Fire at will: Battery v. RIFC: Playoff Preview 2025

Welcome to Cannon Crew, 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 Crew.

Can of Crew is back. Playoffs game one. Charleston Battery versus Rhode island fc. I'm Granite. How's it going, Ryan?

Doing good, Granite. How are you?

I doing all right. Little nervous. Got the cardiac team on call. I had to leave the state for a little bit so I could relax. It's not working, Patrick.

Not working?

Not much. I think the rule's still there. Only two of us are allowed in the state at a time, so I just got back into state. You're required to leave?

Yeah, I mean, that's what happens. That's just the deal we made. Ryan is hogging all the South Carolina weather down here. Is it raining down there?

Oh, it's been raining all day.

Has it?

Oh, yeah, Yeah.

I brought it down. I brought it down from Atlanta. It's. It's gross.

Is that what it was? Because it was pretty nasty. And by the way, whatever road construction that they have to go on for eternity between in North Carolina, they really need to stop that.

My entire life.

Dig of hands like.

Over there by Selma.

Yeah.

You leave south of the border.

Yep.

You go into North Carolina and there are barriers, cones, traffic slowdowns, signs, all sorts of stuff all the way until you get into Virginia. All of a sudden, I'm like, all the two. The road is clearing. I see a sign, Virginia's for lovers. I'm like, oh, hell, we've just left that state. So that has been my trip. I'm in Richmond, Virginia, having a good time. Just got here, doing a little relaxing, stuff like that. So let's talk about playoffs. Ryan, what you got?

Just the brackets.

What do we got to do?

It's a good bracket. It's a tough first draw for a lot of us fans because we're just thinking about what happened last year. This is an Eastern Conference final repeat from last year. You have it in the first round, which is, you know, not. Not very common to have that happen back to back years. But it's, you know, the draw we got hosting Rhode Island. I haven't seen them since first game of the season in Patriots Point where we beat them 2 to 0. We did play them last month, lost them 1 0, but not too worried about it.

But we were talking about that before we jumped on here. What do you think was the difference this last time in August?

Oh, in August, we Definitely slowed down. We had injuries. We had a different back line. We had that. We were going through that phase where we were playing Landry in the back line and then evident and, you know, ultimately playing three in the back and then having Landry slide to that extra midfielder role. We were still playing that system and had. And had certain subs in. So, like, Ruben was playing up front and stuff like that. You know, only losing 10 in the 70th minute to a goal up there in Rhode Island. Cold, rainy. Whenever it is up there, you know, it's. It is what it is. We're bringing that, that fight back to Charleston. This playoff push. You have promotion, relegation around the corner. The Padre are making it a point in a case to why they should be in that first division. They got to win it, though. What do you guys think they have to do? They have to win the cup this year to prove why they should be in that first division.

Patrick? I don't.

I don't think to prove why they should be in the first division, but I think to prove to the fans why they should be in the first division. Because the fans have been sitting here without a championship for quite a while of a team that they know has got the strength, has the ownership, the coaching, the wherewithal to go out and get the players that should get you there. And we just seem to keep falling short year after year. So I don't think we. I think more so from a fan's perspective, you want it to be proven like, hey, we want the trophy. Let's go into this whole promotion, relegation on the highest note, where they can't snub you. They can't say, hey, you're not in the first tier because of X, Y and Z. If you win, it's almost should be a guarantee you're in.

Do you think as fans, we are way to the first division?

I just think as fans, you're hungry for the title. We've seen us fall short and you want it and you see how much Louisville has just ascended, ascended, ascended their stadium, the fan growth there. And I think as fans of the Batteries, you want to replicate that. Like, why are they the talk of the town when we're more prestigious? We have the history, we have a great community, but it seems lackluster in TV broadcaster talking around town. It's not the big thing. Like, why not? I think a championship would push it to that. Go ahead and become the talk of the town. Make the whole promotion, relegation relevant for people who are just soccer casualists around town to actually make them into fans and maybe potential season ticket holders.

