Hosting 10th Annual Carolina Challenge Cup
The Charleston Battery is coming off a championship season, and this is a very important preseason before beginning defense of their USL PRO title.
Preseason camp began only seven days ahead of the 10th annual Carolina Challenge Cup, a week-long round robin of preseason games between the Battery and three Major League Soccer teams, the Chicago Fie, Vancouver Whitecaps, and MLS Cup runnerup Houston Dynamo.
Three-time defending champion D.C. United is not playing this year, so the event is a wide open competition.
Four Battery players got a head start by spending time in preseason MLS training camps. Midfielder Nicki Paterson was with the New York Red Bulls, Joe Cuevas and Cody Ellison trained with the Seattle Sounders and winger Ryan Richter trained with D.C. United.
Paterson, who led the Battery in scoring a year ago with 12 goals and two assists, signed a contract extension earlier this month. He’s played 56 games over the past two seasons with Charleston, scoring 17 goals with six assists.
Paterson grew up as a member of Scottish side Motherwell’s youth academy, but his first senior contract was with Scotland’s Hamilton Academicals. He played collegiate soccer in the U.S. at Nevada Las Vegas.
“I’m excited to finally get a chance to play in the Carolina Cup,” said Paterson, who missed the tournament a year ago while dealing with visa problems. “I’ve heard a lot about the tournament and obviously any time you can play against teams from the MLS it’s exciting.”
Last year after helping the Battery win the club’s fourth championship, Paterson was loaned to the New York Red Bulls. He spent a month with the club and played in two reserve games.
Like most, he’d like to make that next step up to MLS, but it is a difficult step to climb.
“It’s very difficult to get an international spot in MLS,” said the 28-year old Paterson. “They tend to give those to established players from Europe or South America.
“I think they liked me and had good things to say about me. It was a good experience. I got myself sharp and that can only help my season here.”
The Battery had 12 returning players on their offseason roster. That includes team captain Colin Falvey and veteran defender John Wilson. The other six are Michael Azira, Kevin Klasila, JC Mack, Taylor Mueller, Amadou Sanyang and Mark Wiltse.
The Battery won the league title in 2012, beating the Wilmington Hammerheads by a goal in the championship game. Charleston finished third in the regular season.
Cuevas scored eight goals in his rookie pro season last year, while Ellison, also a rookie, payed in 10 games last year. Richter played 29 games for Charleston a season ago, logging 1,792 minutes.
The Carolina Challenge Cup will give the Battery coaches a chance to evaluate a group of prospective candidates for 2013, and to assess the condition of the returning veterans.
“Right now we are looking at about six to 10 spots depending on our guys and depending on how we look at each position, but it’s always important to have some flexibility,” coach Mike Anhaeuser told a Charleston Courier And Post writer.
The Battery was scheduled to play the Whitecaps on opening night, Feb. 16, and will take on the Chicago Fire on Wednesday, Feb. 20. The event concludes on Saturday, Feb. 23 with the Battery playing Houston.
Opening night was expected to be a sellout at Blackbaud Stadium.