Rain-Out, Blow-Out: Battery 5-0 Switchbacks

Podcast. I am Granite and I'm joined by Ryan. What's up?

Nothing too much.

Nothing too much. Don't you have five reasons why we're all happy and joyous?

That is true. This is very true. Well, let's. Let's take back a second. Okay. First, we have the Battery play on Saturday, right? Saturday night, we are there in the soaking rain, and before the match starts, we give our prediction. And I like to give a shout out, even though the game was abandoned and did not complete. I think we did a pretty good job reading that first half and how it was going to play out.

Exactly.

I mean, hey, and I. And I firmly believe that the Battery can get it done on a rainy night in Stoke.

I. They did. And then they come back again.

And then they came back again and followed it up, which is even better.

Yeah, it was like, okay, you guys, if you want to stick around for another ass whipping here, we'll give you an ass whipping. Yeah, that's exactly what happened.

Now, do you think that, like, fatigue across, like, because the. So Colorado was here for a total of four days.

Yeah.

Do you think that does a lot on players? You know, that it's fatigue?

I think it's. I think.

They won the league class.

Really? Did. They did it must have been a fluke. It must have been a fluke.

I heard, I heard, I heard it's hard to stay on top of the league year after year.

Well, I don't know about that, but, yeah, there is some talk about that. But, I mean, they, like, what goes into that?

Do you just have to have, like, every year? I guess. Here's the better question, right? Teams that win the league. Right. I'm assuming there. There's a bonus, right? Like, there's. There's the prize money for winning the league, Right. You get a little compensation. Correct? Right. We all know, I'm assuming.

Yeah. Okay.

Through. What happens to. Where clubs. I get. You sell players to better clubs. Right. Those players want to move on, and I feel like those clubs who just win have no identity afterwards because everyone leaves and they don't have anything holding that together. Does that make sense? Because even the coaches sometimes leave and everything, too. And it just.

You know, think about the. The big.

Isn't the Battery coach now at college? No, he's at Vegas.

But the big. The big team, you know, big leagues, you've got, you know, you're at the top. You're the pinnacle. You're at the top of the game. So it's not like people go off to A league higher. So we're. It's not like they're losing talent from that league. Like English Premier League. You don't lose talent. It kind of stays in. Same thing, you know, in Spain. It kind of stays in there. It doesn't leave. At the end of the year here, we got people going, leaving USL to go to, you know, Europe, stuff like that. There's always that fluctuation.

And I say, like, it's a very noticeable. It's very noticeable, though, because of all the different play styles and the different people and the diversity that we have in the league, like, which makes it so beautiful, but it makes it so noticeable when those teams who win can't repeat the next year. And I guess that's what makes the battery so special right now since we've been able to retain and hold. But it's, you know, if we do go and win, it, is that like just a checkbox for some of these people? And then they move on to the next site.

They take off. Well, then we hunt them down. Hey, you gotta jump in, jump out. I think that's what the rule is. Right?

Well, hey, anyways, let's get into this. Yeah, let's get into this. 5, 0, Colorado.

Before that.

No Switchbacks. First off, Switchbacks, Rapids.

You jumped a different level. I don't know if it's a. It's a lower level. But first, this. We have tied our regular season. A record for wins.

We have. This is big.

We have two more. Two more regular season matches to go.

And this is the record that we set when we also set the most turnaround points in the league ever.

Yep.

If I'm not mistaken, correct. That's Ben Pearman's first season as a coach.

Yep. So I think that's a big hurdle. It's a big hurdle went over. You know, us talking about keeping that or building our shape or not our shape, but our form throughout the season. I think we're getting there. So now let's jump into the 5 nil. Straighten out the switch back. So it's kind of like flatbacks ass whooping that happened the other day.

I mean, would you like to take it away? You were there. I had to. I was coaching. I was so. I was not particularly there at attendance as I was coaching, but.

So it was a beautiful evening.

How was it?

It started out.

Goals all day long.

