Legion's Groundhog Day, the Enzo Martínez question, looking ahead and Kavita's milestone
My Birmingham Legion talking points following last week's USL Championship defeats to the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Indy Eleven
In a week billed as season-defining for Birmingham Legion, the Three Sparks collapsed spectacularly.
Not once, but twice did they go into the break of their crucial matchups with the lead. Not once, but twice did they concede two goals within five minutes of each other to turn the tide early in the second half.
Now eight points adrift of the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot with five games to go, the season is all but over for the Magic City’s team.
Rinse and repeat
It’s Groundhog Day, again.
The phrase, taken from the classic 1993 film, references the main character, Phil (played by Bill Murray), being trapped in an endless loop of the same horrible day. For Birmingham Legion fans, the team’s performances are starting to feel eerily similar to that plot.
Last week’s two games were maddeningly similar, in both the stakes on the line and the performance put out. Both games had the team looking good in the first half before crumbling within the space of five minutes and never looking likely to recover.
But some of those issues aren’t even confined to the last two games.
This season, Birmingham Legion leads the league for points dropped from a winning position with a whopping 22 — incidentally the exact same number of points they currently have in the league.
Had they held on to all of those leads, the Three Sparks would currently sit 3rd in the East. Even if they’d done so only half the time, an extra 11 points would have them comfortably in 7th, three points clear of 9th and just one point off 6th, two off 5th, and five off 3rd.
In the last five games alone, Birmingham have led in four of them (and on four separate occasions against Orange County). With two draws and two losses from those four, that’s 10 points dropped at a time where every point is vital.
The other stark similarity with the past two games and previous encounters is how quickly everything fell apart. Both times, the equalizing goal was almost immediately followed by the go-ahead for the opposition. Against Tampa, it was four minutes. Against Indy, it was five.
This has also been a trend throughout the season, where things have often come in pairs for the Three Sparks. It even happened twice against Tampa, with another salvo of goals in stoppage time.
Orange County was slightly different from others, where it was every time Legion scored that the equalizer came almost immediately (two and four minutes later for the third and fourth, respectively).
Prior to that game, Legion conceded two goals in barely over a minute against Hartford, followed by two more in stoppage time. Before that, there were nine minutes between Phoenix Rising’s opener and second goal for the 2-0.
Against Louisville earlier this season, the Three Sparks went 2-1 down on the half hour mark despite holding a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute.
All of this points to a serious worry when it comes to team mentality. Far too often, when something goes wrong, the team crumbles.
“We’ve been in this position so many times throughout the season,” Mark Briggs said after the Tampa game. “Who’s gonna stand up? Who’s gonna be a leader? Who’s gonna be the man and make sure we see out this game?”
It’s a valid question, but shocking that it needs to be asked.
It isn’t like this is a team of newbies to the league. While Legion do have a couple of very young players, they also have multiple veterans who should be able to rally the troops and prevent this sort of thing from happening.
Matt van Oekel, 38, has 338 professional games to his name, half of them with Legion. Enzo Martínez, 34, is a league veteran with nearly 300 appearances in the USL Championship. Phanuel Kavita, 32, is another USL stalwart and an internationally capped player. AJ Paterson, 29, captained Charleston Battery for two seasons, including 2023 when they finished runners-up to Phoenix. Ronaldo Damus, 26, has two USL Championship titles to his name.
All of these are vastly experienced players who should be able to pull their team together when needed, or recognize the risk they face after a goal has just been scored and ensure everyone comes together and focuses to survive the next 10 minutes unscathed.
Why that isn’t happening is anyone’s guess, including Briggs’, but what’s sure is no team can be successful without proper leadership. Unfortunately, that seems to be sorely lacking at the moment for the Black and Gold.
We should talk about Enzo
One of the players on that list, Enzo Martínez, is seemingly in the team for those types of unquantifiable assets. But in recent outings, his quantifiable outputs have been worrying.
I wrote early in the season how Martínez is a bit of a question mark. Despite there being little doubt about his pedigree, there is considerable interrogation as to what his best position is these days. Some would rather he play deeper and be the team’s metronome, while others believe his attacking instincts should result in a role further up the pitch.
When Briggs was asked about Martínez, he made it clear he saw his as an attacking midfielder. In recent games, he’s pushed him even further forward to act as a support striker for Ronaldo Damus.
But it’s plain to see that role is not working for the Uruguayan.
In Birmingham’s last three outings, Martínez’ passing accuracy was 59,1%, 61.1% and 50%, respectively. His output in the team’s opposing third is even more dire, completing just 25%, 37.5% and 50% of his passes.
He also hasn’t completed a single successful dribble or cross across those three games, despite attempting four of each. These numbers have all resulted in exactly one chance crated (defined as a pass leading to a shot), while taking no shots himself across the last three games, in which he played over 200 of the 270 minutes.
For a player supposed to be contributing to the team’s attack, those numbers are unacceptable.
You would hope that if he isn’t carrying his weight offensively, the Uruguayan would at least be contributing more on the defensive side of things. But other than winning possession 10 times across those three games, his defensive stats are just as lacklustre.
Martínez has only one interception, one tackle and one clearance across his last three outings. He has also won just two duels in that span, for 15 lost (an 11.76% success rate).
It can be hard to move on from players who have been not just part of a club, but crucial to its performances, for so long. But in Martínez’ case, it’s looking more and more like his best days for the Legion are past him.
With virtually nothing left to play for this season, Birmingham should start thinking ahead. Martínez should not be a part of those plans, and it therefore looks like it might be time for the Magic City to bid farewell to its longtime midfield maverick.
