Pirmanns Masterstroke: Battery's Two-Gun Raid defeats Lou City

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.

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Welcome to the Canon crew.

I'm Granite and I am joined by the ever lovely Patrick.

What's up?

What's up?

Puberty?

Not much.

Ryan, he's speaking to you.

Ryan's silent.

He is silent.

So you had a little trip to Ohio there, Patrick?

I did, yeah.

As expected.

Miserable.

But got to see family, which was great.

And got to be reminded why I don't live there.

80 Degrees two days later.

Snow.

Nice.

I think I saw a picture of that.

Ryan, how are you doing?

Good.

Midway through building my son's first playset.

Like playground, outdoor playground area.

So it's been a little task this afternoon, but I'm gonna get back to it here shortly.

Cool.

So we've.

Last one.

I didn't get out the podcast because I had some technical difficulties and there was this thing called Good Friday and I was doing churchy things.

It's kind of fun.

I'm known as the chicken wire cross guy because I carry the chicken wire across the front of the church.

So they put flowers in.

Pretty cool.

So let's talk about the two losses.

Do we want to though?

Okay, fine.

Let's all.

All in favor of not talking about it say I. I have it.

Okay.

Let's talk about the.

Not loss.

Let's talk about the raid into northern part of the country.

Not really northern, but northern from here.

From a bluegrass area.

We used to.

In the.

In the army, it's in the artillery.

And they had these things called two gun raids where they basically had a helicopter pick up two cannons, carry them far off and then they'd drop them and then they'd shoot some rounds and then come back.

And that's what I was thinking the whole time.

This was a big two gun raid up in Louisville.

The horses are dead.

They may be too focused on the Kentucky Derby way too early, but they died.

I'm sure we'll get into specifics, but what a game to credit to the players.

Play until you hear a whistle.

I think we've all heard that since we were four years old.

Yeah, Play to the whip.

Seen it though.

I haven't seen it though.

It's good to see it.

That's good to see.

So this means when you're a keeper on the opposing team, you raise your hand.

That means everybody stop.

Right?

He has a question.

Okay.

That's what it was was the ball.

Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, insane.

We maybe weren't the best, but we weren't the worst.

I'll say that.

We weren't the best we've ever been.

We're the best on the day and.

I will take Louisville at their worst.

We had.

I assume the last talk is the one that didn't go out where we talked about if we could get maybe a point from Louisville, we would all be happy campers.

And you must have sent it just to Coach Pierman because he was like, nah, I did.

I told.

I said I'm not going to produce this out.

I'm gonna put on the public.

But five at the back, baby.

Five at the back.

My idea.

Ryan is kind of on board with just a touch, but five at the back.

I've been say I.

You can go back and listen to the podcast before you can hear what I'm saying.

Five in the back, transition to a three.

You have the center backs to do it.

And by jolly did it look fan freaking tastic this past weekend watching it?

I mean if you wanted to compare how the Battery played this past weekend compared to how they played in the past, that was almost identical to our home Eastern Conference final win against Louisville when we won two to one at home.

That game was electric.

This game was nothing short of that.

And at the same time we were absolutely fortified in the back.

Zhu came alive about time.

Very proud of him, very happy for him.

Got team of the week.

I think he right and say he deserved it.

And I think we keep growing.

Can we keep that consistency midfield and a lot of big players showed up for the Battery who haven't, you know, made names yet for themselves this entire season.

And I'm.

I'm very proud of Laurent as well.

That was the guy who I've been talking about getting on the score sheet, getting his name in the Batteries list and he made his start this game, which I thought was a really big one for him to get the start of for not starting in previous games.

Huge.

He delivered.

Let's.

Let's talk about a couple other things, right?

It was.

Is it Eaza's Hunth match with the.

Battery's Hunter match and it's awesome.

And also Coach Pierman's 100 win or something like that.

Yep.

100Th USL win.

Yeah.

And that.

And, and he also coach of the week usl, so.

And this, this was a coaching coup.

We've.

We've kind of been not necessarily negative on Big Ben, but Big Ben, we're like, okay, you got to do something a little different.

And he came out doing something different.

I'll say, yeah, we're negative on this matchup because this matchup it seems like he doesn't learn that they're going to try and counter or.

And that's what they've done every single game.

We've played them in the past and they've gotten goals quickly and we've looked flat, we've looked dead, we look tired and we haven't fought back.

