The Legion had a golden opportunity this past week to get its first win streak of the season. The Three Sparks had not managed to follow a win with another win all year; playing two teams similarly out of the playoffs (and a third on Wednesday) seemed like it might finally happen.
As it turned out, once again it did not come to pass. Although the Legion came away with 2 clean sheets they only scored one goal across the two games. Particularly annoying was the failure to get a win in the home finale. That being said, the 0- 0 draw with Loudoun United on Sunday was probably the better performance of the two games. The 1-0 win over Sporting JAX should have been a much wider margin and of the two Loudoun is clearly the stronger opponent.
We did, however, get to see in both games a style of play the Legion has not really shown most of the year. Namely, a high press. In fact, we have hardly ever seen that from the Three Sparks, a build-from-the-back approach being generally favored. That, to my mind, makes little sense as the team’s preferred formation, the 4-2-3-1, really lends itself to that strategy.
The way the team played the high press was remarkably consistent across the two games. Consider this:
This shows the starters’ average positions in the two games. Against JAX the Legion is black; against Loudoun gold. In every case where there is overlap it’s the same player. It is even true for Gevork Diarbian (#19) who switched to the right wing in the Loudoun for a part of the second half. Note also that almost every field player is somewhat further forward against Loudoun, the exceptions being AJ Paterson (#20, who of course scored against JAX) and Peter-Lee Vassell (#16). Had the JAX game been completed at the first attempt, that may not have been the case; the Legion was pressing so hard that until late in the first half Ronaldo Damus was averaging inside the JAX penalty area. But for both games only Jassem Koleilat remained in the defensive third.
The tactic resulted in high numbers for touches in the opposition box. In Jacksonville that was 30, not a staggering number but well up on the team’s normal production. Against Loudoun however it was a whopping 43; I haven’t checked but am almost certain that is the best all season. In contrast JAX and Loudoun were limited to 23 and 19 respectively. LDN 16 JAX 8.
Getting that deep also allowed the Three Sparks to pile in crosses, against Loudoun at least. Against JAX they managed just 10 total but at Dunnavant Valley an impressive 26, although only 6 found a target.
That allowed for large numbers of scoring chances: 8 against JAX and 16 against Loudoun. This further translated into 14 shots against JAX, of which 7 were on target and a massive 10 inside the box. 18 shots against Loudoun, but only 3 on target. Again, 10 inside the box.
These are numbers we are simply not used to seeing from the Legion, and they are all very good. Add to that the xGs for the two games: 1.75 and 1.96. The problem is that all of these numbers did not translate into actual goals. That has been a problem all season. The team’s cumulative xG this year is 49.30. That is seventh best in the entire league. It averages to 1.76 per game, so the high press did not really produce materially better results.
But that is not in fact unusual. If you focus exclusively on the high press you create a problem for yourself: the defense is almost always compressed. Basically, you are forcing the other team to play a low block defense. Some teams thrive on that; Indy Eleven is a prime example (although this year they may not get a playoff out of it). It creates a high likelihood of blocked shots (6 against JAX and 7 against Loudoun) and can actually take pressure off the keeper.
The solution is to draw the opponent out and then press. In fact the Legion has for the last two years been trying to play mostly a transitional game, and it definitely has the speed on the wings to do that. Not quite so much up the middle, admittedly, but if you can cross the ball well that’s not necessarily a problem. You do however want a good distributor in the middle, which the Three Sparks have notably been lacking for far too long. Sam Shashoua is beginning to fill that hole very well. He joined the Legion on a loan from Minnesota United in July 2025 but spent a fair amount of time injured and did not really get much of a chance to show his chops. Now a permanent member of the squad on a free transfer he has developed into a regular starter (he has missed 8 games total this season).
So, transition, distribute, press. Get those working together and you should see much better goal production.
There is good news at the other end of the field. Since the 0-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the Legion has conceded just 1 goal in 4 games and that was a PK (a slightly questionable one at that and Jass got very close to it as well). The cumulative xGA for those 4 games was 4.05 (a PK is worth almost 1 by itself). Nothing from crosses, nothing from set pieces and no late giveaways. That doesn’t mean I didn’t get nervous every time Loudoun got deep or won a corner or free kick; it’s hard to shake a season-long worry. But none of the teams were able to do to the Legion what everyone else has regularly managed to do all year. The Legion defense has tightened up despite being a list of the walking wounded and having players out on a ridiculously long international break. Why it took so long to get to this state is a head-scratcher but better late than never.
So if I were to give the team a grade on these two games (and I have not been giving individual player grades for a while, largely because they really would not have been good), it would likely be a C+. Which is to say, a passing grade but it needs to be much better. And it has to be. With two games remaining in 2026 there is one last chance to get a win streak (if two games can really count as a streak) and they are against teams the Legion has already beaten this season. And for the players it’s 180 minutes to prove their worth for 2027.
