No big Friday night fun here, 9 a.m. games on Saturday morning will do that to you. Instead, it's the opening of the USL on FSC season with Charleston v. Minnesota.USLLiveTV.com for $50, MLSLiveTV.com for $20. Hmm...
Dusty Huddock, Lazo Alavanja, and Byron Alvarez are the men to watch for Charleston. Ansu Toure, Godfrey Tenoff, and Leo Gibson are the keys for Minnesota. They're also starting a 19-year old in the center of midfield.
Minnesota's in baby blue and white adidas uniforms, Charleston is wearing the yellow and black stripes by Umbro.
I am not a fan of Steve Bell, so be prepared. I actually forgot the guy's name, my fault... He has the personality of a wet fart.
Is there a marching band in the stands? I do hear some random drums, but not much else.
The Battery are getting more chances in the early going, but neither team is really controlling the play. I'm waiting for Charleston to put a ball out into the street, their shots are all over the place.
The Thunder just shanked a shot that didn't even make it out to the sideline for a throw-in. Ugh...
Interesting story about the 19 year old for the Thunder. He just showed up for training one day with his club coach, no invite or anything. Coach Amos Magee let him join in the session, and he ended up eventually earning himself a contract. His name is Lencho Skibba, and he's from Ethiopia.
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. No, I'm not talking about the band...
Charleston looks really bland, and they're really committing some cynical fouls. Alavanja should've gotten a yellow card for a studs up whack on the Thunder youngster. Minnesota is starting to look dangerous on the counter.
No score at the half, and this halftime show with Bell is even more painful than the game. He was actually alright during the run of play.
Charleston couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat. Alvarez had a great backheel to Romero in the box, but he blasted the shot over the tent behind the endline.This Skibba kid can play, I'm impressed.
Another nice run from Charleston, another missed shot. They're not even getting the shots on goal for the most part.
Karalexis of Charleston hurts himself on a hard tackle, but it looks like he'll shake it off.
Warren makes a good save on a Romero header, saving the Minnesota defense. If Charleston can start getting something on goal, I think they'll score. The Thunder are starting to fade at the hour mark.
Maybe I spoke too soon, Gibson hits the side netting for Minnesota. Skibba had a nice shot go wide a couple of minutes ago.
Hooray, another shot over the tents. Look out in the parking lot, Charlestonians! Bell, I don't really care that the Battery have 13 shots, 8 of them have ended up hitting cars in the parking lot.
The Battery finally put one in the net!!! Too bad, Hughes was offside. Really close call, they might start throwing that Mobius beer at the linesman...
Another Minnesota youngster comes in, Rodrigo Hidalgo. He's also 19, he's from Colombia, and went to the University of South Florida. He was on the Hermann Trophy watch list, and trained with the US U-20 national team in the fall.
Skibba plays with the Ethiopian U20 squad.
Charleston has had a couple of corners, but gotten nothing out of them.
Badly missed header off a nice cross from Alvarez. Charleston could really use some help in the attack.
Way to miss the corner, producer! We don't want to see those in the 87th minute in a 0-0 game.
And we're done, 0-0 it is. It's been ugly, but it wasn't quite this bad...
