Revenge Served Cold: Battery's 4-Nil Victory Over San Antonio

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.

Welcome to the Canon Crew podcast.

This is Granite, and I'm joined by Patrick.

Patrick, how you been?

Good.

Busy.

Lot.

Lot going on in life these days.

You do have a lot going on.

And every time you kind of go silent on us, I go like, oh, he must be at the somewhere delivering a baby or something.

I don't know what he's doing.

The world will know.

I.

I'm not great with my phone regardless, but I will let you know when the baby comes.

Fair enough.

Ryan, how are you?

I'm doing fantastic.

Granite just finished up with club tryouts, so we're gonna see how this season goes.

Nice.

Did you make it?

Oh, that's right.

You're coaching.

Sorry, just having fun with that one.

So let's do this quickly.

We're running really late.

This is here to talk about the Charleston Battery against San Antonio.

They come to Patriots point, and it was just.

It was too easy.

I think it was too easy.

Or.

Patrick, what's your general thoughts?

Yeah, I was gonna say it's too easy because it's Military Appreciation Night.

We had a flyover.

I mean, what better setting than to just scare the out of the opponents than having a carrier plane fly over right as the whistle's about to go?

C17, United States Air Force timed very well.

You get to see it from the supporter section off in the distance.

They made some adjustments.

They must have been listening to the national anthem and just timed it just perfectly.

Some of the Air Force guys around me were like, well, they seemed.

He seemed a little too low.

And I was like, what?

He seemed a little too high to me.

He should have been about, like, 200ft.

Not at whatever he was.

They were saying, well, he shouldn't be that low.

And I'm like, what are we going to do?

Right.

United States Air force.

It's a C17 should.

It was awesome.

We'll say that.

So, Ryan, now to you.

What are your general thoughts on the match?

I thought it was a bit.

I mean, it was a great game.

Charleston side, obviously, you know, played great, maintained possession of the ball.

Get a bit of the time.

It was still fairly 50, 50 for the most part, though, when it comes to time of possession wise.

But Charleston again just continued to exploit San Antonio's weaknesses.

I think we carried that revenge vendetta from last year.

Where they came in and they beat us 7 0.

I didn't forget about that.

I wouldn't have stopped against them either.

You know, I was, I was hoping we scored more after we got three.

Okay, let's talk quickly about the last goal because I was, I was listening back to some highlights and the announcer said, johnny Klein, super sub.

What do you think?

I love it.

That's exactly how we need to portray these guys coming off the bench.

And it's not how we need to portray them or anything, but it's giving them the recognition of what they are.

Right?

These guys are super subs coming off the bench.

These guys are and could be, should be starters on other teams in the league.

You know, we have a team where predominantly our entire bench is starters.

You have that competitive edge with a championship caliber team and that's what we have to offer and to bring to this, this league.

So let's go back to the front end.

So one of the things that really stuck out to me was clean sheet.

We're back there with the back four that we've moved people around.

Nate has finally come back and as left back move Landry over to the right and Joey and Edwards, they're just calm and cool and collected back there.

I mean it.

Would this look like those two have been a pairing for a long time?

I just, I've been amazed.

And with with Elu behind him cleaning up and doing some great shots, Stocking.

I think the takeaway for me from this match is not the four goals because that's pretty cool because we, we do well, but the clean sheet, that was huge for us going up against San Antonio, who was number one on the other side.

I don't know why, because they really didn't play like it.

Yeah, I'd say looking at Edwards come the end of the season, we'll look back and say he was probably our biggest signing of the year simply for the fact that we had our two starting center backs, our defender of the year, our team captain missing, and we have this veteran come in and just take over that leadership role and really organize it.

And you can see it with Joey's play like he was a little rocky to start the season, but once Edwards is in there, there's that confidence built.

Dos Santos is having that confidence on the wing to fly forward because our defensive line isn't creating these gaps to be exploited.

They're covering for each other and it really allows us to play how we play and play free and get these goals.

And I mean, sucks for San Antonio.

But you look at the other side of it, their center backs were having a hell of a time getting into arguments, losing their cool, just completely opposite of our defenders.

