If you ask me, it’s actually Week 8, but the USL is considering last week’s Jägermeister Cup round as part of the overall season, so we’ll go with it. The Cup is replacing some regular season games, so I guess that’s reasonable. After a fashion.
The most important part
The Mark Briggs era begins for the Legion with a road game against the Tampa Bay Rowdies (Saturday, 6:30pm, ESPN+). After tomorrow the team gets an 11-day break before playing Rhode Island FC and Detroit City 4 days later, both at home.
With those first two games the Three Sparks will have played the bottom three teams in the Eastern Conference consecutively in league play. The Hartford Athletic result was a disaster, but this does look like a fairly gentle introduction for the new gaffer before taking on a conference heavyweight (who the team did already draw with away).
The Rowdies are a team in transition, just like the Legion. They fired their head coach Robbie Neilson a few days after the Legion axed Tommy Soehn. Neilson had been an odd choice, picked up last year from what was then a languishing Loudoun United team. Neilson managed to make the playoffs last year but this year lost 3 of 4 games before getting the heave-ho. He was fired the day before the team was due to play Louisville City. The interim head coach is Steve Coleman, who joined the club as an assistant this season, also from Loudoun. Unlike the Legion, the Rowdies do not appear to be near to hiring a permanent replacement.
They lost the Lou City game, unsurprisingly. Then last week they played The™ Miami FC—the only team they beat in league play, if only due to a missed penalty—in the Cup in an unbelievably wild game. They ran out to a 3-0 half-time lead before completely blowing the lead after the break and eventually losing on PKs. They also edged past FC Naples in the 3rd round of the US Open Cup, drawing 1-1 before going 9-8 in PKs.
In 8 games in all competitions they have scored 9 goals and allowed 13. That’s slightly worse than the Legion’s 10-12 mark.
Tactically, the Rowdies started with a 3-4-3. They were shut out in the first two games and beat Miami 2-1 in the 3rd. They dropped that and have played a very basic 4-4-2 ever since. The two strikers are Manuel Arteaga and Woobens Pacius. Arteaga is well-known and has been with the team since last season. Pacius is a Canadian who spent several years in the CPL before signing with Nashville SC last year and getting immediately sent to their MLSNP affiliate in Huntsville. He is now on loan with the Rowdies and has been their primary threat, scoring 4 of the Rowdies’ 9 goals. No one else has scored more than once. Keep him under wraps and the team will be extremely pressed to score.
As for the new-look Legion, based on Thursday’s training session which was open to the press, they will be sticking with the 4-1-4-1 for now. The starting XI will be unchanged except for Dawson McCartney being OK to start instead of Moses Mensah. In terms of playing style, it appears Briggs wants a fast transitional game, getting the ball out of the back quickly and switching the field as much as possible. Expect lots of wide play with Danny Trejo and Sebastian Tregarthen launching balls in constantly.
As for how the squad is responding to the new coach, Phanuel Kavita had this to say: “[He’s a] winner. He approaches the game very well. He approaches the training sessions very well…In my opinion, I appreciate that.
“And it’s very detail-oriented [the same words Jay Heaps used], and he brings a very winner mentality. And that’s what we need.”
Phanny also said that he now feels good to go 90 minutes although the recovery took longer than he would have liked.
Enzo Martinez added that it’s “a really good change for everyone in the locker room….You have me excited as a player to what, you know, hopefully our future looks like.” Positive responses both.
Prediction: Clearly, the new regime needs to get off to a good start. And having an opponent that is down on its luck right now and in an even tougher transition than the Three Sparks should help with that. Now is absolutely not the time to take pity but rather to be as nasty as Coach Crusher (I’m definitely making that a thing, by the way) wants them to be. The Legion will be a well-trained and well-armed fighting force up against a bunch of wanna-be hooligans with silly mustaches. The Three Sparks come home with the dub.
Best of the rest
The week’s games already started, with the inaugural Commonwealth Cup game last night, Louisville City beating Lexington SC 2-0 in a rather embarrassing display by the visitors (their brand-new striker got a red card and they scored an own goal). There are games both Saturday and Sunday. At least the Legion is not playing on Sunday for once. Here are our picks:
Rhode Island FC v. San Antonio FC (Saturday, 3:00pm, ESPN+)
It took them just over a year but Rhode Island finally have their own stadium and will open it tomorrow with an expected capacity crowd. Rhody have struggled this season with only a 2-0 win over Oakland Roots in league play and a 4-1 whipping over Westchester SC in the Cup. After two surprise losses San Antonio have won two straight games and will represent a tough challenge for the home team. Oh, and Rhode Island is the Legion’s next opponent on May 14th.
Indy Eleven v. Detroit City (Saturday, 6:00pm, ESPN+)
The Eleven is tied with the Legion on points and is just the other side of the playoff line. The home team dropping points would be good, obviously. That seems very much in the realm of possibility as Detroit has been very good so far this year, sitting in 3rd and also beating the Pittsburgh Riverhounds last week in the Cup.
Las Vegas Lights v. Loudoun United (Saturday, 9:30pm, ESPN+)
The Lights have so far failed to live up to the improvements of last year in league play but are one of only two teams to have played twice in the Cup and they won both fairly easily. Loudoun are this year’s success story to date and everyone in the East will be looking for them to stumble in Sin City.
Monterey Bay FC v. The™ Miami FC (Sunday, 6:00pm, ESPN+)
Both teams in this tilt are looking way better than previous incarnations, Miami especially. They have 3 straight wins, including the 2-pointer over Tampa Bay) and performed well in all of them. This has the makings of an entertaining game and could be seen as a fairly close matchup.
