Back to Business: Battery Win One, Drop One, and Mexico Wins the Gold Cup

First off, sorry for the lack of posts lately, having no internet connection will do that to you. I'll try to get back to posting more often guys, its just been hard to lately.

Anyways, the Battery were very busy this weekend. They started with a trip up to Wilmington in a match to be broadcast on Fox Soccer Channel. This was a chance for the Battery to make a statement.

And a statement was made. Seedy Bah and Dane Kelly got the goals in a 2-0 victory for Charleston in front of 5,117 fans at Legion Field in Wilmington. Shout out to Wilmington for the great atmosphere.

This was an enjoyable match to watch. Despite the lack of domination of possession, shots, and scoring chances in general, it was great to see the boys pull one out with their backs against the wall.

Man of the Match: Dane Kelly
Kelly gets the nod from me. After a good showing in recent matches, Kelly showed why he is our #1 forward right now. His goal was beautiful. Great pass, great move, great finish. He's playing active and smart football, and that's all you can ask.

In the second match, we had a bit of a let down. No rhythm was ever established, and the Battery looked tired in a 2-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. Goals from Matt Tuttle and Shintaro would lead to Charleston's dismantling in front of 3,965.

Man of the Match: N/A
Nobody had a standout match for the Battery. Everyone looked tired and the team had trouble finding good scoring chances.

In International Soccer we had the Gold Cup Final in Pasadena, California. The USMNT faced Mexico in the final and it started off well for the Yanks.

Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan would give the US a 2-0 advantage before the 25th minute mark. Then El Tri came marching back and would win the match 4-2.

Let me say this, it came down to that Steve Cherundolo injury early. When Bornstein came in, we had two players playing unfamiliar positions in the back, and our fate was pretty much sealed.

If you need to contact me, e-mail me at SCSoccerblog@gmail.com. Also follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/scsoccerblog.

US Open Cup, Lamar Neagle, Charleston-Harrisburg Highlights, and More

Alright I've been silent for a while but here's a little bit of what's going on:

• Open Cup Pairings have been released. Looks like the Battery will get to face a USASA opponent in Regals FC. This team is from southern Texas and I know absolutely nothing about them; not that I would have known anything about any of the other teams, but I'll try to get as much information on them as possible. Looks like if we win that match, we'll face the ASC New Stars (another USASA team) and Orlando City. Our matches with City could end up being very, very, very important.
• Former Battery forward, Lamar Neagle, scored a cracker in the Sounders match at Real Salt Lake on Saturday night. If you didn't see the goal, here it is, plus a match recap with a short interview with Lamar. It starts around the 4 minute mark:

• Here are the highlights from Saturdays match with the Harrisburg City Islanders. I'll post a full video of the scrap with the Islanders later:



• The "More" part of the title of this article is this: I am just so ready to watch the USMNT play this summer. The friendly with Spain and then the Gold Cup will just be great.

If you need to contact me, e-mail me at SCSoccerblog@gmail.com. Also follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/scsoccerblog.

Weekend Wrap-up: Armstrong Announced as Player-Coach, US 1-1 Argentina, and More

Sorry that I haven't made a post in a while, as I have been on vacation. But here's a wrap of the weekend's events:

On Thursday, veteran Battery midfielder, Stephen Armstrong, was announced as a player-coach for the 2011 USL Pro season. He will be in the role of an assistant coach to Mike Anhaeuser.

Armstrong has been with Charleston since the 2006 season, and has 24 goals and 11 assists in 113 games with the Battery. He is fifth all time in both goals and assists, and sixth in games played.

The native South African has been with the Battery for their most recent accomplishments. These being the team's run to the 2008 US Open Cup Final, where they lost to DC United, and the 2010 USL Second Division Championship.

Head Coach Mike Anhaeuser had this to say, “Stephen brings us a wealth of experience on and off the field; he has been an important part of the club for the past six years. This experience will be more beneficially this season as Stephen has assumed the role of player/assistant along with keeping his high level of play on the field.”

On Saturday night, the United States Men's National Team took on the Argentina National Team in match at the New Meadowlands Stadium, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Playing for Argentina, was who many consider the world's best player, Lionel Messi.

The first goal would come from Esteban Cambiasso in the 41st minute of the game. The goal came off a scramble right in front of the goal, which Messi started.

In the 59th minute, the US would pull level with a goal from, who else but, Juan Agudelo. Landon Donovan would launch a free kick into the box where Bocanegra headed the ball on goal, and the rebound came to Agudelo who put it in the back of the net.

The game was highlighted by Argentina dominating possesion in the first half, followed by the US making it a little more even in the second half, as well as another great performance by Tim Howard.

