The Battery, which has dropped two road matches to start its A-League season, has one more piece of way business to attend to before Saturday night's home opener.
Tonight at 7:30, Charleston plays the USL D3 Pro League's Carolina Dynamo at Greensboro, N.C., in its first of six U.S. Open Cup qualifying matches.
The Battery's Open Cup qualifying group is rounded out by the D3 Wilmington (N.C.) Hammerheads and the A-League rival Charlotte Eagles. The matches with the D3 sides will not count in the league standings. Only the group winner makes the Cup field.
Charlotte will face Charleston at Blackbaud Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in a match that will double as a league and Open Cup match.
The match is a homecoming of sorts for Battery head coach Alan Dicks, a former Dynamo coach who led the then-Division II Carolina side to the 1997 A-League championship game.
The Dynamo, coached by former Battery defender Bob Rosario, won its season opener on its Bryan Park home pitch Saturday night, beating the New Hampshire Phantoms, 3-2, in golden-goal overtime.
The Dynamo roster is dotted by former standout players from college programs in North Carolina.
The Dynamo also features midfielder Scott Thelen, a former Battery player, and forward Jose Espindola, who totaled 35 goals over last two seasons and was D3's No. 2 scorer for 2000.
The U.S. Open Cup, which is recognized as the U.S. Soccer Federation's national championship, is an annual competition open to all amateur and professional soccer teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer.
The Open Cup field will include all 12 Major League Soccer teams. The rest of the 36-team field will include a total of 16 teams from USL's pro leagues (A-League and D3) and four teams each from USL's Premier Development League (and the USASA, both amateur outlets.
Tonight's game can be heard only by webcast (www.charlestonbattery.com).
Battery's U.S. Open Cup qualifying matches:
Tonight: at Carolina Dynamo
Saturday: Charlotte Eagles, 7:30 p.m.
May 18: at Wilmington Hammerheads
May 19: Wilmington Hammerheads, 7:30 p.m.
June 1: Carolina Dynamo, 7:30 p.m.
June 2: at Charlotte Eagles
