Lower Alabama Report: August 6
Huntsville is in great form; Legion faces a tough Hartford team
Birmingham Legion FC
Image credit: Hartford Courant
Legion were on the road last week to face Phoenix Rising in the oppressive desert heat. Phoenix scores a lot of goals, and also has one of the leakiest defenses in the league. Appropriately, the game was a roller-coaster. Phoenix took a 2-0 lead within the first thirty minutes, helped out by some sloppy play from Birmingham. Mark Briggs made an unusual move, and took Edwin Laszo out at the 30 minute mark, and made some tactical adjustments to the shape. Legion got on track and pulled one back before the half. Birmingham came out of halftime on their front foot, and got two more goals within the first twenty minutes, taking a 3-2 lead. Phoenix wasn't going to go away quietly, and they mounted an intense attack to finally get an equalizer in the 90th minute. The final score was 3-3. Legion's Sebastian Tregarthen was easily the player of the match. He was a menace all night, scoring a goal, and getting an assist. Somehow, Tregarthen was overlooked for the League team of the week, which is a travesty.
Birmingham will be back at home this week to take on Hartford Athletic. Hartford are at the bottom of the table in the East, but they're starting to heat up, and I'm not looking forward to facing them. After dealing with various injuries during the season, Hartford are finally getting healthy, and last week they absolutely demolished New Mexico. Mamadou Dieng, still just 21 years old, is going to be a problem. He's got four goals in his last five games, including a brace against New Mexico (he just missed out on two more). He was named as the USLC player of the week, and it was well-earned. He's a striker that hustles up and down the field and makes defensive plays as well as being a top-notch striker when he's in form. I don't want to oversell Hartford here. They've only scored 19 goals on the season, and 4 of those were in the game against New Mexico. The caution here is that Hartford has newfound momentum, and they also beat Birmingham 1-0 in the earlier meeting this season. A truly dangerous opponent. Legion faces Hartford Saturday, August 2 at 7:00.
Huntsville City FC
Image credit: Crown Legacy
Huntsville has been on a hot streak, and issued a 4-0 beat-down to Crown Legacy last week, the second game in a row where they've put up four goals, gerting clean sheets in both. They were helped by an early red card against Crown Legacy, but that takes nothing away from their current form.
This week, Huntsville will be back at home against Carolina Core Sunday, August 10 at 6:00. These two teams played to a 0-0 draw back on May 10 (HCFC won the shootout), and they play contrasting styles. Huntsville is a team that likes to have possession, and Carolina tends to cede possession and look to stretch the field on the counter. This should be a game where Huntsville stays in control and leans on their excellent defense to keep Carolina at bay. I don't expect another blowout for HCFC, but I do expect them to get three more points. The player to watch is Huntsville's Christian Koffi, who has six goals and two assists in his previous eight games played.
Matthew Corcoran
Image credit: Nashville SC
For Birmingham midfielder Matthew Corcoran has had a busy week. Over the weekend, he got his first goal in a Nashville uniform against English Premier side Aston Villa, part of a 2-2 draw. He's a great player that needs minutes, and on Tuesday he was loaned to Birmingham Legion North (aka Rhode Island). He'll be facing his old club in two weeks, when Legion faces Rhode Island in Jagermeister action on August 20.