We are down to this: 7 games left in the season, 5 of them on the road. The Legion remain 12 points out of the playoffs. 4 of the games are against teams below both the playoff line and the Three Sparks themselves. Those are Brooklyn FC twice, Loudoun United and Sporting JAX, who are the first team eliminated after losing to Hartford Athletic on Wednesday. The three games against teams above the playoff line (the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Detroit City and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds) are all on the road.
The team 12 points above the Legion in 8th place is Rhode Island FC. Although they have a game in hand over the Legion, they play 5 teams above them in the standings, 3 of those away. They are catchable.
Also catchable is, shockingly, Louisville City. Lou City has 6 league games left plus the USL Cup final. They are 13 points up on the Three Sparks but 4 of their league games are against teams above them in the standings. The USL Cup final eliminates their scheduling advantage and in fact puts them in the odd position of having to play consecutive games at Hartford, albeit 9 days apart.
The most important part
All of which is to say…the season is still not lost. And if it isn’t, playing so many games on the road to close out the season won’t be all that bad, as a home playoff game at any point is already effectively out of reach.
It all starts tomorrow with a trip south to the Rowdies (6:30pm, ESPN+). After enduring miserable seasons in 2025 the two teams have had drastically different fortunes in 2026. Tampa Bay was the first team to clinch a playoff spot this year. The Legion is in a huge fight to get to that point again, although as we noted yesterday, if they had held all the points they dropped from winning positions they would be challenging the Rowdies for the top spot in the East.
The Rowdies have an 8-point lead over the Charleston Battery with both teams having just 6 games left. Not totally safe, but damned close. Even so, they will hardly be relaxing and cruising their way through the remainder of the season. This is going to be a tough game for the Legion.
And all the more so given that the Three Sparks will have had a rest day Thursday and a travel day Friday and therefore no chance to practice after the wild game Wednesday. The Rowdies will also be smarting from a 1-3 loss last Saturday to Hartford, who are proving themselves to be a major threat. Moreover, after what the Legion achieved Wednesday they will not be expecting them to be a pushover.
It seems like a long time since the season-opening 0-1 loss to Tampa Bay. If you recall, that game was played in soaking wet conditions and the only goal was the first in a series of highly dubious refereeing decisions that marred the Legion’s early season. It was a very close game despite the Legion being a very new lineup under a new coach. That lineup will be different again this time around. Notably, the back line will not include the now-departed Ramiz Hamouda and Leo Duru. Also not in the lineup that day were Phanuel Kavita and Ronaldo Damus. Duru, by the way, was named Carlisle United’s Player of the Month in August in his first month with the club. Kudos to him.
All that being said, the Rowdies are in a relatively poor run of form. They are 2-2-1 in the last 5 games. The two wins were over Brooklyn and Rhode Island. The second loss was to Detroit and the draw was with Pittsburgh. They were also shut out twice. The 5 goals in the games are well under their season average of 1.71 per game. None of their top 4 scorers (Matt Myers, Jürgen Locadia, Russell Cicerone, and Marco Micaletto) have notched a goal in that stretch. The 5th best scorer, Louis Pérez (all 5 guys have 5 or more goals, by the way) bagged 2 of the Rowdies’ 5 goals. But he picked up a double yellow at the end of the Hartford game and won’t be playing.
Formationally, Tampa Bay is very flexible. 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 and 5-3-2 have all been employed lately, so it will bne difficult to predict how they caome out against the Legion. But then the Legion could be slightly less predictable than usual. For all of 8 minutes Wednesday, the team played with both Romario Williams and Ronaldo Damus on the field. After the game, Jay Heaps said it was something of an experiment, although it ended quickly because Romario was out of gas. Asked if they are considering using it more, he was a bit evasive but still positive: “We’ve looked at it. We’ll talk about it. It’s a matter of how can get those guys pressing the right way and kind of split the field.”
Despite the lack of rest, there is no question that the New Mexico draw was a momentum-creating game. The USL Cup win over FC Tulsa had felt that way, but this far more so. Coming back from a 3-goal deficit against one of the strongest teams in the league can only generate confidence. In fact, the players were frustrated that they didn’t win the game. Hopefully, it was the start of a season-ending run.
Best of the rest
No one has a bye this week, although JAX has already played its only game. There are 2 games Sunday; everyone else plays Saturday evening.
Brooklyn FC v. FC Tulsa (Saturday, 6:00pm, ESPN+)
The Legion plays yet again Wednesday on short rest, and even shorter than normal as the tilt with Brooklyn will be an 11:00am Education Day kickoff. That will work against the visitors even more though. The New Yorkers are 12th in the East and 3 points behind the Three Sparks. Tulsa is 4th in the West but in a 4-way points tie with teams below them. This is a scouting opportunity but it’s clear who will want the points more.
Louisville City v. Loudoun United (Saturday, 6:00pm, ESPN+)
We’ve already discussed where the Legion stands with respect to both of these teams. A draw would probably be good but a Loudoun win, given that the Three Sparks still have to play them, possibly works better even though they are currently tied on points with the good guys. The key is Lou City dropping points.
Rhode Island FC v. The Miami FC (Saturday, 6:30pm, ESPN+)
This one isn’t good whichever way you look at it. Both teams are above the Legion. Rhode has that game in hand; Miami has played an additional game so them taking points away from Rhody would seem good. But we also do not need them to add to their 4-point lead. On the other hand, Rhody has a tough schedule after this game. Difficult to say what the best outcome truly is.
Sacramento Republic v. San Antonio FC (Sunday, 6:00pm, ESPN2)
Those 3 teams tied with Tulsa on points? These are 2 of them (Orange County is the other). It’s also a nationally broadcast game. A very nice selection by ESPN. It should be a good one with neither team in a position to lose. The West remains extremely tight: there are just 5 points separating 3rd from 10th. The conference is going to be a dogfight down the stretch.
Back in the Old Country
Birmingham City were briefly stunned by lowly Derby County last weekend. The Rams went ahead in the 40th minute against the run of play but that lasted just 2 minutes as Carlos Vicente quickly got the equalizing goal. Paik Seung-Ho put the Blues ahead early in the second half and things stayed that way to the end. The Blues could have added a third goal late but Luis Vazquez skied the ball over a wide-open net. That was just the second win of the season but enough to push the team up to 10th in the table, tied on 10 points with Southampton, who have a gaudy +10 goal difference. That is topped only by Championship leaders West Ham, who pulverized Wrexham 6-0 last week.
Tomorrow (9:00am, Paramount+) the Blues have a big test as they welcome Middlesbrough to St. Andrew’s. Boro are 3rd, although the top 4 are only separated by GD. They have already beaten the 4th-place team, West Bromwich Albion. Thus, they are a force to be reckoned with. The calls for Chris Davies to be axed seem to have quieted down with the slight uptick in form; points from this game should silence them entirely.
The Lady Blues had a better second game in the WSL last week, drawing 2-2 with Brighton & Hove Albion. Tomorrow (6:45am, Paramount+) they head south to London to play Chelsea, who are 2nd in the table on 4 points.