The USMNT will play Paraguay in a friendly on Tuesday, March 29th at LP Field in Nashville.

Mikey Buytas, president of The Regiment, will be on a podcast by Feuerstein's Fire tonight at 8:00. They will be doing a preview of the 2011 USL Pro Season. Make sure to check it out.

If you need to contact me, e-mail me at SCSoccerblog@gmail.com.

Battery-Railhawks Draw, Davies is Back, and the USMNT is Serious

Yesterday the Battery traveled up to Cary, North Carolina for a preseason friendly, at Wakemed Soccer Park against the NASL's Carolina Railhawks.

The game would end in a 0-0 draw. Neither team threatened very much, and the Railhawks would "dominate" (well as you could in this game anyway) the possession in the offensive third. The lack of attacking is typical in these preseason games, and I would take this result with a grain of salt.

Last night Charlie Davies made his debut for DC United against the Columbus Crew, in a game at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.

Davies would enter in the 56th minute, as a sub in the second half for Joseph Ngwenya. In the 63rd minute he would get his chance to make this debut one to remember.

Chris Pontius was pulled down in the box, and Davies would step up to take this PK for United. He buried it to the bottom right.  He wasn't done. Not by a long shot.

In the 77th minute Davies collected a long ball and ran past the Columbus keeper to put his total for the day up to two.

In an emotional post game interview, Davies said:

"This has been like a storybook tonight. I don’t think you could write this stuff. You can’t make this up, and once the whistle blew I was so relieved that we had won. I looked at the fans and that’s when the emotion hit me. I thought to myself, look at the support, look at how much people wanted me to succeed. To score two goals on my debut after a year and a half out, it’s honestly amazing. I knew I was ready, and I knew that I wanted the opportunity, but it feels great to seize the moment. To survive the [car] accident and still be able to play soccer, it seems like there is a reason why it happened and this goes to show that with faith and belief that you can achieve the impossible. Tonight it feels like I achieved the impossible."

This was Davies first game for a first team squad since the car accident that he was in, in 2009.

It is rumored that the United States Men's Team will be playing a scrimmage against world champions, Spain in Foxboro, Massachusetts on June 4th, 2011.

This match would be the last game before the CONCACAF Gold Cup that the United States is hosting in the summer of 2011.

If this match is played, it will be the last in a line up of tough teams that the US has faced since the World Cup. Some of the highlights are Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay.

The US is really getting serious in these friendlies. We haven't been seeing too many match ups against the top teams in the world for the United States, and this line up of teams coming to the US, could get more people interested in the team, and get them more media coverage. When you play teams that are this well recognized, there are no negatives.

The USMNT will be playing Argentina on March 26th at the New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey, and Paraguay on the 29th at LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee.

If you need to contact me, e-mail me at SCSoccerblog@gmail.com.

Good News For the US National Team

A lot of news has been flowing in since Monday, the end of the transfer window. The USMNT has had many players make moves, and have had a couple other pieces of good news come in that I'll cover.

First off; transfers. Many big moves this weekend for players on the US team. Turkey is getting its fair share of American internationals, with Jozy Altidore going to last year's Turkish champion: Bursaspor, and Freddy Adu going to second division, Rizespor. Altidore, who is on loan from La Liga's Villareal, is making a good move. I say this because the best way for Altidore to improve, is obviously experience, which he just wasn't getting at Villareal where he only appeared twice this year. Adu, who is on loan from Benfica of Portugal, will definitely be getting a lot of playing time, and though his shot with the US team is slim now with new players Agudelo and Bunbury, I'm always glad to see an American playing overseas.

The third big move was Michael Bradley's move from Borussia Mönchengladbach of Germany, to Aston Villa of the English Premier League. How great of a move is this? Any way of getting American's to one of the biggest leagues in the world, I'll take and Bradley's move is no exception. The English Premier League fits Bradley's box-to-box midfielder style well. Bradley had this to say about his move:

"Everyone can see that Aston Villa is a big club, a fantastic club, with tradition and great supporters. Over the past few years Villa have made big strides and are trying to challenge at the very top of the Premier League. I am excited to be part of that and I am excited to be here."

A pair of players, Robbie Findley and Eddie Johnson, both made moves to Championship sides. Findley finalized his move to Nottingham Forest and his signed for 2 and a half years. He picked up a thigh injury in training, that could sideline him for up to three months. This is just devastating. Findley has finally made his move to Europe, and this is a terrible start to his European career. Johnson moved from Fulham to last place, Preston North End. Though the team is in last, Johnson should get more playing time, which he wasn't getting any of at Fulham.

