Palmetto State Report - April 2

Forrest Wimberly
7 hours ago
3 min read

NATIONAL SOCCER NEWS: www.nationalsoccernetwork.com

Soccer news from South Carolina

Battery falls to Independence in US Open Cup

It was a late, late goal from former Battery player Viggo Ortiz to lift the Charlotte Independence past the 10-man Charleston Battery in the second round of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup Tuesday night at the Matthews Sportsplex in the Charlotte suburbs. The Ortiz goal for the Jacks in the 118th minute broke a 2-2 deadlock and dropped the Battery out of the Cup with a rare early exit to a lower division opponent. Charlotte had built a cautious 2-0 advantage after 60 minutes but the Battery made some changes and leveled the match with two goals in a furious seven minutes of dynamic attacking soccer (70th and 77th minutes) as Houssou Landry and Maalique Foster scored goals off Jeremy Kelly assists. A red card to Kelly in second-half stoppage time derailed the Battery momentum and then the individual moment of brilliance from Ortiz brought the curtain down on the Battery 2026 US Open Cup campaign.

Triumph closes out Furman dates with pair of victories

The Greenville Triumph posted wins over the Cosmos and Westchester this past week to close out their run of matches at Furman’s Stone Stadium. It was a 3-2 win over the Cosmos and then a 4-2 win over Westchester to see the Triumph vault up to third place in the USL League One table. An away trip to FC Naples is the next match for the Triumph on April 4. The Triumph will then host a home match at Clemson University on May 9 as they await the opening of the new GE Vernova Park at Bridgeway later in May.

UPSL Mid-Atlantic South round up: SC clubs remain undefeated

The four UPSL Premier clubs remain undefeated on the early season after another successful weekend around the Palmetto State. The four South Carolina clubs are now a combined 6W-0L-4T on the season with the undefeated SC United Heat leading the pack with a perfect 3W-0L-OT record scoring 11 goals and keeping three clean sheets to open the season.

The rebranded Charleston club the SC Surf is sitting in second place with a 2W-0L-0T record while Soda City sits in 5th (1W-0L-2T) and Electric City sits in 9th (0W-0L-2T). Soda and Electric played a thrilling 3-3 match last Saturday in Anderson and the conference looks stacked top to bottom again this season.

All the South Carolina clubs are in action this coming weekend with the Heat hosting the Coastal Kings in the match of the weekend. Last season the Heat and Kings played some instant classics in this new UPSL rivalry and Saturday in Columbia should just add to this story.

Battery suffers first USLC loss in the Motor City

The Charleston Battery slipped 0-1 on the road at Detroit City last weekend to drop their first points of the early USL Championship season. The team will stay on the road the next two weeks at the always fierce Louisville City on April 4 and the USLC expansion Brooklyn FC on April 11 before returning to the Point on April 18 versus the Rowdies.

Colton Swan scores and adds assist versus Argentina on USMNT U-20 tour

The new Charleston Battery man Colton Swan made good on his USMNT U-20 debut scoring a goal and adding an assist as the US U-20’s defeated the Argentina U-20 squad 3-0 in their recent tour in South America. A few days later on the tour, Swan was again on the scoresheet with a goal versus the Independiente reserves in their final stop during this mini-camp.