ATLANTA, GA – The Charleston Battery lost, 1-0, to the Nigerian Olympic team at Silverbacks Park Sunday morning. The international exhibition was rescheduled for Sunday morning after a heavy rainstorm Saturday night rendered the surface at Silverbacks Park unplayable.
With five senior squad members staying back in Charleston, Head Coach Mike Anhaeuser called up several academy players for the friendly. Shawn Ferguson, Quinton Griffith, O’Brian Woodbine, Maikel Chang and Kevin Corby did not make the trip to Georgia.
Atlanta United Academy players Chris Goslin, Patrick Okonkwo, Lagos Kunga, Machop Chol, Edwin Figuroa, and former Battery Academy player Cole Gulledge all earned minutes against the Olympic team. Atlanta United’s first ever Homegrown Player Andrew Carleton also joined the Battery for the match, starting out wide on the left in place of the absent Maikel Chang.
The two teams traded half-chances early on before Nigeria opened the scoring in the 33rd minute. Outside back Stanley Amuzie received the ball a couple of yards outside the penalty area and smashed a left footed shot low and hard into the bottom corner of Alex Tambakis’ goal.
Prior to the goal, Tambakis made several big saves to keep the teams level. Playing his first match in his soon-to-be home city, the Atlanta United goalkeeper showed good reactions to stop a point blank shot in the 29th minute after a well-worked Nigerian attacking move.
The Battery appeared to have equalized in stoppage time of the first half, but the referee waved away Chris Tsonis’ goal, indicating the forward was offsides. Despite the offsides call, the goal was well-taken. Tsonis bravely rose up to beat Daniel Emmanuel to a Justin Portillo free kick, flicking a header past the Nigerian goalkeeper.
Charleston’s young roster held its own against the Olympic squad through the latter stages of the match. With Dante Marini, Ricky Garbanzo, Ataulla Guerra and Neveal Hackshaw the only senior players on the field, the average age of the XI that ended the match was well-below 20.
With the team’s two mid-season exhibitions behind them, the Battery now turns its focus solely to the league. Charleston faces two very tough road games in consecutive weeks. The Battery travels to New York on Friday to take on the second-place Red Bulls II Saturday night, then heads to Cincinnati to play in front of a crowd of 20,000 at Nippert Stadium.
The back-to-back road matches are an opportunity for the Battery to gain ground on two of the three teams above them in the Eastern Conference and continue to separate themselves from those below them. Rochester is now only three points behind the Battery and has a game in hand. Unbeaten in its last five matches away from home, Charleston will need to continue its form on the road to maintain its position in the top four and it tighten its hold on a first-round home playoff match.
Top Image: Ricky Garbanzo just misses getting on the end of a cross in the second half.
Rich von Biberstein photo