What remains for 2025?
Mathematically, Birmingham Legion still have a shot at the postseason.
Realistically, we all know it’s over for the Three Sparks.
With five games to go, Birmingham Legion is already guaranteed its lowest-ever points tally (barring the shortened COVID-19 season in 2020). Even worse, they could still finish lower than that 2020 season despite playing 14 games more. They need to record at least one more win coupled with a draw or four draws from the final five games in order to surpass that year’s tally of 25.
It’s hard to tell how likely that is at the moment, with the team averaging just 0.88 points per game (projecting for just 26 points after 30 games). Legion notably have the fewest league wins of any USL Championship team this season at four.
To put that into perspective, last season’s historically bad Miami FC team still managed three successes, just one less than the Three Sparks.
All this to say that 2025 will definitely be a season to forget for the Black and Gold. But with five games remaining, where does that leave the team?
At this point, if we are to believe that Mark Briggs will get the chance to lead the team next season after bringing in his own players, releasing those he doesn’t want and getting a full offseason, the answer is clear. It’s time to start thinking about 2026.
While the USL doesn’t have a draft, and therefore no incentive to tank a disappointing season, results no longer matter. And thus, Briggs should start thinking ahead.
A lot of fans are asking for 80% or more of the roster to be released/sold this offseason. While the sentiment is understandable, it’s also unrealistic. Rebuilding a roster from scratch would be an insane task to take on and only lead to more pains in 2026.
That’s why, if we’re being realistic, five to 10 current players are likely to stay on (not least because some of them are on two year deals). It’s now up to Briggs to figure out who he wants to keep, and play only them for the remainder of the season.
Unless the club envisions buying any of them, the team’s four loan players (Jackson Travis, Amir Daley, Tiago Suárez and Samuel Shashoua) should therefore be relegated to bench roles at best. Anyone else Briggs does not want there when February comes around should face the same.
Youngsters like Fernando Delgado and Ramiz Hamouda, meanwhile, should be given plenty of minutes as the club continue to grow their experience, and intrinsically their market value. Surround them with players who have shown enough this season that they’d want to retain them (Sebastian Tregarthen and Ronaldo Damus, notably) and with a few older heads worth keeping around (Phanuel Kavita and Jake Rufe, maybe).
Figure these out now, and play a set team for the remainder of the season. No more rotation based on one game or one week of practice. Get these select few familiar with each other, building the necessary chemistry and understanding of their specific roles and combinations in intimate detail.
A good number of players will be added to the roster come the offseason, hopefully ones that can elevate the team. But if some players can already be there to provide a solid foundation to build around, maybe there can still be at least the tiniest of silver linings to take from this season.
A milestone moment
It’s been a rough week for Birmingham Legion, and these talking points are quite grim as a result. So I wanted to end on a more positive note.
Among the disappointment of Sunday’s performance, there was at least one event worth some celebration.
By starting against Indy Eleven, Phanuel Kavita made his 150th appearance for the Three Sparks. This moved him into sole possession of third spot in the club’s all-time rankings.
Prosper Kasim is first on 178, with Matt van Oekel closing in on him at 172. By reaching 150, Kavita overtook his longtime centerback partner Alex Crognale’s 149.
In over 13,000 minutes for Legion, Kavita scored two goals (both against Detroit City) and provided two assists. He also picked up 25 yellow cards and one red.
And even though he turned 32 earlier ahead of the season, this was also the year he finally became a fully-capped Rwanda international.
“It’s huge,” Kavita said after returning from the latest international break, where he made his competitive debut in World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria and Zimbabwe. “Anything’s possible. I’ve always dreamt of getting to play at the international level. … It’s been a huge privilege and a huge honor to play for Rwanda.”
Having joined ahead of the 2021 season, Kavita made his debut May 1st of that year and became an instant mainstay of the Birmingham backline. He received the captaincy from day one and played 68 out of a possible 71 games in his first two years at the club.
Though he lost the armband ahead of this season, he has led the Three Sparks out on more occasions than any other man, doing so 132 times, nearly 100 more than Martínez in second (33). He also won nearly half the games he had the armband for, doing so in 61 of those 132 games.
I got to ask him about this milestone ahead of the week’s slate of games, and he was nothing if not thankful for his time in the Magic City.
“It’s meant a lot,” Kavita said. “Raising a family here and making this home, it’s meant a lot. I don’t take anything for granted and I’ve appreciated being here with my attitude and how I approach every day.
“It’s meant a lot, and I’m very blessed to be here,” he continued. “Not everyone’s able to be at a club for as long as I have. I’ve been here for five years now, so it means a lot. It gives me motivation. It gets me excited, waking up every morning. It’s not every day certain people are able to play as long as I have. And I’ve seen guys come and go.
“Birmingham, making it my home, it means everything. And the fans have been right there with us, so it’s kind of nice. I’ve been to other clubs where fans aren’t as involved, and I’ve spoken to some fans here and it’s always nice to feel welcomed and at home.
“I’m very blessed and humbled to be at this club.”
The upcoming offseason is undoubtedly going to be one of change for Birmingham Legion, with many departures to come. Some of the team’s longest-serving players are likely to leave, and Kavita could well be one of them.
But if he does, he can leave with his head held high despite the disappointments of this season, having etched himself a permanent place in the Birmingham Legion history books.
Kavita should be getting called up again for International duty in early October, although I'm not sure when Hamouda's next call might come. Any idea who all is going to still be under contract next year? And I know Damus is on loan with an option to buy... if he wants to stay.