It started out kind of slow. Yeah, it started out kind of slow. You know, I think everybody just relaxed. It was a kind of early kickoff, you know, and it was makeup. Not Makeup match, but it's kind of done it till. I don't want to say last second, but last second. So it wasn't too many people in stands. There's only one beer stand there, One or two food trucks, you know, because you're trying to balance. Yeah, well, they're trying to balance that. You know, how many people are going to show up. You don't want all the food trucks to get there. Plus, it was done at the last minute, and it was explained to me. It's like, even if they wanted to, they were already dedicated to other places. So it was one little beer stand, and then it started to fill up slowly. Didn't fill all the way top, but it got, you know, quite a few people there. It's kind of cool. Very nice evening. A little sun. The pitch looked pretty good. And I think that the way to say it is Aaron Malloy come out and. And set it up for the rest of the evening. I don't know how often are you.

Talking about the free kick?

Yeah, so we were all looking down. We looked down because it was like seven minutes in, and so we were just talking and looked down. All of a sudden, bam. All of a sudden, it was in the back of the net. And so myself and Patrick and a couple of people actually didn't even witness it because we didn't see what happened because we were looking down, talking to people down below us. But then on. On we went back and look. When I went back and looked at it, I said, you know, it's pretty impressive. And I think the Aaron Malloy should also get a third assist for assisting himself, because I swear I heard from the far side of the field, bank shot off the guy's face, and then I put in the goal off of volley, and that's exactly what happened. So he should get that third assist for assisting himself and using the. The wall. The wall to set it up for a perfect kill shot. That's all I got to say about that.

Very well done. That's not. This isn't the first kill shot kill strike he. That this man has had in. In this competition. He's. He's produced some absolute wonders this year and last year for the Battery. And his. I think his magic, like. His magic, like when you. It's like. Must watch him play. It's coming. It's his right now.

That's my. My eyes.

You love to see that. You love to see that. With only two games to play, too, because, you know, when he goes in the playoffs, he's Going to hit it? No. And not only that, the next two games, though, you're going to have Torres taking it. Cause then Torres makes it. Then you're going to the playoffs with both of them. Just have made one within the last three games.

Yeah. And then the other side's got to go.

You don't know who's going to take. And you don't know who's going to take the ball. They're both going to be standing over top of it. Keepers are going to be confused.

It's. It's completely. Oh, speaking of keepers. So let me talk about the Sasquatch. It was the enemy's goal. This guy was huge. There was a lot of discussion about is he really that big or just when you're wearing orange, you look like a huge traffic barrel and everything. But he is. He's a big guy. And I think we use that to our advantage. I think sometimes you get too tall and too big and you can't get down low. It's hard to fall anything. Yeah. And I think we saw that later on. So it was it. When Aaron hit that goal, like, you know, like the sniper and the rigging of the ship, shooting down there, it was fantastic. And then we were just in charge the whole time. It was. It was like they were out there playing a team that was, you know, division or 2 lower.

Not having just won the USL championship the year before.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It must have been. I mean, I don't know. So let's talk about second goal.

Like, they didn't just win it either. Like, they won 3, 0.

They got lucky. They got lucky. That's soccer.

I mean, that's. That's U.S. soccer.

Well, that's. That's kind of what I don't like about. You're right, it's U.S. soccer. That's what kind of. What I don't like about this playoff thing. And I. We're a big country, so we've got teams spread all over the place. And so maybe the playoffs setup is the way you go. I don't know. I don't like it because you could be the best team and win the player shield and, you know, on points and still end up not winning the league. And I think we should reward consistency over making money off of viewership at the last part of the season. But that's just me. Again, we're winning a lot of matches.

So. So. So essentially what you're saying is you'd almost rather see a vote to like, four go to the playoffs. You'd rather not?

I don't want any playoffs.

Or would you rather see no playoffs?

No playoffs.

Not even like a championship game between first and second?