Oh, I think that's, that's, that's excellent thoughts because you look at all the other clubs around professional sports in Charleston, we have two, right? We have Stingrays and we have River Dogs and both of them are farm clubs and they just players move in and out of them. There's. I've been to both, used to love going to Stingrays games. They really tell stuff down there. Dogs is just thirsty Thursdays and people go there to drink beer and have a good time. It's a good way to spend it four hours on Sunday afternoon. But they're not at the perfect level that the Battery is. And I think you're absolutely right. Bringing home a trophy and hoisting it high so people see it and go, hey, this is, these are the best in the US on USL and potentially at MLS and we'll get up to that level also. I don't say the MLS level, but the was it Division 1 soccer and.

May I tack on soccer culture here is huge amongst the youth. So getting kind of that spotlight even more so on the Battery going into what could potentially be expansion into academies, stuff of that nature that we've touched on before would just be another caveat of like, yes, this is a team that wins. We want to go ahead and have our kids get in these academies and maybe, maybe start here and just try it out because it is going to be a new thing for the Battery if they go that route. And it. What better way to keep the talent where you want it at home and use it for your own teams.

Hey, let's switch to that, Ryan, because you and I were in stands last match and we were talking to a local, I call them, legend soccer coach and club level. And we had a great discussion about what USL needs, what Charleston needs, what the Battery needs. And it was along the lines of having a great, you know, academy team, these boys playing, you know, reserve teams from other places and playing at a higher level than what you're going to get necessarily at the club level. What would you take away from our conversation?

What I take away from that real conversation is having those people in the community wanting to push and wanting to drive for it along with unfortunately the money and the support that comes with that's needed for that to fund it. You have great opportunities for these players that you're trying to bring in and you're wanting to promote. Like for example, Arturo's brother, Rodriguez. Arturo Rodriguez's brother, we signed him to an academy contract. We haven't seen him on the field the one time this year or maybe we've seen him on the field one time this year. Right. Like he needs to be getting a lot more playing time and I think us as fans would love and appreciate seeing him more. And to have a team like as you said. Right. The River Dogs and the Stingrays are both farm teams. They feed into other teams, other bigger teams. What if we had those academy teams to where they filled in or fed into the Battery and keeping that talent local and building up on that and allowing these players to play more fans to watch them. It's going to be a great. It'd be a great benefit. But again it comes down to like the coaches, the caring, wanting to push it and the drive for in the community.

No, absolutely. And talk to a little about money because that's the big thing is making academy team and even club look available to everyone no matter what. And we talk about what clubs give scholarships and that kind of stuff. But that's different. I'm talking about players want to play. They're playing and not on other wallet.

Yeah.

And that's.

And then the main. Exactly. No, you're exactly right. And then the main excuse that a lot of coaches or like other people would say like this league's not or you know, this wouldn't be successful because of like who are you going to play? You don't have teams that you're playing in your league or your conference or et cetera. Even though the Battery have. There. There is a league that they can play in for USL Academy that have local teams around us, you can still go and play college teams that. What's. That's the same. It's the same level. Essentially you're getting great meds against great teams.

I think if you build a good above coaches management kind of level they're going to think bigger than what coaches do and they're going to make things happen.

Yes.

If you just throw up your hand say who we got to play. Well, we don't need you in the organization because if you're that narrow minded and that and your scope is that tiny, it's time for you to probably move on and coach hockey or something.

I don't.

Nothing gets. That's what I've gotten a lot of because the Stingrays. I think Stingrays come come have more people attend their matches than on average than the Battery does. Well I think that's because people need to think beyond their borders. But anyways let's get on.

What better way to shift the entire scene of soccer in this country than to actually get it away from winning? And I have to play certain kids that are only going to make me win to. I want to develop talent in this country to be the best that it can be and elevate the United States as a country. You see it with every other, I mean, mainly every South American country. You see it with almost every European country. It doesn't matter. Don't throw youth in there because they want to see, hey, these are meaningless games for our national team. I want to throw you guys in there. Some of our youth or younger players to test the waters, give them the experience. And just getting rid of coaches that have that mindset that's built into the structure of youth soccer in today's era is not a bad idea. Get rid of the people who are keeping the level and the growth down there. There's a ceiling with those coaches. And it. Because it comes from the parents, comes from the hierarchy. And as long as we essentially blow the whole thing up and make it about progressing talent, making the best for a player, doing what is right, and getting every kid the opportunity to go ahead and grow. If you have talent, no, I don't want you to stop dribbling the ball. I want you to pass it around 15 times, and I want to just totally destroy your creativity. We start getting rid of that, we're going to start seeing the country as a whole just get better and better and better and eventually become a dominant force in world soccer.

