New season, new beginnings on Daniel Island
It might be a mostly-new starting XI on Saturday night, but Battery fans still have plenty to be excited about in 2018.
After a disappointing ending to the 2017 season, many of my fellow Battery fans were still psyched for 2018 and just had to ride out the offseason.
Then came announcement after announcement of key Battery players leaving: Maikel Chang, Justin Portillo, and Heviel Cordoves among them. We already knew that we would be losing Romario Williams to Atlanta United, but each announcement of a player leaving stung more each time.
It was going to be difficult to replace some of these players, as they were the core of the team. Chang and Portillo were vital in attacking and set pieces in 2017 too.
It took what seemed like forever, but the Battery finally announced their first signing for the new season in Ian Svantesson.
We got excited. Finally a new signing, and a forward who was 6'6". Omg, finally someone with height in the frontline! Slowly but surely, other signings followed with the re-signing of players from the previous season and a few new players in Jay Bolt, Victor Mansaray, and Vincenzo Candela.
Watching preseason matches and the Carolina Challenge Cup (where we ended up second, against three MLS teams), the fans have become more confident watching the new team find some form.
We see the potential this new team has. We’ve got the excitement back that we all had at the end of last season. We’ve seen glimpses of great skills and plays from Bolt, Rittmeyer, Arambula, Candela, Mansaray, and Svantesson.
This team still needs a bit of time to become a team — needing to gel together — but that can only come through game experience.
Come Saturday, March 17, a new team will be stepping out onto the field. But expectations and excitement are high.
What will this new team be able to do? Come on the Battery!
A big thanks to Shayla for joining us here at Soccer ‘n’ Sweet Tea this season!
To keep up with more of her Battery coverage and articles from the rest of us Carolina soccer fans (like Drew Bartow’s Charleston STH meeting recap from this morning), be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
You can also sign up to be a Patron and support what we do: You’ll get a sticker and show us some love at the same time. Finally, sign up for our weekly newsletter below.
