Jäger Cup Quarterfinal Preview: Rhode Island v. Birmingham Legion

Do or die time

The Legion has never progressed beyond the conference semifinals in league play (twice) and the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup (once). This game, then, already equals the deepest playoff runs in team history. The question is: can the team make new history tonight?

The quarterfinal against Rhode Island FC (6:00pm, ESPN+) will be the 5^th all-time meeting between the two clubs and the 3^rd this season. In the 4 previous games the Legion has drawn 1 and lost 3, scoring just 3 goals. Not a good record. Last season's games (a 1-3 and an 0-2 loss were the worst results, with a 1-1 draw (in Rhode Island) and a 1-0 loss this year. Rhody last year of course went all the way to the Championship game, losing 0-3 to Colorado Springs.

This season's Rhode Island squad has not been faring anywhere near as well as last year's surprising run. Currently 8^th in the east by a whisker, all 4 teams below the playoff line are within reach of their current 21 points. Their 5-9-6 record is only marginally better than the Legion's 4-9-7 and they have just 1 win (1-0 over Detroit City) in the last 7 league games. They also lost their final Jäger Cup group game on penalties (to Hartford Athletic). The Three Sparks barely beat that, having won the final Jäger Cup group game.

On records alone this game looks pretty even. And both teams have had 11 days to reflect on their most recent results: like the Legion Rhody is coming off a bye week.

The interconnectedness of the pair also just increased, with Nashville SC of MLS recently sending Birmingham favorite Matthew Corcoran to Rhode Island. Corcoran played the full 90 against Loudoun United (a 0-0 draw) 2 weeks ago in a more than creditable performance. Add him, then, to JJ Williams and Zach Herivaux as former Legionaries gone north, along with Khano Smith, of course. And the Legion now has Stephen Turnbull whose move south has resulted in a fairly tough season for several reasons.

I asked Turnbull if this game has special meaning for him. "…this is the third time we're playing them this year. I think that [extra motivation]'s kind of died down for me. You know, maybe in the beginning a little bit, seeing my old teammates, my old friends. For me, it's just about getting this club on the track that it wants to be on. And that doesn't matter who we're up against."

He also talked about Rhode Island's apparent propensity for drawing games (21 in 54 regular season games to date) and how to break that down. "It's the work and the intensity that you have to play at. You know, it can be a lot to ask of players at times but that's what it takes to play in a league like this where the ball turns over a lot. And there's a lot of transition moments. Ultimately, games are won and lost in transition moments, set pieces and things like that."

That doesn't change the fact that the Legion is coming off arguably the worst game in its history (and that includes the 0-7 playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds back in 2019). Mark Briggs was under no illusions about what has to happen. "There has to be a reset. I'm hoping we can use this moment, the pain that hopefully everyone felt and experienced in this little break that they had off to galvanize us, to push on for a quarterfinal, 10 games of the season."

On the break he added,"I think [it's] a benefit. I hope it's a benefit because it's enabled us to have some pretty harsh conversations, some pretty hard words and some pretty harsh realities. So hopefully people have took those conversations on board and come out together and we come out as a team with intensity, with hunger, with desire."

He also noted that the team has working hard enough in the heat over the past week (including this past Sunday) that there have been cramping issues, including one player who needed an IV drip. Hopefully that's the intensity that both Turnbull and Briggs referenced.

Prediction: It's frequently a positive for the Legion to be playing away from the absurd empty cavern that is Protective Stadium. The away record isn't any better than the home record (in league play), but Rhode Island seems to suffer from a similar problem. They are 2-3-5 at home and 3-6-1 away. Centreville Bank Stadium is usually packed and likely will be tonight. The weather may change that: it's raining as I write (2:15pm CT) and the forecast for kickoff is 60° with an 85% chance of more rain. As a former Rhode Island resident I can say that bad weather doesn't faze the locals much, but you never know. Even so, the Legion tends to play to hostile crowds. With that, I feel moderately confident of a Three Sparks win. Possibly in penalties (which Briggs stated have been fully planned out after what happened two weeks ago).

(Excerpted from the Football Forge)