U.S. Open Cup - Episode 2 - Trust the process

[00:00:00] Welcome to Cannon Crue, a weekly podcast discussing the Charleston battery. Your host granite will

[00:00:22] be joined by other defenders of the fleet from the Black and Yellow supporters section

[00:00:27] and together they will help fortify and conquer the other cannon crew.

[00:00:36] Welcome to the Cannon Crue podcast. This is a special episode, episode number two of our U.S.

[00:00:43] Open Cup Lamar Hunt Trophy Series joined by Ryan. How are you doing Ryan?

[00:00:49] Hey, Grant. Doing good. How are you?

[00:00:51] Hey Patrick, how are you doing? I'm well. What's up everybody? We're doing all right.

[00:00:56] So we're here to talk about the match of the night, May 21st Charleston battery against Atlanta United

[00:01:03] in the Open Cup. And first I want to start out by saying shout out to the crowd. Place was packed.

[00:01:10] Bigger shout out to the players. We're going to talk a lot of stuff here for a little bit,

[00:01:14] but I think they've shown progression. I think they've shown that we can stand up if not better

[00:01:19] than an MLS team and come out on the other end. No matter what the result was,

[00:01:23] we did an outstanding job. We beat them in a lot of stats. They were beating up on us,

[00:01:28] fouling us left and right. I think they had like two fouls to our one

[00:01:32] and that's not counting all the ones the referee didn't call.

[00:01:35] So let's get started out here. Ryan, what's your initial thoughts?

[00:01:40] Overall in the game, I think that we should be proud of the way Charleston battery were able

[00:01:47] to hold themselves against a strong MLS side for a full 120 minutes. Regardless of the penalty

[00:01:54] result and how that went, I think in the full 20 minutes Charleston knocked it around and

[00:02:01] should have come away with it at the end, but it's unfortunate.

[00:02:05] Yeah. I mean, it was a good showing from the battery going up a, I guess on paper,

[00:02:11] a strong opponent, not the strongest in theory because they were missing their

[00:02:16] lead and goal score for the season. But I thought the guys fought hard. I thought this was one of

[00:02:21] our better games just watching our attacking play, how we like to play the ball going up

[00:02:28] against a team that kind of, I don't know if they didn't really do their homework, but

[00:02:33] they didn't realize that. And they kind of set off of us for big pockets of time,

[00:02:38] which created a lot of chances in our favor. And I just felt like we controlled that game and

[00:02:43] we deserved a much better result than what we got.

[00:02:46] I agree. You know, that's a very good point. It's like either they were stunned by us,

[00:02:50] maybe the weather was too warm, maybe they were playing outside. I don't know. But they seemed

[00:02:55] to be on their back heels at least the first half and pretty much the most second half.

[00:03:02] And all they could do to thwart us was to foul us. Big game for the Cous.

[00:03:10] He had two saves, one of them was crucial. The other one was a long distance shot and we were

[00:03:15] sitting behind the goal and that thing was a knuckleball flying through there. And I was,

[00:03:18] first I was going to ask Ryan, why did he choose to punch it rather than catch it?

[00:03:23] But then when I thought about that thing was just all over the place coming at him.

[00:03:27] He had no clue trying to pinpoint exactly where that ball was going to end up going.

[00:03:32] And you know, at the end of the day, you try to put your fist to it to get it out of there

[00:03:36] because you want to create most momentum to get that ball up and over the net. Because

[00:03:41] the worst thing as a keeper to do is to think that you could catch it and that ball

[00:03:46] goes right through your hands and into the back of the net. It's the worst feeling.

[00:03:50] This is great showing from Cous. I'll give him that. I mean, none of us were expecting it.

[00:03:56] I think post our last US Open Cup game, we were kind of expecting Greenwests to come back in and

[00:04:03] get the start. But unfortunately, turns up with a broken nose in the 97th minute of 95 minutes

[00:04:11] of the last game. So little controversy there. But yeah, I thought he did awesome.

[00:04:16] There are those few saves you guys talked about just the aggressiveness and

[00:04:21] I don't know if he looked more alive kind of than the last time we saw him get the nod.