No. And I understand, I understand where you're going, but why do that? So the first, the first place team goes in there and wins, is undefeated in the regular season. Undefeated. And then say the second place team is 175% and then all of a sudden they're the top. They are. So consistency isn't rewarded. What is rewarded is somebody putting in a couple goals last match. And I don't think, I mean, we honestly saw the heartbreak.

We experienced heartbreak back in 23 and we experienced heartbreak in 23 with, you know, number six seed Phoenix beat us.

Yeah. And I think in, in the first match of the next season, you turn, you put yourself on fire. You were still distraught. Was that. Is that. I had the, the timeline down when you burned yourself with the smoke sitting.

Right up there in the cage.

So I mean it's. Hey, let me jump in. Let me. So couple weekends ago I was talking about how I went somewhere and you guys were texting. We're texting back and forth and we stopped by some beaver place and you said you go to get. And we. Big discussion. And I don't know if you can see this, but I got you something anyways. Too bad Patrick's not here.

Those are the greatest things you can ever get.

I have a second bag in there, so. Well, I don't know. They misspelled gummy. Is there. Is there gummy beavers?

That's the fun.

Okay, that's not even good that way. That's not even good that way.

Have you had it? Try one.

No. This is your bag. And I got another one for Patrick. This is yours. See on the back it says, Ryan.

I give you permission to. Oh, if you feel like it, you can open mine and have one or.

Two and just try it on while we're recording. I don't know. Well, let's see if we get there. So let's talk about the second. Let's. Let's talk about the second goal. Did you watch it? I know, yeah. MD the doctor.

Oh, all right. He gets 14 on the year. Now this is number 14 on the year. Two goals behind Cal, one goal behind. Second place for the Golden Boot Race. This is big.

That's huge. Because they're two, two fundamentally different players and it's fantastic to see both of them scoring goals. And just for the battery, that is. Yeah. So MD scores. It Like a champ. I mean, it's just. It's just bread and butter. Right. Kind of going to the goal in the box, past the big old Sasquatch boy. It's. It's.

He's just really good at dropping that shoulder.

Yeah.

Yeah. That shoulder faint. I've been trying to work on some of my boys with that because that allows you to. To maneuver anywhere across the goal. Because you can either go front post or you can drag it and go back post. So it leaves that keeper, that disadvantage where he has to fully spread. And as long as you keep have the placement, it's not necessarily about the power. It's placement and get it past them.

That's so hard. I think it's hard to teach young players that. That sometimes it. The power is when you need it. For some things like what Aaron did. And 99% of the other time placement is key. But it's easier to place around a big Sasquatch guy that can't get down. And. Which is highlighted, very highlighted with Emilios. Cool. I think Amelia was on his ass when he headed that in. And the keeper just. He couldn't. He just could not bend or something. He was not a gummy bear, even though he was orange. Isn't it Donna Romeo joking about like. Yeah, well, at least he can. Well, I'm. Don't get me started. Anyways, we were like. They put the shortest guy on the pitch that headed the ball after kind of a really overcooked. I think it was a corner kick from Aaron. And he's falling backwards and heads it off his forehead. Not even a fan. It was a great head. And keeper couldn't even. I don't know.

He's just.

He's gotta. He's gotta do some yoga. Needs to be a little more flexible because Emilio just schooled him on it. Well, didn't school him. He didn't have to because he can't get down. His hands only go down to his waist and that's it. And he can't bend over.

Oh, say stiff.

Yeah. I don't know what he is. He's a Sasquatch. All the pictures you see of Bigfoot, you don't see him bending over or lean to the left or right. That's because they can't. And I think that's what he is. I think the orange is to cover up all his hairy ass. The switchbacks. Sorry.

Ty White lives up the mountains. All right, Number four.

You're exactly right. You're brilliant. They brought him out of the Pacific Northwest who was the other guy that scored a goal? Who was that? I don't know who that was or who.

Who was it or something.

