What was billed as a "friendly" turned out to be anything but friendly. Yellow cards galore, 42 fouls, three players ejected, Coach Ramsey ejected, studs-up hard tackles, three goals (one of them an own-goal), and a game ending, bench-clearing brawl. I guess it was worth more than three times the normal admission.
1,655 people paid the $20 a pop (set by the Inter American Soccer Organization) to see what should have been a great night of soccer, but saw a pretty good hockey match instead and some of the worse officiating I'd witnessed this year.
The crowd was made up mostly by the growing Hispanic community here in the low country. They were festive from before the match and created a good atmosphere, happy at the chance to watch a First Division Mexican team. Most of the Hispanic supporters, some wearing Battery apparel, seemed to be at Blackbaud stadium to witness good soccer from two fine teams, but quickly adopted Puebla after a few harsh calls from Referee Charles Mitchell, making it feel like the 'Baud was somewhere in Mexico.
The referee seemed to be well out of his league and unprepared to call a match between a Mexican team (which has a reputation of being, well, dirty) and the well-honed defensive squad Charleston has. He continually made bad decisions seemed to miss some calls all together and totally over reacted to other
calls. Anderson sending off is a prime example. Tempers where already hot by some earlier bad calls from the ref (We're only in the 10th minute here by the way) when the incident took place off the ball. It may have been a red card offense (off the ball jostling and shouting which turned into a shoving match), but the ref would have been wise just to give a yellow card to Anderson and talk to both players, settling the match down. Instead the red card further infuriated the Battery and validated Puebla strategy of getting under their opponents skin.
Prior to Anderson's sending off in the 10th minute the Battery had the majority of the possession and a couple chances on goal. Ryan Trout sent a wicked turning volley from 30 yards out over the cross bar and Raul Diaz Arce had a header skip over the cross bar as well.
After the 10th minute the match changed. In Puebla took control and pressured the Battery. In the 20th minute it changed again when Coach Ramsey was ejected for interfering with fourth official and the linesman. In his defense, its been alleged by a couple of people near by that the Mexican team was racially insulting the coach. The Battery found itself in an interesting position. Assistant Coach Mike Anhaeuser was not at the match, so the Dusty Hudock and Paul Conway stepped up and started barking out the commands from the sidelines.
The Battery plays a tight marking system, which did hamper Puebla style of pass-about soccer, but they found away in on the 32nd minute. Milton Coimbra combined with a couple of teammates with some nice, one-two touches straight down the middle of the field and found himself at the top of the box with only Battery keeper Todd Hoffard to beat. Coimbra sent the ball into the top corner to the net giving Puebla the 1-0 lead.
Rain started to fall right before half time and lightning was flashing in the distance. I half thought that they might call the match and use the lightning as an excuse. The match had turned that bad and we had already seen four yellow cards. The storm passed over during the half and it wasn't long before Puebla gave Charleston a gift.
Joaquin Velasquez scored an own goal in the 46th minute when he kicked a hard pass back to his keeper, Aldolfo Castro, who was headed in the opposite direction.
Puebla were awarded a Penalty kick in the 52nd minute. Mauricio Serna hit the goal post and the ball ricocheted back into the box, but before Puebla could pounce a second time, the ref gave a free kick to the Battery.
The Battery scored the winner in the 59th minute after the Puebla keeper Castro mishandled a free kick from the Battery. He dropped the ball and Steve Klein tapped in the ball from five yard out. 2-1 to the Battery.
Paul Conway came into the match in the 64th minute but left again in the 80th after being given a red card along with Puebla player Mauricio Serna. The Battery, now down to nine men, and Puebla, down to ten, continued to rack up fouls and yellows until, just after the fourth official announced that there would be four minutes of time added on, a altercation broke out right in front of both benches. It wasn't long before both benches joined in the fray as well as all the players that were warming up behind the goals, security and local police had to come onto the field to break up the brawl. The referee then made the best call of the night when he called the match. Battery wins 2-1.
An exciting match to say the least. Unfortunately, it could have been a really nice addition to the season but is one I'm sure the club would just as soon like to forget. It was a good chance for the Battery to attract fans from the local Hispanic community but the referee quickly alienated most them with his poor refereeing, which is sad. The Hispanic community could bring the one thing I think the Battery as a whole is missing, exciting atmosphere the entire match. The soccer here is great, the people who run the club are great, the facilities are a model for all other soccer teams in America but sometimes the crowd is a little to gentile. Don't get me wrong, the atmosphere isn't bad and the fans do get passionate at times, but I guess I long for the singing and the chanting I loved at the games I attended when I was living in Germany and England. I wouldn't trade what we have in Charleston for anything though. I mean we do have an exciting team to watch, management that love the game as much as the hardcore fans and great stadium. And we have the greatest pub around!