I mean, we only have like 3 or 400 million people here. You think we get at least 11 that could play better than, say, like, Belgium.

The main thing, too, that you go exactly with the coaches that we're talking about. Those exact same coaches are also the same ones that keep the same. Those same players in same positions the entire game. Yes, they may sell them out, but if they get back in the field, they're going right back in that same position. There's no versatility, adaptability, allowing these players to grow their soccer IQ and playing in various positions and allowing them to get better skills and to, you know, mature more of the game. And they give them those opportunities of breaking through on someone else's roster. Because all you have to do, everyone knows this. If you make it to college soccer, everyone knows you just have to make it somewhere on that roster. Doesn't really matter where you're at on that roster if you make it. And then once you're on that roster, you can move, you know, make your way through there. Like if someone gets injured, bam. Then I can go into the left back spot because coach has seen me play left back because I used to play left back, but I can also go play right winger, you know, and all that stuff. Right. You're adding that versatility to you and it makes yourself very, very valuable. And we've seen it in college where you have two or three of those guys on every team and those are the guys that may not start every game, but they're definitely getting the minutes and the coaches definitely value them a lot.

Well, how do you, how do you, how do you grade coaches? How do coaches and club teams maintain being a coach?

I think you look at the huge factor which is widespread in our country is that you, you, you trust a foreign coach because they seem like they know what they're doing. But then you also, those coaches give scholarships to foreign players first if they want to keep them on their team. Like we've all seen it in the system. It doesn't matter. The US born players are looked down upon. Doesn't matter. Compared to, I have this amount of scholarships and I can go to Europe and grab some young kids and bring them over here, give them a free college education because I will win some games. We can negate all that and actually develop talent here. It'd be amazing.

Because that's what matters, right? That's how you grade coaches.

Oh, you put a dollar sign next to it too.

Oh, sorry. Yes.

Because the parents are, yeah, if the parents are playing, paying money like we're talking about right now, sponsorships will take that away. So it doesn't matter. I don't care that you pay a little bit more money. Your kid is not starting. I want to develop this team and make this team and that's how you get really good coaches. You're going to get guys who are known for developing for the next level. And we're, we're not talking u17, u18, we're talking u9, u8, u7, uh, who are getting these kids prepared for u11 to go on and be really good and maybe get signed to academies across the globe. We have the talent, we have the infrastructure to do it. We just need a concrete shift of everything and I think promotion, relegation is going to do that.

Well, we talked, we talked about that also, Ryan, about how we struggle Charleston area have been, have we seen the, through MLS or any kind of level like that?

Not well, see that's, yeah, you, you look locally and you have few clubs who have been here for a long time. I just learned about the core four, which was Charlestown, Charleston, United, James island, and another one, maybe, maybe it was this four. I can't remember now, but it was. It was just four teams that originally started. And one of those clubs are still here. Just celebrated, you know, last week, their 50th anniversary. So that club's been around for over 50 years in Charleston, and not one player has. Has been able to break through. For them. It just kind of shows where their focus is. Because at the same time, too, from that same club, I'm not. There's no emphasis on college recruitment or further steps into a path to pro or going overseas. Like, yes, there's programs to go overseas. You don't need to go overseas to make it. You don't. And players and coaches who are constantly sending players on like these massive trips overseas and all this stuff. It's in my head, why not try to make it in your own country and then go abroad? Like Matt Turner. Matt Turner struggled in his own country. We all see the videos of him in college. And then he became the best goalkeeper in America and then went over and then went overseas to try and beat it. It's hard to go over there and beat it. Because if you're not the best over here, what makes you think you can go over there and be the best? Because when you go over there and try to think you can be the best, that's when you're going up against the already the best in other countries. Because everyone goes to England or goes to Spain. It's just what happens. So it's a different mindset that you have to realize when. When you go to those trips and you don't have that vocal, that person supporting you, saying, I mean, you have these options here. Stateside said you have people wanting them to spend the money and to go do that stuff because they get to go too. I'm not gonna lie. I would like a free trip to Spain or a free trip to England. Be fun. You're telling me I just gotta take.

A few kids, kind of like, oh.

You have to take kids. I was thinking, oh, like a little.