No, the fourth goal. No, no, that was the fifth goal. Let's talk about vgo. Yeah, let's talk about the fifth goal. Vgo. Vgo. So we come on, everybody's like, yay. Because everybody's in a party mood at this point, right? Because we're up four nail. We're in a party mood. Everybody is. The whole stands, everybody's having a great time. And VGO comes on. Everybody's like, yes, finally we get to see some VGO time. And then this ball bounces around and he just turns like. Like his everyday job is sitting there in the box and just spins and shoots it. And again, Sasquatch has no answer other than flail. He's very good at waving his arms at this level. Well, let's see.

And then this kind of goes into what we talked about with MD's goal, right? We talked about placement with MDS, we talked about power with Malloy's. And VGOS was. It was simply just power with the turn. It's a quick turn in power. Yeah, like, yeah, placements there as well. Yes, it's. Placement's always there, but that one's more about just quick turn and power because the keeper just has no time to react.

It's amazing that. Because that's. That's a skill. I mean, that. I don't know if that's. That's just a, you know, innate thing to be able to turn with the power, head down and put in the right spot all at the same time. You. You just been on the pitch for a couple minutes, and then all of a sudden you're just like, bam. And everybody went crazy.

Itching to get on the field. Yeah, itching. We were itching for him to get.

On the field, right? So the fans that were not in there, that just happened, you know, the. I'm gonna start calling the Impulse fans, they go, hey, let's go watch a match. After explaining to a couple of said that's his first professional goal, they were just ecstatic to you because they appreciated the skill level to do what he did. And then that's his first professional goal. Everybody's like, wow. So it was. The party was continuing at that point, so I think we could just left the pitch. Yeah, it was. It was really cool. So let's back up to goal number four, because this doesn't happen a lot.

Good for cheers to vgo. It's awesome. To our youth.

May they never leave us. So our fourth goal was a young man. What are you drinking?

This is zero sugar energy drinks. I got some prod. Many little projects to do tonight. I gotta build some things, so got a little energy drink.

Ranger Bear.

It's pretty good actually.

Don't be texting me at three o' clock in the morning. Hey, hey.

It could be. Dude, these are made by our own US veterans, so.

Well, thank God they're not like the Russians probably will be up now. The vodka we drink is from the Russian veterans. Anyway, we go on about it. So fourth goal because I'm going to get to this because it's a very important goal. Second goal of this young man's life. I met this guy when he first come to the Battery, a season ticket holder kind of meet and greet. Met him. He very nice young man. He also too likes to wear a man bun. He hasn't got the playing time as he used to and man, he's just. I thought he put it off the keeper Sasquatch's face. But coming in, I think Aaron got an assist on that one too. And a nice little. I think it was a header and put it behind in the goal. And this is what the keeper did.

So that's not trying to wave him off sides.

No, he was flapping at the ball and when he was flapping, he was inside the goal with. Even if he got it, it would have mattered because it just flapped behind the goal. So better than that? I don't know. I don't think it's better than that. So afterwards, right. Went down because there weren't a whole lot of people there. And it went down to where they come off the pitch because I knew it was going to be a good time for the players. And little kids are lining up and then group of little kids come over there and the mom's like, oh, don't push that guy. And I got some good video. The players coming off. I was like, hey y', all, you get up here, you get every player's autograph coming through. As long as they're battery players, don't be talking to those non battery players. And so players are coming down. I said, there's only one player that I need to, you know, reach in there for. And mom said, who is that? And I said, nate Santo. And so I bought two jerseys this year, one with JD and the other one with Nate. Yep, I was wearing Nate's. And I said, nate, Nate, could you give me an autograph? And he Signed a little kid's autographs and they knew that's who I want to get, you know, a signature from. And they all just kind of, you know, backed off like, oh, this is this guy. And they looked at me and I spun around. Yeah. And he was. And he's just like, oh, absolutely. So, you know, it's one thing getting autographed so awesome as a 42 extra, but it's cool to stand the line amongst all the little kids. And I don't know if you can see it, but there's Nate's signature. So he's like, on the numbers. I said, hell, on the numbers. You see it? Is that better?

