Once again the Charleston Battery had things laid out for them pretty well in the Southern Derby. Once again the Battery lost out ever so narrowly as another team gets to hold the trophy that Charleston fans have craved for the last three seasons. Yet to grasp the trophy aside from acting as a go-between for the clubs that have won it this season has to have a particularly bitter taste.
Charleston merely had to beat Charlotte once out of a two game set this past weekend. It seemed extremely doubtful that it would happen in Charlotte last Friday after the Eagles had taken a 2-0 lead into halftime. Somehow the Battery players mustered just enough to grab two goals, the last coming spectacularly in the final minute of stoppage time in a scramble that Ryan Trout pushed into the goal. Overtime, though, refused to yield a winner and so Charleston would head home and hope to win the Derby outright in front of the home fans.
This was not be either in a match that the Eagles smartly laid back in for the majority of the first half in order to conserve what little fresh energy they had until the second half. They seemed to sense that the Battery would eventually become desperate for a goal in the second half if they went into halftime tied 0-0. This was precisely what happened and an already dangerous counterattacking club got stronger with a rested Dustin Swinehart entering the game in the second half.
The strategy to lay in waiting for the barrage from Charleston paid dividends in the second half as Charlotte were able to get their chances despite giving up much of the possession. They played great team defense and capitalized on one of their chances to lead 1-0 late into the match. Once again it would require some last minute heroics if the Battery wanted any chance to win the Derby.
The referee and Paul Conway duly obliged when a penalty was called with only a scant amount of time left on the clock to knot the score at 1-1. Yet once again overtime failed to yield a goal and the Battery missed out on grabbing the Southern Derby by one point. The slimmest of margins but in a competition in which each team only has four games you've got to make the most of your opportunities. That's what the Atlanta Silverbacks did while Charleston did not so congratulations to the Atlanta fans and players who get to enjoy their year with the Derby trophy.
Meanwhile it would be difficult to mask the slump that Charleston is in at this time. After seeing them up close last weekend it appears that the team is running out of gas or ideas or possibly both. The team needs something to get them back on a run like they've had earlier in the year back when things were clicking on both ends of the field. One has to wonder if getting off to a slow start in the first half of some games hasn't been because of lack of interest? Who knows but they'd better become quite interested quite fast or they could make an exit from the looming playoffs quite quickly.
Don't get me wrong a mark of only three losses and an ability to show quite a bit of fight to earn several late draws and wins shows that this team doesn't give up but at what price? Playing in as many tight matches as they have can be both a blessing and a curse. They've played a lot of tense minutes which means they should be used to the pressure cooker of playoff games but at the same time will they have the energy to make it through the "second season"?
All of the questions raised here will be answered in short time as the playoffs will be upon is a few short weeks and in that time the Battery could falter or flourish. One thing's for certain whichever way they go will likely be news to many and the Southern Derby trophy will be residing in another city for another year. That's one of the coveted trophies already not won and the toughest one is still out there with plenty of ready and able challengers.
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