So, I mean, I think Edwards is probably going to be up there for player of the season for us just for what he's done in this time as of now.

So.

So do you think that he's added another level of competition for Leland and.

Yeah, I mean, it's a step.

It's a level.

Yeah, it's a level.

We've been missing all last year, too.

Like if a.

Thank God we didn't have a guy go down for so long, but if we did, we were.

We were screwed.

We were just going to try and outscore teams.

But this year we have that confidence to be.

To be very defensive and hold our line while allowing the majority of players to go forward and not have to just sprint back and cover.

And how versatile is Landry?

Because it was he not.

He was playing Nate's position, right.

He's a midfielder.

He's playing Nate's position on left back.

Nate comes back, they were floating over to the right back.

He's just all over the place.

Had a fantastic shot at one point on goal and he just.

Those back four, I won't say back five.

Our whole defensive wall back there was on display and it was.

I was very happy to see him work so well together.

You know, I think granted, that's a great point right there and that's.

That's something that a lot of youth players need to take notice of, is that Landry has put himself in this position and made himself, in the eyes of Ben Pearman, has made himself a player to not take off the field.

Regardless of what position he says he plays, he is a player that you're going to fit somewhere on your field because you need him on the field.

Right.

He has made himself that presence to where I am this good or I can help my team in so many different ways.

I need to be on this field.

Right.

And that's what coaches look for.

And a lot of players are coming, you know, 18 to 16, saying that they play this one position.

That's great.

You're specific in that one to two positions.

But can you be versatile and have the adaptability to be able to help the team out in this one or two positions?

Because, you know, when colleges come looking, they look at the depth chart, they may already have their six, but they may need a right back.

And they see you play right back for this few minutes and there's your offer.

You know, that's how it works sometimes.

Not saying all the times, but sometimes.

I think it works more than you think.

Yeah, I was talking to coach Robert.

Everybody knows who me knows who Coach Robert.

And he, when he played, I think over in Russia back when he was younger, he went in as a left back and then got there and there was three or four left backs in front of him.

And so he was so versatile.

He could play, you know, right back in midfield.

And so that's where he slotted in, even though he was, you know, hired on to be a left back.

So I think you got to be able to play multiple positions and he's showing how you.

You can just take over the field no matter where you are.

Yep.

And I think this allows players like Dos Santos to shine too.

Who gets forward the first 20, 30 minutes of the game, creates a chance and gets fouled in the box, which leads to a penalty.

And this gives the freedom to these outside backs to make these overlapping runs.

And who, if they're technically more attacking forward or attacking minded.

I mean, it's great to have as your outside back who has the confidence on the ball to take it and take on a defender.

So.

And it leads to these chances.

Exactly what we get penalty in the first 25 minutes.

You know, we see teams that do not use their backs as well as we do, and last couple matches our backs have not been, I don't think had that freedom to go forward because we're a little hesitant.

But now that we've think we've shown more confidence in our, in our center, to our center backs, then we're.

They're more available to go forward and more willing to go forward.

It is nice to see Cal keep it within the goal post for this one.

Yeah, Cal got a brace.

Well, it's hard.

The second one was kind of difficult not to do that.

Right.

Because it's a little tap in.

That's always kind of fun to watch.

You know, just.

He realized that he was kind of there sitting by himself with the ball of his foot, just kind of.

I hope he'd back.

Heel it in or something.

But, you know.

Now I have a question.

What do you make of pyramid making 5 subs but up the field we're already kind of winning this game and he, he puts on more attackers.

Yeah, same thing I said at the beginning of the podcast.

It's a.

This team came.

This team came and beat a 7, 0 last year when we were at top of the league.

This was one of our I believe it was one of our first losses that we suff last year after starting 10 games undefeated.

Definitely our trajectory of how we played.

I think we sustained an injury or two from that game.

I'm with Pyramid on this one.

This was definitely a revenge tour.

I would have subbed out and gone all attack as well.

Well, I think that's.

Who else are you going to sub out of the back?

Right.

