Lethargic Legion, a worrying trend, a reckless red and some strong words
My Birmingham Legion FC talking points following their 1-0 loss to Rhode Island FC in Wednesday's USL Championship game
Mark Briggs won’t want to remember his home debut for too long.
After positive signs from his first game as Birmingham’s head coach 11 days ago, the energy felt good going into Legion’s midweek game. It quickly became apparent that energy was not the right word to use in this situation as the Three Sparks played a slog of a game, registered one single shot on target and ultimately fell 1-0 to a team that had started the day below them in the league.
Since their first win of the season against Western Conference’s El Paso Locomotive, the Black and Gold have played the three teams trailing them in the East in successive league matches.
They collected just one points across the three encounters.
With a quick turnaround ahead of Sunday’s home game against Detroit City FC, the Legion will quickly have to pick themselves up after a night to forget.
Lazy, lethargic Legion
If Birmingham Legion’s first 15 minutes of the Briggs era against Tampa Bay were the promise of an exciting future, the first 15 minutes at home Wednesday night were a reminder of a painful present.
“First 15 minutes, if the team’s coming to our home, we’ve got to put the pressure on them early and fast and get them uncomfortable,” Phanuel Kavita said. “And they did that to us. That’s the part that’s frustrating.”
It wasn’t just the first fifteen either.
Despite winning a corner within the opening 30 seconds, Birmingham never gave the impression that the players got out of first gear. Challenges looked half-hearted, passes were consistently overhit and the off-the-ball movement was severely limited.
For a team making its return home after nearly three weeks away, it showed a shocking lack of heart.
“I thought the way we started the game was basically the whole game,” Briggs said. “We never got going. Very slow out the gates, looked nervous, looked anxious. I think we saw that in the first half performance. There’s a lot of work to do.”
Rhode Island’s goal, scored in the 14th minute, epitomized the lack of energy.
After turning the ball over in the midfield, two Legion players, Sam McIllhaton and Danny Trejo, briefly pressed Rhode Island. But as soon as the visiting player got past those two, he had a straightforward jog up the field with no real pressure.
Ramiz Hamouda eventually stepped out of the backline to meet him, prompting an easy pass down the right flank before the cutback that led to the goal. Though five Legion players were standing in the box at the time of the strike, not a single one attempted more than a light jog to close down their opponents.
“For me, the first half performance, forget tactics, forget the quality,” Briggs said. “If you don’t run and you don’t compete, you don’t win games. And for me, in the first half there was a lack of effort.
“Not from everyone, but there was a lack of effort as a collective,” he added. “And you can’t play in this league without effort, in any league, without giving everything. And I think that’s first and foremost the biggest problem that I’ll take and what needs to change.”
Briggs was right to call the team out for the showing. Bring that kind of energy levels on any sort continuous basis, and it could quickly become a very long season for the Legion faithful.
A worrying trend
There’s no denying that Birmingham Legion is enduring a rough start to the season. Six points after eight games is the club’s worst-ever return at this stage in the league (the previous worst was a three-way tie on 11 in 2019, 2022 and 2024), and the Three Sparks also excited the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup earlier than ever before.
But even among those negative results, there have been some bright spots. The win over El Paso is the most obvious. The Jägermeister success over the Chattanooga Red Wolves is another. Even the draws against Louisville City and at Detroit can be considered good results in context.
But even those games, bar the Red Wolves one, still exemplified a trend that continued Wednesday.
Birmingham have played 10 games this season. They’ve gone behind in all but one.
The Chattanooga game, where the team conceded a last-minute consolation to ruin what would have been their first clean sheet of the season, is the only game all year where the Three Sparks never trailed their opponent.
For Kavita, it’s something that clearly needs fixing.
“I think it’s the mentality,” the centerback said. “The mentality of the first… As soon as you step on to warm up in the games, you have to be ready to go. I’m not saying that our mentality isn’t there, Mark has done a good job of getting that mentality and changing the culture, now it’s us to take it on the shoulders and perform and bring it onto the field.”
Kavita’s comment was perhaps more revealing than he intended. Saying that Briggs has done a good job addressing the mentality clearly implies that something was wrong prior to the Englishman’s arrival.
Given that those improvements have yet to bare fruit, the scars must run deep.
“We have to go back to the drawing board and make sure we’re all ready and all focused to start these games,” Briggs said.
With time, there is every chance Briggs will turn the team’s fortunes and mentality around. In Sacramento, he was known as a coach that got his team to believe they could beat any opponent, including their MLS foes during their historic 2022 Open Cup run.
Until that happens, Birmingham is going to keep making the task harder on itself. And with how the team is faring so far this season, that definitely seems one burden too many for this struggling side.
Fouls galore, and then a red
Well before McIllhaton’s red card, it was clear the referee was intent on making his presence known.
The officials generally have the license to let a game flow or be strict disciplinarians and must use common sense to decide which is best suited to each game. For example, a rivalry game might need a clear signal of intent early on to prevent tensions getting out of hand, while a free-flowing attacking back-and-forth is an opportunity for added leniency to let the players do their thing.
Whichever one the referee opts for, consistency is key.
On Wednesday, the referee made his intentions very clear early on by booking McIllhaton for his very first foul. It was a late challenge, yes, but the foul was both early (5th minute) and the Australian’s first of the night, both reasons to give him a pass in many referee’s minds.
Once that standard was set, however, he needed to adhere to it. And he did.
The few occasions were Legion showed some energy were in their press, which bordered on reckless at times. Rather than regaining possessions, the Three Sparks’ forward line were continually running into Rhode Island players and sending them to the ground, prompting a whistle and stop in play.