Yeah, it's better.

Got my. So now the problem is, do I wear it? No, I'm not going to wear it. I'm going to put up on the wall behind me. So now I just paid 100 because he scored that. Yep. Yeah, I might wear it the rest of season because maybe. Maybe this is the good luck one. Maybe this is the beginning of a. A cup.

You know what? That's exactly how I felt about the breast cancer one. I bought in 23 with Leland because I had worn that one every single game after that all the way until the final and then we lost and then I retired the jersey after that, so I don't wear anymore. But I felt that same way about the kids. I mean.

Hey, I'm not superstitious, but I'm not gonna it up either, you know. No, see, I'm not gonna have baseball playing around. Why didn't you wear the nature. You know, why did you wear that? We lost because you didn't wear Nate. They're not going to say that. So that was. It was a good time.

What they are going to be saying is, why did Nate score a hat trick tonight and you were wearing that? That's crazy.

A man can dream. So that was. It was fun. I, you know, usually I stay out of those lines. You know, we've done some, you know, work, you know, not live stuff. But at the game. Well, they were passing behind us, but it was kind of fun to see all the players and give high fives. Especially a big shout out to CG Christian Gardner at halftime. I was there. I was taking some video and I didn't notice him. I think he was. He was trying, you know, like, hey, what's up? And I didn't notice till afterwards, but after the match, I was like, CG Christian, what you doing? So big shout to him because he was. Had a big smile on his face, too.

He's awesome. Just waiting for his moment, man. He's.

Yeah.

You know, two games left to play both or. No, we got. No, we have three games left.

We have three. Three. Yeah. Two. Two homes.

We have three games. You have two home. We have that midw game against Sacramento on the road.

Yep. That's what's got.

You know, I was looking. Yeah, I was looking back at why, you know, we were talking about, you know, what a great opportunity would have been for Christian to start the last game, you know, but me seeing how much it last game meant to Luis personally in that aspect and everything, I can see why he played and wanted to do this stuff. And maybe it's Christian's turn for one of these last three just to give Luis a break. And then, you know, we need to restring and strengthen our whole entire backline and like, make sure everyone's on the same page going forward into playoffs. Like, it's all clean and everything, like. And we're right there by it. I mean, last game showed that. Can we. Can we back it up with our next game? And can we. Can we maybe change. Maybe change out a player or two and then make us stronger. Make that consistency. You know, that is how you show the fans that you're ready for the playoffs.

We. We switched out a bunch of players. We're like, three goals were like, it's time to get. Get the big players off the field because we don't need them.

Oh, I know. We switched out a bunch of players. I'm talking about like the back. I'm talking about like the back line.

Oh, no, absolutely. So I was going to lead up. Is. Is Joey. Joey played and he had a hell of a match. I was trying to find some stats because I know they're just out there was people that are not regular battery watchers. Like, damn, that guy's good. Who is that? I said, Joey's always good, you know, and so it was really encouraging because he's had a rough couple matches, you know, a couple weeks ago, a month ago, and it's good to see him go out there and play well. And I. And as much as I wanted. I'm not going to say that. I think it was also important that. That Louise got a clean sheet. Yeah, I think it's also.

I think it was very important for.

Yeah, but he was.

I think it was important for Louise and for that back line. And now can we show that consistency? And this is where, like, we have that one or two substitutions and, you know, you do one in the back line, maybe one at the keeper or two in the back line. And you do it for the two games and see if you can have that consistency. And that's how you show that everybody who plays in your back line and keeper is on the same page going into the playoffs. No matter what happens, you have different. You have all. You have all your pieces. You're not worried. That's what us fans are kind of worried about is like, we want to see these guys be all on the same page at once going into the playoffs. And it's like, kind of need a little bit of minutes to prove to us that they are there.

