The Charleston Battery fell 3-1 to Louisville City FC on Saturday at Lynn Family Stadium. Charleston created a good number of chances but were unable to capitalize on them enough to salvage a result in Kentucky. Graham Smith’s late tally represented the Battery’s lone goal of the night.
The top-of-the-table clash started with both sides eager to get out to an early lead. Arturo Rodriguez almost opened the scoring in the 6th minute but his curler from the edge of the box was narrowly wide. The Battery held roughly 70% of possession through the opening 15 minutes.
Louisville managed to take the lead in the 17th minute when Aiden McFadden scored off a corner kick.
Charleston remained steadfast looking to find their first goal of the night despite the 1-0 deficit. The Battery had a well-worked counterattack in the 29th minute led by Juan David Torres, Nick Markanich and Rodriguez, but Markanich’s shot from inside the box was saved by goalkeeper Damian Las.
The hosts took the 1-0 lead into the break. Charleston held over 60% of possession but were unable to make meaningful progress against Louisville’s press and were out-shot 10 to four.
The Battery came out of the break looking to level the score as Torres and Markanich led much of the pressure up top. Torres sent in a thundering shot in the 57th minute from inside the box on target, however it was saved by Las.
Goalkeeper Adam Grinwis came up big with a diving save in the 68th minute on a shot by Taylor Davila.
Torres and Markanich connected in the 69th minute with a long ball from the Colombian to the forward in the box, but Markanich’s shot went wide of the frame.
The hosts added a second goal in the 82nd minute via Jansen Wilson off a counterattack. Louisville made the score 3-0 moments later when Phillip Goodrum scored in the 86th minute.
A notable moment for the Battery came in the 83rd minute when defender Samuel Biek came off the bench to make his Charleston debut.
Continuing to push until the final whistle, Graham Smith pulled a goal back for the Battery in the 92nd minute to make the score 3-1, nullifying Louisville’s bid for a clean sheet. Louisville failed to properly clear the ball from their end and Smith came forward to deliver a blistering strike to the back of the net. The goal was Smith’s second of the year.
It ended up being too little too late for Charleston has they’d fall 3-1 to the hosts. It was Louisville’s first victory over the Battery in over two years.
The Battery’s record moves to 14W-4L-7D (49pts), placing them second in the Eastern Conference standings following the conclusion of the Week 24 results around the league.
Head Coach Ben Pirmann and defender Graham Smith discussed the match after the final whistle, with key quotes to follow.
Coach Pirmann on his immediate takeaways from the match…
It was a tough game. Got to give all credit to Louisville and their coaches and players. They did a really good game. They played very, very well and we were just OK. I thought we were a little bit slow moving the ball and I think they got on us with some duels.
The second bit is when things got extended at 1-0, we had two really big chances to make it 1-1 and we didn’t quite finish it off. We had subs up for the tired legs and then that second goal kind of killed it. Like I said, full credit to [Louisville]. Disappointed on our end, but I’ll go with this team. Love this group, love these players. They worked their socks off. It just didn’t go our way tonight. And I think to be fair, the better team won tonight.
Coach Pirmann on turning the page to Orange County next week…
We have to have a response, whether that’s internally, emotionally, and spiritually within the group. I told the team that I didn’t think we won enough duels. It wasn’t for a lack of work ethic, I think we were a little bit too stretched in the build and we weren’t gambling to get the second balls, that created some tired legs. We’ve got to have a little bit more structure in certain things and then we can’t have as many slopping giveaways as we had just for the wrong reasons.
So we’ll get better, we always do. We also know that Orange County are a tremendous team and they’re fighting like crazy. They’re very good, so it will be a 50-50 game. If we get a little bit better and a little bit crisper, hopefully some things can tilt our way at home, then we want to be in a position to try to compete for all three points.
Smith on his assessment of the night…
It was a pretty easy match to get up for, you’re playing in a great stadium, playing against a great team. These are the kind of matches that it’s easy to get up for. It didn’t go how we wanted, but at the end of the day, it’s one game in August. You can’t get too down on it. We just have got to improve from here.
Louisville did a really good job forcing us to go around them. We couldn’t penetrate through the middle and they did a good job being patient with their defensive structure. When they won it, they were pretty dangerous in the counter and we felt that after a while, that kind of wears on you. I think [Louisville are] a really strong team, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them again down the line.
Smith on using this result to motivate the team for the remainder of the season…
I think you want to be careful, when you win a big game, you don’t want to get too high. When you lose one like this, you don’t want to get too low. Reflect on it and then ultimately improve. We still have quite a few games to go left in the year.
It’s still pretty fresh, so you come out of it and you feel like maybe it was a little bit worse than it was. Likewise, when you win games, you feel like it’s better than it was. So it’s kind of hard to say for sure, but I think we definitely had our chances.
The Battery return home on Sat., Aug. 24, to host Orange County SC for Back to School Night at Patriots Point. Tickets for the game are on sale now via SeatGeek.com, the club’s exclusive digital ticketing provider.
Lineups and Scoring Summary
Lineups:
CHS: Grinwis, Dossantos, Smith (Biek, 83’), Archer, Segbers (Crawford, 83’), Allan, Ycaza (Chapman, 46’), Rodriguez (Saydee, 62’), Torres, Markanich, Myers (Conway, 75’)
LOU: Las, Adams, Ordonez, Totsch, McFadden, Wynder, Davila, Dia (Charpie, 74’), Wilson, Serrano (Perez, 74’), Harris (Goodrum, 60’)
Scoring Summary:
LOU – Aidan McFadden (Ray Serrano), 17’
LOU – Jansen Wilson (Taylor Davila), 82’
LOU – Phillip Goodrum (Adrien Perez), 86’
CHS – Graham Smith, 90’+2