Soccer trip, you know, like, it's fun, right? Like go see a few stadiums and then done.

I mean, it's kind of like saying, it's like the food here in America, right? Like, American kids are kind of looked like as fast food, ultra processed, same thing, not great quality, cheap. I mean, you use it, but that's kind of it is there. It's not like the grass fed farmhouses that you go out and spend a bunch of money on and you want that. It's quality. Like we're going to turn this country from McDonald's into Hall's chop house. Like you're going to get this amazing development of everything from top to bottom. We're going to have coaches go. You're going to have teams in the USL spend the money for youth coaches because they're good at developing, because they want their club to be better across the board. Everything's going to get better.

I agree. My camera is acting crazy because it wants to move on. Okay, there we go.

Shocker.

Let's, let's, let's transition to talking about Burang.

Yeah. We get off topic. No, those are. Yeah, I gotta check out a few. We want our listeners to challenge us though and to send in their responses and to see what we say about it. You know, ask us questions, let us know what you think about this.

Outside of our echo chamber. Yeah, Granite.

What would you guys say about the entire east bracket? Because once I think once we get past Rhode island, we're kind of looking at Louisville as the biggest threat. But I don't really see any other team on the road there getting in our way.

I don't. I don't either. We got to get past Rhode island first because Rhode Island's been our bugaboo. You know, we lost him in the playoffs before. We lost to our last match. I think they have. We've only beaten them once or twice and they either drawn or beat us three times. I'm trying to find that stat here, but it's. But they kind of have our number and so I don't. We've got to get past them. We get past them and I think our next big hurdle is going to be. Is going to be Louisville.

Well, unless Louisville gets the upset like last year. Right.

Say it again.

Unless Louisville gets the upset like last year where that was our big worry and then we didn't even worry about another team. Rhode Island.

Exactly.

So I think they have a team on that side to upset them though. Not first round, but there's a team on that side who can upset them. No, Hartford. I think Hartford. I think Hartford takes. Takes Louisville and added time before Pens. They take them at a time.

Well, let's go through the matches. Who, who we think is going to win. Win each round. So who do you guys got for Louisville? Detroit?

Louisville.

Oh, Louisville. Yeah.

All right. Now, Ryan, Ryan, I know you got Hartford against Pittsburgh. About you, Grant.

I Think I'll go with Pittsburgh on that one.

I like Ryan as a goalkeeper enthusiast. Do you not think Dick is the best keeper? Like, oh, no. Every time we play him, he's so fucking good.

He is down.

No, he's one of the best. But do you remember the last time that we played him? And you remember his back line getting absolutely furious with each other after the first 10 minutes of the game? That back line's in shambles.

What?

I'm here for it.

Maybe. I. I think I.

He just.

It doesn't matter because he has those games where, as they say in hockey, he stands on his head.

It's like 50 saves a game. It feels like.

We got a lot of hockey references here.

You do, because hockey's baby.

North Carolina and Loudon.

I think this is an interesting game. It's a very interesting game. You got a Carolina Darby right here. Not a Carolina Darby. I'm sorry. It's their Darby match. What's their Darby match called? I can't remember.

The loser Derby Cup. The loser cup.

Probably the toilet coat.

The toilet bowl.

I think this is going to be a. It's going to be a good one. I. I think North Carolina still takes it, though. I'm not going based off of the rankings. I'm going based off of who's been in recent. The better form of lately. And Louden.

Yeah.

Also offloading a few of their players, too, which was quite a shock. It's like they definitely dropped off from. From their playoff push. They went from three to six pretty quickly at the last month.

Yeah, I agree with you. I don't know who's going to win this one. I'm not scared of either team if we see them in the second round.

But you're not.

I don't know. North Carolina is one of those teams that we started the season and we lost to them, and North Carolina looked like shit when we lost to them, and we still lost to them. And it's the playoffs and anything can happen. So.

I think. I think my worry with that game with North Carolina is the fact, like, yes, North Carolina played like crap. Yes, we played bad. And we could have easily beaten them. Still, we should have. You can blame it on the referees. You can blame it on the home field advantage. Okay, so you blame it on the home field advantage. We now have this next game at home. What worries me as a fan is knowing that home field advantage does not matter to the referees. Like, all of that stuff goes out the door. And the game, the games are just called completely Different. I don't want. It's just different. It's just hard for me to explain right now, but home field advantage does not exist for the Battery. It just doesn't exist for the Battery.

