable place.
[00:07:56] A little rain, a little rain on the camera, high school stadium.
[00:08:00] I don't know if it's a high school stadium.
[00:08:01] You only see like half the pitch.
[00:08:03] Uh, I don't even know why we went up there.
[00:08:04] We should have just forfeited that game.
[00:08:07] Yeah.
[00:08:07] And you look at Rhode Island, you know, 14 draws on the year or most out of anybody in the whole USL.
[00:08:14] I see them going to a lot of penalty shootouts too.
[00:08:17] You're absolutely right.
[00:08:18] So they, hopefully they have not been practicing, but anyways.
[00:08:22] So yeah, we, uh, talk a little about Pittsburgh, talk a little bit about Rhode Island.
[00:08:27] We wanted to try to keep this kind of short.
[00:08:28] It's kind of late in the morning after a long week for all of us working and,
[00:08:33] and trying to feed our families and all that good stuff.
[00:08:37] So speaking of feeding families, what's on your menu for tonight, Ryan?
[00:08:43] My menu.
[00:08:44] So I, we have the Mac daddy truck.
[00:08:48] So you either get the chicken tenders with the Mac and cheese, always go with the medium sized cup.
[00:08:54] Cause it's just the perfect amount.
[00:08:56] Um, or you get the pulled pork with the barbecue sauce on top.
[00:08:59] That is a crowd pleaser right there.
[00:09:02] Um, then you also have coastal crust, which is a brick oven pizza.
[00:09:06] Phenomenal pizza.
[00:09:08] Uh, at the very end, you also have traveling Tom's, which is a, the coffee shop.
[00:09:12] If you need to get a little late night coffee on your way out.
[00:09:15] So you can stay awake for driving home.
[00:09:17] Yes.
[00:09:19] And then you have all the beers, all the beer stops.
[00:09:21] You could want there.
[00:09:23] Um, a good beer choice.
[00:09:26] Grant, what's your go to?
[00:09:28] So my go to is not there.
[00:09:31] One day, maybe, but my go to now.
[00:09:35] It's a new beard by Edmonds Oaks Brewing Company.
[00:09:39] They just canned it, put it in the kegs.
[00:09:41] It's called Charcenal Pale Ale.
[00:09:45] Why is that so significant to you, Grant?
[00:09:46] It is hugely significant because I may, okay, I'll claim it publicly.
[00:09:52] Sounds like you were there.
[00:09:54] You might have been there.
[00:09:54] Yes, I was at the canning.
[00:09:56] For those that don't know, I'm a huge Arsenal supporter, bleed red and white.
[00:10:01] Uh, and they canned it the other day, invited us board members to come in and myself and Stan.
[00:10:06] Got to sit there and watch those little pretty little cans come down the little machine and had one or two while we were there watching.
[00:10:13] It was fantastic.
[00:10:14] It's a big time for us in Charcenal, uh, cause it's a big leap.
[00:10:18] And thank you Edmonds Oaks Brewing Company and Cam for believing in us and giving us a beer that we all can rally around.
[00:10:27] Maybe someday the battery can give the same thing to you.
[00:10:30] No, that's beautiful.
[00:10:32] Out right there.
[00:10:34] Kickoff 730 tonight.
[00:10:37] Smash Burgers in our, in our future.
[00:10:40] I'll probably be there about 630 or 7 ish.
[00:10:45] What about you?
[00:10:47] I'll be there by, I'll be there by 7.
[00:10:49] Hopefully you don't get stuck in traffic this time.
[00:10:52] Absolutely.
[00:10:52] That was crazy.
[00:10:53] So, um, this is about a while ago.
[00:10:57] Yeah.
[00:10:57] Are you, are you pre-gaming with the, uh, with some Charcenal Pale Ales?
[00:11:01] I will be pre-gaming with several Charcenal Pale Ales.
[00:11:05] I'm trying to figure out how to get a drone to drop them over the fence to me.
[00:11:09] But, oh, I probably shouldn't say that by the way.
[00:11:11] But anyways.
[00:11:13] Okay.
[00:11:14] That's all I got.
[00:11:15] Thanks man.
[00:11:16] Thank you.
[00:11:17] See ya guys tonight.
[00:11:18] Bye.
[00:11:18] Yeah.