Preview: FC Tulsa v. Birmingham Legion
The other other Magic City
Weare back to the Jägermeister Cup this week and fun should abound. The Legion has a lifetime record of 3-4-2 against FC Tulsa, although the losses date back a way. The most recent three games favor the Legion 2-0-1, with the one game last year at Protective Stadium ending 2-2. The two teams will play again later this season in the Championship: September 6th, again in Tulsa.
This year’s incarnation of the Flycatchers is a much-improved squad. They are currently 3rd in the Western Conference but missed a chance to move up to 2nd on Wednesday when they drew 1-1 in San Antonio in a very hard-fought game. They have never previously finished better than 7th in the West and 13th overall.
The promotion of Luke Spencer to head coach in the off-season probably has a fair amount to do with that. Spencer is a former Louisville City player who also spent time back in 2018 as part of City’s famed triumvirate of player-coaches (along with George Davis IV and Paolo DelPiccolo).
Spencer took to the roster with a chainsaw, retaining currently just 10 players from the 2024 squad (after the trade of Edwin Laszo to the Legion). Among those he kept just one forward, Stefan Stojanovic, and he has played in 9 of 17 games overall, averaging 63 minutes in those games with no goals or assists.
The current primary threat is 23-year-old Taylor Calheira, a US citizen of Brazilian descent. He spent last year with NYCFC II in MLS Next Pro, logging 16 goals and 6 assists in 29 games. Right now he has scored 9 goals and made 1 assist in 13 games. His 6 goals in league play put him tied for 5th. Clearly, he is extremely dangerous. Tulsa has scored 20 goals in all; no one else has more than 2.
The team plays mostly a 3-4-3 although they opted for a 4-2-3-1 against San Antonio. Calheira mostly plays as point man but also at right wing.
ONEOK Field is also a big home field advantage. It’s a baseball park (ugh). Google claims its soccer dimensions are 133′ x 105′ which is ridiculous Looking at tape it’s barely 59′ wide. That explains the 3-man back line, which will be hard to penetrate.
Mark Briggs noted that Tulsa is a “really difficult team. Very, very well set up. Very disciplined in their shape and they have a lot of good attacking pieces. Again, a difficult opposition in regards they’re going to be very direct. They’re going to get the ball forward. They have big bodies, so we’ve got to be prepared for second balls. We’ve got to be repared to fight in battle and then we’ve got to recognize moments to take the sting out of the game, keep the ball.”
So that sounds at least in part like a counter-attacking strategy. He also pointed out that Tulsa does generally rotate its starting XI much, so tiredness could be a factor after Wednesday.
Prediction: This is a difficult one. I think the Legion is on a high right now and is headed absolutely in the right direction. Tulsa is a difficult place to play but the team is familiar with it. The Three Sparks need to do what they have not been able to do yet in 2025 – keep a clean sheet. A tall order but if they can hold the Tulsa attack at bay they will come home with the W.
(Excerpted from the Football Forge)