Is what I feel like all season we got. We got calls like shit. And so maybe they called differently because maybe they're doing that. I don't know.

There's a few games where Louisville looked like home to advantage didn't matter, but they look. They always get it.

Yeah.

They were so strong all season. I mean, if you go on to form. Loud's lost the last two coming into this. Is that right? And they lost to who? The last man? Take a wild guess.

No, North Carolina. Wait, Loudoun just played North Carolina.

Louisville.

That's what it looks like here. October 25th, Loudoun, United States. At least that's what the USL standings they're saying. So what about the rest of the bracket? Have we covered all yet?

Well, there's one more left in the east, and that would be our game. Do you want to just delve into that Battery?

Yeah, let's. That's a good.

Yeah, I think.

Battery.

Okay, let's. I want to back up. Back up to the last match. Ryan again this season said we have a keeper that leaks goals. And I did. Last match was. Yeah, you've been saying it all season. And you converted to me. You're like, yeah, I'm.

Yep.

I want to stop saying we get clean sheets.

I pulled up the tax receipts and it showed what we think. How many clean sheets do we predict we're going to get at the beginning of the season? This was like, probably when the regular season got released, the schedule got released, and we all gave good numbers. And I still stand by my number. And it's just not. It's low. I said, it's extremely low number. And it's just because of how he is. Just leaks stuff.

I will. I need to jump in here. Because it's not his fault in this goal. It's not because he has a shock collar.

If he.

If he leaves that box, he gets shocked.

Yes.

He doesn't know he's allowed to leave the box.

That's what Robbie does on the sideline. I always wonder what Robbie did. I saw him with this, like this button thing and I was like, what is that? And that's exactly what it was. Because you're closer when you sit in the stand, you see it. But we stand. We can't see it. So you see the.

But you see it as an Arsenal fan, we See a keeper who's willing to come out and just hit the ball. You can just run out. He could have, he could have kept going and headed that ball because there's no one within vicinity.

Probably he stopped.

He did not. He froze. Like, I'm not allowed to get out of this box. Oh, my God. I wish I could go one more foot and just touch that ball or jump it.

Couldn't jump either, apparently.

Like, it was a poor, it was a poor, as we say, a hospital ball back from Joey, but it's still one that keeper. If you're committing, commit, don't commit 99% and then stop.

So that, that being said, I, I, I worry, I worry about, about how we're going to be able to handle because we got to score goals. Sometimes we don't score goals.

Well, what scared me was immediately 10 minutes after we almost got scored on the same way. And then he finally stepped through it and then almost gave the ball away off the pass.

Wow. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's kind of the rest of the team is doing what they need to be doing and can't be letting go.

I mean, let's remember he technically is not our first choice keeper. We had this conversation early in the season. I think Ryan defended like you don't really have a first choice. I think seeing him play a bunch, you can tell if, barring injuries, he wouldn't be the first choice. We probably would have made a switch and kind of rolled with that. But again, this isn't like end all, be all. We had nothing to lose from this game. We have nothing to gain from this game. It's kind of just, I need you guys out there getting fitness levels up. I don't want to concede a goal. No one wants to concede a goal. Pyramid's definitely going to sit in there and say, do not concede. I don't want that. But time and time again it's been us. Go down, forget about it, the game's over. Another example of us rallying back and getting it and just not giving up on the game.

Absolutely. The only port that I have trouble with is when we don't win or somebody gives up a howler and they, and they're trading jerseys for the opposing team. Pitch. Do that in the locker room. Do it behind dumpster. Don't act like you're happy to be out there after you lose. I don't, I don't pay my 15 bucks a ticket to watch you all be happy. When you lose or nearly get by, you know, because they're much better, they should have higher standards. But anyways, so what else we discuss about who's our danger person from wherever?

I have a big question. I got a big question for you. Are we ever going to see Juan David back in a battery jersey? Where is he? Do we ship them off? He said he's putting up Instagram posts of him juggling with his friends teammates, but friends, not battery teammates. Where is he? What's going on? You would think the most dangerous quote unquote from USL Championship writings player in the league would be somewhat prevalent in one of the last games of the season and get some minutes before going to the playoffs.

