Last week was tough. A loss and a draw from which the Three Sparks should probably have taken 6 points rather than just 1 despite a short break. Mark Briggs is still working to get his team in sync with his aims. This week’s game is another difficult assignment.
The most important part
At least two USL pundits this week have noted that Miami has earned back the The in its name. I’m pretty sure neither of them are fans of late 70’s British post-punk new wave bands so the copyright infringement is understandable. Anyway, The™ Miami of 2025 is absolutely not the pushover of the past couple of seasons.
Miami’s history goes all the way back to 2016 so this is their tenth year as an active club. They’ve also played in 4 separate leagues over that time, the others being the NASL, NPSL and NISA. The team was the NPSL champion in 2018 and 2019 and the 2019 fall champion in NISA before snagging the Ottawa Fury’s franchise rights in the USL Championship where they have played since 2020.
Their best USL seasons to date were 2021 and 2022 in which they reached the Conference Quarterfinals. They did not make the playoffs in any other season and finished dead last in the East in 2024. They have also had 8 different head coaches over those ten years, including a couple of very recognizable names in Allesandro Nesta and Paul Dalglish. The current head coach is Argentinian Gaston Maddoni and he appears to have the team working well…
Miami started the season with a 4-game losing streak and appeared to be repeating 2024. However, the team has made a dramatic turnaround and has not lost in the last four games. They are currently 7th in the East. They also won a wild Jäger Cup game on penalties against the Tampa Bay Rowdies after going down 0-3 in the first half. The 3 wins to date were all 2-1 and were over San Antonio, North Carolina FC and, most recently and most impressively, Loudoun United. They also drew with Monterey Bay FC 1-1.
So Miami appears to be on a roll. They are not without attacking threats. Maddoni – whose history is largely in youth coaching and scouting – picked up Argentinian Francisco Bonfiglio. Bonfiglio is 23 and had not really shown a great deal in stints in Spain and Argentina. But he has 5 goals in league play this year and 3 more in the Open Cup (including 1 against Inter Miami). That’s 8 goals in 11 games this year, double his previous total (none of which was in senior teams). He is tied for 5th in league play despite Miami only having played 8 games. A hidden talent, apparently.
Overall, Miami has 10 Argentinians on the roster; they have 9 Americans. 8 more are from various other countries. One of the Argentinians is midfielder Sebastian Blanco, the Portland Timbers legend, who returned to the US this year after a season back in Argentina. A third is Deian Veron, also a midfielder. All three were noted by Mark Briggs as potential threats tomorrow.
The best-known name among the Americans is goalkeeper Bill Hamid. He is at the back end of his career and has been more focussed on coaching of late, especially after a hand operation sidelined him for a lengthy spell a couple of years ago. Even so, he will hard to get past. He signed with Miami this season, partly because his younger sister Jasmin is playing for Fort Lauderdale United in the USL Super League (where she has been a standout).
As far as a formation is concerned, over the 5 games since the losing streak ended they have used a 4-4-2, a 3-4-3 and a 4-2-3-1, so hard to predict. The win over Loudoun was in a 4-4-2. That game was largely a midfield battle with neither team getting much penetration into the final third. However, despite having less than 40% possession Miami outshot Loudoun 9-6 overall and 5-3 on target. 6 of the 9 were from inside the 18.
Mark Briggs noted a couple of issues this game will present: “It’s going to be a difficult game, humidity, not really any fans in the stadium.” That last is only a little snarky. Miami averaged just over 1,00 per game last season and is not doing a great deal better this season. Pitbull Stadium (the home of FIU football) has a 23,500 capacity and is much more open than Protective. It will feel empty.
Earlier this week in the USL All-Access show (on Sirius XM FC Tuesday evenings and posted to YouTube on Wednesdays) Mike Watts opined that the Legion has more of a defensive identity than an offensive identity. I found that dubious and asked Briggs about it. “I think people say that when they see 4-1-4-1. If you go back and watch the Tampa game I think we created more than they did. The Rhode Island game we were horrendous, so we didn’t do anything. I wouldn’t say we have a defensive identity or an attacking identity based on that game. But you look at the game on Sunday…in the second half we were a lot more offensive than we were defensive…Everyone has an opinion on my decisions, how the team looks. I don’t agree necessarily with that opinion but what I do agree with is we do have to instill a defensive identity.”
Part of the changing defensive identity last Sunday was Tiago Suarez at centerback. He played the entire game after a late decision to bench Ramiz Hamouda. He had played 2 full games earlier in the season but both were at right back. Tiago had in fact played for Mark Briggs at Sacramento Republic back in 2022 when he was still just 16 (he turned 20 late last month). I asked him about getting to play for him again. “I hadn’t seem the guy in about a year…obviously, I was really excited to see him come…A big thing that I really like and love about Mark is that he gave me an opportunity. Sw me when no one else did. I saw my potential and I’m really excited to be under him once again.”
I’ve noted that the Legion now has music playing during practice. The giant boom box they use is in fact Tiago’s so he is the designated DJ. “We would always play music [at Sacramento] but I was a 16-year-old at the time, so I was never getting the music. But now I have this speaker and some of the guys sometimes are playing music but most of the time it is me.” A weighty responsibility indeed.
There is one more issue that will affect this game. The USL CBA doesn’t strictly require it but does propose a mental health break during the season. This was enacted this week so that teams were limited in training. The Legion did not practice Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. They practiced Thursday. Today is a travel day but they will get to practice at Pitbull this afternoon. Miami will be in a similar situation, of course, but also had an extra day’s rest, having played Saturday (and at home).
Prediction: This is a tricky one. Both teams are improving but Miami seems to be further along than the Legion. Even so, this needs to be a message game for the Three Sparks. I think they will pull out all the stops and get the win.
Best of the rest
In combination with the mental health break, there are only 9 games this weekend involving Championship clubs. One of those is a Jägermeister Cup game against a League One club, so only 17 Championship teams are in action this week. That makes viewing selections pretty limited and all games are on Saturday. However, here’s what to watch for:
One Knoxville v. Indy Eleven (6:00pm, ESPN+)
This is the Jäger Cup game. The most important part of this is that Indy is the Legion’s next opponent (after an 11-day break). The Eleven is also tied on points with the Three Sparks although with a game in hand. They have not won since the season opener (against Miami, in fact) and are struggling. One Knox is 4th in League One but has only 1 point from its last 3 games.
Detroit City v. Charleston Battery (3:00pm, ESPN+)
The top team in the league against the 5th place team in the East. And that team should have lost to the Legion last week. Still, this is an obvious pick for what should be a great matchup. Can Detroit end the Battery’s 6-game win streak?
Rhode Island FC v. Pittsburgh Riverhounds (3:00pm, ESPN+)
With a win, the Legion can jump past Miami, Indy and Pittsburgh into 7th so long as the Riverhounds don’t also win. The best result here is of course a draw (a Rhody specialty). Pittsburgh will be smarting from their 1-4 Open Cup defeat by the Philadelphia Union, so anything can happen.
Lexington SC v. Tampa Bay Rowdies (6:00pm, ESPN+)
Kicking off at the same time as the Legion game but one to keep an eye on, especially for the perversely-mined among you. The bottom team in each conference (and how often can we say that about the Rowdies?). Someone has to win. Well, no, but both need to win. Chances are they will both find a way to lose.
Monterey Bay FC v. Louisville City (9:00pm, ESPN+)
Monterey Bay started out the season looking good but are just 0-2-3 in the last five games. Lou City is coming off surprise draws with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and Hartford Athletic in which they scored just once. Can the Californians keep City in check?