It looked like we gave up a lot, especially in Louisville and this totally changed it.

So if we're going to throw a few more numbers out.

This is Louisville's first loss of the season.

They were undefeated.

Four wins, no losses, no draws.

And I believe 26 games winning streak snapped.

So suck.

It.

Feels, definitely feels good for it to be us giving that to them as well.

And at the same time for the Battery kind of puts us in a thing of, you know, we had an opportunity last week with Detroit and how unique that game is in and of itself being held in Detroit and we know what that means.

We asked for what happened this week to happen last week.

Did it have to take going to Detroit to.

For this change to happen leading up to Louisville?

Do you guys think that had to happen or do you think he was kind of like.

He knew it was already going to happen.

He was kind of like saving it.

It's just your opinion.

Yeah.

I think after Detroit mindsets change said, we've got to do something different.

We've throwing different players at the.

At the problem.

They haven't been able to solve it because we're using the same system.

And I think finally somebody said, hey, let's change systems and see how that works for us.

I I think we also got to see what the battery worked hard in the off season on and that's getting some height in the box and some players who react quickly, we're not taking an extra touch.

So we got to see a little bit of that.

We also got to see Subaru play maybe a little more defensively and not in.

I'm not going to call it no man's land, but in a position that Pyramid's using him in and so him slotted back a little more comfortably.

I don't know if this is going to do it and it's going to be the spot he's going to thrive in with us or he's going to kind of like in a month or two get it together with CDM role and kind of Push forward and be that rock.

But I'm happy we put our defensive player of the year stud signing in the back to kind of.

I don't know.

What do you think Ryan gives Zamudi a little more confidence.

He played a hell of a lot better.

I think it gave him all the confidence in the world.

And the mere fact that we.

What, this is their second shutout this season?

Believe it's the second shutout.

Yeah.

So to have it against this caliber of a team as well.

The goals that we have sustained this entire season have not been, I think like, you know, you look at the.

The Florida Badgers game, the UPSL team that we face.

I mean the goal was a worldly that he scored, but it's the mere fact that, you know, we go up against Louisville and shut them down and have the highlights that we're able to have finally, you know, after every single team that we faced against last year, having their goalkeeper always play outstanding and us always going on the opposite end of it, it's about time it felt like for us to break through like this.

And can we keep the consistency?

Yeah.

And let's not forget we previously talked the one that probably won't come out, but this was kind of our.

Can pyramid ever do it?

Can he?

Tactically, this is the hump.

This is the hump the Battery has to get over in the regular season to show this light in the postseason that I think we worry too much about our next round matchups.

Do we get Louisville or do we get a big name?

And we tend to lose our playoff games because we're focused on the next round of like, we're too scared going into it almost because of what happens in the regular season.

But this is a great turning point for the Battery.

We can beat Louisville.

Louisville.

Isn't this on a pedestal team that is just going to rotate players and somehow always get it done?

I think this was big for coach Pierman, more so than the team itself.

And to get your 100th win against Louisville in Louisville, I mean that's just.

I mean that's a stamp in itself right now.

Maybe that's the reason why we threw.

Threw away Detroit.

Well, I mean, I started thinking about that too and I was like, but Detroit at home, in Detroit, like that would.

In your hometown, like that would have also been significant as well.

But you know, Louisville is pretty darn significant.

I mean, 20 games, home streak snapped, 12 loss, 12 losses.

Was that 12 losses straight against Louisville,.

Us to Louisville losses, but we've eight losses and like three or four draws, but anyways.

Yeah, we have.

They've been unbeaten by us in.

In 12 matches.

I think it's 12.

Okay.

Yeah, that's not counting.

I see.

Yeah, that's just right.

So what we saw was we are the possession team, right.

And we usually get killed by teams that transition quickly and play D. And we switched this game state on from the beginning.

How much?

Yeah, we.

How much?

Yeah, how much?

How much did that affect Louisville's game plan mentally?

Oh, my goodness.

Mentally, you could see how flat frustrated the midfield was because we were.

I've never seen a game where again, until that Eastern Conference final where the battery, especially in the midfield, were able to match the entire game, match, match.

Absolutely no player off the entire game in transition.

And what I mean by that is failing him, following him, putting immediate pressure on him the moment they're transitioning in the midfield, allowing for no turn, no options, or you're coming in tackling.

And you saw the battery putting all that in on display in the midfield.

