Battery, Louisville draw 0-0 at Patriots Point

CHARLESTON, S.C. (April 22, 2023) – The Charleston Battery played Louisville City FC to a 0-0 draw on Saturday at Patriots Point. The Battery’s undefeated record remains intact as the club stays atop the Eastern Conference standings. Charleston (4W-0L-3D) match their best start to a season since the 2015 campaign, when they also went seven games unbeaten.

After a 30-minute delay due to thunderstorms prior to kickoff, Charleston and Louisville got underway at Patriots Point under clear skies. The residual rain on the pitch made its presence felt early, as both teams had to adjust to the slick and slippery conditions in the first 15 minutes, preventing many concrete chances.

Goalkeeper Trey Muse recorded the first save of the night, a 6th-minute stop to deny Louisville on a counterattack. Nick Markanich registered the Battery’s best looks on goal, with a shot in the 13th minute from inside the box that went just wide and another in the 24th minute that was saved.

Chances continued to be limited in the latter portion of the first half resulting in Charleston and Louisville going into the break tied at 0-0.

Both clubs came out of the break eager to find the night’s first goal. Charleston provided the majority of the pressure and had several chances to open the scoring. Deklan Wynne sent in a long-range shot in the 53rd minute when goalkeeper Oliver Semmle was caught off his line, but Wynne’s shot was deflected and went into the side netting.

The Battery’s best attempts came past the hour mark. Fidel Barajas whipped in a curling shot in the 68th minute but the attempt clattered off the crossbar. Augi Williams had an open look moments later and went one-on-one with Semmle, but Williams’ shot was just wide of the far post.

Louisville created a dangerous opportunity in the 72nd minute that forced AJ Paterson to make a sliding tackle, cleanly winning the ball to remove the threat. The Battery were reduced to 10 men in the 90th minute when Williams was shown his second yellow card of the night.

The night would end how it began with Charleston and Louisville sharing the points in a scoreless draw. The Battery preserved their spot in first place of the Eastern Conference standings and their undefeated record.

Saturday’s draw marked Trey Muse’s second clean sheet with the Black and Yellow.

Battery Head Coach Ben Pirmann and Chris Allan gave their remarks on the draw after the final whistle, with key quotes to follow.

Coach Pirmann on his immediate takeaways from the match…

It was a good football match. Both teams showed courage, both teams went for a lot of confrontations – and I don’t just mean fouls and challenges – both teams tried to play on the front foot. We had a lot of play and a lot of chances. I think both teams could have had at least a goal. We’re disappointed, we kind of feel like it’s two points dropped. But, against the top team and to play with that much courage, it was very good. We need to keep building off of it.

Coach Pirmann on what he learned about his squad tonight…

Every game they surprise me. They turn up, no questions asked. There are no egos, they’re all selfless. Everybody works, everybody grinds. A clean sheet is always nice, especially against a top team in the league. Making [Louisville] change shape, making them make the subs early showed that we were on top of them and had the right game plan. [Our] players pushed, it just didn’t fully go our way, but one point against [Louisville] is not bad. I think that our fans can walk away and be proud of that. That was an incredible performance to fight for our supporters.

Coach Pirmann on the road ahead with two more home games in six days…

Tuesday’s gonna be tough, it’s basically a USL Championship opponent in the [U.S. Open Cup]. We’ll have to make sure that we recover, see what the lineup is and then do it again Saturday. We know Colorado Springs are one of the top three or four teams in the West. So, they’re going to be coming in trying to fight for three points. It’s hard every single day to say, ‘Hey, let’s put the foot on the pedal, let’s keep pressing the gas and go and go and go.’ But, that’s what we want to do. There’s no time to rest. There’s no time to keep reflecting. We just have to improve, get better, keep working harder and push out from there.

Allan on his assessment of tonight’s match…

My main take is that we keep on building. We didn’t take a step back, we’re still unbeaten. It’s still a clean sheet. We trained all week for scenarios like this. We didn’t take a step back, we were always going forward and it’s still early [in the season], we’re still looking good.

Allan on the playing conditions after the rain before the match…

I think both teams didn’t really want to take as many chances with the ball. So, that changed [the game] in that dynamic. [We had] a few more aerial balls than what we would have liked, because it was very slick. We knew going into it straight away from warmups.

I love it. I love a bit of rain. It’s really good. Slide tackles and getting muddy is the English way, so I really enjoyed it.

Allan on any message he’d like to send to the home fans for their support tonight…

Just keep on bringing the noise. We love you, we couldn’t do it without you. Keep bringing the noise and we’ll try to provide on the pitch as well. Fans get behind you, we had a few missed chances but they just keep going. They’re absolutely great with us, they really lifted up the team massively in that regard.

The Battery will stay home for a pair of matches in the following week. The first is on Tues., April 25, in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup against Charlotte Independence and the second is on Sat., April 29, in league action against Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC.