Weekend Results

Through Sun Mar 30

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Birmingham Legion FC

Legion were on the road to face the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, looking for their first win of the season. In the history of the club Bham has only beaten the Hounds once. Bob Lilley has our number, and that wasn't going to be changed on Saturday. Legion lost 0-2.

The Riverhounds dominated the game, seemingly taking the ball away at will throughout the firsr half. Pittsburgh had the bulk of possession and chances in the first half, leading 1-0 at halftime. It felt like 3-0. In the second half, the Hounds were in more of a defensive posture, and Birmingham could barely break through to get a decent chance. Pittsburgh got their second goal in the 70th minute after a takeaway and quick run to the Legion end. On the plus side, Trejo entered the match late for Legion and provided a bit of a spark, and Tyler Pasher also got a handful of minutes, his first of the season. Turnbull was MIA for the match, as was Sebastian Tregarthen.

The sad truth is that Legion is in crisis. That sounds alarmist, as it's early in the season, Legion has been dealing with injuries, and there's s very promising roster in place. BUT. On August 24 of last year Legion won on the road 2-1 at Monterey Bay with a gritty performance. Legion's record at that point was 10 wins, 5 draws, and 8 losses; sitting in a position to make the playoffs. The rest of the season saw Birmingham collapse, winning just 3 times, getting 1 draw, and losing 7 times - missing the playoffs for the first time in club history. Tack this season's early results onto that, and they've had 3 wins, 3 draws, and 8 losses in regular season play since the MB game. That may not be a reason to push the panic button, but I can't ignore preseason and Open Cup play. Of those six additional matches, Legion won once, and lost five times. Three of those losses were to D3 teams, and the Open Cup loss was to an amateur side. It's the kind of stuff that gets coaches fired (rightly so).

FC Birmingham

FCB hosted Kalonji Pro-Profile, the top team from the conference. They wanted to turn the match into an eventt, with a push on social media, and playing the match at historic Legion Field. I watched this game off and on, but it was a tough watch. Legion Field is a 70k stadium that primarily sees college football games played there, and the view looked like it was coming from a video camera that wasn't suited to shooting from a distance. Additionally, the camera was on the same side as whatever fans were there, so I couldn't get a feel for turnout.

FCB played a very competitive match overall, and the score was 0-0 for about 25 minutes. Then KPP dialed up the pressure. And Birmingham giveaway or mistake was swiftly punished, and KPP took a 4-0 lead into halftime. Birmingham came out in the second half and stayed organized, and cut down on giveaways, but couldn't get any goals of their own. The final score ended at 0-4.

FCB2 was away to face Middle Georgia, and this was expected to feature two evenly matched teams. Few details are available, but the match was a 2-2 draw.

The Adjacency

Fountain City made the short trip over to Seale, AL to take on UMA. This was a very close hard-fought match that ended in a 1-1 draw, although not without some controversy. A late foul at the edge of the box by Fountain was deemed to be inside the box, giving UMA a penalty kick. The penalty brought the score to 1-1, which was the final.

FC Columbus Elite was away to North Georgia United, looking to get their feet under them after a tough start to their first season in the Premier division. Elite did manage two goals, which should be viewed as progress, but they lost 2-7.

Columbus Knight Eagles were on the road to face UMA2 in a double-header that saw Fountain City against the UMA first team. The Eagles came away with a win, 4-3, with forward Abubskar Tahiru scoring three goals. That makes five goals for him in two games.