Battery turns focus to league

At 5-10 and 165 pounds, Charleston Battery midfielder Stephen Armstrong didn't need to drop a couple of pounds.

Armstrong did more than lose a few pounds — 10 to be exact — during Tuesday night's double-overtime loss to FC Dallas in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup.

Armstrong was on the field for all 120 minutes against Dallas. The game-time temperature hovered around 92 degrees with a heat index at more than 100 degrees.

"It's not like Stephen needed to lose weight either," said Charleston coach Mike Anhaeuser. "I'm hoping that it was mostly water weight and that he was able to put most of it back on.

"When I was still playing, we used to play some games at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoons and it was brutal. Since we started playing all of our games at night, I can't remember a hotter, more humid night than Tuesday."

Anhaeuser put the team through a couple of light training sessions on Wednesday and Friday in the hopes that some of the veteran players would recover more quickly from Tuesday night's match.

"I saw some heavy legs, some sluggishness from some of the older guys on Wednesday, but I expected that," Anhaeuser said. On Friday, they looked better. Don't get me wrong, some of the guys were still missing some toes, but for the most part they've got their legs back."

With seven games left in the regular season, the Battery finds itself in ninth place in the USL First Division heading into tonight's matchup with the California Victory. The Battery is just four points out of a playoff spot. With home games against California and Carolina in the next four days, Anhaeuser hopes the Battery can continue its unbeaten streak — 6-0-2 in their last eight home games — at Blackbaud Stadium.

"Now that we're out of the U.S. Open Cup, we've got to refocus our efforts on the league games," Anhaeuser said. "That's why it was so important to give the guys some time off. These next two home games are huge for us."

The Battery will be without striker Byron Alvarez, the team's leading goal scorer, and midfielder Gordon Chin because of an accumulation of yellow cards.

"We're going to miss them both," Anhaeuser said. "Those are two more guys that we won't be able to use and after Tuesday night you want as many guys available as possible."

Midfielder Ian Fuller, who has missed 15 games with a pulled hamstring, practiced this week and could be available.

"He's looked good in training," Anhaeuser said. "It's going to be a game-time decision. I want to have him the bench and maybe put him in during the second half. As a team we're about as healthy as you can be at this point in the season."

Reach Andrew Miller at apmiller@postandcourier.com.