Week Ahead Preview
Birmingham Legion FC
Image credit: Birmingham Legion (Danny Trejo)
Danny Trejo earned honors as the league's player of the week, scoring a second half brace against North Carolina. Ronaldo Damus and Tyler Pasher also earned places on the USLC team of the week.
Legion are back home on Sat, July 19 at 7:00 against the Colorado Springs Switchbacks. The Switchbacks are struggling in last place in the West, after winning the league championship in 2024. As bad as that is, Birmingham has only one more win this season, and can't afford to take the Switchbacks lightly. Legion have had a bad habit of losing to lower teams in the standings, while putting up their best performances against better teams. Ronaldo Damus has 10 total goals this season for Birmingham, after scoring 14 last year for Colorado Springs. Last week's win saw Birmingham sneak up above the cutoff for the playoffs, and they must win games like this one if they're going to complete a turnaround.
Huntsville City FC
Huntsville will be at home this week against Columbus Crew 2. The Crew are the bottom team in the East in NextPro, and have only managed to score 16 goals on the season. On the other side, Huntsville has one of the top defenses in the league, and a strong offense to go with it. There's really no reason for Huntsville to have any trouble here (famous last words), and they should absolutely be expected to get three points. The match is Friday, July 18 at 7:00.
Dothan United
The Dragons are the hosts for one of the two playoff pods for the USL League Two Southern Conference. The pods feature four teams that gather at one site to handle two rounds of playoff action. The first round in Dothan will kick off Friday afternoon with Asheville City against LA Krewe, followed by Dothan versus Little Rock Rangers Friday night at 7:30. The Rangers are known for being a very strong team on defense, and this season has been no exception. They gave up only 6 goals, and scored 25 of their own. Dothan has played through one of the toughest conferences in the country, and have also only allowed 6 goals for the season. The advantage for the Dragons is their offense, which put 35 goals into the back of the net. Little Rock is no stranger to big games, and can lean on an Open Cup win over Birmingham Legion earlier this Spring. Look for a large and boisterous crowd to be on hand to help give Dothan the advantage at home. The final game for the pod will be Sunday July 20 at 6:00.
Union 10 FC
Image credit: TLfC
The first season of action in The League for Clubs has been a good one. The Gulf Coast Conference featured two teams that moved over from the NPSL to join up with Gulf Coast Premier League teams, and one expansion squad. The conference championship game last weekend saw Pensacola FC (one of those former NPSL teams) face off against Union 10 (from the GCPL). Like the season itself, the game didn't disappoint. Union 10 scored a late equalizer to force overtime, and then went on to win the game in PK's.
Union will be hosting the next playoff game against FC Dallas U23 Sunday, July 20 at 5:15. Summer league teams face many challenges, and it looks like Union 10 will be without their excellent starting goal keeper, who is due to return home to Scotland before the game. They'll need to find a great replacement to face a very tough Dallas team. The Dallas program is known for turning out future professional players, and this will be a huge test for Union 10. The Union 10 defense has been strong all season, and they're going to be called on to step up again in a big way.