The Charleston Battery played Loudoun United FC to a 1-1 draw on Saturday at Segra Field. MD Myers scored the opener for the Battery right before halftime, but a second half tally for Loudoun saw the points shared. Charleston pushed for the winning goal but were unable to overcome Loudoun’s defense despite four shots on target in the second half. The result extends Charleston’s undefeated run to eight matches in USL Championship play.
The top-three clash began to open up after the 10th minute. Juan David Torres connected with Cal Jennings with a diagonal ball into the box and Jennings’ strike was saved by Hugo Fauroux. On the opposite end, goalkeeper Luis Zamudio made his first save of the evening in the 12th minute, denying Abdellatif Aboukoura.
Charleston nearly found the opener in the 28th minute when Nathan Dossantos lifted a cross to MD Myers in the box, but Fauroux saved Myers’ header.
The breakthrough moment came right before halftime, when Myers was at the right spot during a scramble in the box to send the ball into the back of the net in the 43rd minute. Aaron Molloy initiated the play with a long ball from the halfway line to Jennings that Loudoun were unable to handle. An exchange between Jennings and Myers led to Torres firing a shot that was deflected back to Myers, who hit it first-time into the net.
Myers’ goal was his sixth of the league campaign and ninth overall this year.
Charleston took the 0-1 lead into the break after dominating much of the first half. The Battery had the majority of shots (10 to three), touches in the opposition’s box (15 to four) and possession (58.5%).
Play resumed in the second half with the hosts eager to find an equalizer. Aboukoura had a one-on-one chance against Zamudio on a counterattack in 52nd minute, and Zamudio made himself big to deny the shot with a kick save.
The hosts managed to level the score at 1-1 in the 67th minute via Moses Nyeman.
Cal Jennings was replaced in the 88th minute, ending his league-record run of nine consecutive matches with a goal contribution.
Both sides pressed forward in the final moments of the match, looking for the winner. Torres had effectively the last kick of the match with a shot on target from well outside the box that was saved by Fauroux, the goalkeeper’s seventh of the night.
It ended all square at 1-1 as the points were shared between the sides.
The draw is the first for the Battery this season and moves Charleston’s record to 8W-3L-1D (25pts) in first place in the league standings, as of writing.
While Charleston’s seven-game win streak in league play ended, the undefeated run extends to eight matches.
Head Coach Ben Pirmann and Langston Blackstock discussed the match after the final whistle, with key quotes to follow.
Coach Pirmann on his immediate reactions to the match…
It’s a tough one, because it feels like two points dropped, but the boys fought like animals, they were warriors. So, I’m proud of that, proud of having the courage to go on the road a little undermanned. This is probably the least depth we’ve had in a few months, and tough conditions, with the heat and the turf and a really good opponent who’s been on fire here.
You’re disappointed that it’s two points dropped, but at the end of the day, you can be proud of the effort and the attitude. We’ve represented our club very well tonight and had good control of our emotions and created lots of chances. Just kind of wish it went our way, but it didn’t fall for us. Now we have to go back to the drawing board and improve. But, our guys always do that. They have a great growth mindset, and they want to get better. It was a very good game for the league, tough to drop the points.
Coach Pirmann on his message to the team after the result…
We want to find solutions to find the winner. We can’t be committing fouls in our own third. We have to make the block to clear it or so, and we probably should have had a couple chances to go up 0-2 against a good team on the road, but that’s football, and that stuff happens.
We’re going to play a lot of games coming up. We have another stretch with three league games in eight days that are going to be bangers, and they’re all going to be like that, where we have to be the team that finds solutions. Sometimes that’s energy, sometimes that’s being willing to win duels, sometimes that’s players making a big play. Or, sometimes that’s being simple and moving the ball and finding patterns. At the end of the day, the performance was adequate, on the road against a good team, but you have to be a little bit better than that to win all three points.
Coach Pirmann on the support from the traveling fans at Segra Field…
We appreciate that when we come to the D.C. area, there are a lot of Black and Yellow jerseys in the crowd. The Loudoun fans were on our guys and our staff and shouting at us, and our fans were there to support us. So, we appreciate that, as always. We were able to hear them, and I think our boys appreciate that and are proud to play for them.
Blackstock on his overall assessment of the game…
As a team, we came out and had a game plan, I feel like we executed it. We definitely feel as though we’re a bit hard done by the result, but that’s soccer. We can control our effort and our application, the result is just going to light a fire under us for the next few games after this.
I think the positives were, from a possession standpoint, moving the ball and making them suffer as well as us being okay to let them have the ball and defend as a team unit, all 11 people. I think it was good for the most part, and I think they had maybe one to two big chances. So, if we can keep teams barely getting shots on us, and be able to generate a lot of good transition moments as well as chances, it should leave us in a good spot coming in.
Blackstock on trying to find a second goal…
I think sometimes there’s just a bit of execution. I think on my end, I had a few wayward crosses, so just trying to clean up the final product. We should definitely be able to get more goals next time in a game like this.
Charleston’s next match will be away vs. Hartford Athletic on Sat., June 14. The Battery’s next home match will be vs. Phoenix Rising FC on Sat., June 21. Tickets for the game are on sale now via SeatGeek.com, the club’s exclusive digital ticketing provider.
Lineups and Scoring Summary
Lineups
CHS – Zamudio, Dossantos, Akpunonu, Edwards, Blackstock, Houssou (Ycaza, 66’), Molloy, Rodríguez (Klein, 67’), Myers, Torres, Jennings (Martínez, 88’)
LDN – Fauroux, Awuah, Turner, Leerman, Tingey, Aboukoura, McCabe, Nyeman (Karamoko 76’), Mines (Bidois, 57’), Valot, Ryan (Dambrot, 76’)
Scoring Summary
CHS: MD Myers, 43’
LDN: Moses Nyeman, 67’