Yeah, they still got some awesome chances and had some world aids, but I mean, still kept the clean sheet and they worked extremely hard for it.

I think it's important for our team to understand you don't have to possess every game.

You don't have to be the team that always has to control tempo.

You can go in, let another team kind of dial it back and learn from it.

Like, if there's a team to play against that you understand, they sit back and wait for you to make the mistake.

It's Louisville, and it's kind of nice to go in there and flip the table on them.

Be like, you have the majority of possession, it's fine.

We'll flip this script.

We'll get set piece, goal, we'll get a long ball, cross it back in and play to the whistle.

There's no whistle.

Okay.

It's on you like I.

It's.

It's nice to see that we don't have to play the same every single time we go out.

Yeah, we can switch it up.

And I think that has been a knock from me on Coach Pierman, that he really just doesn't change his style, no matter who he gets in.

Playing wise, which, yes, you recruit the players that you want to play your system, but you have to adapt for teams because every team plays a little different and they do their homework on you more than you do it on them.

So if you continuously play the same way, they have more tape and more ideas on how to break you down.

If they see One team shut you down, they're going to take that and run with it.

So Pyramid's whole thing is since we he's been at the Battery, I'm assuming before it was about possession, it was about, you know, having a great center mid that could control the game.

And Aaron Malloya was that guy.

And so you play to that strength and you play that strength no matter how much it it's costing you.

And I feel like that's what we did in the past and this is a absolutely incredible change that we don't have that necessarily.

That one person is a center center mid that controls everything completely like Aaron did.

And so we had to adapt.

And that's.

I think it's the key point is the adaptation to be able to overcome that, you know, that chink in our armor.

Yeah.

And another thing that kind of helps our team that we touched on was Colton Swann.

He was in this team.

I think he brings something that just the defenders and everyone has to look out for or he's always moving and in that position.

He didn't get rewarded on this day, but he was sorely missed for the previous two games.

And you can kind of tell, I think he's going to be our player of the season.

He is going to be that difference maker for the Battery.

You think so, Pat?

For sure.

I think the way the team plays with him as opposed to without him, he's that last little bit of spark, that kind of final third gets the guys going.

Understands like, hey, it might have been a little bit too long of a ball but he's going to give them the thumbs up like yes, keep feeding it.

No biggie.

We're not going to have that head down moment which we kind of see in games where we may have a little bit of a mismatch in areas and our midfield lacks.

I think he.

He's allowing our midfield to stay back a little bit more as a whole and collect themselves.

So let's talk quickly about the starting 11.

Well, first the weather.

Did the weather affect anything?

I know, yeah.

I was watching it inside tv.

I didn't feel any raindrops.

I think they were talking a little bit about it on the broadcast about how there's a little bit of rain and how it could benefit Charles.

But it never did pour down like it really help out, granted.

I got a quick question for you.

Have you ever seen a Louisville stadium, no matter what, whether or not this empty.

See, that's the next thing I was going to bring up.

I. I don't I can't tell how many were in a tent.

No, I.

So I sent it to the chat.

It was just under 7.

100 Is what they recorded as their attendance.

So 7,000, like they must have lied.

They must have lied.

That's what I was saying.

Nobody in my first bowl, they might have sold that many tickets, but there weren't that many people in the stands.

And so that was the thing too because I saw.

And I kind of want to call us out on this too because they posted this the other day and it was like, oh, their highest attendance records in the.

Of the season so far and then the lowest records of the season so far.

And it was like the number one lowest game was like Miami Hartford bringing in over just over a thousand people.

But we all know that Loudoun county played against somebody the other day and had under 800 people at the stadium.

It was a record low and they had a huge thing on.

It's like they continue to miss market and I don't know what's going on with like the whole player stuff still.

There's still a lot of questions going on with the league itself and it kind of leaves me questioning with Sacramento's owner coming out today saying, you know, they're building a 20,000 seater stadium with MLS insight.

Yeah, you know, they did not shy from throwing that out there.

And I kind of just you know, puts a question on the air of what's to come in 2027 when the program.

Pro.

Well, comes in.

Well, they should, they should go to mls.

We're a week away from tax day, so I think a lot of numbers are being adjusted.

You say a tax day or tax day?

Tax day.

Okay.

So talked about the attendance which was.

Looked like maybe it's just a big stadium and people were spread out.

