March 7, 2009 Charleston Battery vs Toronto FC (from Charleston Post and Courier)
Battery stumbles in Challenge Cup
By Andrew Miller
The Post and Courier
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Tyrone Walker
The Post and Courier
The Battery's Kenji Treschuk (left) tries to stop Toronto's Amado Sanyang on Saturday at Blackbaud Stadium. Not bad for just a week's worth of training.
Dwayne De Rosario scored in the first minute and Rohan Ricketts added a goal with seven minutes left in regulation as Toronto FC defeated the Charleston Battery, 2-1, in the opening round of the Carolina Challenge Cup on Saturday before a crowd of about 3,400 at Blackbaud Stadium. Real Salt Lake blanked DC United, 3-0, in the opening game of the tournament.
The Battery will take on Real Salt Lake on Wednesday at 7:15 p.m., in the second leg of the week long round-robin tournament, while DC United and Toronto FC will face each other in the first game on Wednesday.
In years past, the Battery has had at least two weeks of preseason training before the Carolina Challenge Cup. But this year, Major League Soccer moved up its starting date by a week. , and thus the Battery was forced to play Saturday night with only a handful of training sessions under their belt.
With more than two dozen players on the preseason roster, Charleston coach Mike Anhaeuser went with a split squad and had 19 different players make an appearance against Toronto FC.
"We wanted to take a look at as many players as we could," Anhaeuser said. "We played the more experienced players in the first half and they did a fantastic job. Besides one mistake I thought it was a pretty even game in the first half.
"I would have like to have seen us be a little more aggressive in the second half, but all in all I thought everyone that got into the game played pretty well."
The Battery played the entire second of the match with a man advantage after Toronto FC defender Adrian Serioux received his second yellow card after a hard challenge on Charleston forward Darren Spicer.
"I'm disappointed in the loss because we started off so well in the second half," Anhaeuser said. "I think we played a little too slow in the second half. Toronto did a good job covering the space with just 10 guys and we didn't move the ball fast enough after the first 10 minutes.
"We sat back a little bit in the second half and allowed them to pass the ball around and we were not closing down on them. I thought we showed a little immaturity there toward the end of the game, especially with their quality."
The game got off to a quick start as Toronto FC scored on Dewayne DeRosario's goal just two minutes into the match.
Toronto midfielder Amado Guevara played a through ball to De Rosairo, who muscled his way past on off balance Nelson Akwari. Akwari, the Battery's captain a year, slipped on the play and De Rosario had a clear path to the net. De Rosario beat a charging Keith Wiggans for the score. "That was my fault, I had the wrong (cleats) on," Akwari said. "I should have had studs on and I didn't and it cost us a goal. That was probably the easiest goal (De Rosario) has scored in a while."
The Battery tied the game 12 minutes later on Tyler Hemming's penalty kick in the 15th minutes.
The Battery earned the penalty kick after Serioux pulled down Spicer from behind as he was making a run on net. Hemming, who played for Toronto FC last season, calmly made the penalty shot to tie the match.
Toronto FC got the game winner in the 83rd minute off a nice pass from Faud Ibrahim. Ibrahim won a ball deep in the left corner of the field and fed Ricketts just outside the 18-yard box. Ricketts hit a low shot that curled around Wiggans for the score. Real Salt Lake 3, D.C. United 0
In the night's opener, Real Salt Lake defeated D.C. United, 3-0.
Luis Escalada, Yura Movsistan and Andy Williams scored Real Salt Lake in the second half.
It took Salt Lake only four minutes to find the back of the net after the start of the second half when Escalada scored off Raphael Cox cross from the left flank, tucking the ball just inside the far post past.
Former University of South Carolina star Clint Mathis found Movsisyan with a beautiful pass that he easily scored on. In the 90th minute, DC United lost a second player to ejection when Anthony Peters was called for a hard challenge. Williams scored on the resulting free kick just inside the far post.
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