6 PM – Highmark Stadium
Game officials, as assigned by PRO
REFEREE: Mr. Charles Murphy
AR1: Mr. Erik Blackburn
AR2: Mr. Lucas Feathers
4TH: Mr. Sean Regan
Two teams with a combined zero wins. That’s the reality of this contest, today. Pittsburgh has been losing their leads, while the Battery come back from deficits. Beyond anything else that could be written about tonight, it’s that both teams are desperate to capture three points and pull themselves out of the early-season rut were both teams are currently reside. One teams scores and concedes a lot of goals, and the other team has more reasonable score lines. Something will have to give, unless it doesn’t…
Charleston will need to be judicious with their lineup as they play the front end of a silly USLPRO back-to-back’er, with the tail end taking place tomorrow in Rochester. (For those asking about the rare 6pm kickoff, the necessity for the Battery to get up to New York as early as possible, is the reason) This means that Battery could come out with a vastly unexpected starting XI. Could Eric Shannon get his first minutes in net, or will the normal starter, Odisnel Cooper, play tonight and leave the Rhinos for Shannon to contest? Charleston manager, Mike Anhaeuser, could have some options, as only six of his field players have seen action in all four contests, this season, with two of those players having less than 180 minutes of action, thus far. The lineup uncertainty could also pose issues for an offense that is currently bagging 1.33 goals per game, which ties them for second fewest in the league.
For Justin Evans’ squad, there is also a fair amount of lineup uncertainty, but the schedule isn’t to blame. Injuries, suspension, traveling loanee players,and performance issues are the cause of the gaffer’s headaches. starting in the back, and making our way forward; we start in net. Hunter Gilstrap was healthy enough last week to travel and find a spot on the substitute’s bench, but has his face recovered enough, and has he had enough practice time post-injury to justify getting the nod. Last week’s keeper, Michael Lisch, had a fair, but not great showing in his first appearance for the Hounds. Does he get another week in net, buying Gilstrap another week of practice before he reclaims what his considered to be his starting role. Finally, Greg Blum, who started the two games immediately following the Gilstrap injury, didn’t even travel with the team, last week, and has to be considered to be in the doghouse and would be the longshot to get jotted down on the top line of the lineup.
Defense is where last week’s biggest surprise was located, as captain Andrew Marshall was kept out of the starting XI. Furthermore, traditional midfielders, Danny Earls and Anthony Obodai were listed on the official roster sheet as starting defensemen. Does a one week experiment turn into a trend this week? However, Dynamo property, Anthony Arena is back from an emergency spell for Houston and will almost certainly will find himself on the pitch to start this evening’s contest. Niko Katic hasn’t found the field yet this season, but could tonight be the night that they see if it’s time to give a nod to the veteran in an effort to shore up a very leaky back line. It is expected that an ongoing injury to Sterling Flunder will render him unavailable for tonight, but without a recent update on his condition, it remains to be seen if his services are not not available. That could mean that Mike Green and the birthday boy, Brian Fekete, could find themselves on the field, almost be default.
When guessing a starting XI, the midfield might as well be a minefield. Matt Dallman and Joe Ngwenya seem to be locks to start, but the other two spots seem to be up for grabs. Kevin Kerr started last week made a bit of magic happen Collins John is in the middle of his three game suspension and Seth C’deBaca, Alfonso Motagalvan, and Bryan Salazar seem like longshots to start, but it’s hard to tell. Brian Ownby made a quick trip to provide depth for Houston in their mid-week match, but should be in Pittsburgh, and available for tonight. That leaves Rob Vincent, Danny Earls, and Anthony Obodai open to take one or two starting positions. As mentioned before, Evans’ started Obodai and Earls on the backline, last week, which is another wrinkle that could show itself again, as well.
Up front seems like the easiest place to predict starters. With Jose Angulo’s injury that kept him out last week, plus the unfortunate passing of his father, this week, the current league MVP should be unavailable today. That should mean that the pairing of Jhonny Arteaga and Jason Johnson should remain unchanged from Richmond.
Starting XI That Is Sure To Be Wrong
TAILGATE
West Lot – 3 PM
The tailgate festivities went wonderfully, two weeks ago. No reason to let the party stop, this week. We’ll be setting up shot in the same location, with all the normal features. In addition, there may or may not be some pizzas showing up around 4, so come ready to down a cut or two of pie. The merch table will be also be going, so pick up a bridge scarf, sign your friend up as a member, or reserve your spot on the bus to Harrisburg.
A little after 5 pm, we will start to break down the tailgate and get everyone together for a little meeting before the march. We will have some per-determined moments during the game that we will be doing a specific song or other actions, so we will review those as well as possibly learn or re-learn some songs so that we start developing a deeper pool of material to reference.
Please Note: We will be altering the march into the stadium, from last game. We will gather on the bike path and have our tickets scanned early and enter through the side gate, like previously. However, this time we will take a right before the field and go past the bistro, under the grandstands, and enter our section on the opposite side. This will hopefully allow us to stay more bunched together and avoid having to walk nearly single-file under the video board.
#UNLEASH
