The Charleston Battery secured a sensational 0-2 road victory over Louisville City FC at Lynn Family Stadium on Saturday. Charleston commanded much of the rain-soaked affair and were lifted by goals from Laurent Kissiedou and Kirill Pakhomov, along with a three-save shutout by Luis Zamudio. The win was the Battery’s first away triumph at Louisville, snapping the hosts’ 26-game undefeated streak, and marked the 100th career victory for Head Coach Ben Pirmann in the USL Championship.
Saturday’s contest kicked off amid rainy conditions has the Battery aimed to get back to winning ways against the Eastern Conference leaders.
Persistent rainy conditions limited either side’s ability to get an early footing in the match and the game was both shotless and scoreless through the first quarter hour.
The game’s first shot came in the 20th minute, and with it, Laurent Kissiedou fired the Battery into the lead, 0-1. Jeremy Kelly managed to keep Joey Akpunonu’s long ball from going over the byline, which triggered appeals from the Louisville defense for a goal kick. Kissiedou, however, stayed focused on the ball and fired it in off the volley and past goalkeeper Hugo Fauroux for the tally.
Kissiedou’s goal was his first of the year, and Kelly’s assist was his second in league play (third in all competition).
On the other end, goalkeeper Luis Zamudio made his first save of the game in the 27th minute, denying Zach Duncan.
Kirill Pakhomov nearly doubled the Battery’s lead at the half-hour mark with his shot off a free kick. The Russian midfielder’s strike grazed off the wall and forced a save from Fauroux.
As the half wore on, the rain began to intensify, creating even slicker conditions that caused complications for both sides to manage and control.
Charleston took the 0-1 lead into the break, despite the hosts holding narrow majorities in possession (55% to 45%) and shots (three to two).
Play resumed for the second half with the precipitation and slick surface conditions persisting. The Battery’s pressure was unrelenting out of the break, and they continued to put the hosts on the back foot.
Charleston doubled their lead to 0-2 in the 65th minute when Pakhomov was on target inside the box. The ball was recycled into the mixer after an initial corner kick, with Emilio Ycaza lofting a cross that Akpunonu kept in play with a header. The ball landed right to Pakhomov and the Russian guided it home with just one touch past Fauroux.
The goal was Pakhomov’s first of his professional career, and Akpunonu’s assist was his second of the year.
Zamudio came up big three times as Louisville began to make desperate advances forward to find a way back into the match. First, the shot-stopper denied Chris Donovan’s attempt from inside the box off a corner kick in the 74th minute. The second big stop was a punch against Taylor Davila’s free kick to the top corner in the 78th minute. His third major denial was against Donovan again in the 88th minute, a quick reflex save against the header.
Charleston withstood Louisville’s final advances and secured the 0-2 road win to knock off the Eastern Conference leaders. The win was a monumental one on several occasions.
Head Coach Ben Pirmann achieved his 100th career victory in the USL Championship regular season and playoffs, doing so with a 100W-44L-38D record and becoming both the second-youngest manager to reach the mark in the league’s history and the second-fastest to achieve the feat.
The Battery’s victory marked their first in Louisville in the all-time series after going winless in the previous 11 meetings at both of the Kentucky club’s stadiums.
With the loss, Louisville’s 26-game unbeaten streak at home was effectively snapped at the hands of the Battery.
Charleston’s win improves their record to 3W-1L-0D (9pts), snapping their own brief two-game losing streak across all competitions, and elevating the side to third in the Eastern Conference table, as of writing.
The Battery’s attack proved efficient despite the season-low output of three shots, with two goals netted. Louisville were also held to a season-low 10 shots during the contest.
With another helper notched today, Jeremy Kelly has the team lead for assists with three across all competitions.
Graham Smith tallied a match-high nine clearances.
Luis Zamudio’s standout performance was highlighted with three saves, three punches and four clearances en route to his first clean sheet of 2026.
Kirill Pakhomov was active on both sides of the ball, scoring one goal, along with registering five duels won, three recoveries, three clearances and two shots on target.
Head Coach Ben Pirmann and goalkeeper Luis Zamudio addressed the victory after the match, with key quotes to follow.
Coach Pirmann on his immediate reaction to the win…
Incredible performance from the guys. They played fearlessly after a long week, a lot of flights, a lot of driving, a lot of tough games. We hadn’t been good in a while, but they were incredible today.
I thought that the coaching staff, Ian Cameron, Rob Seaton, Brian Jones, Pete Calabrese, Robbie Crawford, did just a fantastic job getting the boys ready on a short turnaround. A new system, new style of play, but we caught Louisville off guard, and the boys, the boys were tremendous, and they went for it, and they really deserved to win that game.
Coach Pirmann on defensive perseverance to keep the clean sheet…
I didn’t think Louisville had much until about the last 15 minutes or so. And then, it’s tough to see from our angle, but it looked like Luis Zamudio had a couple of good saves on the corner kicks and that’s where Louisville are so dangerous. They do it with quantity, getting balls forward, getting to the end line, drawing corner kicks, and then they weaponize those restarts.
So, we bent a little bit at 0-2, but didn’t break. And the team defending helped put us up 0-2. And then Luis helped us hold on at the end.
