The Charleston Battery were dealt a 1-0 defeat against New Mexico United in the Black and Yellow Derby at Isotopes Park on Saturday. After a 0-0 first half, the game was decided by an 81st minute goal for the hosts by Kipp Keller. Charleston made several advances to level the score late in the match, but were unable to overcome the New Mexico defense.
Play kicked off amid temperatures in the low 80s and humidity levels hovering around just 10% for the sixth all-time meeting between the clubs. Houssou Landry issued the first warning shot in the 3rd minute with an audacious attempt from distance, but it was routinely corralled by goalkeeper Kristopher Shakes.
Action turned cagey through the first quarter-hour as both sides sized each other up. Goalkeeper Luis Zamudio made his first save in the 22nd minute, a calm save to deny Valentin Noel.
Maalique Foster nearly broke the game open in the 26th minute with a sublime turn-and-shoot inside the box that forced a diving save from Shakes.
Zamudio was tested again in the 32nd minute to deny Dayonn Harris and keep the game scoreless. The moment was a notable one for Zamudio as it marked his 200th career save in the USL Championship regular season.
New Mexico nearly found the opener in the 38th minute when Harris broke free for a one-on-one against Zamudio. However, Zamudio came off his line and did enough to force Harris to send his shot just wide of the post.
Joey Akpunonu made a clutch clearance off the line in the 44th minute, blocking Niall Reid-Stephen’s shot as the last line of defense.
The game went into halftime tied at 0-0. New Mexico had more shots by a margin of eight to three in the first 45 minutes.
Play resumed in the second half with all still to play for at Isotopes Park.
Charleston came out of the break on the front foot. Langston Blackstock fired in a shot on target in the 47th minute that was saved by Shakes. The Battery had four shots to New Mexico’s two in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
New Mexico managed to take a 1-0 lead in the 81st minute via Kipp Keller.
The Battery nearly leveled the score in the 88th minute when Jeremy Kelly and Graham Smith connected to tee up Colton Swan inside the box, however Swan’s strike was just barely deflected by a sliding Niko Hämäläinen.
Graham Smith also almost found the equalizer in stoppage time, with a header on target from inside the box, but his shot went straight to the hands of Shakes.
Charleston were unable to find a goal before the final whistle, falling 1-0 to New Mexico.
The result moves the Battery’s record to 4W-4L-1D (13pts), placing them in sixth in the Eastern Conference standings.
Head Coach Ben Pirmann and defender Langston Blackstock addressed the media after the match, with key quotes to follow.
Coach Pirmann on his immediate takeaways from the match…
It was a good USL Championship football match. I think the irony is that it was a tale of two halves. I didn’t coach a good game in the first half, and the boys fought through it, and then the boys played an excellent second half, and we lost. So, you got to give credit to Kip Keller, the New Mexico center-back, he had a great goal.
I thought we were tremendous in the second half with how many chances we created and the ability to get behind. We needed to be just a little bit sharper, a little bit more clinical, a little bit better on the final pass, final shot. But, to be fair, New Mexico had a couple of chances in the first half where we slid, and Luis Zamudio made a save, or Joey Akpunonu cleared off the line, or whatever the play was, and they did that to us in the second half. So you can’t really be begrudging.
It was a good effort for football in this league. Both teams played well, despite the bad coaching by me in the first half. I thought the boys worked their socks off, they were tremendous, and we just wish we had a little bit more to reward the second-half performance because we had loads and loads of chances.
Coach Pirmann on turning the page to the three-week homestand…
In the last 10 games, eight were on the road. It was our ninth regular season game. So, we’re not even a third of the way through the season. Losing stinks. It stinks for the boys, it stinks for the club, and especially when you dominate the second half as we did. So, now it’s just reflect, analyze, improve. We’ll put this behind us. We’ve had some tough travel. We’ll go back home, and then we’ve got a six-pointer against Detroit, who are flying. So, we’ll be back at home, where we’ve been pretty good, but we need to make sure that we balance our transition defending and we finish those chances.
Our boys are resilient. They’re disappointed in the loss. They thought they did well enough to compete, so we just got to keep getting a little bit better. And back at home, we’ll need the fans to push us through to get those three points.
Blackstock on the difficulties posed by the New Mexico defense…
I think with New Mexico’s defense, the way they keep possession, they try to wear you down through 90 minutes, especially with the altitude and things like that. We kind of did a good job breaking their defense down, especially in the second half, it’s just about being more clinical and trying to minimize mistakes. I think we did our best, we gave our all, and sometimes football can be unrewarding. At the same time, we just have to make sure we get it right the next time against Detroit and give our best.
Blackstock on positives to build on from this game despite the result…
Every game, hopefully, there’s going to be some positives you can take and learn from, and lessons and things of that nature. We showed a lot of fight in the first half, suffered a little bit without the ball. Then, in the second half, we were able to pick it up and kind of dictate a bit more, and today wasn’t the night that we were able to get the breakthrough.
I think it’s also encouraging to come here, in a place like this, and have the response in the second half that we did. So, it’s just about making sure we get better at capitalizing, being a bit more clinical in front of goal and just keep minimizing mistakes at the back.
We’re not a team that lacks fight. I think every game we show up, we’re going to fight and do our best, because it’s what the club deserves, and it’s what we’re here to do. This team’s going to keep up the fight. It’s been a long road stretch, and we’re finally going to be back home next week, and I think everyone seems excited for that. We just have to put it right next week with a strong performance against Detroit.
Charleston’s next match will be at home against Detroit City FC on Sat., May 30, for Military Appreciation Night at Patriots Point. The match kicks off a slate of three consecutive weekends with home gams, and tickets for the fixture are on sale now via SeatGeek.com, the club’s exclusive digital ticketing provider.
Lineups and Scoring Summary
Lineups
NM: Shakes, Gloster, Hämäläinen, Keller, LaCava (Zelalem 57’), Bailey (Wilkerson, 75’), Jabang, Harris, Noël (Rennicks, 87’), Reid-Stephen (Nava, 75’), Hurst
CHS: Zamudio, Houssou (Messer, 58’), Akpunonu, Smith, Blackstock (Martínez, 83’), Pakhomov, Suber, Kelly, Ycaza, Foster (Cabrera, 67’), Berry (Swan, 67’)
Scoring Summary
NM – Kipp Keller, 81’ (Niko Hämäläinen)