[00:04:26] He came on the last little bit of the match before because Greenwests nose got smashed up.

[00:04:31] And I guess it looks like he had some surgery done on it and he might be out for a couple

[00:04:35] matches, but I feel a lot more comfortable watching the Cous out there getting getting

[00:04:41] some good time in there stretching out a lot. Looked like maybe he's cramping up the whole

[00:04:45] match, but he did have and then this third save in the PKS was just inspiring. But we'll

[00:04:54] talk about that a little more later on. So let's just quickly talk about your general thoughts in

[00:04:59] the first half. Can I just touch on Cous real quick while you're just like talking about him?

[00:05:05] No. What are your thoughts? Yes, go ahead. Cous, that's the only concerning part with his

[00:05:13] entire game throughout the entire game was his lack of hydration. Like he was constantly

[00:05:21] cramping up throughout the second half into added time into the penalty shootout.

[00:05:25] And is that a concern for us going forward as a second string? Like you would think he would be

[00:05:30] the most fit wanting to play in time, wanting to get on the field and the day he gets playing

[00:05:35] time, he's nothing but cramping up playing a great game, but he's putting his body through it.

[00:05:40] Yeah, and it wasn't a hot day either. And this isn't his first rodeo. He's been with

[00:05:46] the battery for a while. So it was kind of odd that he was cramping up. I don't know.

[00:05:50] The training staff will get on this. They'll get on his ass about it. I mean, you want to play at a

[00:05:54] level, this is what it's going to take. I mean, yeah, Granite, you're sitting on the bench and

[00:05:59] you're not the number one starter, but now's your time. You are going to be the starter because

[00:06:04] I think you mentioned it the other day, Granite, that Granite is going to be out for a little

[00:06:08] bit with the broken nose. So I thought you could play through that, but that's just me.

[00:06:14] They'll let you play it out as a field player, but as a goalkeeper, they won't let

[00:06:18] you play, even with the face mask. Yeah, get that Jason mask, the old 1980s movie.

[00:06:25] So back to you, Ryan, any general thoughts on the first half?

[00:06:30] First half I thought the battery did extraordinarily well on maintaining the possession and going

[00:06:36] forward with the ball, especially in the midfield being able to switch the ball around.

[00:06:42] One negative or one downfall that was very consistent through the first half was the

[00:06:47] constant bully effect that Atlanta was trying to place on us by constantly throwing us around,

[00:06:53] going in for rough challenges and they were constantly getting away with those. And when

[00:06:58] we would try to answer back from respond because we're the little brother who doesn't want to be

[00:07:03] pushed around obviously, and we were quick to get the calls. And I thought that was such

[00:07:09] a positive though. And for the battery is how we reacted to the situations we didn't over

[00:07:16] react. We'd let the referee play it out and we just let it go. We let almost every call go. Yes,

[00:07:22] there was a few calls where we went back and maybe said something to the referee, but for the most

[00:07:28] part we did a fantastic job holding our heads high. Yeah, I think you really have to look at

[00:07:33] it as kind of the yin and the yang, right? Like these files were coming through, but the rest

[00:07:39] letting us play because in turn we were continuing our attacking play and we were

[00:07:45] getting some threats out of it or just moving into a positive space, which kudos to Torres. He was

[00:07:51] the lead horse in this dribbling for most of that first half. It looked like he had a tryout for

[00:07:58] Atlanta United and was rejected by the way he was playing in that first half. He was just so

[00:08:04] consistent, so hardworking and creating stuff from nothing. I mean really the only concern

[00:08:10] I had in that first half was these little like three or four chances that they kept getting from

[00:08:16] crosses into our box in dangerous areas, but I mean that's something we've seen from the battery

[00:08:21] all year and it's going to be something we're going to have to continue to work on and get

[00:08:25] better at. Ryan and I were behind the goal. We're talking about that. There was a couple

[00:08:29] of chances that we both looked at each other went, ooh, Atlanta had that guy getting on the

[00:08:34] back post and a couple times Leland just kind of turned around and looked at the kudos with

[00:08:38] his eyes kind of like, oops. Yeah, there was definitely one clear day where kudos and

[00:08:46] Leland both looked at each other. We saw their eyes. I will say just not too much praise for

[00:08:56] the opposition, but Luke Brennan, that kid was crushing it for Atlanta United. He was really

[00:09:02] their major threat and he was the one where when he was coming in to cross that ball, I was getting

[00:09:07] a little nervous because his were for being what 18, 19, they were so on point to where his guy

[00:09:14] didn't have to run onto it. He could take a hit and I think we got fortunate on a few of those

[00:09:19] by just complete misses or just whips of the ball. Something very funny happened about the 30th

[00:09:25] minute. Everybody just kind of stopped. Everybody looked down at the ground and the ball was flat.