I don't know.

You would think that if you're.

If people are paying for tickets up high and then you realize you're not sold that many, might as well let them sit wherever the hell they want to.

It could have been raining and they could have been just hiding up underneath the awning.

It's a big matchup, I think.

I mean it is this, this is usually sold out thumping crowd, no matter the weather.

Yeah.

It's a thought out game.

When they come to Charleston, it's going.

To be sold out and hopefully it's raining.

Not.

I'm just kidding.

The pitch looked good though.

The pitch looked really good.

Good state.

I mean even though it was raining, it wasn't raining that, you know, a little bit.

But it still.

You didn't see standing water like sometimes you might see on our pitch.

And the grass looked fantastic.

Grass looked green.

It did.

It did.

It was worth two goals for us anyways.

Maybe that's the reason why we're so quick.

So we had attendance, we talked about what else we want to talk about on that.

I think, I think we've touched on in previous weeks.

Caicedo playing and maybe not getting his groove.

But I think he had had a phenomenal game.

I think everybody had a phenomenal game.

Is there anybody that didn't.

Does anybody stand out that you just went.

I think everybody did their job.

Maybe talk about.

So like maybe Barry.

But you're also coming on and it's not that the pressure is not on you to perform.

It's kind of run around pressure a little bit and then sit back and kind of be that first defender.

So.

Yeah.

Because no.

And crib the team of the week.

That's a big shot right there.

Who's that guy?

Our midfielder, the Russian 88 last name?

I can't get the eight.

Can I show both eights on there?

Okay.

Well anyways.

No.

Yeah.

I just.

I don't know why I picked that picture.

Hey.

Yeah.

Because he worked his ass off.

I mean he, he deserved everything he got.

So the other.

Other player that I think was stand out that is always going to be the quiet one is Kelly.

If you look at his passing rate and the number of touches he had, it's pretty phenomenal.

I think people had the most touches was of course Joey and Joey had a phenomenal match too.

But Kelly was I think kind of that not the sole piston in the engine but he was one of the big pistons.

Yeah.

And you have a lot of guys coming off 120 minutes too.

So that kind of crazy that the efforts there from everyone thrill playing another 90 minutes here at another toast to the Battery for getting some guys with a little younger legs in them to actually come in and come off the back of 120 minute game short like travel week again and get up there and not get run to death, not get run past and kind of hold your own.

Because they didn't have a lot of chances which I mean they had shots but shots on goal.

They had no big chances.

They had only three on.

On target, you know but they, they had what 11 shots.

I think it's what it was 10.

10 Or 11.

Yeah, yeah.

Let's.

Let's talk.

Let's talk about Ko's goal cuz.

Why?

Why?

It was beautiful.

It was beautiful just taking it.

First hit.

Don't wait for a whistle, don't look around, don't just react because they didn't.

The goalie, he did react, but he just couldn't get there.

I.

How many times have we complained that somebody takes too many touches on a ball before they take a shot and he didn't.

Beautiful volley.

Beautiful.

And even if, I think if.

What's his name, Baroque, whatever his name was, even if he was, you know, not was waving his hand in the air, I don't think he would have got that one.

I think it was such a rocket coming off that volley that there's no way he could have gotten position.

But that's just.

And it's going to win most nonchalant goal of the year because he was kind of just like, I'm just going to volley it.

Same with.

Same with the celebration.

Celebration was unique, I think with the volley.

Could you not like as soon as I saw it, I kind of like immediately had flashbacks to, you know, Pravard's French woke up, you know, his World cup goal for France back in Brazil.

Or was it back in France when I was in France?

Yeah.

Pavard for the outside back, where France hits that one time volley across the box and it was just like nonchalant.

Just kind of puts his leg out there and just rock it across.

Let's go back to not playing to the whistle.

So, yeah, these guys are professionals and they know where the AR is and the AR has got to look down that goal line and be able to see the whole ball go across the line.

So what, what does he have in between him and being able to see that ball?

One goal post, Annette.

Another goal post and a net.

And they should line up those backs of those goal posts up with the back of the goal line so he could see it, if it's possible to see it.

And as a referee, you don't.

You shouldn't call something unless you can see it.

You don't kind of try to speculate that maybe it went across because that's not what you do.

So as professional players, don't you think they should realize that and, and, and then doubly not stop and play to the whistle?

Yeah.

As a professional, you don't stop.

