It feels weird to be previewing a home game that few of us will be able to attend, or even, come to that, watch live, but here we are. Education Day is upon us again and after the debacle of last year I am surprised we are getting a repeat. yes, it’s great for the kids but they only get to see maybe 60 minutes before the school buses have to leave for their regular routes, and the teams are essentially playing to an empty stadium. A gigantic one at that.
Tomorrow, then, the Legion meets Brooklyn FC (11:00am, ESPN+) for the very first time. It should be the second time but the game up in New York had to be called because weather in Birmingham fouled up the flight schedule. That game will now be played October 21st, also a Wednesday. Both games are absolute must-wins. As if any of the remaining games are not. 4 of the 6 games left are against teams below the Legion in the Eastern standings. That’s 12 of the maximum 18 points the Three Sparks have available. The other games are the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and Detroit City on the road, both of which are winnable but a much tougher ask.
So the immediate task is beating Brooklyn. Although they are 2 points behind the Legion they actually have 1 more win. 3 of their 4 wins were at home. They beat Indy Eleven in their first ever game, 1-0, and also the Charleston Battery a few weeks later by an impressive 3-0 score. The away win was over Pittsburgh, 2-0 on Independence Day and the most recent home win was 4-1 over Sporting JAX 5 games back. Except for JAX, all of those teams beat them in the return fixture, mostly by wide margins. Even the JAX game was 2-2.
Indeed, when they lose, they lose big. They are tied for last in the Championship in scoring with 25 goals and second-worst behind JAX for goals allowed with 45.
The leading scorer is Markus Anderson on 6. That is in fact very good news because he was on loan from the Philadelphia Union and has since been sent to Lyngby in Denmark. Next best is Stefan Stojanovic, who is on 4 goals. They have 3 players on 3 goals, the most recognizable of whom is Juan Carlos Obregón. A former Legionary is also on the scoring books: Jaden Servania has 1 goal.
They have used 3 goalkeepers, mostly Jackson Lee and Lukas Burns, who have 11 starts apiece. They appear to trade off starts, so it is difficult to state who will be in goal tomorrow. Burns started the last 2 games and has given up 23 goals.
The formation is typically a 4-2-3-1, although they also recently used a 4-4-2. That did not work out too well; it was a 1-1 draw with The Miami FC in which their only goal was an own goal and Stojanovic missed a PK. Their last 2 games (and they are coming off a double-game week just as the Legion is) were baffling: they got pasted 4-0 by Indy in that team’s best win of the season last Tuesday. Then on Saturday they drew 2-2 with FC Tulsa. That alone is somewhat impressive but in order to get the draw they had to play down a man after 17 minutes and a 2-goal deficit by half-time. They clawed one back and were gifted a ridiculous PK in the 90th minute. Still, they showed similar toughness as the Legion did a week ago against New Mexico United.
That red card was given for some dumb violent conduct by Gabriel Alves, another former Legionary, who obviously will not be making the trip. Brooklyn has one more Birmingham alum, Thomas Vancaeyezeele. None of the threesome will feature tomorrow; we are in an international break and both Servania and Vancaeyezeele have been called up.
In a truly bizarre coincidence, that was not the only red card issued to Brooklyn in the game. 2 minutes after Alves was sent to the showers, Marlon LeBlanc was also booted from the game. And yes, you are correct, he is Brooklyn’s head coach. So neither head coach will be on the sideline tomorrow. Jay Heaps is not the most critical absentee, though. Like Brooklyn, the Legion has been hit by international callups. A.J. Paterson, Amir Daley, Kadeem Cole and Phanuel Kavita will all be with their respective countries. And all of them are defenders. Yikes.
Beyond that, Saturday’s 0-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rowdies was kinda-sorta expected. The team was clearly tired despite the rotation and may well have been looking ahead to this midweek game and finally a rest as the team is off this weekend in a very lucky piece of timing. Of the 4 callups in the Rowdies game, Phanny was not in the 18 and Amir did not play. Cole went the full 90 and A.J. played 45. Bryce Washington wasn’t in the 18 either and hopefully he is available tomorrow. Hamady Diop played only 45 minutes in place of A.J. and should be good to go, thankfully. Most importantly, the team needs to reclaim the confidence boost they got in the New Mexico game.
