Lower Alabama Report: September 24
Huntsville is headed to the playoffs; Legion is almost certainly not
Birmingham Legion FC
Image credit: Birmingham Legion
2024 set the mark for Legion's worst season, and saw them miss the playoffs for the first time in team history. That left Tom Soehn on the hot seat and a dismal preseason led to a bad start to the season, ending Soehn's tenure in Birmingham. Birmingham quickly moved to hire Mark Briggs and everyone was optimistic that things would start to turn around. Surely, it couldn't get worse: 2025 said “hold my beer”. Legion hasn't won a regular season game since July 11, and are on 22 points, just one point above dead-last Miami FC, and 8 points below the playoff line. Last year's finish with 45 points looks pretty good in comparison.
Last week, Birmingham lost 1-4 to Tampa Bay, and 1-2 to Indy Eleven. They had 1-0 leads at halftime in both games and gave up all six opposing goals in the second half. That's two crushing losses to teams that are hanging out at the bottom of the table, also under the playoff line. Next up for Legion will be three games in eight days against three teams that are all in the top four of the East and West tables.
First up will be a road game against San Antonio FC. San Antonio has had a very up-and-down season, but are in third place in the West, in a crowded race in that conference. They've had some injury issues, especially on the back line, and I expect Alex Crognale to still be unavailable due to a broken collarbone. One odd tidbit: 8 of their 24 games have seen red cards issued. With tensions high for both teams (SA is only 5 points above the cutoff line for the playoffs), it might be more of a surprise if there isn't a red card handed out. If there's any hope for Legion, it's that they've tended to step up against top teams, especially from the West. A draw would be functionally useless, but maybe they have enough players back healthy to pull off the upset.
Huntsville City FC
Image credit: Huntsville City FC
Huntsville has been a streaky team this season, and last weekend they ended a four-game losing streak with a crucial 1-0 win on the road in Orlando. The win popped them back up to fourth place in the table and locked in the first playoff appearance in the team's history. Now they'll look to finish strong and try to earn a first round home game.
Huntsville has two regular season games left, both at home, starting with a game against Inter Miami 2 this Sunday, September 28 at 7:00 CT. This will be the third meeting between these two teams this season. Huntsville won the first match 4-0 and the second game saw regular time end in a 2-2 draw (HV won the shootout). Huntsville has allowed the fewest goals of any team in NextPro (31), while Miami has allowed the second most (63 !). Expect Huntsville to stay focused and get three more points.
UPSL
Last week's results
FC Birmingham 2-2 Dalton United
FC Atlanta 4-2 UMA FC II
Columbus Knight Eagles 0-5 Augusta Arsenal
This week's games
Soccer Saves Lives vs FC Birmingham; Sunday, September 28 at 5:00 ET. SSL should be favored at home in this one, although their early results have been mixed. FCB is certainly capable of stealing some points here on the road.
FC Columbus Elite is off again
Atlanta City FC vs Columbus Knight Eagles; Sarurday, September 27 at 4:00 ET. Early indications are that this should be a close match. Both teams took a beating at the hands of Augusta, and both teams beat Middle Georgia.
UMA 2 vs LSA Norcross 2; Sunday, September 28 at 5:00 CT. It's tough to get a solid read on these two teams, but Norcross has been better on defense so far, and I would give them the edge based on that.