I, I think he still has. He's normal position for chances created or something like a big chances grade or something. Us only hadn't played like last without any matches. I don't know where one day he is.

He the new Carmen Sandiego.

You might be.

Because this is a huge. Like this is not some small thing. This is a huge talking point. He is a. Almost what the team was starting to build around. Yeah, definitely. For most of the season he.

He was g. He gives. When they do a low block. All said, he gives another dimension so they can't just sit, you know, at the ATR box packing in there because he can take long range shots and be effective and you don't have that. Only person who do that now is potentially Aaron Malloy. And free kicks. We know who's going to take it every time now, right?

I mean, is he going to play on Sunday? Like I don't think he gets into a team. If he shows back up. I mean, how's this guy even going to. But like playing and being a team. This is crazy. Nah, dude.

Have you seen the videos of Ronaldinho when he played for AC Milan?

I've seen Ronaldinho, yeah. That guy gets into a team. I see videos of Maradona. That guy gets into a team, he doesn't have to do practice. Juan David is not Ronaldinho or Merida. I'm not.

No, I'm not saying. I'm not saying he is. I'm not saying they aren't. I'm not saying they are. I'm not. I was not comparing their football skills together. I was simply comparing off the field. That's where I was going. Going on to the field.

This. All right, let me, let me ask you, Ryan, this team, would you put him in.

Like right now or right.

Now not being there for what, three or four Games and the one he was.

He's not starting. He's not starting. He's not starting, but he's got. I'm making sure, I'm making sure he gets the best warm up of his life. He's playing but he's not starting. No. It'd be a second half I would hope for maybe 35th minute try to come on to spark something before the first half. Try to get us 10 if we're tied 0 0. But if not, I'd be looking to bring him in on the 65th minute mark. But 35th minute mark would be. I would be ideally looking for him because in that last 10 minutes the battery average at least one free cake in the opposing half. So that's where I'm looking at trying to get that, get him in for that set piece. But that would be.

Does he start any of the playoffs? Does he start any of the playoff games?

It depends on if he cares.

Yeah. I mean if he scores A.

How.

20 minutes. Yeah, I, I think, I mean you depend on. You depend on players gelling and going into a playoff run on form and togetherness. This guy's just not here. I mean.

Yeah, but that's that one.

He can play well, but he doesn't like on the field.

Yeah, but you can see the play. The players missing though. The players are missing me, me, me. The players are missing a Turo.

Not Arturo. Arturo. We step it up more.

We threw four to the win about three matches ago.

He is. I think this is Arturo. Really something from him.

From Arturo.

Switching left to right. Still doing it.

Yeah. Arturo's a sign wave right.

I would put. I would play.

I would.

I would play. Ikaza. I think I had a better run of form than Wanda Vid recently.

No, I want to know what's going on there. I want to know what's going on there. The Kaza. Is it. Because I mean is it shape with him.

Like he likes Jennings up top? I mean it's, it's. I mean I think Juan de is going to play. But I'm just saying if you're a coach and this is kind of what you do. We just talked about that big old spreadsheet you put on the screen. Granite. It's all about that right now. And you kind of want to stay with what's got you there.

No, but it hasn't. We struggled in the last like four or five matches. Juan David. We don't win well without Wandavi because what he gives us that ball and he can launch from Our own path, put it on Cal's foot. And as he's racing away, he helps break those lines. We don't have any other player besides Aaron that's capable of doing that. And teams haven't seen that look from a spur since one day he's been out. I think that's the reason why he started.

So are you saying Arturo can't break lines?

Yes. Not like Juan David can. Have you seen Juan dav?

I've been waiting for you to say that all season.

I know.

I taught.

I know.

He does have to get back to collected on defense in order to do that. It takes. Takes him a while to get back there.

If we had Christian Gardner starting, we would have to worry about that.

I just think Rhode Island's a very attacking, like, counterattack team.

Attack? Yeah. Counter attack.

I want one. Yeah. I'd want one more like midfielder who's not just going to stand up and be like, whoa, it's fine. Like, I mean, I agree. If you want like last 20, 30 minutes of a game, come on. Maybe make the difference.

But who scored the first goal the other night? Laundry. Right. He was in the box several times. They're pushing him so far up. So he was there playing that defensive center, mids.

Yep.

