Charleston Battery News Release - www.charlestonbattery.com

Saturday, April 25, 2015

CHARLESTON - With five players on the injury report Thursday afternoon, Charleston Battery’s vaunted depth is about to be put to the test when the team travels to Wilmington on Sunday for the first of four meetings this season between the traditional Carolinas rivals.

The match kicks off at 3 p.m. and can be watched via the Wilmington Hammerheads YouTube channel here. The Sparrow (1078 E. Montague Ave.) in North Charleston will be hosting an away match watch party, with fans encouraged to stick around after the final whistle to help local band First World Problem film a music video for the Battery anthem “We The Fleet.”

While some of team’s injured players could be on Sunday’s 18-man active roster, the Battery (3-0-1, 10 points, second place in the Eastern Conference) will be without the services of star fullback Quinton Griffith. The 23-year-old Antiguan injured his knee in training on Tuesday, and a scan found some loose material floating in his knee. He’s scheduled to undergo a procedure at MUSC Friday morning to clean that up.

Losing a two-time 2015 USL Team of the Week performer is a challenge. It’s compounded by the loss of midfielder Justin Portillo — the club’s 2014 Newcomer of the Year — to what head athletic trainer Bobby Weisenberger called a probable hip flexor injury. Portillo said he felt the injury early in the second half of Saturday’s draw with the New York Red Bulls II, but played through it.

Three players are listed as probable this afternoon: Midfielder and team captain Jarad van Schaik (knee) and winger Navion Boyd (ankle), who both missed the New York match, and forward Heviel Cordoves, who aggravated a lower-leg contusion originally picked up on April 4th against Harrisburg. Only van Schaik participated in training on Thursday. Unless everyone on the probable group improves significantly, the team could be unable to field a full 18 at Legion Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Options for emergency help, if needed, include MLS affiliate Houston Dynamo and the S.C. United Battery Academy U-18 squad.

Coach Mike Anhaeuser has always taken the long view on player injuries, but has praised this season’s depth and the flexibility it offers him on multiple occasions. Yet with just 19 outfield players on the roster, a flurry of injuries involves some simple math.

“We don’t talk about it much, but we talk about how if you’re in a position and a guy’s out with injury, you have to step in and play to that level or better,”  Anhaeuser said. “That’s what we expect. And you know that they’re going to give 100 percent effort, because that’s their opportunity to showcase what they can do. We’re ready with our depth.”

With van Schaik and Boyd unavailable last week, defensive midfielder Sebastien Thuriere got his first Battery start, with Griffith returning from his Week 1 injury at his old midfield spot to replace Boyd. Nineteen-year-old Dynamo Academy product Memo Rodriguez also earned his first pro start — and scored his first goal.

On Thursday the staff looked at players in the positions where they are likely to be needed. Rookie forward Ricky Garbanzo was back in his spot underneath the front-running forward. Rodriguez was back to playing a deeper role, joining Thuriere and the recovering van Schaik in defensive midfield. That’s a key spot in the Battery’s 4-2-3-1. “On the outside, we’ve got Zach (Prince), we’ve got Dante (Marini), we’ve got guys who can step in there if needed.”

And at forward, he’s got Austin Savage, the comeback star of the preseason. Cordoves, usually starter Dane Kelly‘s relief at center forward, watched from the sidelines Thursday as Kelly and Savage took turns scoring for their opposing teams.

SCOUTING WILMINGTON 

Though the Battery have had the better of the series in recent years (including a 1-0 home win in the 2012 USL PRO Championship), Coach David Irving’s Hammers flipped the script on the Battery in 2014, pummeling Charleston in back-go-back 1-0 victories at Blackbaud Stadium and Legion Stadium. The Wilmington leg of the series was one of the most brutal Battery games in recent memory, ultimately spiraling into chaos and ejections as tempers flared in the second half.

That would be the club’s final meeting with Irving, who was replaced midseason by Carson Porter. Porter rallied the Hammerheads to the playoffs, and has the 2015 edition of the club off to a 1-1-2 start.

“With Coach Irving, you knew you were going to get a physical game,” Anhaeuser said. “You knew if he needed to hit a ball down the field to cause some problems for you, you needed to be ready for that.

“I think this team is a little different. I think they like to play it a little bit more — obviously, they widened their field. They like to pass, probably play it in to feet a little more. But watching them, they still have the quality players that can play the ball around the outside. They have the two strikers that are up there, on their field, with the turf.

“So we’ve prepared for a little different style than we’re used to. The coach wants them to play it more like New York, maybe knock it around. Which is great for us. We can do the same thing, and maybe counterattack if they make mistakes, especially on turf. So we’re looking forward to it because sometimes it’s very difficult, going in there knowing it’s going to be a physical, 90-minute battle, whereas this one might be more like one that’s played between the 18s, with a little more creativity.”

While the Battery have benefited from a balanced attack and solid if not dominating defense (the team is averaging a best-in-the-Eastern-Conference 2.25 goals per match, paired with a respectable 1.25 goals allowed average), half of Wilmington’s six goals have come from one man: Former New York Red Bull, Philadelphia Union and Carolina Railhawks forward Nick Zimmerman. He’s a solidly built 6-foot veteran who recorded 21 career goals for the RailHawks, and he’s off to a three-goals-in-four matches start in Wilmington.

As a team, Wilmington is dead-level on goals scored and allowed, with each set at 1.50 per match.

Anhaeuser said that barring any late adaptions to injury, the Battery would not go into a defensive crouch at Wilmington, “We’re going to go in with the same game plan we have been, and maybe we’ll put two or three in the back of the net. Right now the guy’s are ticking.”

KEY MATCH UP: CHANG VS. HAMMERS MIDFIELD

No Battery player has been a bigger surprise this season than midfielder Maikel Chang, and with van Schaik returning from injury and Portillo sitting this one out, he could be called upon to to more than ever. Portillo and van Schaik have been the Battery’s set-piece takers in 2015, but Chang demonstrated some wicked free-kick skills of his own on Thursday, blistering a goal from about 20 yards out.

But finding room to operate is always tough against the Hammerheads, particularly with hard man Paul Nicholson and danger man Corben Bone — recently of the Chicago Fire — on patrol.

In his first two years with Charleston, Chang was either injured (2013) or not fit enough to contribute for long shifts (2014). In 2015 he’s one of just five Battery players to start each of the first four matches, and leads the team in assists with three. While most opponents focus on shutting down forwards Dane Kelly (two goals) and Heviel Cordoves (three goals), leaving space for Chang is a dangerous game.

Anhaeuser calls his current run of form “a mixture of everything.”

“He’s got his confidence going, and when you show that, the coach has more confidence in the player. His fitness levels are way above. And then just comfort level. He’s comfortable with what he needs to do out there, and he does it well.

“Even on the defensive end, he’s growing into that. He does the work defensively. He’s getting back. He’s never going to be that smashmouth defender, but does his work and he’s a very intelligent player. That’s never been missing from his game.”