Match Recap: Birmingham Legion 1-1 Louisville City

Points shared in a close battle

After a full day’s delay due to dangerous weather in the Southeast, the Legion and Lou City got at it yesterday in a still very windy Protective Stadium in Birmingham.

The Legion were coming off a disappointing opening weekend home loss to Loudoun United and Louisville had looked like their usual solid selves beating the Charleston Battery 2-1, albeit after benefiting from a slightly iffy red card.

Despite that loss the Legion had already risen into the playoff spots (is it a bit early to talk about that?) and had additional motivation to perform well in what will be the last home appearance for a month. The Three Sparks were also playing with a depleted roster; in addition to Tyler Pasher and AJ Paterson still being out, Danny Trejo’s head injury last week kept him out and Phanuel Kavita picked up an injury in training that also spoiled his callup to the Rwanda national team (who currently lead their group) for the upcoming break.

Playing a team like Louisville with neither of your first choice centerbacks available is less than ideal, to say the least. And after a poor defensive performance against Loudoun some drastic adjustments were needed.

The first became very evident quickly. The Legion played with some serious pace from the first whistle. The team managed three shots (all off-target) in the early going and kept Lousiville without even an attempt on goal for the first 27 minutes. But then the visitors quickly got in three shots of their own in just three minutes and the third caught the Legion defense too high upfield in transition as Zach Duncan fed a wide-open Manny Perez for a shot that Legion keeper Matt van Oekel had no chance to stop.

The two teams then played a pretty even game until a minute into first-half stoppage time the Legion were awarded a free kick wide left and Roman Torres sent in a ball that found Ronaldo Damus’ head for his first goal of the season. The goal was a near duplicate of the Legion’s early goal against Loudoun and has quickly cemented Torres’ value to the club.

The second half proved to be a stalemate. Both teams got in some excellent chances though; the Legion’s four shots were all quality attempts (two were on target) and Louisville challenged the Legion with five shots, three being on target although only one was from close range. Van Oekel was able to handle them all, finishing the game with 5 impressive saves. Louisville’s Damian Las was equally tested by the two Legion shots on goal in the half.

As noted above, the conditions were windy and had a significant impact on the play. At times it was bad enough that spot kicks became a tad difficult as the ball would keep moving. The long game was one-sided in both halves and crosses from the east side of the stadium needed some serious extra power. Obviously, that also some meant some tactical adjustments had to be made.

The Legion’s lineup was a 4-1-4-1 this week (a much better option given the available players). Louisville was in its standard hard-to-penetrate 3-4-3. The Legion defense had to be cobbled together and included two players making their Birmingham debuts: Ethan Kos and Stephen Turnbull. Once again, 16-year-old Ramiz Hamouda got the start at left back and Jake Rufe shifted to right centerback. It was Haamouda who got wrong-sided by Perez for the Lousville goal, but otherwise the Legion defense held extremely well. They were assisted by Enzo Martinez at defensive mid who was also making his season debut and did so wearing the captain’s armband. It took him just ten minutes to pick up a yellow card but that did not hamper him at all and he proved to be a key support to the defense; he made four clearances (and one of those from behind his keeper).

Louisville outscored the Legion 9-1 last year in two wins; the Legion won both games in 2023 by a total of 4-1. This was a much tighter game than any of the previous four and logically sets up another draw in Louisville in June.

Had the Three Sparks performed as well against Loudoun as they did Sunday they would likely have won the game and would be riding fairly high early on. They now go on to play Detroit next Saturday in another test; Detroit is perfect so far (as is Loudoun). And they will be doing it on short rest: they play in Little Rock, Arkansas Wednesday in the first round of the Open Cup. Detroit does not enter the Cup until the third round.