[00:09:30] Ryan said, I never seen that happen before. So it's kind of odd. I don't know if Atlanta was

[00:09:36] fouling that hard. They hit the ball so bad. I don't know what it was, but the ball definitely

[00:09:40] went flat. It's kind of an interesting moment. Well, one of the things that I had,

[00:09:46] that you and I granted kept talking about was how battery players consistently kept

[00:09:53] slipping and sliding on our own pitch in the very beginning of the game. Like Atlanta United

[00:09:59] was slipping a little bit, which is what we're kind of used to whoever our visitor is. It usually slips

[00:10:03] and falls a little bit on our pitch, but the consistency of Marcanic and Myers and a few of

[00:10:08] the other players falling and slipping like Marcanic should have scored if he didn't slip and fall in

[00:10:14] the first, I believe it was in the first 10 minutes of the game. Battery would have been

[00:10:19] up one nothing. As Atlanta, they probably had a shiv and a sock or something like that. They

[00:10:23] poked it with. Well, there are five stripes that the commentators referred to about 50 times in the

[00:10:31] first half, which was becoming annoying is from their railroad worker history. So maybe they

[00:10:37] had a railroad spike and just dropped it on the ball there. That's exactly what it was. If you

[00:10:43] haven't been to Atlanta United match, hit this big railroad spike that they pound into

[00:10:48] something at the end of the stadium. It's actually pretty cool to see when you mentioned

[00:10:52] that. So I was thinking exactly right. They had a spike in there from a railroad track or something.

[00:10:57] Other person that was really hustling a lot was Alan. He was all over the place too.

[00:11:04] I noticed a lot in defending. He was tracking all the way back, getting the box, delaying people,

[00:11:10] just hustling to get between the ball and the goal. And he seemed like he covered a lot of area

[00:11:15] back there in the back on the first half and just going at Torres was just tearing it up

[00:11:21] on the left. He was just going up and down. And a lot of times they were just leaving him by

[00:11:25] himself. I don't know why because he was getting up and getting some crosses in there. Unfortunately,

[00:11:30] we couldn't go on the end of it, but he was doing what he normally does.

[00:11:33] Yeah. And I think this is what we all kind of expected from him after

[00:11:37] he was starting to get some starts and some minutes more consistently as

[00:11:41] this type of player who is so dangerous and in the end run starts attracting two or three

[00:11:47] defenders to him to open up the space. And I don't know, if we could take anything from this

[00:11:53] game, we can take that Torres is a super dangerous threat who's probably going to finish the season

[00:11:58] as a starter in every game he's not injured. And that's going to lead to more Nick Markanek goals

[00:12:04] and possibly some more Andy Myers goals. Torres took a couple of shots and they were just a

[00:12:10] little bit off. I think he was very threatening on one of the shots. It hit post. I think

[00:12:15] it was Torres hit the post and had it been over just an inch the other way, it would have been

[00:12:19] probably been a goal also. Yeah. He's almost turned into our designated free kick taker now

[00:12:26] from kind of anywhere. Yeah. When they were shooting lining up with Aaron and Torres on the

[00:12:34] ball both times Torres took it. I think that's something we can look forward to in future

[00:12:38] stuff is that's probably not going to stay that way. So they'll probably mix it up a little bit

[00:12:43] and confuse the opposition from here on out. I just think we didn't take enough opportunities,

[00:12:49] like the full advantage of them leaving us open out wide. And it just seems like the lack of

[00:12:58] the lack of actually scoring and bearing it away with a team like this. It's almost like,

[00:13:03] do you think that we were scared enough to really hit it hard? So Grant, do you really

[00:13:08] think like with a lot of our shots that we took, were we really trying to place it or were we just

[00:13:16] trying to smack it as hard as we can before we got hit or something? Yeah. I see what you're saying.

