BY DAVID CARAVIELLO
Of The Post and Courier Staff
For the Charleston Battery, it was all going according to plan. The Lowcountry's A-League soccer franchise had secured a bye through the first round of the postseason by finishing with the best record in the Eastern Conference. They won the opening game of their first playoff series 2-1, and needed only three minutes to take the lead in the second game.
And then, shockingly, it was over. "From our point of view, we had a lapse of 30 minutes," Battery coach Chris Ramsey said.
And what a lapse it was. Richmond struck for three goals in the first half to beat Charleston 3-1 and win the aggregate-score, two-game series 4-3. The Kickers, a team the Battery had not lost to all season, moved on to face Rochester in the Eastern Conference final, while Charleston went home earlier than anyone could have expected.
The reaction, Ramsey said, was "devastation."
"I wouldn't say we thought we were untouchable," the first-year Battery coach said. "But we thought we had the team to beat, and we thought this was going to be our year."
It wasn't, largely because of injuries that mounted over the course of the season and cost the Battery at the worst possible time. Beginning with the season-ending ACL tear suffered by forward Eric Wynalda, it was a year of almost constant roster adjustment. A number of key players -including forward Paul Conway, midfielders Matt Farris and Seamus Donnelly, defender John Wilson, and goalkeeper Dusty Hudock - missed time this year due to injuries.
That Charleston was able to compile a franchise-best 19-3-6 record in the face of all those injuries was a testament to the Battery's depth. But in the playoffs, the personnel losses became too much to overcome.
Starting midfielder Steve Klein missed the Richmond series with a sternoclavicular dislocation suffered near the end of the regular season. Donnelly battled back from a strained knee ligament that had sidelined him virtually all season, only to aggravate it again on Sunday. Defender Linval Dixon played Sunday despite a knee injury and a pulled hamstring. Defender Mark Watson played Sunday with a strained medial collateral knee ligament.
"Under normal circumstances, that would be a three-to-four week break," Ramsey said. "But the type of guy he is, he said, 'coach, I'll go in and do the job for you.' He went in and did the best he could. Had I not taken him off, he would have played one-legged. Unfortunately, you miss a guy like that, and you pay for it."
The injuries forced Ramsey to play some players out of position to shore up his defense. Ultimately, he could only do so much.
"Sometimes you get an accumulation of injuries that come back to haunt you at a time when you need (the players) most," he said. "We don't want to make excuses, of course we don't at this stage. We need to stand up and be counted. But you set up a team you think is going to win, you sign players that you think are going to win the championship. When you have the heart of your midfield not playing and the heart of your defense not playing, it's very, very difficult to maintain the continuity you've had all season."
It was a bitter end to a record-breaking regular season, one that saw the Battery claim the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, earn its first playoff bye, win a franchise-record 11 straight games, and go unbeaten in its final eight games until Sunday. Ramsey hopes those accomplishments aren't overshadowed by the loss.
"I know what we achieved and I know what I came into," he said. "I know what was here when we came. The owners have shown me good support, my assistant (Mike Anhaeuser) has shown me good support. From my point of view, it would only overshadow it if people on the outside don't take a step back and actually see what the team has achieved."
Now the attention turns to next season. Within 24 hours of the loss, Ramsey, Anhaeuser, team president Nigel Cooper and owner Tony Bakker were making plans for 2003.
Ramsey said the Battery plans to host its own combines and trials over the offseason, so area players can try out for a place on the team. There are also decisions to make on which current players will return.
The changes could be substantial. Ramsey estimated that "maybe a third" of this season's team will not be coming back.
"It's too early to tell who's coming back yet," he said. "But I would tell you that there will be a fair chunk leaving."