Just Aaron. That's it. And so if they're going to do a counter attacking, we're going to be hurt.

I'm just saying we're not going to switch that tactic. So he's still going to push left and right backs up. So that's where it just hurts us, is kind of.

I think we got to score.

We get.

We got to score first. We've got to score early and we can't for how? Like this last match.

We need MD to step up. Where has he been? He need. He needs to start cr. I know he's on that golden boot race. He was in there, but.

Well, here's the thing about MD is. Is Cal. They're both fantastic strikers. C7 or maybe 8 of Cal's goals come from PKS. Only like 1 or 2 of MDs come from BKS, which to me is hugely different. When you look at one of Ryan's favorite players, he's that guy that played for the Shitspurs. Used to get gold blue every once in a while.

Jermaine Dasol.

Yeah. Most of his goals were damned from pks. I'm sorry, Ryan, I shouldn't on you like that. That's. That's wrong with me.

I'm a Wolves fan.

I know. Yeah. I wouldn't Admit that right now.

It'S better than being a Spurs fan.

Still.

Anyways, at least we have a chance for another traffic.

I was in bottles the other day and I told you, I said, I want to look at your bottle from Speed and I don't know anything about wine. And the guy says, oh. And he says, oh, he's telling me about Arsenal. He goes, oh. He goes. He holds up his bicep, he has a Chelsea thing. I said, well, at least you ain't a fucking spurs fan. He goes, yep. At least we ain't fucking Spur fans. That's how we bonded. So, okay, are we done with this discussion? We've been at this for 40 minutes.

Yeah, I gotta get going. Match predictions for Sunday, November 2, 2pm Patriots Point.

Sunday, Sunday.

Hey, it's a midday. It's a 2pm game.

Sun it is. Everyone wake up. 2pm.

I thought we were at 5pm.

I think it's 2.

We're at 2pm Pretty sure it's 2. Hold on. Check your phones real quick.

Monday, Sunday, Monday.

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Yeah, 2pm and then you have Orange county in Sacramento at 9. What a cave spread.

I tell you what, this stuff switches. It was at 5 two days ago.

So if they're at 9 Eastern time, what does that put them out in sacramento in California?

6. 6pm 6 is prime for them.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's the reason why we're playing it too, right? So we can get ours out of the way. And cvs, because I think it's on the same network. CVS supports network. Strong book matches.

Okay, cool.

So we get the early one.

Okay.

That's all that.

No, what's the predictions?

What's your. What's your score, Ryan? What's your score, Ryan? I know you're not giving a clean sheet. Are you gonna say. Are you gonna give a clean sheet?

What's the song say? Write this down, I think.

And write me down, I think Fans, I think, are gonna be in for it in this one. I think we lose an added time, two to one.

Oh, boy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hey, if anybody's out there listening and wants to apply to take over Ryan's position because he's going to be sad.

All right.

Okay. What now?

There's. It's gonna be. It's gonna be a rude awakening. Gonna be an absolute rude awakening in our back line. It all depends on our reaction if we're going to concede like we have been conceding our last six games first and let our heads fall again, like Louise said. Yes, Pat, you're right. We stepped forward, we went after it. We got the win. We were able to push forward. Okay, great. We did that against a bottom table Birmingham team who also had 10 men. I mean that's not really showing me.

Much talk about that stuff.

All right, what's your predictions?

Okay, Patrick, what you got?

I think it'll be Rhode island scoring first and if they get a second, we will fight back with a goal. But I don't think we'll get the second goal. But if we. If I. My prediction is 1:1 and go to pens and hopefully pull it off there.

Say you're on one one to go into pin all the way to pins. Yeah.

I don't think anyone's going to. I don't think anyone is going to break it. I can also see Rhode island being like they know how to exploit it. They're a counter attack team and we're a against a counter attack. We've seen it. Every time we play a counter attack team. We do not adjust. I mean this is a definition of crazy. If it happens again, I'm just thinking we're going to change. We're going to do something different. But I see us going down first. I hope we're going to battle back in one one pension. Get out of there. With a win.

I'm going three nil. And this reason why they've only put the hat on. They've. They've only won 10 matches the whole season.

Lost.

Well, goal difference of one. Positive one and they're sitting at seventh place. 38 points.

Guess what? Guess what. You only need one gold to win each game. She'd outscore the other team by one.