[00:13:21] And we had, it looks like 20 shots on goal or 20 shots hinted at that time looking at how many

[00:13:29] were actually on, I guess there was four shots on goal the whole match out of 20 and they

[00:13:34] were a two shot from goal. 12. So some of the single shot is going sky high because we're just

[00:13:41] laying back because we're trying to either avoid a late hit because the referee's not calling them or

[00:13:48] we're just playing a little bit off or playing because we felt like we had to play up

[00:13:55] and we were the lesser team. And that wasn't, it was a mental block we had to get over.

[00:14:02] So we had a clean sheet, I think that shows well for our defense and our back four and

[00:14:09] our defensive center mid to kind of patrol up there in front of them. But we've got to score

[00:14:14] some goals. Whatever combination we need to get up there, we got to start scoring some goals

[00:14:19] because that's our low scoring matches. We've kept clean sheets, but we're not scoring the

[00:14:23] goals we need to. This is something we need to have kind of a more serious conversation about

[00:14:29] Myers on that personally, I just thought he looked really flat in this game. And it just came off

[00:14:34] the tail end of the last game where he wasn't the greatest, but like his holdup play was very absent.

[00:14:43] And then even his like trying to run in behind to create space, he was kind of just getting

[00:14:48] bullied off the ball, which I don't know if that's something they're going to attack in

[00:14:52] training. But I don't know for from what I want to see from him when we're trying to get that

[00:14:58] ball up as our holding striker is not to immediately just the ball comes in and try and one touch pass

[00:15:06] it, flare it out because we've now seen two weeks in a row that five or six times that ball goes in

[00:15:13] and he tries it and it's immediate turnover. I just I'd like to see him be a lot more strong

[00:15:18] and just hold the ball and maybe wait for his teammates to catch up a little bit and then

[00:15:23] distribute it out. I don't know if you guys saw any of that. Well, I mentioned up there in

[00:15:28] the stands it seemed like MD was just a little bit off his pace to he was it was a couple of times

[00:15:33] and much to Ryan wanting to smack me with this drinking his hand. I was like, this is just

[00:15:38] he's not playing. He's standing there watching sometimes or you know, there's a couple of times

[00:15:43] that he should have been making a run and he was just jogging and it was unlike him

[00:15:48] from his play. But like I said before, I'm not trying to critique too much because I think

[00:15:54] we played one hell of a game that somehow we've got to figure out those Nick and MD and Torres,

[00:16:03] they have to figure out how to score goals. And we were scoring goals early because I think

[00:16:08] defenses were crap and we're getting into spaces. But what's going to make the difference is when

[00:16:14] going up against good defenses like Alana defenders were doing well and how to get

[00:16:20] that space and how to score those goals. Like you were talking about Patrick about, you know,

[00:16:24] sometimes you got to do some hold up play. I have a question for you guys because this is going to

[00:16:30] be very specific to that striker role. We have guys on the bench that we've talked about that

[00:16:35] are hungry. They want to get in they want to play. Are we going to see kind of a rotation?

[00:16:41] Not only just Myers, but are we going to see maybe Marcanik go to center striker? Maybe

[00:16:46] LeCava gets a start on the wing or up top? Or we see Gutierrez play in one of these spots or maybe

[00:16:52] rotate Torres opposite side of the field? I mean, what do you guys think we're going to see

[00:16:58] coming forward? Like, do we need a little switch up in these attacking roles?

[00:17:02] Have to have to have to have to this game tomorrow. Have to. It is a wasted, wasted

[00:17:11] opportunity by coach Ben Peerman if he does not change the starting lineup, the formation,

[00:17:18] something. Something has to change. And it's not saying that the system he has is broken.

[00:17:24] It's not working or whatever. But this is an opportunity for him to try something

[00:17:29] because we're going against the worst team in the West right now. They have a total of five

[00:17:33] points on the season. I'm not saying El Paso is absolutely the worst team ever, but

[00:17:40] you know, they're going to come all the way over here onto the East Coast to Charleston.