Because we don't have nobody else to sub in the back.

But you know, if you're going to sub, let's get some players some playing time because if there is an injury, I want as.

I want everybody to have as maximum number of minutes as they can get, you know, and, and also make sure that our number one scorer, who I think is leading the league right now with goals, Cal Jennings is not getting injured needlessly.

Not saying he's a spring chicken, but let's take care of him.

Do you think cow.

There's.

Oh, go ahead, Pat.

I was just going to say we're.

We're finally seeing the A player play with MD up top where we're not just relying on MD to sub on and just have a completely different style and be that main guy, but kind of work off each other and it's working really well.

And I think he's.

He's just so comfortable in that role where we've seen Aaza get pushed back a little bit.

But I mean we're.

We only have what, one other competition left in the season, so it's not going to be a lot of rotation from here on out.

I just.

I think it's kind of curious that MD's solidified his spot in this team is kind of that floating role and he's doing it well.

Yep.

See now here's the.

Here's what I was going to ask you.

Had Nick Marcanik depart from the club last year.

30 goal season, 34 games.

Cal is currently sitting at nine goals and nine games played in the league for USL Championship.

Where are we thinking he falls at?

Do we think he can go after and break what Mercani set last year.

Crickets?

Yes, I think he definitely can.

If.

If he's.

He's also very unselfish and so there's been some chances he probably could take in on his own, but he's laid it off to somebody else that has that scored.

I didn't see Nick as being as unselfish as Cal is, so maybe he needs to.

If he wants to make that as a goal for him, he needs to Keep the ball a little more sometimes.

All right.

Like it.

It's a good take.

I think the goals and assists for sure.

He'll get up there in numbers, but just flat out goal scoring record, I mean, that, that was a record that lasted for a while and it's going to be very difficult to beat again.

So we just see how we play sometimes where we just lackluster in certain games.

Currently not.

But last year we kind of were on the same trajectory.

Unbeaten going, had an early loss and then mid summer we kind of just dulled off and went on a bad form.

So as long as we keep our form high, I think we're going to be in good standing.

But you also don't want to overuse them like Granite said, and risk injury for a guy when we have so many other options to play.

Yeah, and we're.

We're facing injuries in the back line and we're going through it and doing it very well.

We're on.

I say we're.

We've won the last six matches and so that's a pretty good streak that we're carrying into tonight's match against Detroit.

You know, Detroit's.

Detroit's another team that last year played him twice.

Tied them second leg of the season earlier last year we lost to them 2 0.

First game they're sitting.

See, you're in our series this year.

You know, I can see Pyramid making this another type of revenge game.

It's going to be closer than San Antonio, but, you know, making this a statement, you know, now we're 10 games in.

This would be our 10th game.

Can we go eight and two?

We already lost two games early on.

But can we keep that?

Can we keep it going six.

What are we six games right now?

Unbeaten?

Can we go seven?

Can we go not just unbeaten.

We've won six games, right?

Yeah.

Not just unbeaten like Detroit.

We don't really have any ties on the year.

Two losses.

Yeah.

Because we're.

We're seven two zero.

Yep.

And Detroit sitting at four one and five.

Oh, sorry.

Oh.

So let's quickly turn to.

Oh, Jay Chapman.

Right.

Is he.

He plays for Detroit, if I remember right.

Yep.

So we might be able to see him tonight.

It was heartbreaking when he left because I think I thought he added so much to the team.

But the other thing, we had two players leave this last week or so.

Drac and Soto left the team and they've moved on to other clubs.

Hopefully they get some playing time and, and improve as players and one of.

We might see Back right?

Next week.

Yeah, yeah, next week.

Yep.

Yeah, we might be seeing them in the.

In the cup game.

USL Cup.

So Zeke might be maybe getting a start.

I mean, it is a.

Was it league.

Yeah.

So someone.

Yeah.

I mean, hopefully he gets some playing time.

He's just.

He's there on loan, so he's still our player technically.

So he may have a clause that he's not allowed to play against his parent club, as most.

Most players do with that.

But I hope he does really well up there.

