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Mirror balls usually hang from the ceiling. Protective Stadium doesn’t have a roof, so the mirror ball was on the field. Consider these coincidences:
- Before this past Wednesday, both the Legion and Brooklyn FC had played 3 games between September 12th and 19th.
- In those games, both teams managed 2 draws and a loss.
- The loss for both teams was by a 0-4 scoreline.
- Both teams had been beaten in a shutout by the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the previous 4 games.
- Both head coaches were red-carded in the previous game.
- Both teams had multiple absences: 4 for the Legion and 2 for Brooklyn due to the international break. Brooklyn were also missing a player due to a red card.
A bizarre confluence of circumstances. But add to all of that the early kickoff and you had all the makings of a game played at a snail’s pace. As it turned out, not so.
By necessity, there was significant squad rotation for both teams. For Brooklyn, of the players who featured in the 2-2 draw with FC Tulsa at the weekend, 7 starters and 4 bench players started. Of the bench players, one did not play against Tulsa at all. They used 5 subs, including 1 player who started at Tulsa, 1 who subbed on and 3 who did not play.
For the Legion, only 6 starters from the Tampa Bay loss started along with all 5 subs who played in Tampa. Those 5 are regular starters in their own right though. The Three Sparks only used 4 subs; 3 of them started in Tampa and 1 was unused. That last was Sebastian Saucedo, who ended up making a big contribution. The other 3 subs named to the bench for the game were Trevor McMullen, naturally enough, along with Jaylen Lester and Jonathan Hernandez, who were signed to academy contracts just over a month ago. None of the three were really expected to play.
However, Tyler Pasher getting hurt and having to leave the game in the first half limited Eric Avila’s bench options even further. This was going to be Ironman soccer (which, frankly, it should always be in Birmingham). In fact, he did not make any strategic substitutions until the 67th minute and the final one in the 82nd.
In fact, excluding Pasher and taking into account 10 minutes of total stoppage time, the starters averaged 93.4 minutes on the field. At midday.
Of them, Jassem Koleilat was the least active, thankfully. He made just 2 saves and 28 passes. The first save wasn’t until about 6 minutes into the second half. After that he wasn’t challenged again until just before stoppage time. All told, he was fairly rested.
The rest of the team, though…they came out of the gate running hell for leather. The Legion only recorded an official 5 shots in the first half despite a serious high press. The 5 shots do not include the goal off Peter-Lee Vassell’s free kick; that was ruled an own goal by Vuk Latinovich. It was probably on its way in anyway, so in truth 6 shots. Even so, that is a fairly low number given that the Legion had a good 60% of the possession in the first half. The Three Sparks did generate 16 touches in the attacking box in the half, a very creditable number. They also dumped 11 crosses into the box, only one reaching a target.
The second half was an exercise in contrasts. Although the Legion continued to press mercilessly, they allowed Brooklyn more possession, ending the game with 55,5% of the ball. They also opted largely for route one. There were only 2 crosses in the second half; one was a short corner and neither occurred until the 90th minute. The shot total was 9, however. 6 were inside the box and 7 were from angles directly in front of goal. Touches in the box were 15, barely less than the first half.
The Legion earned 3 goals on xG of 3.55 (again, that excludes the own goal). Since a PK gets an xG close to 1.00, that’s pretty good. They missed on 2 big chances; Brooklyn missed on 1, and had an xG of 1.01 for the game.
The team’s stats got a much-needed boost. The 36 goals scored are now 8th in the league and the 16% shot conversion rate is 7th. The 42 goals conceded remain 6th, though. It is of course rather late in the season to be making such improvements but at least the Legion is proving to itself that it can compete.
Back-to-back home games with 4 goals scored is good, especially given that one of those games was against New Mexico United, an elite team in this league. The two games were strange given the location of the first and the timing of the second. But therein lies a factor common to both that does not in any way show up in the statistics. That is, the 12th man.
Or rather, the 12th kid.
It is no secret that the Legion makes a very big deal out of its relationship with the fan base and in particular with its youngest fans. There is absolutely no question that the proximity of the fans—of all ages but most certainly the kids among them—was key to the monumental comeback against New Mexico. And of course against Brooklyn virtually the entire attendance was of school age. The players were uniformly adamant that the closeness of the fans at Dunnavant Valley made a massive difference and that was most true of the kids. It was also clear that they were not going to let their youth fan base down in the Brooklyn game. That is a connection to the community that is difficult to build and maintain and indeed it has suffered over the past few years. These two games have done much to initiate a reversal of that decline.
For that reason it is a shame that the Legion has just one more home game this season. Even if the team manages to squeak its way into the playoffs, the home spots are out of reach so extending the season won’t help on that front. Moreover, unless the game is moved to Dunnavant Valley that final home game is scheduled for 4:00pm on a Sunday (the Blazers play Thursday evening and the BJCC’s ridiculous rules about switching the field prohibit a Saturday game). That is not exactly the best time to get kids out to a game in Birmingham.
As if we need any more reasons for…well, you know.
