Carson's Charleston Charge: Heading To Harrisburg

The Week That Was

An ironclad defense met an inconsistent offense, the result, a 0-0 draw at Blackbaud Stadium between the Rhinos and Battery. Coach Mike Anhaeuser described it as a chess match and sympathized with fans, acknowledging that it was not a very exciting contest. With Rochester clearly playing to steal a point on the road, their attack was not often present Saturday night. As a result of that, they were able to continually drop additional players back to help smother any potential Battery attack. The lack of offense from both sides can easily be displayed through the shots on goal between them:2. Battery GK Kevin Corby made both, as Charleston was not able to test USL clean sheet leader, Rhino goal keeper Brandon Miller.

The Good Guys: Charleston Battery (7-2-7)

As you can imagine with zero shots on goal, no attacking player for Charleston made the USL Team Of The Week. On the flip side, allowing no goals as a team finds two defending players making the list. Emmanuel Adjetey and Jarad van Schaik both appeared, the later as a reserve. Speaking of the club's Captain van Schaik, he will not be available this match due to yellow card accumulation. Also unavailable is Sebastien Thuriere, who is on Gold Cup duty with his native Haiti. He did not appear in their opening match draw with Panama, but he's expected to be an important piece to their defensive unit. Odisnel Cooper will again be a game time decision tonight with a sore shoulder.

The Bad Guys: Harrisburg City Islanders (5-4-4)

Don't let the two road losses to Charleston fool you, the Islanders are not a bad club. After their latest loss to the Battery, Harrisburg rebounded last week to defeat Wilmington 1-0. The goal was scored by Cardel Benbow, who also appeared on the USL ToTW. The Islanders have a good distribution in the goal department, making it hard to focus in on their main attacker. After dropping both matches on the road and currently without a playoff spot, I expect Harrisburg to go all out for the 3 points at home.

The Dirty Details

TONIGHT 7pm Skyline Sports Complex

Watch it live HERE

The Hired Gun

Don't be surprised if Houston Dynamo loanee Memo Rodriguez starts tonight in place of suspended Jarad van Schaik. Memo would provide additional ball pressure and playmaking ability in the midfield for Charleston against Harrisburg.

The Kids Nowadays

For all you cool kids with Instagram, make sure to follow the official USL page(@USLSoccer, or view them online HERE) as our very own Battery GK Kevin Corby has taken over the account leading up to and following the match. He's providing fans a behind the scenes look into Charleston's road trip from South Carolina to Pennsylvania. Corby has done a more than admirable job filling in for injured perennial star El Gato, Odisnel Cooper. He earned his first clean sheet this past week against Rochester.