Good afternoon folks. The Red Bulls Carolina Challenge Cup match against the Charleston Battery is set for a 3pm kickoff and the word I’m getting is that it will be shown online at www.USLlive.com. If something changes on that front I will pass it along.

The Red Bulls will field the following lineup today:

————Angel———Echeverry————

Borman———–Magee—————Sassano

———–Stammler—–Reyna—————–

Goldthwaite———-Parke—————Mendes

——————-Conway————————

Juan Carlos Osorio is not with the team. He is in South America on a scouting trip. Dave Van Den Bergh has also left the team for personal reasons. He is expected to rejoin the Red Bulls in South Carolina during the week.

I am going to do a running commentary on the match. Might as well since I am going to watch it. Please feel free to follow along and to contribute your own thoughts and opinions on the match.

Enjoy the soccer.

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FINAL- Red Bulls 1, Battery 1. Promising stuff from the Red Bulls through 55 minutes but the game got sloppy with all the subs. Good stuff from Borman and Sassano, and the back-line was pretty steady.

Thats all for now. Share your thoughts on the match below.

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91st minute- SAVE THORNTON. What a great diving save by Thornton. Admit it, you didn’t think he could move that well.

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85th minute- This game has died.

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82nd minute- Charleston narrowly misses a header off a corner kick. The Red Bulls look tired.

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79th minute- GOAL CHARLESTON. Kenga equalizes a minute later as the Battery catches the Red Bulls napping. Still can’t believe this Kenga trialist actually had a celebration ready complete with a t-shirt. WHo does that for a glorified scrimmage?

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78th minute- Goal Red Bulls. Kevin Meza heads home a free kick in from Ubiparipovic. That’s 1-0 Red Bulls.

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77th minute- Kevin Meza in for Danleigh Borman.

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70th minute- Ricky Schramm has come in for Magee.

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68th minute- A Megaloudis goal is waived off for offside. These linesmen have been busy today. Can’t say if they’ve been any good since there are no replays.

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66th minute- Chris Megaloudis comes in for Echeverry.

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65th minute- Nice work by Mendes at right back today. He’s had a solid pre-season in his new role.

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61st minute- I’m a bit surprised we haven’t seen Scott Palguta come in at left back. Palguta has had a strong pre-season.

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60th minute- John Wolyniec and Mike Palacio come in for Angel and Reyna.

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52nd minute- Magee missed a clear header. It should be about 3-0 Red Bulls at this point.

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50th minute- Angel is denied by Charleston goalkeeper Dusty Huddock. What a chance (and I think a few listeners went deaf after the announcer screamed into the mic).

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46th minute- And we’re back

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HALFTIME- We’re going to have two Red Bulls subs,  Sinisa Ubiparipovic for Luke Sassano and Zach Thornton for Jon Conway.

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HALFTIME- Anybody else digging the halftime music?

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HALFTIME- We’re scoreless and the Red Bulls did well to create some quality chances late in the half, though going in scoreless is disappointing.

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45th minute- Angel with the free kick and he sends it high.

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44th minute- Echeverry runs onto a pass from Angel and gets brought down about 19 yards from goal, inside the arc. Dangerous free kick chance for the Red Bulls.

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41st minute- Angel has a dangerous run at goal halted for an offside call. No replays, that one looked close.

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37th minute- Magee powers a header at goal that hits the left post. Unlucky there and a great ball in from Borman.

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33rd minute- Charleston’s Richardson gets a good look at goal but powers it wide.

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31st minute- Magee into the area with a dangerous pass but nobody is there.

Interesting note that both Cubans who defected during the 2007 Gold Cup are now with the Battery. Lestor More isn’t playing today but Osvaldo Alonso is playing. I guess his trial with the Columbus Crew didn’t work out.

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28th minute- The play by play guy is Andrew Bell, who works for the Charleston Battery. I’m usually anti-British accent for American games but Bell is pretty smooth. I wonder how he pronounces Freddy Adu’s name.

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22nd minute- The Red Bulls defense gets cracked by a great long ball but the Charleston chance is saved for a corner.

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20th minute- Angel with a clear header but he sends it over the bar.

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15th minute- Charleston knocking on the door with some corner kicks.

How good is this announcer? I hope Fox Soccer Channel is listening.

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5th minute- Slow start to the match, the Red Bulls are knocking the ball around pretty well while Charleston looks quick on the counter.

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PRE-GAME- Yes, the referee for this match is a woman and no her name isn’t Brian Hall.

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PRE-GAME- The Carolina Challenge Cup. That’s the name of this tournament. I managed to give it about four different names in the past two days.

And yes, the play-by-play guy has a British accent.

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PRE-GAME- Yes, that is Jack Stewart, one of America’s most eligible bachelors. I wonder how many fans brought copies of Cosmo for him to autograph.

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PRE-GAME- Kudos to the announcer for getting all the Red Bulls players’ names right. That seems like a novelty after enduring the recent FSC broadcasts of Olympic Qualifying.

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PRE-GAME– Charleston is rocking the Fenerbahce look today.