And I agree with you. Two things, right? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Because we need that back line. Right. Because if they're not working well, we could lose. If they're working well, we could draw. Right. That's the worst case scenario. If they're doing really well, we could draw. But if they're not doing well, then we could lose. So over the draw. So two things. Backline. I like. I love it that way. If somebody is having an off night during the playoffs, somebody gets a little niggle. Something like that. Yeah. We feel comfortable. Everybody can move in.

Someone gets thoroughly.

The number two thing that we need to work on is pks, because we don't need to go through that no more. We need five in the back of the net every time. Five in the back of the net. And if they're not doing it every after every practice, before every practice, they need to be doing it.

Who do you think takes them?

It doesn't matter. Everyone needs to be doing them. If we have to go through, everybody needs to be killing it. None of this.

If you had to pick your five. I'm curious about that. If you had to pick your five right now, but in your five order, what would be your order? Your five.

Oh, I don't know about order. I gotta get you to five first.

See, I'd go cow first.

Cal first. Yep. Then M.D. yeah.

Okay.

And then. And then. See, this is where it gets crazy, because is Aaron the last one or the next one after md I'm your lineup.

I'm gonna tell you mine afterwards.

Yeah, yeah. So then I got two in the middle. I'm gonna go with ikaza. And if Taurus is out there, I'm gonna go with Taurus. Maybe Tour second. Maybe Taurus first.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I go cow first, Taurus second, Malloy, Maryland. Then a Casa. And I'm thinking, we win it, we Win it after four.

Yeah. That's what we need to do. We need to win out after four.

Because you would switch. Because the other two, like you could do is be switching to cause an md. But yeah.

I. I want to see the energy from JD Putting one in. And so maybe he goes first because he's just got such energy to him.

And yeah, that first one just brings a lot. And it's like that first one just brings a lot. And you just need like your automatic that you got the golden boo guy. Just go ahead and put the first one in, dude. Just take that little pressure. The first one in.

Yep. Okay. I'll go with that with that one. And Aaron's so nice and and calm that if it comes down to number four or five, we need somebody that's nice and calm. I like it. So now between now now, then I think we're both going to be researching who is who PKs, who's hitting them, who's not hitting them. And we'll make little armbands so we can say, oh, he's going to go low to the right.

Yeah.

Which is always fun. So you know, I officiate St. Charleston West Ashley Rec leagues. And so there was you, U13.pk comes up there and I said, you know, like, you've done this before. I've been officiating for, you know, several years now. You know what to do. And he goes, yeah, but I don't know what they're going to do. I said, well, that's kind of the thing, right? And he goes, yeah, absolutely. I said, which way are you going to guess? He goes, he looks up at me, he goes, oh, I'm. I think he's going to go right. And I said, okay, cool. Go out there. And so Keeper said, I think he's gonna go right. He jumps left. Guy kicks right. But anyways, he goes, well, I guess I guessed wrong. But it is fun. It is fun with keepers of pk Especially new, new young people and trying to explain to him. I said, you know, they're supposed to score this on you. That's if they don't, then you're the hero. If they scored, they're not a hero. They scored a pk. But if you save a pk, you're a hero. So don't get upset about it. Just every once in a while, you're going to get one. You're going to get right. So good times.

That's absolutely right. And that's something that I tell my keepers too. Because, you know, it's 12 yards out, one on one. And it's supposed to be an automatic, right? It's like in basketball, it's supposed to be equivalent as a free throw. Like, that's what it's. Free point is supposed to be that free. Gimme. But you have that uncertainty, that little sudden chance of maybe he misses the basket off of his own will or he misses the shot keeper makes the save. But I mean, like, you know, that's what it is, right? You have the basketball rim, is basically essentially the keeper in the net.

