NEW YORK (April 11, 2026) – The Charleston Battery suffered a 3-0 road defeat to Brooklyn FC at Maimonides Park on Saturday. Brooklyn scored twice in the first half and once in the second half, creating a deficit that proved to be too large to overcome in the end.
The Battery recorded more shots (13 to 10) but had only four on target, all of which were saved. Charleston will look to rebound when they return home to host the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Sat., April 18, at Patriots Point, for their next match.
The Battery kicked off against Brooklyn aiming to end their early road stretch on a positive note. Charleston nearly opened the scoring via Emilio Ycaza on a free header after Colton Swan headed the ball back into the box, but the effort went over the crossbar.
Brooklyn managed to take an early 1-0 lead in the 9th minute through Jaden Servania.
No shots were recorded in the match in the roughly 20 minutes after the opener until the hosts doubled their lead, 2-0, in the 32nd minute via Stefan Stojanovic.
Charleston’s first shot on target of the game came in stoppage time, a strike by Miguel Berry that was saved by goalkeeper Jackson Lee.
At the break, Brooklyn maintained their 2-0 lead. The Battery recorded four shots, one on target, and held just under 70% possession.
Play resumed for the second half with Charleston searching for a way back into the game, with Wilmer Cabrera and Joey Akpunonu entering the fray out of the break.
The Battery recorded a pair of shots in the opening 10 minutes of the second stanza, by Laurent Kissiedou and Ycaza, but both were off the mark.
Brooklyn added to their lead in the 61st minute via Markus Anderson to make the score 3-0.
Berry nearly put the Battery on the board in the 76th and 77th minutes with shots on target, both of which were saved by Lee.
The night ended 3-0 in favor of the hosts as Charleston were dealt their second league defeat of the year.
Saturday’s result moved the Battery’s record to 3W-2L-0D (9pts) in USL Championship play.
Head Coach Ben Pirmann and forward Miguel Berry addressed the media after the match, with key quotes to follow.
Coach Pirmann on the troubles posed by Brooklyn…
We’re really disappointed in the result. Number one, fair credit to Brooklyn. They took advantage of our mistakes, they punished us big time, and they deserved to win. Our focus this entire week was being tough to play against, and I thought we worked hard, and I thought we were tough, and we did a lot of the dirty work, but we’re leaking goals. We’re poor in transition, we get dribbled past. When you’re giving up goals, it’s very tough to win football matches. And, I thought we actually played okay. We created a lot, we got in behind, but that stuff’s moot when you’ve conceded goals in the major critical moments of the game.
Brooklyn pounded us, and they outcoached and outplayed us in those moments. So, it’s disappointing. But if you look back at it, we’ve played seven overall games, we’ve won four, we’ve lost three, we’re not doing well on the road, and we’re probably exactly where we deserve to be. At this point, we’ll just kind of look back at it, try to get a little bit better. But, that that hurt, that was not a good result. That was not a good outcome for the team. Despite the performance, not being that bad, but you can’t go on the road and play just not bad, you have to go on the road and play brilliantly.
Coach Pirmann on the potential influence of travel on the squad tonight…
The travel and that stuff didn’t affect and impact the game. Brooklyn’s performance affected the game. If you want to say, sure they get an advantage for being at home, for sure, but that’s why you play each team twice. So we can’t make the excuse that the travel and these things had anything to do with the result. I think you have to give more credit to Brooklyn FC, Marlon LeBlanc and their players. They made the plays and we didn’t, it’s as simple as that.
Coach Pirmann on his message to the team after the game…
The team talk after the game was similar to what we mentioned. I thought the performance was solid, but the result was embarrassing. We didn’t make big plays. Last week, on the weekend, we made big plays. Maybe that’s just football. But we have to reflect, we have to look at the film, and we have to improve. For me, the biggest thing is we’re conceding way too many goals, and we’re conceding way too many goals in transition. We can’t think about Tampa Bay yet until we get ourselves better, but look, they’ll come into the game as the first-place team in the league and the best team in the league, and then we just have to get better from there.
Berry on the difficulties faced during the night…
I think we didn’t put Brooklyn under enough pressure. We went down 1-0, then 2-0, early, and they never had to come out of their shell, and then we were forced to very early. We played bravely and front-footed, but it didn’t work out today. We weren’t good enough in transition. We took too many risks, but we’ll continue to improve. Hopefully, we try to mitigate some of those risks, especially away from home.
Berry on turning the page from Brooklyn to Tampa Bay…
There are always some positives to build on, but it’s hard to play down and we never made them play. They could always transition into space and we made the game hard for ourselves. I think within that, there were positive moments, the attitude and intensity were good.
Playing away from home in American sports is incredibly hard, I think that can show up. The travel is tough, you don’t have long, all these fields are different, and the surfaces aren’t always great. But we can’t make those excuses, and we know we have to do better. Now, we get to go back home where we’re comfortable and where we know what to expect, and we have our fans behind us. It’s exciting for us to come back to. We’ve had a long run of games on the road, and I think we’ll be excited to go back home, play in front of our fans, and put on a better performance.
Charleston return home for their next match on Sat., April 18, against the Tampa Bay Rowdies on national television at Patriots Point. Tickets for the match are on sale now via SeatGeek.com , the club’s exclusive digital ticketing provider.
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