Yeah.

I mean, it's just crazy to me that, that like the whole back line there, everybody just kind of stopped, Broke's hand went up and except for our guys, we kept playing.

But I mean, as a professional though, you kind of understand when a ball is teetering on the edge of.

It's probably out.

I lean a little bit more towards that.

That that ball is probably.

If there was a var, maybe we're down to a centimeter.

That's different though, right?

Well, we've seen V. We've seen V people over too.

But you know, for.

For sure this league is not based on V. You're based on correct linesmen getting there and making that call.

Maybe we couple years you can develop into something that has this.

But until then, again, again, we don't see linesman make a lot of calls in this league.

They leave it to the center ref.

Yeah.

Which doesn't help the center ref a lot.

They come under more scrutiny than they should.

But this one was very close.

I mean it wasn't a very clear over the line.

We're up in arms because if it happened to us, I'd be pissed.

But it didn't.

So Ryan is a keeper.

What do you do in that situation?

I mean play the whistle.

4 Year olds.

I mean, did you stop playing when you think of balls out.

Now you keep playing.

It's on the players.

Like when you're in training.

This is what I always train my keepers for.

When you're in training, the ball is never out until it's in your hands where you can take the break or you've punched it out of bounds or gotten it out of bounds, got it out of danger.

But there's always the rebounds.

There's always the immediate threat right after the shot's been taken and you have to that ball out of the again for this take though, it's.

How many times have we seen in, you know, in this decade in modern sports now where a team that has people who, you know, 26 games, I'm beaten home.

They kind of have like a little attitude about how the referee should call the game.

And we all know that certain types of players and teams like to feel like that they run the game and not the referee.

And I feel like that that was reminder right there of hey guys, you're actually not the ones calling the game.

It's the.

We actually have officials here.

Play to their whistle.

Not.

Not y'.

All.

Except for the two yellow cards against our left and right back.

Those were crack.

I think they're dropping.

I think they're.

I think they're.

They're fine.

I probably would give him.

Yeah.

Should be fired for that.

Yeah.

Got no eyes.

Got no eyes.

Ah, well, I mean I would give them too.

So I guess I got noise.

One wasn't even a Foul.

Sorry.

Granted.

Let me be clear when I say if that was us, I'd be pissed.

I'm not because of the ball going out.

I'm pissed because everybody stops.

My defense.

Yes.

Would stop.

Yeah.

Because again, from four to five years old, you're told just play until you hear a whistle.

That's why you still see people at professional level.

The whistle goes, they're off dribbling.

Yep.

Okay, so how important was it to get the goal at 20 minutes?

Changed it.

Right.

We're, we're used to the ones getting scored on early or taking it in a halftime 00.

And I, I think for a team coming off two losses, you getting a goal in the first half really opens up the belief, hey, what we worked on in training this week is paying off.

We, we did our homework.

The coach told us these positions to get in the shape we're doing that we haven't done yet.

Everything's kind of clicking.

It, it builds your confidence as a player and it, it leads you into the rest of that game.

Not just going into a low block, let's just defend.

But hey, we may be able to get one more, but let's just not make mistakes.

We have the upper hand.

Let's play smart.

Yep.

Did it change the way we were playing?

I don't think it did.

I think we're still, I don't necessarily think we were in a low block because low blocks are usually like seven, eight, you know, defenders in the, in the box.

But I don't think it changed the game state.

I think there was a clear cut plan by Pierman.

The team were executing and they stuck to.

Definitely helps you open up the other team say the other, the other team can't just kind of sit back.

They have to be a little more spread out, try to drive the ball forward, which credit to the boys.

You can, you can go and find these spaces to get into and create chances and get shots and create corner kicks that lead to more goals.

Especially now that we have more aerial threat and height and everything, you know, makes us getting those set pieces and corner kicks more, you know, more enjoyable to get and more to watch and be like we can actually have a threatening chance.

One, you know, not saying we weren't in the past, but man, it starts me thinking though.

Look at.

Have you seen Rubio, Reuben Rubio in the last few weeks?

I mean, just lighting it up for El Paso.

Yeah, he's deal.

I think.

Where was it for us?

I think he was distracted with us.

I don't know with Guatemala and the.

What was it, the Gold Cup?

Yeah.

I think he was just distracted.

He was getting minute.

I mean, he's obviously flying everywhere and everything else.

Now.

