After another wild week in the USL Cup, we return to regular league action again, with 11 games to play this weekend and 2 already in the bag. In all, 6 Championship teams dropped points against League One teams last week and will be looking to get back on track this week.
The most important part
Not least of those is Monterey Bay FC, whose difficulties in league play were not exactly offset in the Cup. They did have their best scoring display of the year – by far – with 3 goals. However, they allowed Athletic Club Boise to score 4. Add that to 1 goal against the Oakland Roots in the first round and in 2 Cup games they have scored just 1 goal less than in 9 league games. Across both competitions they have given up 23 goals.
They did get a shootout win against the Roots. Their 2 points in the Cup equal their 2 points in the league. Which makes them the only Championship team without a full win, since Sporting JAX took a 2-0 decision over Sarasota Paradise in the Cup. At least they only have a 4-game losing streak as compared to JAX’s 7.
So we have a team that remains winless and that ships goals at the rate of 2.09 per game and has been shut out completely 4 times (they have never scored more than 1 goal in league play). This seems, then, to be an excellent opportunity for the Legion to break out of its own scoring funk that we discussed earlier today.
One issue with tomorrow’s game is the late kickoff (9:00pm, CBS Sports Golazo Network). That’s a reasonable 7:00pm PDT but combined with the long travel distance (the Three Sparks flew out yesterday) it will definitely be a home-field advantage. The most easterly team Monterey has played at home is FC Tulsa; they lost 1-2. That was one of only 2 goals they have scored at Cardinale Stadium.
They do have two decent goal scorers: Paul Gindiri and Wesley Leggett both have 3 goals (2 in league play). Both are forwards, but Leggett plays right wing if both are on the field. Keep those 2 under wraps and everything should be fine.
Leggett, by the way, is not to be confused with Sebastian Lletget, who signed with the team this season in hopes of adding some high-level experience to the club. He has one goal in 8 appearances and has not been the gamechanger were hoping for.
The biggest problem I see for the Legion is taking this game for granted. This is no time for complacency.
Best of the rest
The late kickoff should allow for checking out a few other games, assuming you are not otherwise occupied for Memorial Day weekend. Here are our recommendations:
The™ Miami FC v. Louisville City (6:00pm, ESPN+)
It’s a ways off yet, but Lou City is the Legion’s next opponent. They have been experiencing a tough time in the league of late, but did hand Union Omaha a 5-1 spanking last week. Miami were the Legion’s last league opponent, and have two poor results since then, losing 1-4 to Tampa Bay Rowdies in the Cup and 1-2 this past Wednesday to Detroit City despite having a man advantage for about 60 minutes.
Tampa Bay Rowdies v. Phoenix Rising (6:30pm, ESPN+)
The Rowdies’ unbeaten season is very much on the line against a very good Phoenix team who have slipped in the Western standings a bit, but entirely because everyone else has played at least one additional game. This is the Game of the Week and should be highly entertaining.
San Antonio FC v. Sacramento Republic (7:30pm, ESPN+)
Most of the good games this week involve Western teams. In this case it’s #1 v. #5 with 2 4-game unbeaten streaks on the line. Not quite as tasty as the Rowdies game, but it’s up there.
New Mexico United v. Charleston Battery (8:00pm, ESPN+)
The Battery are 3 points ahead of the Legion. New Mexico is barely above the playoff line and needs results. Not hard to guess who we’re rooting for here. Also 3 points above the Legion, by the way, are Hartford Athletic (who play at Tulsa tonight) and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds (who are off this week).
Legion in the Lower Leagues
Legion FC 2 and Legion WFC both opened their campaigns last week.
The 2s played to a 1-1 draw at home with East Atlanta, the Legion scorer being Aidan Morrison. Their next game is at Dothan United on Wednesday at 7:00pm. Dothan beat Montgomery United 2-1 coming from behind in their opener, which caused them to drop 7 places in the Power Rankings to 14th. They play East Atlanta away tomorrow, so we will have a good idea of what the 2s will be facing.
The Ws are off to a roaring start. with a full 6 points from their first two games. The season opener was a thorough 2-0 dismantling of the Chattanooga Red Wolves, followed by a 3-2 win over One Knoxville away. That puts them firmly on top of the South Central Division; no one else has more than 1 point. Tatum Borman accounts for 3 of the 5 goals scored, including both against Chattanooga. I’m not sure how the Legion got her to sign; she is from Kentucky and signed with the Florida Gators this year and was ranked #20 in the freshmen rankings last season while at Mississippi State. The other two goals were by Taylor Leib (Briarwood, Clemson) and Annie McBride (Homewood, Samford). They play away tomorrow (6:30pm) at Swarm FC, who drew 0-0 with Asheville City. That was something of a shock result, and knocked Asheville out of the top ten in the Rankings.
