Week Ahead Preview
Sat April 26 thru Fri May 2
Image credit: USL
Birmingham Legion will have two academy teams participating in the USLA Pathway Classic. The tournament will take place in Tampa and will showcase the Rowdies and the Sun as the local professional clubs, examples of the professional ranks that these young players aspire to reach. The Legion contingent will be U14 boys and girls teams, in association with Birmingham United Soccer Association. Those two teams begin tourney play on Friday April 25.
Image credit: Birmingham Legion. The U14 teams were recognized during the game against El Paso
Birmingham Legion FC
Chattanooga Red Wolves come to town to face Birmingham Legion in the first match for the group stage of the Jagermeister Cup, Sunday April 27 at 4:00. These two teams are fairly familiar with each other due to Open Cup (‘23 and ‘24) and preseason friendlies. The Red Wolves beat Legion 2-1 late in this year's preseason in a closed door friendly. The familiarity means that this will not be a game where Birmingham takes the opponent lightly. Chattanooga plays a very physical and aggressive style, and Legion has mostly lacked those two traits this season. With emotions already running high, I expect this to be a chippy affair that will keep the referee busy.
Legion have also unveiled a special reversable kit that will be used for Jaegermeister matches. The kit has a hunting theme, as Jaegermeister is a German word that means “hunt master”, a title that was given to game wardens. Fun fact: Jaegermeister was the first brand to ever appear as a sponsor on a Bundesliga club jersey in 1973 (Eintracht Braunschweig).
Image credit: Birmingham Legion. Hunt for Glory kits
Huntsville City FC
Inter Miami 2 comes to the Rocket City for a match on Sunday April 27 at 7:00. Huntsville has lost to Miami in the previous three meetings, but HCFC is vastly improved this season. However, both of Huntsville's wins are against Chicago Fire 2; the 0-1 loss to league-leading Chattanooga FC (on the road) will also be a source of confidence. Huntsville will need to avoid being overconfident against a dangerous Inter Miami 2 team that will be expected to score some goals. Expect a high-scoring game that could end in a shootout.
FC Birmingham
FCB travels to face Georgia Revolution Saturday April 26 at 6:00, a rare occasion where they don't play a double-header with the FCB2 team. While the Revolution are middle of the table, they also managed to do what nobody else has done this season: beat Kalonji Pro-Profile. It's not out of the question that FCB could pull off an upset here, but the Revs are undefeated at home. I wouldn't expect that to change.
FCB2 will bring in Columbus Knight Eagles Saturday April 26 at 3:00. The two teams have only met once before, with CKE winning 2-1 during the 2024 Fall season. These two teams are on different trajectories so far this Spring. FCB2 is on an upswing after a game 1 loss, while CKE started with a big win and have seen shrinking margins of victory before losing for the first time in their most recent game. This is shaping up to be a close match, despite the separation in the table.
UMA FC
UMA will be on the road Saturday April 26 to face Dalton United at 5:00. Dalton is not having the kind of season they're accustomed to, sitting on 3 wins, 2 losses, and 2 draws. But it will be a tough road match for UMA, who won their first two games, and haven't won since. UMA has the chance to steal a win if they can keep the score close.
After a week off, UMA2 will be on the road to face Georgia Revolution 2 on Sun April 27 at 5:00. The Rev U23 squad and UMA2 are at opposite ends of table, with UMA2 losing all three games that they've played so far. Don't count UMA out here, and I expect this game will be competitive.
The Adjacency
Fountain City travels to Albion Atlanta SC Sunday April 27 at 6:00. Fountain has had a tough start to the Spring, and find themselves at the bottom of the table with no wins. Albion has built some momentum with two wins and a draw from their last three games. Fountain City will come into the game looking to make it competitive, but I expect Albion to take all three points.
Colgaelite will host Soccer Saves Lives Saturday April 26 at 6:00. This game comes at a time where Elite is on a little bit of a roll, with two wins in a row after a tough start to the season. SSL has three draws, but no wins yet this season. SSL won't make it easy, but Colgaelite should build on their momentum and get the win here.
As recapped above, CKE will be in Birmingham to face FCB2.
Other news and tidbits
Image credit: UPSL
UPSL has just announced another club for the Gulf Coast Conference, Eagles Sports Southaven FC. The club has no online presence that I've found so far, so the announcement is all that there is to go on. I've pointed out before that the Gulf region is ripe for UPSL expansion, but this is a tough placement. As a refresher, the other three clubs in this developing conference are in Jackson, MS, New Orleans, and Panama City Beach. Southaven is in the top Northwest corner of Mississippi, just across the state line from Memphis. It's 5.5 hours from New Orleans, and 7.5 hours from Panama City Beach. It's great to see a new club pop up, but there's a lot of work to be done to make the conference functional.