Rhode Island quickly realised this and went down at every opportunity, invariably drawing the foul they were looking for.
Though soccer purists will turn their nose at that tactic, it is part and parcel of the game. And Birmingham need to be smarter in those situations.
“It’s not the referee, it’s on us,” Kavita said. “I think one of the things we have to learn is those decisions, at the end of the day, are decisions that we make and put on ourselves.”
Rather than learn from the pattern, Legion players just kept committing the same mistake, and kept giving away cheap fouls as a result. The accumulation meant that by the time McIllhaton committed his second bookable offense of the night, it put the Legion in double-digits for fouls committed.
No matter what you make of the Australian’s tackle, players on a yellow should know better. It was even more aggravating because the referee had made it clear he was not afraid to get involved.
“If it was a bad tackle, you’ve got to take it on the chin and move on,” Briggs said. “For Sam as well, he’s got to understand he’s on a yellow card and you don’t go in for those tackles.”
Perhaps both of McIllhaton’s tackles truly deserved yellow cards. But perhaps the accumulation of fouls also influence the referee’s mind when assessing the latter of the two.
As every soccer player is always told, you should never give the referee a decision to make. Birmingham will want to quickly learn that to prevent any repeats of Wednesday’s fiasco going forward.
Briggs doesn’t hold back
There weren’t many positives on the field for Legion Wednesday night. So other than Matt van Oekel and Kavita’s heroic goal denial, the best moment of the night for Legion fans may well have happened deep in the innards of Protective Stadium, specifically the media room.
Briggs gave his first post-game press conference as the Three Sparks’ head coach, and he was not afraid to say exactly what he thought of his team’s performance.
“We’ve got to make sure that whether the quality’s there or not, you’ve got to put teams under pressure,” Briggs said. “You’ve got to be physical, you’ve got to put your foot in when you need to put your foot in, not just dangle your foot. You’ve got to go tackle. You’ve got to go for it. You’ve got to run, you’ve got to communicate. And I thought those were the things that we didn’t do.”
It’s easy for a coach to deflect or defend his players after a game, so the manner in which Briggs publicly called them out came as something of a surprise. For a coach who is still getting to know the players and building those relationships, it could be seen as a risky move, but one with a lot of potential upside too.
Since coming in, the Englishman has made it clear he wants to build not just a winning team, but a winning culture. Accountability is a key pillar to any such enterprise.
"I hope the guys go home tonight, I hope they look in the mirror,” Briggs said. “They look in the mirror and they’re honest with themselves. And then we come back tomorrow and we’re ready to work because we face a very, very good Detroit team on Sunday.”
If such strong words are being said to the press, we can only guess the extent of the criticism the players received behind closed doors.
Those kind of comments are sure to light a fire under players with the right mindset. For others, it might discourage them or lead to resentment of the coach for calling them out. But those are not the kind of players Briggs wants on his team in any case.
Briggs is here to turn the team around, and he’s already shown he’s not afraid to take big swings to do so. That may be exactly what this Legion side needed.
Bonus Content: Transfer Activity
Though it did not happen Wednesday night, Birmingham Legion has a sudden surge of transfer activity Friday that we can quickly dig into as well.
Dourado loan
First, the Three Sparks announced that Lucca Dourado had joined Forward Madison (USL League One) on loan for the remainder of the season.
Dourado joined the Legion this offseason following a stellar career with the University of Central Florida but so far failed to impose himself in Birmingham.
The 24-year-old made his first appearance in Black and Gold against Loudoun United in the season opener, coming on at halftime for the concussed Danny Trejo. He made another substitute appearance in stoppage time the following week before getting his first start in game three, the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup game against Little Rock Rangers.
Dourado missed a penalty 25 minutes into the cup game before being hooked at the hour mark as the Three Sparks chased an equalizer. Since then, he hasn’t seen a single minute of action. He stayed on the bench for the next three games, before missing out from the matchday roster entirely for the last four.
In this context, a loan to Forward Madison seems a perfect opportunity for the young Brazilian to get some much-needed game time. The League One side is struggling with some injuries, giving him a great opportunity to stake a claim for a spot early on.
The other important thing to note is that Matt Glaeser, Madison’s head coach, was an assistant to Briggs at every stop in the Englishman’s career prior to Birmingham. The two still have a great relationship and speak on a weekly basis, so this will be an excellent opportunity for Dourado to get playing time in an environment not too dissimilar to that he will find upon his return to the Magic City next season.
This would suggest that though he is out of favor for now, the Legion still hold high hopes for the young forward. It’s now up to him to prove them right and make this loan count.
Laszo signing
Not even an hour after sharing the news of Dourado’s loan, Birmingham Legion announced another transaction.
This one was a signing, as FC Tulsa midfielder Edwin Laszo joined the club.
A Colombian midfielder, Laszo joined Tulsa ahead of the 2024 season and quickly established himself as a key starter. However, he fell out of favor during the second half of the season, playing just three times from September onward and totaling a mere 97 minutes.
This season, he made only seven substitute appearance for Tulsa. He leaves the Oklahoma club with 30 appearances, two goals and one assist.
“We are happy to welcome a player of Edwin’s caliber to Legion FC,” Jay Heaps, CEO and Chief Soccer Officer, said in the press release. “With his size and physical presence in the midfield, we look forward to him having a positive impact on the field for us this season.”
I won’t pretend to know much about Laszo, but Legion’s midfield could certainly use some help. While they don’t lack in numbers, the team has yet to find a three-man combination that truly works. Laszo will thus hope to stake his claim to one of those starting spots.
With McIllhaton suspended for tomorrow’s game against Detroit, there is a good chance we see the 26-year-old make his debut at some point in the encounter.