We already expressed our thoughts on Dunnavant Valley as a venue; now we get to take a look at the actual games.
There were similarities: first, in both games the Three Sparks scored early, but quickly gave up the lead and then fell behind and then came back to get the draw. That’s the most obvious one. And frankly, that’s a huge recurring theme in this season. The Legion has dropped 26 points this year after holding a lead. Earning those points would put the team 2nd in the Eastern Conference and 2 points behind the Tampa Bay Rowdies with a game in hand. In the West it would mean 1st with a 3-point lead and a game in hand. Against the Charleston Battery the Legion did it twice and the first time was a 2-goal lead. Frustrating, to say the least.
A second similarity—and an important if late-developing one—is that the Legion did not give up any goals off crosses or set pieces. That has been the team’s Achilles Heel all year. But they did it in entirely different ways in the two games. Take a look at this:
On the left are the Battery’s crosses. New Mexico United’s are on the right. That’s a staggering contrast. Charleston had 21 crosses. 4 were successful, although one of those was a very short corner. They had 6 corners total, with 2 finding a target. But the Legion were able to snuff out any danger from all of them. The 2 goals came off a horrible back pass by Tyler Pasher and the second straight down the middle. New Mexico were limited to just 4 crossing situations, 2 in open play and 2 free kicks. All of them were in the second half. The Legion did not give up a corner all game.
Both of those are positive developments. Preventing crossing situations from developing is obviously good, but handling them when they do is also good. The Legion back line racked up some massive numbers against Charleston: the 4 starters and 2 subs recorded 21 clearances, 3 blocked shots and 10 interceptions. The numbers against New Mexico are ridiculous in comparison: 3 clearances, 1 block and 3 interceptions.
But you don’t get to record numbers at the back if the opponent is kept out of the defensive third. Yes, New Mexico scored twice as many goals but that is because the Legion was playing a much more aggressive game than against Charleston. They scored initially off an unfortunate deflection by Seth Antwi and then mostly in transition. The Battery scored from an error and a long-range banger that no one could have prevented. But Charleston had 21 touches in the Legion box whereas New Mexico were limited to 14. Oddly, both teams managed 8 shots inside the box, though.
So, one big defensive problem at least appears to have been fixed. Others remain, of course, and frankly, it’s getting rather late to fix them. However, if I were to point out one reason why that problem has been handled (and potentially the others will be as well), it’s because a replacement for Ramiz Hamouda has finally been found. Hamady Diop has been stellar so far in his brief Legion career. Of the 34 defensive actions against the Battery noted above, Diop was responsible for 13 of them. Jay Heaps pointed out that not only does he really like his play but also, more importantly, he can now play one right-footed and one left-footed center back, which he had been unable to do after Raz left. It makes a significant difference.
The differences in the two games were perhaps even more marked at the other end. The Legion were held to just 8 shots by Charleston, scoring on the only 2 on target. Against New Mexico the Three Sparks piled on big time with a whopping 25 shots. The league shooting leaders, Tampa Bay, are averaging 17.6 per game. From those 25, 14 were on target. Only 9 shots were from outside the 18; 5 of the 8 against Charleston were. The Three Sparks also managed 38 touches in the box (while limiting New Mexico to 14); Charleston had the upper hand in that stat, 21 to 12, although as shown above, only 3 came off crossing plays.
And since the Legion scored 4 off 14 shots on target, yes, Kris Shakes made 10 saves, including a huge double save to deny Peter-Lee Vassell. The performance was enough to vault him past Jassem Koleilat and Anthony Siaha of Hartford Athletic (who also played Wednesday evening) to lead the league in saves. Without that effort, the Legion would have won the game going away.
The Legion beat its xG in both games. For the Charleston game, it was a lowly 0.65, and Romario’s tight-angled goal explains that in good part. The New Mexico xG was 3.70, so the Legion was only marginally better. Both opponents about doubled their xG, however, so that is not so good. Still, scoring has not been an issue for the Legion recently. Indeed, the team has not been shut out since May 23rd (by Monterey Bay, of all teams, in a 0-2 loss). And of the 5 total shutouts for the season they lost only 2 (the other being, as fate would have it, the very first game against Tampa Bay, who are next up). The team has now scored at least 2 goals in 6 straight games, 14 goals in total. But earning just 2 points from all of that scoring is less than ideal. Ironically, the last win was right before that stretch and was just 1-0 over the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
In total scoring the Legion has moved up to an 11th-place tie with Indy Eleven, 32 on the season, and a creditable 7th place in conversion rate at 16%. Can the team start generating meaningful points from that scoring? We shall see.
Speaking of Indy, it’s possible the Legion learned some useful lessons from them. They drew 2-2 with New Mexico a week ago, and in a very comparable manner. They had to come back in the second half from a 2-goal deficit and did it by outshooting United (despite having just 29% possession) and severely throttling their crossing options.
Finally, the New Mexico game equalled the highest-scoring game in Legion history. The other was also a 4-4 draw in August last year at Orange County. In that game the Legion took an early lead but then had to come back 3 times to earn the draw. Plus ça change and all that.