Also, Charlie Davies of France's Sochaux, is making a move back to the MLS. He is training with DC United after playing this season with the reserves at Sochaux. This is a good move that will be getting Charlie many minutes, and I'm excited to see him back in the United States, but I hate that he didn't get a chance this season with Sochaux. He deserved a little more than what he got, and, not to hate on the MLS, but the talent in Europe is much better and we want our players playing against the best. This is not official yet. Since the MLS transfer window is open until April 15th, Charlie can make a move later. The only problem that could happen is that the MLS only accepts transfers of players that can be bought outright.

And finally the biggest piece of news, for me anyway. As ya'll may not know, Seattle Sounders FC is my MLS club. Long story. The news being about the Sounders crafty midfielder, Steve Zakuani is considering playing for the US team. How great is that? Zakuani is one of the best players in the MLS. Though he played for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, his home country, he only played in friendlies. This means that he can still play for the US since friendlies are not considered official by FIFA in the sense of player's teams. This is big news for the USMNT.

Well that's all I've got for today. If you have any questions or need to contact me, you can by e-mailing me at SCSoccerblog@gmail.com.

Preview: US-Chile

The United States and Chile will face off at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles this Saturday, January 22nd. This is the wrap up for the January Camp for the USMNT, and is against a Chile squad that didn't advance out of the group stage in South Africa.

First off, probably the most important part of this game for the casual fan, is that it isn't on a major network (ESPN, FSC, etc.) The game is going to be broadcast on ESPN3.com and for those who are willing to listening to the game in Spanish (and get the channel for that matter) it will be on Telefutura. So this poses a bit of problem, but for the ones who are committed, its viewable. Also there's only been a bit over 9,000 tickets sold for this game. In a stadium that seats 27,000 it might end up looking like a ghost town, but hopefully we'll get a look at the future of the US team.

This will be an interesting match as the teams are not bringing out the veteran players. This is not a recognised FIFA date, which doesn't allow players such as Dempsey, Howard, etc. to play, due to commitments to their clubs, but the same will go for Chile. The US will bring out a lineup similar to the match against South Africa on 11/17/10 (without Guzan.)  Chile is bringing a team that is highly inexperienced, somewhat like what the US is bringing. Chile's team for this match has a couple of players from their World Cup team, including forward Esteban Parades. But for the most part, this is basically Chile's B-team. Chile is currently ranked 15th in the FIFA World Rankings.

Since Chile is also bringing their "second team", the US should be competitive, and there's no reason that they shouldn't pull out a win in the match. Nick Rimando will most likely get the nod for the start in goal. Juan Agudelo also should get the start up top for the US. Agudelo scored the only goal for the US in the match against South Africa in the Nelson Mandela Challenge. He scored the goal at age 17, becoming the youngest player to score in a game for the senior team. But there is some talk of Teal Bunbury starting the game over Agudelo. Breakout possibilities are endless for the US team, with Brek Shea being my favorite for a man of the match like performance, for the sole reason of his hair. On a serious note he should play well. He was called up for the friendly with Colombia in October.

The match is set for a 7:00 p.m. PST, and 10:00 p.m. for us here on the East Coast. US Soccer has been posting videos of training on their Youtube page and the 18-man match day roster is set for release on Saturday.

The Status of College Soccer in South Carolina

With soccer on the rise in the whole of the United States, South Carolina can be quickly left in the dust. With the lack of an MLS side within a 500 mile radius, soccer is not seeming like a priority to most sports fans in South Carolina. But then again, we should take a closer look. Where is the goldmine for soccer in the Palmetto State?

Colleges. The state has had some of the most prominent programs in the South. Many of the colleges have had players that went on to play at a professional level, not only in the U.S., but in Europe. The University of South Carolina has had former U.S. national team players Clint Mathis, Josh Wolff, and the backup keeper to Tim Howard, Brad Guzan. Clemson University, has current U.S. national team players, defender Oguchi Onyewu and midfielder, Stuart Holden. Furman University had two players that were on the United States World Cup Roster in Clint Dempsey and Ricardo Clark. 

Though many of the college sides in SC have had a down time in the late 2000's, this year was a solid one for college soccer in the state. South Carolina won the Conference USA championship for the first time since 2005 and advanced to the third round of the NCAA tournament. Furman lost to UNC Greensboro in the Southern Conference Championship. The College of Charleston attained an at large bid to the NCAA tournament and lost to eventual runners up, Louisville, in the second round. Clemson had a mediocre season, with the highlight being a win over 18th ranked Duke.

As soccer grows in South Carolina, an integral part is college soccer. Most European nations do not have intercollegiate soccer and it could be special part of American soccer that the Palmetto State has the ability to dominate.