Week Ahead Preview
Sat April 5 thru Friday April 11
Birmingham Legion FC
The Legion don't have a game until Sunday April 13th. As they have updates from practices, all eyes are watching to catch glimpses of players that have been injured. Among posts was something unexpected - an unidentified player. It's possible he's someone coming into camp for the USL 2 squad, but it bears watching to see if the might add to the roster.
Huntsville City FC
Huntsville also has the week off, and will return to the field on Sunday April 13th.
FC Birmingham
Image credit: FC Birmingham
FC Birmingham hosts Fountain City Sat April 5 at 5:00. Both of these teams have had a tough start to the Spring season. This is a conference with some very strong teams at the top, and Fountain and FCB have played most of their games so far against that upper tier. Birmingham has a longer history at the Premier level, and has been slightly more competitive, with one win, and they've had some success scoring goals (7 GF). This is Fountain City's second season at the Premier level, with one draw from four games played, and only two goals scored so far. On the plus side, their most recent game was a 1-1 draw against fourth place UMA FC. I expect FC Birmingham to get the win at home in a close match.
FCB2 will be at home against Atlanta Albion U23 Sat April 5 at 2:30. Both teams have managed one draw and one loss, and haven't had much success on offense. The other side of that is that all of their games have been tight matches. This one has draw written all over it.
UMA FC - new for Lower Alabama
UMA isn't a new club, but it's new for me to realize that they're playing home games in Alabama. The club is headquartered in LaGrange, Georgia, with youth participation there and over into East-central Alabama. In that framework, the home field for their two UPSL teams is in Seale, AL. Seale is about an hour from LaGrange, and only twenty minutes west of Columbus, GA. It's one of those features of lower division soccer, in that the UPSL lists them being from LaGrange, and I didn't have them on my radar as actually playing in Alabama.
UMA hosts Limeno Sun April 6 at 3:00 in a showdown between the third and fourth place teams. Limeno has been very stingy so far, only allowing 3 goals for the season against some tough competition, but they've also only scored 8 goals. UMA has been more prolific getting goals across (13), but has allowed 7 goals in four games. Look for a very close match.
UMA2 will be at home against Limeno3 Sun April 6 at 5:00, following the game for the UMA first team. These two teams currently sit at the bottom of the table. With two reserve sides, it's tough to make too many predictions. That being said, UMA2 has had the better showings, including a close game against CKE (who blew out UMA2).
The Adjacency
Fountain City will be on the road to face FC Birmingham.
FC Columbus Elite has taken a bit of a beating in their first four games in Premier, and sits on a -20 GD. Their next match will be Sat April 12th.
Columbus Knight Eagles play on the road Sun April 6 at 5:00 against Georgia Revolution U23. The Eagles have started off strong for the Spring season and are on top of the Div 1 Georgia South table. 5 of their 14 goals have been scored by Abubakar Tahiru, and they'll be looking for him to add to that total. The Revs have split their first two games, including a lopsided loss to Augusta. On paper, this should be a comfortable win for CKE.