I'd like to see him back in our shirts and scoring some goals.

I think he's a good kid with a lot of talent, a lot of upside.

And we're dead silent.

I think about tonight.

Detroit up there.

Kickoff said 1600 or 4 o' clock.

For you people who go by normal time, it should be a pretty good match.

Be a lot of fun to watch on tv.

It's early.

I like these four o' clock kickoffs because get done with the match and carry on with our evening, especially when we win big.

And I'm checking all my notes.

What else?

Scoreline predictions.

2 nil for tonight's game.

2 nil.

You know that.

Yep.

I'll go with 3 nil.

I believe I got it right last time.

4 nil.

You did.

Did.

Got the 4.

0 right.

I'm gonna go with.

Oh, yeah.

I'm going with the frustrating.

What?

I'm going with a frustrating 2 to 1 win.

Looking at Detroit, they have more ties than wins this year.

They have most ties out of any team in the league right now.

Sitting with five ties.

We're gonna go grab a late winner tonight.

Never picks a clean sheet, does he?

No, he never does.

He just.

He's.

He's hedging his bets.

Oh, I'm gonna.

What was the other thing?

I am going to.

Ryan, what else we do this week?

Yeah, go ahead.

Oh, we did a player interview with Christian Gardner.

No.

Hey.

Yeah, we did.

So listen for that in the next couple days.

I think I'm gonna try to get it out tomorrow.

Had a great interview with him.

It's a phenomenal.

I don't say phenomenal story, but it's a really neat story if you don't know his background and how he's gotten where he's gotten.

It's.

It's really a fantastic story of perseverance and, and working hard and.

And setting some goals.

Recently had a great time chatting with him.

Great accommodations made over at Proof down on King Street.

If you guys haven't checked it Out.

Go and check it out.

It's a great little spot.

Definitely a sock becoming a little soccer bar now.

It's fantastic being able to talk with Christian about it and talk to him about their season coming ahead that they're excited about.

And also to, you know, we had do have another possibility of more player interviews coming out soon.

So just be on the lookout for those as well.

Patrick, you were about ready to say something before we went off on our CG tangent?

Yeah, yeah, I was just gonna say I think Reuben's gonna get a goal in this match, get his first one for the battery.

I don't think the one across to Johnny Klein was necessarily a pass as more of a shot and Klein cleaned it up.

But he keeps getting himself into these positions no matter how much time he gets on the field.

And it's goal scoring opportunity after goal scoring opportunity and I think he's going to bag one.

Finally get his pop his battery cherry for goals.

You know, it's kind of in the support section.

I saw several young men that had Guatemala jerseys on.

I thought it was pretty cool that to our international flair and following.

Oh, we gotta add the black, so.

Well, speaking of jerseys, I think there was a fresh new kit drop yesterday.

There was.

Those were nice.

Those are nice.

The keeper kits, the palmetto kit, if you haven't, if you, if you haven't been able to check it out, definitely recommend going to check it out.

Nice clean navy kit with the white out of the palmetto tree and the state flag.

Very well done.

I think it's, I think it was definitely, definitely beats last year's.

Nothing wrong with the pink kit.

I love the pink kit this year.

It's definitely different and it's what we needed.

You know, you, that's what you want from, from your team with kids, you don't want this same generic stuff continuing.

If you're going to do specialty kids change it up.

And I think they hit a home run with this one.

Yeah, I think they set the bar pretty high now.

Right, because that's warm up kit for military night.

New kit release the next next week.

So at this rate, we're getting a new kit every week.

This is awesome.

Well, I think there's also a new kit coming out next week.

Possibly.

I know nothing of that.

Possibly.

We'll see.

We'll keep it rolling every week.

All right, we'll keep it rolling.

Okay, guys, we'll talk after the match tonight and try to put a podcast earlier than we did today.

And I have nothing further to add.

Other than I did score some little Jaegermeister cups.

Not just one, but a bunch of.

To my wife's chagrin, that's all I got.

Thanks, guys.

All right.

See you, boys.

We are the fleet.

Yes, if we will sink.

But we, we are the Battle Ra.