Charleston and Charlotte met back on April 1st. Yes, it has been over five and a half months since the two USL Carolina rivals faced off. That game, at UNCC, ended in a 2–0 win for the visiting Battery.

I covered it in my first story for Soccer ‘n’ Sweet Tea:

If you need more of a refresher…

But tonight’s match in Charleston has a very different feel. Unlike an April game, this one comes in the middle of a September playoff push. And, unlike the first meeting, this one counts towards the Southern Derby Cup.

Photo courtesy of The Regiment (Mikey Buytas)

SNST’s Ben Goshorn previewed tonight’s match already, so read that here (and ignore the obvious Independence bias, ha).

Instead of previewing the game again, I wanted to give a quick refresher on the history of the Southern Derby Cup, now in its 18th season.

It all began on the now defunct USLDiscussions.com forum. A group of fans in a forum came up with an idea to help promote local rivalries and to encourage fans to travel to away games. Before long, a name was chosen and a trophy was purchased. And so the Southern Derby Cup began.

The initial cup pitted the Raleigh Capital Express, the Charleston Battery and the Atlanta Silverbacks in 2000 using a home and away format. The winner of that initial competition: Raleigh Capital Express.

Since its inception, seven different teams have participated in the Cup, across a variety of leagues and divisions:

Raleigh Capital Express

Carolina Railhawks

Charlotte Eagles

Charlotte Independence

Atlanta Silverbacks

Charleston Battery

and the Wilmington Hammerheads.

The Capital Express closed up shop in 2000. The Eagles, Silverbacks and Hammerheads dropped to lower level leagues. The Railhawks switched leagues as well, and obviously still exist as NASL’s North Carolina FC. But all of those moves leave just the Battery and the Independence to contest for the Southern Derby Cup in 2017.

Wednesday’s match-up between the two sides will be the first of two home and away matches for the two clubs that will count towards deciding the cup winner.

The rules are pretty standard: Each team plays the other only twice, once at home and once away. As the schedule is unbalanced, the fans usually select (and did this year) the last home and away match within the season. Teams get three points for win, one for a draw, zero points for a loss.

Declaring a winner in a two-team cup should be fairly simple. But seeing as this Cup could have and has historically had more teams involved, tiebreaker rules were put into effect. In the case that there are two or more teams on the same points after the two matches, the following tie breakers are used in order:

Goal difference in all Southern Derby Cup matches.

Greater number of goals scored in all Southern Derby Cup matches.

Greater number of points obtained in matches between the tied teams concerned.

Goal difference resulting from matches between the tied teams concerned.

Greater number of goals scored in matches between the tied teams concerned.

Again, seeing as there are only two clubs facing off, this should be a simple affair. If both teams win by the same score in their home matches, there’s no way to break the tie, and co-champions are crowned (the 2009 Railhawks and Battery were the last to split the title).

This long standing fan-based cup is one of the oldest in the United States. Over the years, supporters have traveled to away matches, shared some good natured banter on social media and cheered their teams to victory. 2017 clearly has an extra added level of intrigue as Charleston and Charlotte battle for the top spots in the USL Eastern Conference.

Charleston won the cup last year for the second year in a row and look to keep it in the Holy City for a third. The Independence hope to hoist the cup for the first time. The previous Southern Derby Cup winners are as follows:

2000: Raleigh Capital Express

2001: Charlotte Eagles

2002: Atlanta Silverbacks

2003: Charleston Battery

2004: Atlanta Silverbacks

2005: Charleston Battery and Atlanta Silverbacks (co-champions)

2006: Atlanta Silverbacks

2007: Carolina RailHawks

2008: Carolina RailHawks

2009: Carolina RailHawks and Charleston Battery (co-champions)

2010: Charleston Battery

2011: Charleston Battery

2012: Charlotte Eagles

2013: Charlotte Eagles

2014: Wilmington Hammerheads

2015: Charleston Battery

2016: Charleston Battery

2017: ???

Game Details

What: Charleston Battery vs. Charlotte Independence (USL season)

Where: MUSC Health Stadium, Charleston, South Carolina

When: Wednesday, 9/20, 7:00pm ET

#CHSvCLT

Recent Form

Charleston: D | W | L | L | W

Charlotte: W | D | L | W | D

Past Meetings (Results are for Charleston)

2017 (USL)

2–0 (Win)

2016 (USL)

1–0 (Win)

1–1 (Draw)

2–3 (Loss)

Moyer’s Match Prediction:

There is a lot on the line Wednesday night, but there will be a lot on the line for the Battery for the remainder of the regular season. Every match is essentially a playoff match.

Historically, USL clubs struggle on the road in the playoffs, and the Battery are no exception to that. If you want to win in the playoffs you need to host playoff matches, and if the Battery want to do that, they have to win the majority of their remaining games.

With their backs getting close to the wall, I see an inspired team coming out on Wednesday night. Charlotte has been hot offensively this season, but the backline will shut them down and send the Independence back to North Carolina with zero points.

Final Score: BATTERY WIN (2–0)

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check back after the games for our recaps, read all our Battery coverage here, and as always, follow @SoccerNSweetTea on Twitter for all the latest Carolina soccer news.