Coach Pirmann on the importance of the bounce-back performance…
It was huge. Like, in the Detroit game, we were miserable. In the first half against Charlotte, we were miserable. So, we needed a response. I don’t want to say I didn’t care if we won or lost, but I just wanted us to play hard and play well, and today we did.
And then, if you do that, you can go win the toughest game of the year against the best team in this league by a mile. Toughest stadium, toughest opponent, all that, and our guys played like warriors. So, for me, it was more about the performance and the energy versus the result. But the result that came with it is well-deserved by our guys.
Coach Pirmann on achieving 100 USL Championship wins…
The milestones and that stuff don’t really matter. But for me, it shows how many good people support me on and off the field, how many good people I’ve been able to work with, whether it’s owners and presidents and mentors.
Our staff is incredible. You look at the staff that I’ve worked with in Charleston, two coaches have moved on to be the head coaches; these types of things are important. So, for me, it’s less about the 100th as it is more about just being around good people and performing. And I think that’s the result of it.
Zamudio on his initial takeaways from the match…
It’s very difficult to win on the road, especially in a venue like Louisville, but the boys brought the energy in the first half and second half. I just built my personal energy off of them. I didn’t really have much to do until towards the end of the game. And, that energy they brought me just kept me ready until those moments where the team needed me the most.
And thankfully, we got out with winning 0-2, and most importantly, a clean sheet, our first of the year. And like I said, it is a difficult place and a very important game for us, and we keep working. It’s a long season, so we can’t get too high after this. Very happy to get a clean sheet and a win, and we keep going.
Zamudio on the significance of the win for the squad…
We had two difficult matches going on the road, basically three times in a row, going to Detroit and then going to Charlotte, and now on the road again versus Louisville. Not easy places to play, especially Detroit and Louisville. But Coach Pirmann really got at us, especially after the Charlotte game on Tuesday. And the most important thing was a reaction, we have to give a reaction, especially our performances lately.
First half, we came out flying. And in the second half, we also brought the energy and kept going. We knew it was going to be a battle tonight, and I think building off the energy of the boys, they brought it. They battled all game, and that’s what helped us get the three points today.
Zamudio on what he saw in his big saves at the end…
A lot of that was going through my mind, especially later in the game, was like, ‘I need to do one big save tonight.’ And I didn’t know when it’s going to be, and it might not only be one, it might be two or three. And after I made the first one, I thought, ‘Now, I got to do one more. Just keep focusing on the next action, taking it one action at a time.’ Like I said earlier, not getting too high, not too low, and just staying focused. Because, as I said, Louisville is a great team, and they also just put all their attack in and we were just getting attacked towards the end, especially, we were suffering a lot.
We battled through it, though, dealing with a lot of crosses and a lot of headers. It’s one of those situations that in other games it goes my way, and sometimes the ball hits the bar and it goes in, like in Detroit. Or like in this game, I get a good push, and I get both my hands on it and get the balls out of the box and make big saves for the boys.
And, let’s keep building on it, and hopefully, more performances, not only from me, but from the team as well. We keep building, because now we have to focus on the next game, which is Brooklyn. And now we have to forget this game a little bit, I know it’s a very important result, a big game for us, for us and the league season. But, we have to focus on Brooklyn now and keep fighting, because now we have another opponent, and we also know it’s not going to be easy, so we have to shift all our focus towards that game.
Zamudio on recording his first shutout of the year…
Yeah, honestly, if you told me at the beginning of the year that my first clean sheet was going to come against Louisville on the road, I wouldn’t have believed you. I think I’ve only kept a clean sheet once here in my career, so I’m happy that this will be my second time.
Very important to keep the shutout, not only for me, but defensively and for the boys; Graham Smith, Sean Suber, Joey Akpunonu, they were dogs tonight. They put in a very big shift. I make the saves and everything, but they also prevented a lot of chances from happening. And just made my job a little bit easier and maybe worry about fewer actions.
The hardest one is the first one. And this was the first one we got, now we have to keep building on it, keep going. I don’t have to say, ‘Oh, we have to keep a clean sheet in every single game,’ because the most important thing is winning games. Whether it be 2-1, 3-1, or even 1-0, the most important thing is winning games. Because at the end of the day, that’s what we want, and that’s what we aspire for. That’s what we play this game for, to win games.
Charleston will wrap up their current away stretch with their next match on April 11 against Brooklyn FC. The Battery’s next home game will be on Sat., April 18, against the Tampa Bay Rowdies on national television at Patriots Point. Tickets for the match are on sale now via SeatGeek.com, the club’s exclusive digital ticketing provider.
Lineups and Scoring Summary
Lineups
LOU: Fauroux, Totsch (Moguel, 46’), Dayes, Adams, Perez (Gleadle, 83’), T. Davila, Duncan (Niang, 67’), Morris, Wilson (Showunmi, 66’), Serrano (E. Davila, 67’), Donovan
CHS: Zamudio, Houssou (Messer, 58’), Akpunonu, Smith, Martinez (Blackstock, 69’), Kelly (Cabrera, 80’), Suber, Pakhomov, Kissiedou (Foster, 69’), Ycaza, Swan (Berry, 58’)
Scoring Summary
CHS – Laurent Kissiedou, 20’ (Jeremy Kelly)
CHS – Kirill Pakhomov, 65’ (Joey Akpunonu)
