With Major League Soccer on a month-long mid-season break, it’s time for another US soccer league, the USL Championship, to step into the spotlight.
By James Nalton
Anyone looking to become more familiar with the competition at this stage of the year will find a regular season finely poised as it reaches the final third of the campaign before the postseason playoffs in November.
A handful of teams in USL’s Eastern Conference have stood out this season, including Tampa Bay Rowdies and Louisville City, but another team on this side of the league has caught the eye this season thanks to the goalscoring exploits of a player who is attracting transfer interest from home and abroad.
As they went into their game against Indy XI this weekend, Charleston Battery sat second in the Eastern Conference having played a couple of games more than those around them, including their fourth-place opponents, as well as Louisville and Tampa Bay.
The goals of USL Championship top scorer Nick Markanich are a big reason Charleston are challenging at the top of the table this year, and his performances have attracted interest from Europe as well as MLS.
“It’s a goal of mine, I was told about it, and it excited me,” Markanich told the Howlers Podcast of a potential move to Europe.
“It’s something I’m interested in, so we’ll see what happens.”
The 24-year-old has 19 goals from 21 starts in the league this season, which makes him the top-scoring player in US domestic pro soccer this year.
The fact he plays from the right wing and not as an out-and-out striker makes this all the more impressive, and this, along with his all-round play on and off the ball, is what will attract transfer interest.
“Nick is incredible in the air, not just in attack but also when we are pressed; he often wins those first contacts,” Charleston head coach Ben Pirmann said of his player in an interview with Transfermarkt.
“He is a very good defender and presser of the ball and runs a tremendous amount.
“He is not your natural one-v-one Arjen Robben-type player. Instead, if I would compare him to anyone, it would be Antoine Griezmann, who is also left-footed and more of a second striker or no.10 than a winger.”
Markanich has seven goals in his last six games, though failed to find the net in a 4-2 defeat to the Rowdies last week which put a slight dent in Charleston’s challenge at the top.
But they are still very much in the mix, and it’s not solely down to Markanich’s goalscoring prowess.
Charleston’s position also owes itself to their defensive record. They are one of only two teams with a goal difference in the +20s (along with Louisville) and only Western Conference side Sacramento Republic have conceded fewer goals than Charleston’s 20.
The creativity of Aaron Molloy, both from set pieces and progressive open play passing, has been important, and the team will hope an injury he picked up in the Tampa Bay game will not keep him out for too long.
Molloy’s performances this season give him the highest average rating of the 2024 season so far, just ahead of Markanich.
The Irishman also tops the charts in USL for chances created (64), accurate passes per 90 minutes (64.6) and accurate long passes per 90 with 9.4. He has very much been the engine of this team in a creative, possession sense.
But at the end of all this, there needs to be a player firing in the goals, and Markanich has done so at an unprecedented level.
His 19 goals are already a club record for a season in the Championship era, but will now have his sights on Charleston’s all-time record of 27 goals in all competitions, held by Paul Conway since the 2001 season.
Though Markanich is widely expected to leave USL this season. Charleston will hope it is at the end of the year, after the playoffs, rather than in the summer.
Losing players in such a manner is not unexpected in USL. In fact, it has become one of the league’s modi operandi.
Western Conference side Orange County SC has been one of the leaders in this area, and has so far sold six players to Europe as well as former head coach Morten Karlsen, who joined Lyngby Boldklub in the Danish Superliga.
Orange County’s former president of soccer, Oliver Wyss, moved into a similar role with the league as a whole as its director of football signalling USL’s intent to help its teams work effectively in the domestic and global transfer markets.
Charleston themselves sold winger Fidel Barajas to Real Salt Lake ahead of the 2024 season, before Barajas was then sold by RSL to Mexican side Chivas in June. Charleston will continue to benefit from the add-ons included in their deal to sell him to RSL, and from the 20% of any future sale clause RSL included in the deal to sell him to Chivas.
This is all part of the USL plan, but that does not mean the focus is solely on selling. It is also on player development and improvement of the league as a whole. Interest in USL players is a byproduct of this.
Charleston, and other teams, will want to make sure they get the most from these players while they are at the club in order to help them progress, and they are certainly getting a useful return from Markanich as they look to challenge in the league as the season enters its final third, and in November’s playoffs.
(Cover Image from Charleston Battery courtesy of the USL)
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