[00:17:44] And we should be able to take it to them. Whoever is playing. So we should have the

[00:17:49] flexibility in the room to play how we want to and to come out any formation we want to.

[00:17:56] We have to take advantage of that. I think we're going to see Nick take a break because he

[00:17:59] came off with what looked like a little more than just a cramp injury as the trainer was

[00:18:04] walking off with them. Honestly, I would like to see the battery get back into a 442 formation.

[00:18:12] You would give because you would give a cause a break. You would give more canica break.

[00:18:19] You'd have MD Myers up top. You would have the Kava up top out wide. You'd have Gutierrez

[00:18:26] and then you'd have Torres. And in the middle, you would have Alan and

[00:18:30] Malloy with Alan and Malloy sitting in front of each other or one sitting in front of the

[00:18:35] other. So you're making almost a diamond in the middle. It's an idea. It's not one of the

[00:18:40] bank, but it's what I came up with all the time I had, but it's not one of the best ideas,

[00:18:44] but it's something creative to that effect is what we should do in this game. Not saying

[00:18:51] going forward for all the games just this game because it's an opportunity

[00:18:55] that to do so. You know, sometimes it's we feel like we need to change things. I'm just

[00:19:01] picking up the other side here. And but sometimes maybe you just go back to making it simple and

[00:19:06] getting back in the groove and get to rolling again, going back with what you know,

[00:19:10] which you've trained on. We'll find out here in a couple hours, right?

[00:19:16] Yeah. We had a lot of players played a lot of minutes Tuesday night. I mean, I'd at least

[00:19:24] like to see Peerman make some subs that aren't at the very last minute for a couple games here.

[00:19:30] Maybe get some guys involved that way. I mean, we haven't seen it besides maybe one sub before

[00:19:36] the 80th minute in most games. Well, let's switch over and talk about what I don't want to talk

[00:19:42] about this P case. I was following you, Ryan go down to the other end of the pitch because

[00:19:48] it's inevitable that they're going to kick him the direction that we're not. And I took the

[00:19:53] opportunity to kind of hang a right by the first corner flag, ended up standing next to

[00:20:01] Matt Dean and the Dennis Brothers. And they were in civilian clothes, listening to them talk,

[00:20:07] they were just excited and they were ready to jump over the fence whenever,

[00:20:11] you know, we put this one away. So it was kind of fun to see them

[00:20:15] and hear them talking about, you know, a couple of players like, Oh, this player's never missed.

[00:20:19] He's never missed in practice. So they're excited and the person didn't miss almost did,

[00:20:23] but he didn't miss that was kind of out of the P case. That's what I'm taking away from it was

[00:20:27] that just conversation. Listen to those three young men watching them be so excited for their

[00:20:32] team out on the pitch even though they couldn't suit out because they're, you know, academy

[00:20:35] players, I guess, and the US Open Cup doesn't have the same rules as us also. Ryan,

[00:20:43] what's your thoughts on Cousins? On Pins? Yeah. I thought Penns were phenomenal by Cousins.

[00:20:53] You couldn't ask for anything more from your keeper. Your keeper did his job. I think it's

[00:20:59] unfortunate that we still fell short and continued to let that slip, let that frustration set

[00:21:09] in for us as fans too, walking out of the park, walking out to the parking lot. I hear all the

[00:21:15] little kids saying, Oh, it's just, it feels just like the final feels just like this.

[00:21:20] And it makes me think like, I turn around and say, it's not like that at all. Like,

[00:21:25] this is an MLS team that we played against, you know, we held our own. We played phenomenal.

[00:21:30] But when it comes down to Penns, it's anyone's game. And when you're up in Penns,

[00:21:35] especially when there's only one or two kicks left and then you still bottle it again,

[00:21:41] kind of leaves you feeling another type of way, you know?

[00:21:45] Like, yes, we're putting phenomenal play at the end of the day too.

[00:21:50] It's an anyone's game type of thing. And I, not knocking Cousins, he did a phenomenal job.

[00:21:55] He started right out the gate with a save, massive save to start to set the tone for Penns.

