The 2025 Birmingham Legion season ends tomorrow in Charleston (4:00pm, ESPN+). It’s been a rough one, to say the least, and the sooner the team puts it behind them the better. However, it’s not going to be an easy finale.
The most important part
The Battery technically has nothing to play for. They are locked into 2nd place in the Eastern Conference and have also secured home field advantage if they get to the championship game. Additionally, they played Wednesday in Sacramento (a 0-1 loss) and thus will not have had much rest or training time. On top of that they played a weather-delayed game against the Colorado Springs Switchbacks a week ago Monday and against Detroit City last Saturday (a 5-0 win and a 1-1 draw). They have had a tough closing schedule.
The question then becomes: who will they play on Saturday? When I spoke with Mark Briggs earlier this week he was of the opinion they would rest players against Sacramento and field a first-choice lineup tomorrow as a warm-up for the playoffs. It looks like he was more or less right.
The Battery have two of the top three goalscorers in the league. Cal Jennings has led the Golden Boot race for much of the season but his 16 goals are now 1 off the lead (taken by the Oakland Roots’ Peter Wilson). Matt Myers is just 1 behind Jennings. They each played 45 minutes against SacRep. Left attacking mid Arturo Rodriguez (who has 6 goals) played about 30 minutes. Regular starter in goal Luis Zamudio (who is among the league leaders in both saves and clean sheets) was rested entirely.
Expect a high-quality opponent tomorrow. Briggs is not under any illusions about that. “I think Louisville and Charleston are streets ahead of everyone. And then you look at Louisville…they’re streets ahead of Charleston…but those are the two benchmarks for everyone in the league.”
Back in early July the two played to a 0-0 draw at Protective. It was a heavily defensive game for the Three Sparks. Charleston had 60.5% possession and outshot the home team 13-7 overall and 5-1 on target. In that game the Legion played a 5-4-1 but a good few members of that lineup will not feature tomorrow. Danny Trejo is gone, of course, Sebastian Tregarthen and Moses Mensah are both injured, Tiago Suarez seems to have fallen out of favor and who knows what the coach will do with Edwin Laszo after last weekend’s failed centerback experiment. Ramiz Hamouda didn’t play in that game and of course will not in this one either. Lastly, Tyler Pasher’s wife is having a baby so he will probably not travel.
On the upside, Phanuel Kavita was rested last week as he recovered from jet lag and will almost certainly start tomorrow. To bolster the back line Suarez may get out of whatever doghouse he is in. We shall see.
Charleston plays almost exclusively in a 4-2-3-1. For the Legion players who’ve been around a while that will be something they are entirely accustomed to and so should make the game just that little bit easier.
As far as what Briggs wants to see, he seemed only moderately optimistic. “[It will] be nice to just have a good performance in a hard place to go. It’s a difficult place to go, obviously, Charleston, but to just see a good performance playing the football that we want to play and effort and energy and just finish on a positive note.
It has been a hard week for the Legion. “I think people are anticipating change and so it’s a difficult week, you know…knowing that there’s nothing to play for and knowing that there’s only one game left. People wondering, ‘What’s next?’ People wondering, ‘Am I going to be here?’ So there had to be a hard conversation this morning about making sure that we carry ourselves the correct way and we represent ourselves in the correct manner.”
As for players being here next year he added, “Myself and Jay [Heaps] are looking for, you know, people that want to be here, people that don’t make excuses, people that are accountable and people who want to be successful for this club.” People, who, quite frankly, the club has been very short of the past two seasons.
Prediction: It is hard to see the Legion getting anything from this game. If they do, it will be against the odds. At best the Three Sparks can hope for a draw. But whatever the result, expect the lineup sheet to get ripped to shreds after tomorrow.
Best of the rest
There is still quite a bit to be played for this week. There is a game tonight but it will only have an impact on one of the teams playing: New Mexico United is locked into 3rd in the West; Rhode Island FC could finish 7th or 8th. Tomorrow’s Decision Day has much to be finalized.
In the East there is only one unclaimed playoff spot with 3 teams vying for it: Detroit City, Indy Eleven and the Tampa Bay Rowdies. But only 2 home playoff positions have been won; 4 teams can win them: Hartford Athletic, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Loudoun United and North Carolina FC.
Over in the West only Lexington SC below the line is still alive but only 4 playoff spots have been grabbed. The top 3 are all set and only 1 home playoff spot remains open. That is currently occupied by El Paso Locomotive but Phoenix Rising could snatch it. The 4 away playoff spots are all wide open and any combination of 6 teams could take them: the 2 just mentioned plus the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, San Antonio FC, Orange County SC and Lexington.
With all that in mind, here are our picks from Saturday’s games:
Louisville City v. Hartford Athletic (6:30pm, CBS Sports Golazo Network). Lou City has already set a PPG record for the USL Championship and will only be motivated to maintain their unbeaten home record. Hartford will be smarting a bit from last week’s loss to Tampa Bay and will need to protect their current 3rd place. This has the hallmarks of a great match.
Tampa Bay Rowdies v. Detroit City (6:30pm, ESPN+). The Rowdies’ late-season resurgence has them almost within reach of the playoffs but they will need a 2-goal winning margin and an Indy draw or loss to get there. Detroit have been dropping down the standings pretty consistently since about mid-season and need at least a point to head off the 2 chasing teams.
Orange County SC v. Indy Eleven (9:00pm, ESPN+). OCSC is clinging to the final playoff spot in the West on tiebreakers and will have to win to have a chance of holding on to it. Indy needs points and help from Tampa Bay to creep above the line. Both have a boatload to play for here and it will be a very competitive game.
Sacramento Republic v. The™ Miami FC (9:00pm, CBS Sports Golazo Network). If the Legion is not going to finish in the Eastern basement, they will need to get a better result than Miami. That’s going to be hard enough in Charleston, and Miami are playing a SacRep team (like the Battery, they are in 2nd place) that has nothing to play for. That could make it very difficult.