The huge thing for me too also is we had a clean sheet.

Second one I can see.

Yeah.

But this is a big.

This is a big clean sheet.

I mean, this is the best clean.

Sheet, but he's probably going to be the best clean sheet of the season until the postseason.

I mean, it's going to be pretty hard to beat this one.

So let's, let's jump through halftime.

Let's go to the next big moment for us, the second goal.

This quick, quick reaction, quick touch.

Don't hesitate, don't take that one little touch here.

Try and cycle it back around.

Do anything, just swipe at it.

And this is what you should be telling players.

You see something in the box, you're in the box, swipe at it.

Go have a hit.

Bare minimum, it goes out of bounds.

Oh, well, you could get a deflection, you can get deflection goal.

You can get a handball, you can get a foul on some other player who's going for it.

Yeah.

And I mean, beautiful goal, but that's what it is.

It's just, it's something hit so quickly that a keeper or defender doesn't have time to react because they're not expecting it.

Exactly.

And we've missed that.

I think we've.

In the past, we've taken too many, you know, touches on the ball and then end up, you know, just, what, squandering chances where this one was, like you said, it was just quick reaction.

Nobody had time to see what was happening in back of the net.

Yeah.

I don't want to say it helps not having a big name player who thinks they can do more than what they can do.

Yeah.

But it seems like these guys are, are more reacting to the ball and playing football correctly instead of being like, I can dribble out and maybe take a, a better shot.

Yeah.

Do you think it's youth, you think?

I mean, just being younger, you just more.

Yeah, maybe, maybe a little inexperienced at this level, but maybe you don't have these guys in the locker room, Juan David, that are all about me, me, me.

It's more of like, hey, like we're really gelling as a team.

I mean, mind you, we talk as if the Battery have lost all our games because we're just not happy with the place, not having a clean sheet.

Right.

We've lost one game in the league.

We're 3 and 1, I don't know, it's nice because we see the play and we think it's negative.

We're still kind of grinding some results, but I think we're going to get into a really good groove here in the next month or two and these guys are going to be unstoppable and kind of be able to lock it down defensively.

Yeah.

And I think they showed, I think it showed that they could adapt and come out with, with good victory too.

I don't think just because you're in the kind of a low block kind of situation doesn't mean that you're, you've, you know, conceded anything to the other team.

You just made them play your game.

And so they might have had more possession.

They might have had more, you know, possession.

We always, you know, equate to control of the ball, but we showed that the times we can get down the box, we capitalized on it.

Yeah.

And look at last year when we played Louisville and Louisville, it went up three goals in what seemed like a minute.

Yeah.

They could go into a low block because it's not on them to drive the ball forward or do anything.

They can receive the ball, get fouled, slow the game down, take their time.

I feel like we didn't necessarily slow the game down because we had way more fouls, but we didn't have to be the aggressor.

We didn't have to be the one stretched thin or give up space to the opponent.

Yeah.

And I thought they did really well with that.

I, I do too.

I, I love the match.

I rewatched it today when I was supposed to be working.

Hopefully nobody's listening to that part, but I was just, I was so impressed about how we were applying pressure when we need to apply pressure.

We weren't necessarily pressed them all the way back, but when we need to fall back, we fall back.

You have people standing around like you talk about, you know, my favorite, Juan David.

Sometimes he didn't get back like we needed him to.

And here we didn't have that problem.

And it's, it's a huge difference from the Detroit game where we're going in these 15 minute spurts of getting hammered.

And just like, mind you, this was 0,0 at this point in the game, but we just can't get the ball and make a couple passes.

We're like playing football.

Clear it.

And I didn't feel like we had to do that in this game.

I felt like we were way more composed and maybe Detroit gave them a Nice lesson that they learned and said, hey boys, we're not going to do that again.

But regardless, they came out.

They, they played a hell of a game.

They got a result in the most hostile USL championship environment ever.

I don't care if the fans weren't packed out.

Just knowing you go into this stadium and they haven't been beaten in 26 games is enough on its own.

That's huge.

Yeah.

Now hopefully that, that builds the confidence that where we need it to survive out the rest of the season and know that no matter where we go, we can beat the other team.

Yeah.

I mean, that's all you need as a team.

At some point in the season, we will have losses, more losses.

We will have some games where we're like, how did we lose that?

But I feel like as the Charleston Battery, this is the biggest hump they needed to get over.

