Lower Alabama Report: August 13

Legion is falling apart; Huntsville keeps rolling

Birmingham Legion FC

Image credit: USL Championship. Nobody wants to face Mamadou Dieng right now - absolutely on fire.

Birmingham has been trying to find some consistency, needing to turn more draws into wins to get into the playoff picture. On Saturday night they faced off against a Hartford Athletic squad that's arguably the hottest team in the league right now. Hartford got two goals midway through the first half (both by Mamadou Dieng), one from a questionable penalty call, and looked to be in control for most of the game. That's not to say that Legion didn't have chances, including a penalty kick of their own, but they couldn't equalize. The penalty was its own fiasco, and encapsulated where things are for Legion right now. In a nutshell, the player taking the kick shouldn't have, then an attempt was blocked - but the Hartford keeper jumped the gun, and then the second attempt was also saved. Tyler Pasher also banged a shot off the crossbar. So, there were real chances to get back into the match. The scored was still 2-0 entering the 90th minute when the wheels went ahead and fell all the way off. With an attack-heavy lineup on for Legion, Hartford burned them for two more goals in stoppage time. Legion pulled one back at the death, but it was an extremely unsavory 1-4 loss for Legion. Birmingham will be off on a mandated mental health break until Wednesday August 20th.

Legion took some big swings in the off-season, making a splash with signings like Danny Trejo, Stephen Turnbull, and Ronaldo Damus (on loan). The team added depth at almost every position, and have been running with a roster that's larger than they've ever had before. After an abysmal preseason and a bad start to the regular season, Tom Soehn was fired and the next splashy hire was Mark Briggs. Players continued to be added and the roster was obviously becoming bloated. With all of the available talent, and a highly-regarded coach in place, Legion have failed to rise from the bottom of the table.

The loss against Hartford was truly ugly. But the scoreboard doesn't tell the story. The team is in crisis right now. Suddenly, the roster looks frayed instead of bloated. Two players have been sent out on loan, and appear to be making solid progress at Forward Madison (Ereku and Dourado). Two players are out for the rest of the season with injuries (Mensah and Lacey) . Two very good players have been transferred away (Trejo and Kobe). All of that means that Legion now has 22 players available for selection. One of those players (CB Ethan Kos) hasn't seen a single minute of action since Briggs arrived. Another of those is a player with massive potential (Saucedo) who is working back into form after a year away from the sport. The team does have the talent and quality available to be getting results, but there's been a burst of frustration among both players and fans with the decisions that are being made on a weekly basis. If circumstances were different, there might be loud calls for Briggs to be fired (there's some rumbling now).

Briggs has expressed frustration himself, which is to be expected. Much of that frustration has been directed towards the players. Refrains of “we look good in practice, but they're not executing during games”, and “the players aren't giving a good effort” have become common. I'm sure there's some truth to that. But what's bubbled to the top is that maybe the players and the coach don't believe in each other right now. Some of that comes directly from roster decisions. New players come in and get the minutes over players that have been performing well. That needs to change. With extra time this week, I hope to see the team pull together and start to believe again. It won't take much to get back into the playoff race, just like Hartford has done.

Huntsville City FC

Image credit: Huntsville City

Legion has been struggling, but the other professional team in the state has been on a roll. Last weekend's 3-2 win over Carolina Core was their fourth in a row, and fifth out of their last six games. They're winning with confidence, and have balance at both ends of the pitch. Notably, they have the second best goals allowed in all of NextPro at just 21 that they've let in. For those that don't follow NextPro, it's a very offense-oriented league. Nobody should tune in and be bored.

Huntsville starts a busy week at Inter Miami 2 at 6:00 (Central) on Thursday, August 14. The first match-up this season saw Huntsville dispatch Miami 4-0. Miami is near the bottom of the table in the East, and defense has been their biggest shortcoming (45 goals allowed). Recent form has been slightly improved for Miami, but Huntsville should expect to take three points.

The second game this week will be at home on Sunday, August 17 at 6:00 against NYCFC 2. The New Yorkers sit squarely in the middle of the table and have mixed results to match. Their results are pretty even, they score at a decent clip, and they also concede goals at a decent clip. This will be the only time that they face each other this season. Huntsville will need to keep New York's Seymour Reid under wraps; he's scored 11 goals this season. Expect this game to be close, with plenty of goals to go around.