WHO:

Charleston Battery, 7-8-3, 29 points, 4th place Eastern Conference

WHAT:

A regular season USL match

WHEN:

Saturday, July 14, 2018, 7:00 p.m.

WHERE:

MUSC Health Stadium, 1990 Daniel Island Drive, Charleston, SC 29492

WATCH:

Fourth Street Live is having the club’s official watch party on the big screen outside Sports and Social Club. You can also find like-minded people watching the game at either Molly Malone’s location, Against the Grain, Saints, or Falls City Taproom on Liberty Street. If you’re a shut-in or just have several kids, you can watch or listen at home:

TV: WBNA TV21

RADIO: 840 WHAS

STREAM: ESPN+

WHO, AGAIN?

It seems like a decade has passed since Louisville City last played the Battery. Charleston, aided by their star striker and Atlanta United loanee Romario Williams, terrorized the league for about 20 games or so last season before their wheels fell off. Then they lost Williams, Forrest Lasso, Maikel Chang, Heviel Cordoves, and Justin Portillo in the off season. We wondered what the C-Batteries would do since they don’t generally spend much money on players. But they signed Ian Svantesson and Victor Mansaray at forward, and some other guys, and now they’re quietly sitting in fourth place, hoping no one else will notice.

WELL I NOTICED!

Ataulla Guerra’s right in the thick of this year’s Golden Boot race with nine goals. Gordon Wild has six. I’d never heard of Gordon Wild before today, and I’m a little scared of him now. Starting keeper Joe Kuzminsky has six clean sheets in 18 matches. Tah Anunga has passed the ball nearly 1,000 times on the season. I don’t know how effectively he’s passed it, but he’s a midfielder, the hub of the team, and a guy to pay close attention to.

The Battery are still a physical team, picking up 237 whistles on the season, good for sixth in the league and first in the conference. They’re solid at home, winning five, drawing three and losing one. They might be a little leggy in this matchup, as it’ll be their third game in eight days. Manager Mike Anhauser didn’t start a first-choice lineup against Indy Eleven midweek, though, with seven changes to his preferred eleven, and they still managed to get three points out of it. Yikes, I think.

Charleston lines up in a 3-4-3. This might be the first team Louisville City faces with a mirror deployment, maybe ever. I’m interested to see how that works, and what adjustments either side might make. City haven’t lost to Charleston in the last two seasons. I’m hopeful, though not necessarily confident, that the streak stays alive for at least a little while longer.

VAMOS, MORADOS! VAMOS A GANAR!