They needed to beat Louisville.

Didn't have to be in Louisville, but it was a lot nicer.

Cherry on top.

This is something that coach Pearman understands.

Hey, if we get seated lower because Louisville somehow has been getting this one seed and just playing lights out through the season.

If we have to go to Louisville, we can do it again.

And I think that's a big confidence for this team.

It also gives everybody else that we play the rest of the season like, oh, they can come out forward to back.

They come back, you know, come out five at the back or, you know, three to back or whatever.

They know that we can now adapt to different teams to get the results we need to get.

And end of the day, my player of the match was not any player.

It was Ben Pearman.

Yeah, I, I think collectively we, we all agree on that.

We finally saw something different.

And not in some cup game first round of like trying a player somewhere else.

You came into a big match, a highly televised watched match and you change things up.

You did your homework, you.

You found out what was going to stop them.

And we stopped them, you know, and,.

And not only just stopped him, but beat him 2 nil.

That mean that's nothing.

It's not like we snuck one out the last minute of the match.

We put one in the first half and they attacked and they come at us and they were going down left hand side like crazy.

And we were still holding them, holding them back and then came out.

The second goal was another fantastic goal.

Okay, that's all I got.

Anything else you want to talk about?

I would like to touch on the, the U.S. open cup game.

I think it's, it's worth mentioning.

We were down.

We fought back.

So there was that mentality of not just going two nil down, actually getting back into the game.

I think the biggest, biggest point everyone's going to look at is why is Vigo not in yellow and black?

Why is he not in the yellow and black shirt?

Why is he not on the bench?

Why is he not playing for us?

I agree.

That's.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

I was like, how are we not, you know, recognizing that talent maybe just didn't fit in our system.

Maybe it fits in that system better.

I don't know.

But when the USL was it usl.

One team comes in and does that to us.

That's just kind of embarrassing.

And I get you.

You're playing your former team.

You got this little extra grind.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You want to beat them.

You want to bare minimum.

You're not going to let them beat you in extra time or you're not going to be the guy who gives it up.

He went out, he sought that goal.

He got it.

His celebration was one.

As if he was like, this is why I should be there.

You guys doubted me.

I moved on.

I'm going to get a professional.

He's going to be back in the championship.

Yeah.

And I don't think it's going to be with the Battery because I think he has a little sour taste in his mouth for not stick around.

Yeah.

I don't know if he got the chances that he should have gotten, but anyways.

Okay.

Anything else?

Is that it?

Brooklyn this weekend?

Yeah.

Brooklyn should be.

Should be a match we can go in, win without too much thought.

So I hope they just build on it because then we have Tampa Bay at home the week after and that's a massive match.

Massive match.

Do you.

So do you play the same team as we did against Louisville or do we.

I think you do do something similar.

Maybe some of the guys who are subs, you can rotate in if you want to.

Yeah.

I kind again.

I like Colton Swan with this.

Kind of leave him in there.

And my prediction for Brooklyn is he's probably going to nab one in under 10 minutes and set this team up on another game.

Kind of.

What's the word?

I'm trying.

I'm trying to think of like he's going to just ease us back into this.

We have an early lead.

Let's settle down.

We don't need to make mistakes.

We don't need to be stretched thin and kind of control the game.

Exactly.

And I.

We don't need to give up the three points against Brooklyn.

We need to get three points.

We should.

It's a new team.

It's not a team doing well.

I wouldn't be surprised we play two forwards, honestly, because put them on the back foot.

Well, I'm saying that we shouldn't take it lightly.

I think we need to go in there strong, get her three points and then, you know, they might be a little tired against Tampa Bay, but we know how those players play.

Yeah.

Just so.

Yeah.

I personally, I'm most looking forward to Tampa Bay, not only because it's a home game again, but I like our defenders a lot more than I like MD Myers.

Yeah.

I like Nathan Do Santos, but we all know he's not the best defender.

Nope.

We.

We know where his weaknesses are.

Right.

Joey knows where the weaknesses of.

Of MD Meyers and Suber obviously knows the weaknesses of the Battery last year.

So I think it's lines up pretty good for us, but.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think Miguel Barry is a really good forward and nothing against Leland, but I think coming off a year with a major injury and getting old, getting a little bit older.

Yeah, I won't say old, just a little older is something you keep in the back of your mind you don't want another injury to happen.

