Charleston Falls 1-2 to Visiting Hartford
- Forrest Wimberly
- 17 hours ago
- 2 min read
Battery home unbeaten streak snapped in loss to Athletic
It was a Wednesday night USL Championship clash as Hartford Athletic visited the Charleston Battery at Ralph Lundy Field at Patriots Point.
The Battery held the lead at the half and seemed poised at the hour mark to be heading to their 25th undefeated result at home at the Point…and then the wheels came off over the next 30 minutes of play as a red card, a Hartford converted penalty kick, and a Hartford free kick goal deep into second-half stoppage time stunned the Battery and snapped the home unbeaten streak at 24 games. Prior to the Hartford setback, the last Battery home defeat was the first home match of the 2025 season.
Charleston took the lead into the half after Kiril Pakhomov scored in the 29th minute to put the hosts ahead and seemingly on their way to another home result.
At the hour mark is when the match momentum swung greatly into Hartford’s favor after defender Nathan Messer was shown a second yellow card sending him off and the Battery down to 10 men. The Battery adjusted their formation, but this only encouraged the Hartford attack to press for a goal. Hartford won a penalty kick after a sloppy challenge inside the box in the 75th minute and Michee Ngalina smashed home the spot kick to level the match 1-1.
The match entered second-half stoppage time and with about 90 seconds to play, Hartford won a free kick and served a hopeful ball into the area looking for something on the other end. Barry Coffey provided that something as he headed the ball towards the goal and snuck the ball past John Berner into the near post of the supporter’s end goal for the shock 2-1 win for Hartford.
“The first 60 minutes we turned the ball over twice, and they had two outlets…[John Berner] made the save,” said Battery Head Coch Ben Pirmann. “Our ball movement through the high press was good. Our chance creation was good. We had seven, eight shots within 12, 13 yards of goal. A couple good saves, a couple bad misses, a couple unlucky things here and there, and a nice goal. Unfortunately, that's the narrative of the night. A lot of good positives for 60 minutes, and then it wasn't.”
The Battery have Labor Day Weekend off and play their next match on September 12 as they travel to face Birmingham Legion FC.
“We’ve got to rest…we’ve got to recuperate,” finished Pirmann. “That (result) was a stinger, that one hurt. What we deserve and don't deserve. Doesn't matter in life. It's not fair. I thought we played really well. I thought we did everything to put ourselves in a position to try to push towards the top of the table, and it was snatched from us. So, that is what it is. 10 days, we'll give the team a few days off, and then we'll come back, and we'll go to Birmingham, who are fighting for their lives, and try to go from there.”
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