It pretty much sums up the 2026 Legion season that they play 3 games over just 7 days to finish it. Add in the Sporting JAX game from Wednesday and that’s 4 games in 11 days. No one else in the Championship has that concentrated a final schedule, although both Louisville City and Brooklyn FC have 3 games remaining (but they both play Saturday this week, not Sunday, so not quite as tight). Weather sucks.
The most important part
It’s also telling that the Legion still does not have a win streak this season. Interestingly, the last 2 games will be on the road against teams the Three Sparks did beat at home. Add in Sunday’s opponent, Loudoun United, and the Legion has not lost to any of the final 3 opponents. Thus an actual win streak is in fact a possibility. Not to get hopes up, but the Legion could end up just 1 point out of the playoffs. Which would itself be a kick in the gut considering how some of the points were lost along the way. Ah well.
Anyway, Sunday’s game (4:00pm, ESPN+) should be a good ending to the home season. The game will be played at Dunnavant Valley and will be preceded by a season ticket holder tailgate catered by Walk-On’s with appearances by coaches and players. There will also be free mystery merch for early birds. The team is moreover teasing a major announcement prior to the game. I have a few ideas as to what that might be but they are all speculative and based on no actual data. It does strongly suggest at least that new Club President Jonathan Nelson also be on hand. If so, he had better be prepared for some questions!
As to the earlier result against Louduon, it was 2-2 way back on April 4th. In that game the Three Sparks gave up a lead twice, once in each half. In the first half the tying goal was off a corner, no shocker there. In the second half a dubious penalty was awarded on a free kick, one of several questionable decisions that wrecked the Legion’s early season. Otherwise the game was pretty evenly played.
As do the Legion, Loudoun come into this game on short rest. Last Saturday they beat The Miami FC 2-0 on 2 late goals, putting the hosts’ playoff chances at risk (see below). They then played again on the road, going all the way up the East Coast to Rhode Island, where they lost 0-1. Rhnody scored on a ridiculous wormburner that absolutely should have been stopped less than 2½ minutes into the game and proceeded to utterly dominate the rest of the game, even after their left wing Yutaro Tsukada was sent off in the 78th minute.
It should also be noted that the Legion did not stay in Jacksonville after the abandoned game; they returned home and then back to Jacksonville for the replayed game. It’s up in the air as to who had the most travel this past week. Further, the Legion will look a little different than they did up in Virginia. As has been the case all season, the back line is a huge question mark. Ramiz Hamouda and Keegan Hughes both started that first game and are since gone. Amir Daley also started. He has not played in the past 4 games although he was on the bench in Jacksonville. AJ Paterson was still on the injury list back then and after scoring Wednesday may well be back on it. Hasmady Diop started on Saturday but was subbed off very early and did not make the return trip. Thus the Legion defense is extremely short-handed once again.
Finally, Loudoun is currently 1 point ahead of the Legion and have one game remaining. That will be against Brooklyn right after they play the Legion in midweek.
Best of the rest
There are now just 4 playoff spots unclaimed, 1 in the East and 3 in the West. The East is down to just Miami and Indy Eleven; 6 teams in the West are fighting for those spots.
The East race is going to be interesting. Miami is 2 points up on Indy but has just 1 game remaining; they host the Charleston Battery tomorrow. Indy has 2 games left, both on the road: at Louisville City and the very same Charleston. A points tie is possible; Miami has the tiebreak advantage (they have 2 more conference wins than Indy). Beyond that, only the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Detroit City have locked up home playoff spots; everything else is up for grabs.
The West is simply a mess. As in the East, 2 home playoff spots have been secured (El Paso Locomotive and New Mexico United) but the rest of it is totally up in the air. All teams in the West have 2 games remaining; 6 points separate 3rd from 8th and even 10th is only another 3 points back. It will be a dogfight. There is also a potentially massive final game coming up next week as the top 2 teams, just 1 point apart, play to close the regular season.
Lots of games with major implications, then; other than the Legion game all games are on Saturday.
Louisville City v. Indy Eleven (6:00pm, CBS Sports Golazo Network)
We’ve already noted the implications for Indy. Lou City has seen a late-season bounce and is chasing a home playoff spot. Like the Legion, they have 3 games remaining so it’s well within reach. They are currently only 1 point out of 4th place and 7 out of 3rd. Another wrinkle: if Indy gets only 1 point from their last 2 games the Legion can pass them into 9th. Small consolation but, hey, you grab what you can at this stage.
The Miami FC v. Charleston Battery (6:00pm, ESPN+)
As much as we have ragged on Miami over the years, it is in fact good to see them performing reasonably well. They have not qualified for the playoffs since 2022. They made it a bit tougher on themselves by losing 0-2 to Loudon last week; even with a win they need Indy to drop points. The Battery are 3 points back of Detroit for 2nd in the East so will also be motivated to get all 3 points.
San Antonio FC v. New Mexico United (7:30pm, ESPN+)
Aside from setting up that big season-ending clash, the hosts have major implications here. They sit in 8th in the West, just 3 points clear of the playoff line. 3 teams are in striking distance and they are in danger of missing the playoffs for the second time in 3 seasons. And like that top two clash next week, they face Orange County to end the season, with the teams currently holding the last 2 playoff spots. Worse, they are on a 6-game winless streak.
Orange County SC v. Phoenix Rising (9:00pm, CBS Sports Golazo Network)
As for the OC, they have to get past this one first. They are above San Antonio only on tiebreakers and Phoenix is the team closest to both of them (ahead of the Las Vegas Lights on tiebreakers themselves). This, then, is a playoff-line straddler. Neither team has excelled this year; the Rising have struggled consistently and the OC has slumped big time since an early season surge.
Back in the Old Country
It has been a good week for the Blues. Last Saturday they beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0 on a 41st-minute August Priske penalty. The close-fought game pushed City ahead of the hosts on goal difference. Then on Tuesday they played Preston North End. Preston are dead last in the Championship with just 4 points from 10 games. New boy Liam Millar opened the scoring in the 34th minute and Priske added twice to his scoring account in first-half stoppage time. Then Preston went down to ten men and Demarai Gray, coming off an injury, finished the game with a worldie and the final score was a comfortable 4-0. Priske now leads the team in scoring with 4 goals.
That propelled the Blues into 3rd in the table. Temporarily anyway, as West Ham visited Lincoln City Wednesday and found themselves two men up after just 23 minutes and proceeded to rack up a 6-0 result. Birmingham dropped back down to 4th from that. The Hammers, by the way, have 2 6-0 victories on the season already, having done the same to Wrexham just over a month ago. Their +17 goal difference is best in the league by 8 goals.
Next up for the Blues is another big game against Queen’s Park Rangers (Saturday, 9:00am, no US TV). QPR are 5th and have an identical record and GD, so this one is key.
The Ladies are back in action tomorrow after a week off. They head to Arsenal (6:45am, Paramount+). Arsenal are a surprising 10th, so this could be a chance to get the first win of the season.
