The USL Championship and League One take a week off as the two leagues dive into the third edition of the USL Cup—second for the Championship. As you likely know, the competition has a new sponsor this year, Prinx Tires, which you probably only know from ads on the league website. The company is based in China and produces budget-priced (but well-reviewed) car and truck tires that can apparently be bought at WalMart and some other outlets. German engineers designed the tires and Cooper Tire was part of a joint venture for a while. The US subsidiary is based in California. Still, Jägermeister was a way cooler name.
The most important part
This year’s competition has a similar format to last year, group play followed by three knockout rounds. With 42 teams total, the groups would divide nicely into 7 groups of 6, but with geographic considerations there is one group of 7 and 1 of 5. The 5-team group is all of the Florida teams, The 7-team group is the Upper Midwest. Each team will play 4 group games. The 7 group winners plus one wild card advance to the knockouts. As previously draws will be decided by a shootout, the winner getting an extra point.
The Legion is in Group 3, with the other members being One Knoxville, Chattanooga Red Wolves and Corpus Christi FC from League One and San Antonio FC and FC Tulsa from the Championship. After San Antonio this week, the Legion will play Chattanooga away, then Corpus Christi and Tulsa at home.
With the exception of tomorrow’s game that’s a fairly advantageous schedule. One Knox is currently 2nd in League One, so the strongest team from the lower tier is avoided. Chattanooga is 13th and Corpus Christi (an expansion team this year) is dead last in 17th. Tulsa is 10th in the West with a record on 1-2-3, the only win being over the Las Vegas Lights, and are but a shadow of last year’s finalist team.
So the Legion starts out with the toughest game on the schedule, as does San Antonio. Their other games are at One Knox and Tulsa, and Chattanooga at home. This could decide the group winner.
The game kicks off at 7:30pm (CBS Sports Golazo Network). There will be a watch party at On Tap in Vestavia Hills for those so inclined. It promises to be entertaining. San Antonio sits 2nd in the West on 15 points but that is a little deceptive. They have played 8 league games and also 2 Open Cup games already. In the Cup they beat ASC New Stars, an amateur team from Houston, 6-0 before losing 0-1 to Tulsa, interestingly enough. The league record is 4-1-3. Before beating El Paso Locomotive 3-2 last week they had gone 3 league games without scoring, plus the Open Cup loss. They also had a 0-0 draw with Tulsa (again!) earlier in the season, so they only scored in 4 of 8 league games and 5 of 10 overall.
In those 8 league games they have scored 8 goals and allowed 5, a chunk of the scoring both ways being just this past week. So they don’t score often but are also very stingy in defense. Top scorer on the squad is left winger Jorge Hernandez with 3. Second on the list is, amazingly, center back Alex Crognale, who has 2. His second was scored last week from about 70 yards out, catching El Paso keeper Abraham Romero well off his line.
One player who has not scored is striker Santiago Patiño but that does not mean he is not a constant threat. He needs to be watched at all times.
The defense is evidently the major strength of this team. The preferred formation is a 5-4-1, a tough one to break down. One of the center backs is Crognale of course, another is Tiago Suarez. So two of the three are well-known to the Legion. Also on the back line at right fullback is Akeem Ward, who was with the Legion back in 2019, so 3 of the 5 are at least moderately familiar. Jay Heaps said this: “We know their profile and they’re really good, right? They’re good, good on man-on-man defending and really good in the air. So we’re not gonna beat ’em by size, I’ll tell you that much. We’re gonna have to beat ’em by playing the football that I feel like we can play. Now, we’ve got to play it at a level that breaks down, you know, some good structured defending.”
He went on: “It’s not one way that beats them. You know, it’s not like, hey we gotta, you know, play this way or that way. It’s got to be a lot of what we think we can do well. And once they adapt to that, can we then take advantage of some of our quickness and runs off the ball that might pull their back line out of position.”
Players are not the only area Jay is familiar with. San Antonio head coach Carlos Llamosa was a teammate of his for 4 years at the New England Revolution. He was a center back himself, which explains a lot of the philosophy. He played alongside Jay, so they know each other intimately. He considers Alex Crognale a good friend as well.
I also spoke with Dawson McCartney on his new partnership with Gevork Diarbian on the left wing. “I think as players we get along very well. We’re both like very hard workers, and he loves to get forward. I like to get forward, but he helps me out on the back end as well. I think we just kind of clicked in that sense on the field.” He also explained how Heaps has the wingers inverting to cover the outside backs, create width and break teams down. Credit was also given to Ramiz Hamouda who has freed them up to move upfield more.
Lastly, the injury status has not really changed much. Sam Shashoua is still out; he told me they are taking things intentionally slow with him. That likely means Sam McIllhatton will start again; once both Sams are fully fit there will be some tough decisions to make. Amir Daley may be back; Bofo Saucedo is apparently a bit gimpy.
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:
Chattanooga Red Wolves v. Corpus Christi FC (6:00pm, ESPN+)
A double scouting opportunity to start off the picks. As noted above, neither team is exactly performing in a spectacular fashion. The Legion beat the Red Wolves 3-1 in the USL Cup last year and 4-2 in the Open Cup in 2024 and there have been a few friendlies as well. There is thus something of a history.
Loudoun United v. Charleston Battery (5:00pm, ESPN+)
This is actually earlier than the first pick. It has the potential to be fascinating. Loudoun has slipped to 12th in the East and is one of three winless teams remaining. That makes them seem like a pushover but the Battery seems to have fallen off the cliff. Since dubiously edging the Three Sparks 3-2 they are 1-3-1, including an Open Cup loss to Charlotte Independence. They also lost 0-3 to Brooklyn FC and got waxed 0-4 by Rhode Island FC on Wednesday.
Sporting JAX v. The™ Miami FC (6:30pm, ESPN+)
After this wekend the Legion has a long break again until Thursday, May 7th, when they face Miami at home. Miami started strong but has slipped a bit and is just 3 points above the Three Sparks, so this one is a chance to check them out. JAX, is well, bad.
The™ Miami FC v. FC Naples (Wednesday, 6:00pm, ESPN+)
If one Miami game isn’t enough, well, we get a second one in midweek. Naples is doing well in its sophomore season, leading League One with a 4-1-2 record. Miami, by the way, also plays Brooklyn next weekend so will be nicely tired by the time they get to the real Magic City.
Back in the Old Country
The Blues’ thin playoff hopes came to an end last Saturday as the team played Hull City to a 1-1 draw, coming from behind to get a point. Given that Hull was at the time in a precarious 6th place, the result was hardly a surprise. Even so, the Tigers have fallen to 7th behind Wrexham on goal difference. City followed that up with a midweek 2-1 win over Preston to sit in 10th with 2 games remaining.
The best finish the Blues can achieve is 8th, but that would entail overcoming an 8-goal advantage held by Derby County. Tomorrow’s game (9:00am, no US TV) is at home against Bristol City, who are 12th. The season finale will be next week at Portsmouth.