[00:22:01] I disagree with you. We didn't bottle anything. This penalty taking was much better than the

[00:22:08] championship last year is another sign of progression that would go out there. It was just

[00:22:13] two bad pins by us and a great save by a Cousins. Any other day, we're out on top on that one.

[00:22:21] And now interesting, you heard people talking on the way out. I heard a lot of people talking

[00:22:26] to, if they were, said one person talked to them and says, I didn't know the better. It was that good.

[00:22:32] And I just want to grab a go. They've been that good for a year now.

[00:22:37] Hopefully that gets more people excited about coming out and seeing a good team apparently

[00:22:41] and coming out to more matches. Yeah. Keep in mind that this is Cousins' first ever

[00:22:46] penalty shootout he's faced in his professional career. So that's under his belt now. I don't,

[00:22:52] I mean, Ryan just spoke about it, how amazing he did. He gets that first save. He gets everyone

[00:22:58] fired up. I don't see anything wrong. You have two guys that really didn't hammer at home at the end.

[00:23:03] And it's not that they hit terrible penalties. It's just you got to put a little more into it

[00:23:08] or at least make the keeper guess. Don't give them the chance of being able to get some kind

[00:23:15] of touch to it and it saved. I mean, we saw Smith's penalty. Keeper got a touch to it,

[00:23:21] but it was too, too hardly hit. There's no saving that. So I think it's a good learning point again.

[00:23:28] Great pens you had to save. And we went down to our last kicktaker to win it,

[00:23:33] but unfortunately just didn't hit the ball. And also the point on two, Patrick, is that

[00:23:39] we also, as battery now, the battery didn't have a penalty shootout until the final last year.

[00:23:48] Now this year we already kind of got a penalty shootout under our belts and kind of see in

[00:23:54] natural game who our takers would be with the pressure on. Do you think if we get back to

[00:24:00] the final it's a different story? If that same scenario happens again? I don't think anyone

[00:24:06] in this team wants to go through pens. Like the way we see them play every game, they're going for it.

[00:24:12] There's one handball shout in the first half I wanted to ask you guys about because I think

[00:24:19] I watched it back. I think I didn't really extend his arm, but you guys were behind the

[00:24:22] goal so you had a different view. I mean, I'm just curious because that could have been

[00:24:27] the difference right there. That would have been a penalty for Charleston to end the

[00:24:31] first half. Did you guys get a different view of this from where you guys were sitting? The cameras

[00:24:38] weren't great with the sun. I think I remember that one. There's a lot of calls for handball.

[00:24:45] I couldn't see it one way or the other so it really didn't stand out. But if what people

[00:24:49] were describing, unless you're making your body bigger or then they're not going to give you

[00:24:54] a handball call, especially in the penalty area, that's tough because the goals are hard to come

[00:24:59] by as it is and to give one. So because somebody's arms by their side, as long as they're not making

[00:25:04] their body bigger or using it to their advantage, then I think a referee is well within the

[00:25:11] ability not to call that one. I think it's a tough call. But end of the day,

[00:25:20] referee isn't calling those. You can tell by the way he's dictating the game early on

[00:25:26] what type of fouls he's calling and everyone screaming and shouting for at least...

[00:25:33] Great, how many did you count? I mean, I at least counted four or the entire stadium shouted for

[00:25:39] throughout the game. And the referee just stone cold without hesitation, continued play

[00:25:46] without even batting an eye. Yeah. And it's always when the fouls are not being called

[00:25:52] against your team, it always seems like the referee's out to get you. But I swear this referee was

[00:25:57] out to get us. I don't know. He just seems like he was... He still called a lot of fouls united,

[00:26:03] but I think there's a lot more that were key times that he should have called and he did.

[00:26:08] There was definitely a lana number 20 should have been carded in the first half.

[00:26:14] And that was a...

[00:26:17] You and I and the people next to us, wouldn't it? And that was... He had a couple of fouls.

[00:26:22] Tough fouls in the first couple of minutes and then talking to the referee and drawing at him.

