The Pundit Panel: Legion v. Indy Eleven

The experts expound

With the season now finally upon us, we start a new ongoing series. We have assembled a group of expert prognosticators who will provide completely accurate but entirely conflicting predictions as to what the score in each Legion game will be.

The panel will include your worthy bloggers here at the Football Forge and two guest panelists. Joining us will be Kaylor Hodges and Simon Iles. Kaylor is the host of the Hammering Down podcast and a USL Rocket League legend, even if mostly in his own mind. Simon is Secretary of Magic City Brigade, but is also a Brit and Manchester United fan, which in this author’s view makes him doubly qualified to be on the panel.

Each game all four members of the panel will consult the crystal ball, visit the oracle, throw the I Ching, shake the Magic 8-Ball and perform any and all other rituals necessary to provide you with the best possible predictions of the result. Over the season we will track the performance of our pundits to measure who is the most reliable seer. To do that, we will assess each prediction in terms of the margin of victory in the game, up to a maximum of 3 goals. So, a 0 margin is a draw, a 1-goal margin could be 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, etc. Each game will be worth 2 points: 1 for the correct winner and 1 for the correct margin of victory.

First up, then, is Saturday’s home opener against Indy Eleven. Here’s what our panel think:

  John Fuller Jacob Harris Kaylor Hodges Simon Iles
Prediction
win 1-0

win 3-2

win 2-1

win 1-0
Comments For the first game of the regular season, I anticipate both teams will play it somewhat conservatively. However, look for the Legion press to overwhelm Indy’s 3-man back line. Also, I doubt the Eleven will have an answer to Bruno Lapa forcing the ball through the middle, or to our defense. I’m looking to the off season to find the winner of this one. Rennie’s  additions will make Indy XI better, eventually. Birmingham Legions re-signings will make for a more cohesive team from the off. In a midfield battle it’ll be, Legion 3 – 2 Indy, on the night. Hammer Down. Our counterattack offense is the perfect response to Indy’s 3-5-2, especially with our front line of Neco, JJ, and Jaden often against only two CBs since Hackshaw loves to get involved in the attack. I believe we will also see James and Dean make massive impacts as their backline can easily become overloaded. It’s always hard to pick the winner of the opening game of the season, especially in the ever-unpredictable USL. However, given our additions to the squad, even without the suspended Junior Flemmings, I am going to be optimistic and say Legion will pull off a close win on Saturday.
Season to Date 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.