Last Sunday a bad refereeing decision finally did not rob the Legion of points and the team broke into the win column, holding off the Pittsburgh Riverhounds for the first time since 2022 in the 1-0 victory. It was a titanic display by a depleted back line and a short-handed squad overall. This weekend’s game will be quite different; the opponent has a very unique style…
The most important part
Indy Eleven are currently 7th in the East on 8 points. The Legion is 11th per the league website, but for the second straight week the standings ignore the tiebreaker system; the Three Sparks should be 10th. The gap between the two teams is 3 points, so a win would mean the Legion goes ahead of Indy and possibly Pittsburgh, depending on the result of the Hounds game with Detroit City. And above the playoff line.
The game (Sunday, 4:00pm, ESPN+) will be marked by a lot of possession by Birmingham. Over 5 games to date, the Eleven has averaged just 35.8% possession. The highest Indy possession of the season was just 43.1% in week 1. They lost that game 0-1 to Brooklyn. The lowest possession was 28.8% in a 2-1 win over Detroit.
But here’s the deal: the Eleven are tied for 5th in goals scored. They are 9th in shots attempted. That works out to a shot about every two and a half minutes of possession. In other words, they are very dangerous in transition. However, their conversion rate is not overly great. Their 15% is 12th overall and not a great deal better than the Legion’s 13% in 15th. Additionally, despite ceding so much of the ball, they have allowed just 6 goals, the same as the Legion (the Three Sparks are close to 50% in average possession).
3 of those 8 goals were scored last week. That sounds like a very positive development, except that they did at home against Monterey Bay, who are…well, they are bottom of the Forge Power Rankings and let’s leave it at that.
Jay Heaps is fully aware of this. “I call them a team that’s very attacking-dynamic. They’re dynamic and their attack is like, they’re gone. They got speed. They got size. They got some decent quality on the ball so they can really hurt ya. And so we’ve got to be very mindful of what that looks like in transition.”
He also noted that they don’t rely on long balls exclusively. They do use them but are also very good in the channels. Speed is the overarching feature of the Eleven philosophy. The top scoring threat on the team is Bruno Rendon. The Cuban is in his second year with the Elven and has 3 goals to his credit in 2026. “Rendon’s dangerous. He’s…a wide and forward right, like he plays as a right wing but he can be anywhere on the field. He really lingers behind the play looking for the opportunity to break.”
Another player to watch out for is Aodhan Quinn. Quinn, at 34, is a long-time USL Championship stalwart and a very canny player. He starts at left back and tends to control the play. The leader in assists is Cam Lindley with 2 despite playing from a defensive midfield position.. He’s another player with extensive USLC experience.
The standard Indy formation is 4-1-4-1. That’s a defensive setup and directly reflective of the playing style. The only time they strayed from that was in the week 1 loss, when they played a 4-3-2-1 pyramid to poor effect.
As for the Legion, the team is slowly recovering from the injury bug. Bryce Washington should be available, although Amir Daley may not be. Keegan Hughes should also be back from his brief trip back to New England and Nico Brown is likely over whatever illness he was suffering.
After this game league play takes a break for the Prinx Tires USL Cup next week so this represents a great opportunity to solidify the team’s improvement over the past few weeks.
Best of the rest
The Legion game is again the only one being played Sunday. The other 9 games on the schedule are all Saturday. That also means there are 5 teams with a bye this week, namely Sacramento Republic, New Mexico United, Las Vegas Lights, Rhode Island FC and Brooklyn FC. SacRep and Rhody both went to a shootout in the Open Cup on Tuesday so a weekend off is a welcome break for them, the Californians especially, who ended up going 12 rounds before losing to Minnesota United. Here are our recommendations from a wide open slate:
Charleston Battery v. Tampa Bay Rowdies (2:00pm, CBS Sports Network)
The Battery were embarrassed 0-3 by Brooklyn last time out after knocking off Louisville City 2-0. That is the very definition of inconsistency. The Rowdies for their part saw their perfect season end with a 2-2 draw with the Oakland Roots. Thus both sides are smarting and will want to get back on the right foot. This one should be a doozy.
The™ Miami FC v. Phoenix Rising (6:00pm, ESPN+)
Not usually a game we would select, but Miami have been one of this season’s early surprises. Their only loss was in Week 1 to Louisville. Since then they have put up respectable although perhaps not superlative showings. Which is a big upgrade for them. Phoenix has been a little slow out of the gate but put it to New Mexico 3-0 last week, an upwards gradient for them as well.
El Paso Locomotive v. San Antonio FC (8:00pm, ESPN+)
There are several reasons to watch this one. First, the Locomotive have been excellent this year and lead our Power Rankings. They score almost at will and are entertaining to watch. San Antonio, in comparison, has been less than spectacular of late, having failed to score in all 4 games in April. They are next week’s opponent for the Legion in the USL Cup, which provides some local interest.
Orange County SC v. Lexington SC (9:00pm, ESPN+)
The OC is another team that has been performing very well in 2026. They are first in the West but only by virtue of having played 7 games, 1 more than everyone else except Sacramento. They will be wanting to hold off El Paso and Lexington may be just the opponent they need to do that. Lex is struggling mightily and the long travel distance will not help.
Back in the Old Country
Goals by Carlos Vicente and Christoph Klarer ended a 3-game losing streak as the Blues defeated promotion hopefuls Wrexham 2-0 last Sunday, a rare day that saw Birmingham victories on both sides of the Atlantic. The win puts City on 56 points in 15th place. They are 12 points out of the playoffs with 4 games remaining, a nearly impossible task. 4 wins plus a lot of help elsewhere.
Tomorrow’s road game against Hull City (9:00am, Paramount+) is the first hurdle and will be a tough one. Hull occupies that final playoff spot and will be entirely aware of the stakes. Worse, the reverse fixture, a 2-3 loss for the Blues, involved an on-field melee, a red card and accusations of xenophobic comments by stadium staff. It was ugly and tempers could be equally short this time around.
Talking of ugly incidents, the Blues will also likely be without Marvin Ducksch for the second straight game. Ducksch, who has been a major bright spot in an otherwise dismal campaign, was arrested Easter Monday after a 3-car collision in which he was charged with drunk driving.
The Birmingham City Ladies are, however, having a very good year. They currently sit atop the Women’s Super League 2 (yes, the USL copied that naming system too) standings with 2 games remaining. They are tied on points with 2nd-place Charlton Athletic but have a gaudy +23 goal difference, 12 better than Charlton’s. Promotion to the top-tier WSL this season is automatic for the top 2 teams and the 3rd-place team enters a playoff with the bottom team in the WSL (which is being expanded by 2 teams this year). The Blues are 3 points clear of Crystal Palace who are in that position. The two games left are against Ipswich Town (11th of 12) a week from Sunday and at Charlton the Saturday following that. The season finale has the potential to be huge.