[00:26:27] And he stayed on the whole time. I think he finally got the yellow card,

[00:26:30] latter part of the second half. He did. There was like... I was shouting at the TV. It was about

[00:26:36] the third, third tough fall in a row of just him. He was the only one following people.

[00:26:43] And I was surprised like, where's the card for this guy? I will give the ref a little credit.

[00:26:48] They replayed the one with Nick Markanek and he did kind of take a little bit of a dive and was

[00:26:54] never touched. Really tough to see that one in live motion because I think that was right outside

[00:26:59] the box, but I could see where you guys are coming from with the other ones because they're...

[00:27:03] I mean, it's tough. It's tough with a cup game too. If you're letting the boys play,

[00:27:08] where do you draw the line on that one? Oh, is that one? That one was fine. That one was

[00:27:14] not a hard foul. There's a lot of fouls where it looked like they could have been fouls, but

[00:27:20] a lot of the fans knew like, oh, that's not really anything. They knew not to be at like,

[00:27:27] oh, referee, that's terrible call. That should have been a free kick top of the box or so on.

[00:27:32] The fans knew what kind of calls were, what the players were actually trying to dive or when

[00:27:37] they were actually deliberately taken out of the play and they were really into it and really against

[00:27:46] the referee, the entire game. I want to do one more rant. Second half were stand up above

[00:27:56] the tunnel and watch the players come in out of the locker room down the little sidewalk

[00:28:00] coming in. Every player, every coach, the little kids down there reaching out their hands and

[00:28:05] trying to get a high five from them. Every player, both sides gave those kids high five,

[00:28:11] except for one. That's the Atlanta United captain. He walked right down the middle,

[00:28:15] just ignoring everything. He must act like a little tough guy who needs to come on back here

[00:28:19] and deal with real men, not ignore little kids. That's enough about that one.

[00:28:25] Had a couple of big notes written down. One, as we started out, the supporters,

[00:28:30] that stadium was packed. It had a lot more people. I thought we're going to be there.

[00:28:34] The match was exciting. The other note I have down is Torres, Torres, Torres. That was just

[00:28:40] because he was killing it the whole game and we need to get somebody up there that he can work

[00:28:45] off of that maybe we get some more goals scoring. The last Torres you miss wrote down. It was

[00:28:53] Torres, Torres Rodriguez because Rodriguez came on and he, as soon as he came on, it was

[00:28:59] like a complete switch back to seeing that Torres workhorse effort in the first half of attack,

[00:29:04] attack, attack. I mean, it's tough to play in both at the same time because there's so many

[00:29:10] good guys but he's worked his way back into this starting lineup for me. Oh, absolutely.

[00:29:16] Ryan, any final thoughts?

[00:29:19] So West Ashley High School men's soccer team had their end of the year banquet tonight

[00:29:27] and it was a job well done. Super proud of that group of guys over there. And as a thank you,

[00:29:34] the Canning Crew teamed up with Noble Burgervar. We were able to get 40 tickets for the Charleston

[00:29:44] Battery game tomorrow against El Paso. So Canning Crew throwing some tickets at the players

[00:29:50] out there, they come out there, Coach CJ and the other coaches up there to include Ryan and Stonaker

[00:29:58] and them. You'll see them out there tomorrow night. Also be doing a little tailgating.

[00:30:03] Ryan and I play on a team and Patrick's been playing with us and we're losing one of our players.

[00:30:08] She's moving off up to Virginia for a new job and she also is a bartender there,

[00:30:15] the battery matches. Brittany, we're going to miss you. We're at Tailgate,

[00:30:18] a little party tomorrow night in her honor and hopefully she doesn't drink all over here.

[00:30:24] Patrick, anything? Just looking forward to the game. El Paso just got a new head coach on Monday,

[00:30:31] someone with a lot of experience, MLS, USL Championship and actually USA Youth

[00:30:38] National Team experience with the under 17. So this is going to be a different look El Paso

[00:30:44] team than the one win El Paso team from the past couple months here. I think we're going to be in

[00:30:50] for a little bit of a dogfight come Friday night. Hey, but credit to the battery though,

[00:30:55] we're still technically undefeated. Looking to extend the 100% history and USA.

[00:31:06] Please y'all. See ya. Later.