And I, I think a lot of players, especially at the center back role, kind of lose a little bit once they go through a big injury.

Yeah.

One last thing.

You want to talk about kit drop tomorrow.

Yeah.

I mean, I didn't know it was.

Going to be what it's going to be.

Can we say I know what it's.

I know what it's going to be.

I didn't know it was going to be a cup kit mainly and probably should have dropped this one a little sooner, but maybe it's a little homage to the.

The OG season of the Battery.

So look out for it.

Be pretty cool.

They also had, I think a week or two ago, the keeper 30th anniversary kit or whatever.

I don't really pay much attention to the keeper kits because I'm not trying to buy one.

Yeah, I like the main kits.

I like when we do these one offs.

I like when we do these cool designs.

So yeah, I'm excited to see it.

It's a little bit of a bummer that we won't get to see it.

More, but who knows?

Maybe.

I don't know.

Yeah, I, I like them.

I mean, if anything, maybe we throw it into a third rotation.

Yeah.

Okay.

Sir, we have droned on for 42 minutes and 50 seconds time.

Let me get your.

Let me get your Brooklyn prediction before we pop off.

So all I sure said 2 nil.

That was based on Juan David.

I'm gonna go with two nil.

Juan David.

Based off of.

We don't have Juan Davy.

We score two goals, right?

Don't we?

We score two goals.

Yeah, I think.

I think we get three in this one.

I hope we keep a clean sheet.

That's my main thing.

I hope we keep a clean sheet, but I. I really think we can nab three.

I don't.

I don't think if we have Miguel in there to start or Colton in there to start and they swap at some point.

60Th minute, 65th minute.

I think whoever comes on is going to grab another goal as well.

Quickly.

What do you think about no black stock played, Martinez?

I think it's all right.

It worked, right?

Yeah, it worked okay.

I. I love him personally.

He's an awesome dude.

Yeah, he's a.

He's a great guy.

It's just sometimes you have to switch it up.

Yeah, he's got the energy.

He's got the anger.

I want to say anger, but he, you know, the couple tackles he did that were hard tackles.

I was like, yes, that's what we need.

We need somebody in there that's letting them know that, hey, you're not going to get away with some stuff.

The yellow card that was.

Gets him was awful soft.

But anyways, it's very soft.

We see a lot of soft calls now.

And it's some like we talked about with the.

The linesman.

I mean.

Yeah, you're just putting it like the linesman with these calls in the corner where they can raise their flag and wave it.

They don't.

And they wait for the center ref to make a judgment 30 yards away sometimes.

And it's not on them because if the ball rotates a lot through the center, they can't just run over to a corner.

They gotta stay pretty central to be fair.

They're talking to each other.

They're talking to each other on.

On their little microphones, and I think they're trained.

Hey, let's wait and see what happens.

Rather than stop the play.

Let's wait and see what happens.

And if we need to come back, then we'll come back.

But what about the ref from last year?

Do you think he turned his off, the guy who handed out about 15 yellow cards to our team?

Oh, no, he was just doing his own thing.

He was.

He was A rogue earpiece out.

Yeah.

Throw it on the ground.

Yeah, we don't need that.

It just confuses me.

I don't know which pocket to reach into.

I'm going to call everyone over to talk to them, and then I'm still going to show them a card.

Yep.

And.

And talk ad nauseam.

So just the discussion that went on and on and on should have been enough of a penalty or disciplinary action.

Okay, thanks, man.

All right.

Any witty outtakes?

I honestly, I'm.

I hope Ryan tirelessly works through the night to build this jungle gym, because I want to wake up to a picture of this thing and just ask him.

Did.

Did you double check all the bolts?

Did you tighten them all?

We're going to come up with a whole list of things you should check.

I think he just.

What's that?

What's.

App dust.

But anyways.

Okay.

All I got to say is Ben Pearman is the master.

I've.

Sometimes I lost a little faith in him.

Just a little bit.

Just a little bit.

Just a little bit.

But now just watching what he just did and able to flex, trust the process.

Keep them guessing.

Yep.

Keep us guessing.

Up the Battery and get out of Brooklyn with medium weather and get back to Charleston, where we thrive.

Yep.

Let's get some.

Three points.

Come back home.

Okay.

See you.

All right.

See it.

There it is.

Of Charleston come to put you under.

We are the fleet.

Your ship, we will sink.

But we, we are the battle rap.