Okay, so let's just quickly. I'm looking at footmob Aaron Malloy. I scored him a 9.4. One goal, two assists, two defensive contributions, total shots of six, two on target, chances created four. He's. He was. He was a beast the other night. Let's go down the bottom. Some guy named Matthew Maloney. 3.8. Give the ball seven times. Okay, there's. There's your range. MD was 7.8. Emilio was 7 point. Emilio was on fire the other night, too. That was pretty cool. This, when he got the goal, but also to see the energy he. He brings. He felt he looked a lot more comfortable playing on a wing. And Leland, Leland did well too. And we were very satisfied with Leland's play and, And Joey. I, I can't. I can't speak enough about Joey. Joey was on. I mean, just he. You could tell in the first kind of like, you know, defensive action he did and come up on the good side of it. It just. You could see that confidence and, and he just built the whole match.

Well, I felt like I, I think Leland started to change after he scored in the abandoned game. I don't know if you noticed that a bit. Just like his demeanor, his chest, his attitude, like, everything just kind of picked up. And I noticed that. And then to see how you're talking, the fans and everybody else is talking about how they connected very well in the back with Joey playing much better and everybody else, it's like, that's what we want to see. Now, can we get the other guys in there and mix it up a bit and get the consistency across these last few games? Yeah, right. Because everyone's in the same room. They're all cohesive. We've all been mixing it.

Yeah. Let's see. Who do we play next? We play the Detroit team, right?

Yeah, we played Detroit at home and then at Sacramento and then home against Burling. No, Birmingham, especially Burlington.

And so Detroit, they are in eighth place. So they're fighting, right?

Yeah. Tampa can still get in, which is crazy.

So Indy 11 is at 32 points.

Did you see how Hartford jumped to play to home field?

Yes. Yep.

Not only did they beat Sacramento for the Jaegermeister cup, they also beat them the week later to then jump to home field advantage. I mean, it's absolutely massive for them.

Yeah, it's, it's good because when we beat them later on, you know, we'll show them how massive it was. Let's see. Back to Detroit. They are 9, 8 and 11. Goal difference negative 2. And their last five is a loss. A loss. A loss. Aw. Against North Carolina and a loss. So hopefully we can not get relaxed but take care of business on then too and get win number 19 and maybe help Cal lengthen out his golden boot run.

But does Detroit have his goal scorer?

Like, apparently not. Because they're negative. They're. They're negative to you.

I don't know. Because he lost maxi. Right? Because he maxi with the Rhode Island.

Let me see, let me see, let me see. Detroit.

I think they're got like seven. Yeah, like seven or eight. They have a few guys are all like at five and six.

I have a guy named Smith. So top scores for them is Smith. 10 goals, three assists.

He's at eight. How many goals?

It says USL Championship goals. 10. Smith.

Oh, 10.

Yeah.

All right. There's only six behind Cal.

Yeah. Anyway, so it should be a pretty fun match. Hopefully the weather holds out and. I don't know. So as much as it rained and as wet as we were, I did enjoy our time out there in the rain. We took, we took pictures of the hardcore people so they all get rewarded at the end of the season for standing out in the rain a little wet. It was fun though. It was fun. It helped. It helped Nikki determined that she needs a new raincoat, which I've been telling her for years. She'll wear coats until like they're, they are thread bare. And she realized, yeah, it was leaking through every seam. Say, well, I think we need to get you a new raincoat. So if nothing else, it helped that situation out. So it's one thing getting wet where you're watching a two hour match. It's another thing getting wet when you're, you know, doing a 15 mile hike.

Dude, I loved it when I looked over at Nikki and she just like was explaining to me, you know, when you get too wet, like when it's raining too much and then you start feeling water in certain areas and I.

Look over and was like, was, am.

I the only One who's starting to feel that right now. We all felt it.

Yeah. Well, I think the other thing I do, I looked at you, I said, you know, we were in the army because I was. I was light infantry type. And so we were out there. I said, we always said, you're not wet until you feel that drop water go down the crack of your ass. And I think you looked at me, said, I think I just felt it. So it was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. What else? That's it. Are we going to do a prediction for Detroit?

Yeah.

What you got? What you got?

I got us one and two zero at home.

I'm going three. I'm going three now. Three now.

