How do you not get too high as a member (or a fan) of this flying 2024 Charleston Battery? Eight wins from 11 games (with three draws) has them undefeated in league play and clear atop the overall standings and closest chasers Louisville City by six points. And in the Open Cup, they now face a home date at Patriots Point against Atlanta United – the 2019 Open Cup and 2018 MLS champions – who Coach Pirmann calls one of the “biggest clubs in North America.”
Having also finished runners-up in last year’s USL Championship campaign, it all seems a long way from 2022 when the side missed the playoffs with only six wins from 34 games.
“We stunk and we had to get better,” said Pirmann, who arrived at the club in that rebuilding moment of 2022. He began digging out of a rough situation immediately by instituting a “high energy, high character” methodology. The pairing of Markanich and Myers fit the bill perfectly – and are looking like the finishing touches on a team with very few obvious flaws.
“Look at what MD [Myers] is doing, scoring a bunch of goals like he is – that’s an area where we built on from last year,” said Markanich, who joined the Battery from MLS’ FC Cincinnati at the start of last season and, though shy off the field, is nothing of the sort on it.
“I think we’re always pushing each other,” Markanich added about he and Myers, who’ve scored more goals this year than any strike partnership at any level of the American game where reliable stats are being compiled. Myers chimed in with a cheeky smile: “We’re partners in Teqball [the training game that’s a hybrid of soccer and ping-pong] around the club and we’re usually running the table, so that’s where it really started.”
Working Together
“But really, we just work for each other,” Markanich went on. “And the whole team just sets us up to have success. It’s our job to finish off those chances and just try to stay consistent at that.”