I just get plus one each. They're. They're. They're due for us to annihilate them. And it might as well be on a Sunday afternoon.

I hope so. I hope. I really hope you got it. All right.

And let's not forget this is club record of wins in a season for the Batteries.

It sure is. Yep.

19.

So great job, boys.

A team that has won the most that we've ever seen.

Yep. So right.

Maybe.

Yeah.

We may be hard on them, but we just expect higher.

The boys have done this year. They are capable. Can you watch these games that they have dropped and you just like man, next year or the next next regular season comes around now like these boys are just going to get better and better and better. Seen it the last three years.

Yeah.

Can they finish?

Look at North Carolina. Look at North Carolina. They've only won 13, lost 11. You know, we're 19 and six and five. That's. That's the. The team below. Difference on 45 points. Huge difference. We just gotta put together a couple matches, do well score earning. We got score earning. I think Cal's on it because Cal's getting long the tooth and this is his time to shine. Or with fire, him and Ryan can go off, do their own.

I'm gonna. I'm gonna say we're gonna get our goal in my 1:1. We're going to get it from a center defender on a corner kick. We are going to get that because they shine. Our center backs shine at home. And I think we're going to go with Archer and Smith.

Pat, question before we end this, this last question. Both goals in 90 or both goals and added time going into pins.

I think it would be 90.

Both goals in the 90. Okay.

Yeah, I, I think we're going to see Rhode island score first half and then us Late, late, late. Equalizer. Maybe the ref, as much as you guys say no home field advantage, maybe an extra minute of extra time.

Oh. So, I mean. Okay. Okay. All right, boys. Anything else? Hey.

What? What? Yes, one more thing. Who's. Who's our midfielders? Let me start midfield because I think that's key. We've seen a couple different.

Malloyan, Landry.

Yeah, I think who's who. Malloy. Have we been carrying Blackstock outright?

He's been outright. He's been right back, has he not? Oh, maybe.

Yeah, right back.

Last match we started. Jeremy Kelly, if I remember right.

Yeah. I don't think he's getting the start we haven't seen. I think. I think we're gonna have Pace, I think we'll have husu, and we'll have Blackstock out there. Maybe as our outside backs. Potentially, you may see that just because of the counter attack.

Oh, no, I'm talking about our midfielders, not her backs.

Now our back wonders that they push him in the back.

We're just gonna have two midfielders. It's just going to be Malloy and Landry because we're going to play two strikers up. You're going to have. You're gonna do Blackstock, Archer, Smith, Dos Santos, and then you'll do Malloy. Landry in the middle wide would be Torres and Arturo. And then up front would be Cal and MD.

I'll give you one here. Granite Cosmo will start over MD Because Pyramid will realize he wants a striker option.

For later.

He needs it late in the game. Yes, exactly.

I absolutely agree with that.

I think he'll go. He'll go back to that. He'll go back to that.

He needs to. Or. Or not even putting a cause in. But. But sliding Arturo to Cam. I think if Arturo plays, he needs to be in Cam. I know I talked down about my boy right there. I know I talk down on him sometimes, but, man, does that boy know how to play Cam right now? He knows how to play Cam. That is where he's going to.

If Torres doesn't play, then Arturo is going to play in the spot. That's what he's been doing all season.

That's what's so frustrating.

Torres doesn't play Arturo.

I know.

Okay, maybe Douglas.

Douglas.

Douglas Martinez.

Yeah, that's.

Yeah, that's who's gonna start. So Andrew will be in the center, but Martinez will be out there.

Yes. Los Santos hasn't started in like four or five matches. Come on. At 60 minutes, much to my chick grid.

When here's a going what minute? Give me the minute that Jackson Conway is coming on.

Is that. Is that. Where is that we're betting on is what minute?

Texas.

It doesn't have to be 20, 25.

Man was always coming on the 89th minute.

We also have Ruben. So Ruben could be in there.

True. Getting some minutes.

I think Leggette Legette looks good, too. So maybe. Maybe he gets some minutes.

But Ruben comes on with his big meaty forehead at 60 minutes, and he's gonna get me my third.

Sounds good.

Okay, gentlemen.

All right.

Yell a lot on Sunday. See you, boys.

We are the fleet.

Yes.

If we will sink. But we, we are the battle ra.