I'm going two to. I got two to zero. More defensive, focused, hoping. And I have cow. I have Cal and Torres scoring. Torres off a free kick.

I'm. I'm going with. I'm going with Cal back to back games. He's going, I'm gonna throw an MD and hey, I'm Nate. Nate, Nate, Nate.

I would love to. Well, Nate, love to see him score again. Obviously. Back to back games is massive. And then MD as well. I mean only being one goal behind the Oakland roots, top score and then he's two behind Cal.

Yeah. Wouldn't it be kind of fun when the competition. You fellow teammate. Right. I like.

What if he had to brace?

So you know Cal. Cal is always good about assisting. He's always good about giving the ball. Do you think that continues if it. That little gap closes?

I, I think, I think he realized. I mean, maybe when, when. If. If MD gets a brace during Detroit, I think it will start to set in.

Oh, we. We're gonna, we're gonna spotlight this too. We're gonna stare at him and see. See if. What kind of looks to be if.

It comes to that. If M. If MD scores in the opening 10, I can see him trying to push for a second one. And if he gets that second goal, it's on, dude. Him and Cal are going.

You'll.

You will see those two running themselves into the ground to. To get that golden boot. I. I see.

I want.

I see.

I want to see. I want to see it. I want to see it. I want to see it. Okay, cool.

I do too.

So I don't. I don't know when kickoff is probably 7:30 regular stuff. Oh, it says my thing is showing six. Is that right?

Yes. It's the early game. It's an early game. We have a 6 o' clock home game and then we have a 5 o' clock home game.

I. So the match of the night was at five, right? Yeah, I kind of like, I kind of liked it, but it was a week so I'll go with six. Hey, make sure you get out there. Go down the regiment. The rain, the rain night. They were shoving chili dogs down. Everybody faces, they're like, eat something. Because there wasn't as many people as you know because we didn't anticipate the, the deluge that we got. But everybody, if you happen to hear my voice and you happen not to be a season ticket holder person that watches the Battery all the time, but go, hey, I think I want to go watch a match. Go down to where the regiment is in the blue lot and they will welcome you with open arms and probably give you a chili dog and other things that they love to cook and. Or some desserts and some beer. So everybody get down there. Let's end this season of the next couple of matches in a very loud and vocal way and let's have fun and get ready for the postseason. Any final thoughts, any final words?

None for me here. Got two games tomorrow to go. Coach. Season's almost over, so getting excited new. I do want to say there's a new opportunity for those youth in the Charleston area who may be interested in some foot sole opportunity this winter. There may be opportunities this winter session, so stay tuned.

Hey, so futsal is kind of. A lot of people just see it as just, you know, just kind of keeping your skills together. There's a young man plays on Liam's team that last year. I don't know what level they were playing but I think he was playing at a high level futsal and they were doing it. They did a tournament over in Barcelona. It was pretty cool because it was all you get up on whatever thing is televised. So there's some very good players around here.

So this year we're looking at doing. It's an eight week session playing in two tournaments. And one of the tournaments is in Charlotte on January 16th and that's kind of like the Carolina State tournament. And if you were to win that for your age group, then you go to nationals in July.

Nice. Okay, so my off time, I'm going to be thinking of a song. So if you have any ideas what a song should sound like for some player that remain not quite.

Shouldn't it be like Robin Hood's theme song?

Go ahead.

I don't know what Robin Hood's theme song is, but it sounds. It should be like that.

Well, Nate's. Nate's Canadian, so maybe it has to be something Canadian. I don't know.

Oh.

Oh, Nate Desantos. I don't know. Anyways, so we'll see you out there. I thought Canadians only played hockey. I think he's from California, too, but I think he's for awesome Canada or somehow link back there. So let's see each other Saturday night, which is tomorrow. That was good, because we got this outlay because we were all just crazy and, you know, had a rough time for you last night, so. Okay, we shall see you all tomorrow night. Peace.

Sounds good. See you later.