The Charleston Battery fell 2-0 to Orange County SC on the road at Championship Soccer Stadium on Saturday. Orange County scored on both sides of halftime to secure their sixth consecutive win. The Battery will turn the page to next Saturday’s home match against Memphis 901 FC to close out the August schedule.
Charleston started the night looking to apply heavy pressure to Orange County. Beto Avila’s pressing created the Battery’s first real chance of the night in the 19th minute, he won back his blocked shot inside the box and played it to Derek Dodson. From there, Dodson drove the ball through traffic to Augi Williams, whose shot was saved at the last moment.
Orange County managed to take a 1-0 lead via Brian Iloski in the first minute of stoppage time before halftime. The 1-0 score held into the interval.
Play resumed in the second half with Charleston looking for an equalizer. However, the hosts doubled their lead in the 62nd minute through Owen Lambe.
The Battery appeared to have pulled a goal back when Nick Markanich put the ball in the net in the 66th minute, but Williams was flagged for offside in the buildup.
Charleston continued to look for a way back into the game but were unable to find the right combination to break through Orange County’s defense. The hosts would hold on for the 2-0 win.
Following the result, the Battery’s record stands at 12W-7L-7D, placing them third in the Eastern Conference standings.
Head Coach Ben Pirmann and midfielder Chris Allan discussed the match after the final whistle, with key quotes to follow.
Coach Pirmann on what was difficult about tonight’s match…
Full credit to Orange County, they deserved to win. They scored two incredible goals. They made the big plays. What was difficult was their center-backs are press resistant, so you have a two-plus-one build-up where they can get the fullbacks forward and create a numbers overload against our back four. We didn’t hunt the ball well enough, we weren’t courageous enough.
In the second half, we made the adjustment to press in a different way. The entire game was in their final third and they break out and scored a great goal on the restart.
Big picture, we can’t forget who we are as a club. We’re still in an improvement process, we’re still in a rebuild. In those moments, you still are learning about players’ personalities and trends. Tonight, we reverted back to some bad trends and some players have to play with a little bit more courage. [Orange County’s] players either had top courage or they made big-time plays. We didn’t do enough of that, so credit to Orange County.
Coach Pirmann on the lessons learned from tonight…
There are two big takeaways from this. Number one, I even told the team this in the build-up this week, I thought we took our foot off the gas. That’s bad leadership from myself. We’ve got to continue to be more accountable every day in our training and our actions and the processes that are building to the week.
Then, during the game, we have to be sharper when we’re in possession and more selfless. We just have too many guys that are continuing to be focused on their identity and their moments versus their task and what the team needs. Then, we’ve got to be more courageous. We have to be more willing to be uncomfortable. Orange County were and that’s why they’ve won six in a row and that’s why they’re flying right now.
Allan on his immediate takeaways from the match…
It’s a difficult one, especially when you work all week. And it’s disappointing that we couldn’t at least get on the scoresheet. You could tell we were a little bit unsettled in the first half, we made a few changes in the second half. It seems negative right now, but certainly take the fact that we’re still working towards the end of the year and playoffs, we move on. It’s certainly frustrating.
Allan on turning the page to Memphis at home next week…
I’d say as long as we’re working hard and we bring the fight each game, it’s only down to just taking on the information that Coach Pirmann and the staff bring. So, move on and we’ll take it training session by training session, don’t look too far ahead. But, playing on the ball and then getting our press right, with a willingness to work, that’s what we’re going to look for moving forward.
There’s extra incentive to end the month strong at home, of course. It’s always a pleasure playing for the home supporters. And it’s a big game, Memphis are close to us in the league, some will call it a six-pointer, so there’s a huge incentive.
The Battery return home on Sat., Aug. 26, to play Memphis 901 FC on Back to School Night at Patriots Point. Tickets are available now via SeatGeek.com, the Battery’s exclusive digital ticketing provider.
Lineups
OC: Amang, M. Iloski, Casiple, Partida, Scott, B. Iloski, Doghman, Nakkim, Powers, Lambe, Shutler
CHS: Muse, Archer, Dodson, Palma (Paterson 78’), Ycaza (Crawford 67’), Allan (Booth 84’), Wynne, Barajas (Reedy 67’), Williams, Markanich (Trager 67’), Avila
