Welcome to Birmingham Sports Media’s midseason review of Birmingham Legion FC.

We’ve made it past the halfway point of the season, which means it’s time to take stock of the team. So far in 2025, 28 players have featured in a Birmingham Legion matchday squad.

Over the course of the week, we’ll dive into each one’s performances to date while also looking ahead at the remainder of the season.

Today, we move on to the defenders. If you missed yesterday’s instalment on goalkeepers, you can find it here.

Birmingham Legion have nine players listed as defenders on the club’s official roster. However, I will be looking at 10 players today. That’s because Dawson McCartney, listed as a midfielder, is likely to be a wingback when he returns from injury. Sebastian Tregarthen has also played wingback, but he is more often used as a forward and will therefore come in a later instalment of this series.

As such, we will look at the performances of six centerbacks and four wingbacks, starting with the centerbacks.

Phanuel Kavita

When looking at defenders, there is no better player to start with than Phanuel Kavita.

Legion’s veteran centerback, who made his Rwanda international debut a few weeks ago at the age of 32, is perhaps the team’s most important defender. Though he no longer wears the captain’s armband, Kavita is the clear leader at the back, especially when surrounded by younger teammates such as Ramiz Hamouda, Tiago Suárez or Ethan Kos.

Kavita has struggled with some injuries this season, missing a chunk of games early on, but has played every game he’s been available for. In his 13 appearances, he has shown his importance with crucial blocks and tackles while also being the organizer for those around him.

A reliable and assured presence at the back, the Rwanda international boasts the second highest passing accuracy on the team, having completed 91.27% of his 550 passes to date. He’s also second in tackle success rate, with 12/13 tackles won, while averaging roughly a 50% success rate in duels, both ground and aerial.

Kavita suffered what looked like a left hamstring injury in Legion’s 1-1 draw with Rhode Island just over a week ago and missed the subsequent win at North Carolina last Friday. With the team on the periphery of the playoff places as things stand, fans will be hoping it’s not another lengthy layoff for their fourth-most capped player ever.

Fun fact: Kavita has the best conversion rate in the league, having scored the only shot he’s taken all season (vs Detroit City).

Season stats: 13 appearances, 13 starts, 1 goal, 1 yellow card, 2 clean sheets.

Ramiz Hamouda

Birmingham Legion’s youngest-ever player continues to show maturity beyond his years.

Hamouda made his professional appearance in 2024 as a 15-year-old, getting his first start only a few months later at 16 years, 1 month and 10 days. Since then, he’s gone from strength to strength to establish himself as a reliable USL Championship centerback at just 17 years of age.

While Hamouda’s youth can shine through at times with lapses in concentration or attempting to overplay the ball, the USMNT U17 international has handled the majority of what has been thrown at him this season with confidence.

In several games, opponents have purposefully tried to sheperd the ball towards him in hopes he’d mess up, but the young centerback has embraced the challenge. Hamouda averages the most touches (78.28), passes (63.54) and sucessfull passes (55.61) per 90 minutes amongst all his teammates. His 87.52% completion rate puts him behind only Kavita and Erik Centeno for accuracy.

Looking at his defensive stats, Hamouda has averaged the most clearances (7.03) and third-most blocks (0.68) on the team.

After featuring in almost every game early in the first quarter of the season, Hamouda has struggled with injury in recent games. A minor knock kept him out of a couple of games prior to his latest stint on international duty, and he has barely featured since. He picked up a concussion on his first game back against Louisville, and followed it up with a second concussion in his return against Indy Eleven.

The medical team will likely want to take things slow with his return, as players are much more likely to get concussed once they’ve already suffered one, let alone two. With AJ Paterson back and doing well in the left centerback spot, there is no need to rush him back. At this point, it’s just as important to look after his long-term wellbeing as it is short-term success.

If he continues his progression, Hamouda is a player who can have a big future as one of the team’s best players or potentially net the club a handsome transfer fee in a couple of seasons. Doing anything to jeopardize either of those outcomes at this point would be reckless by all those concerned.

Season stats: 12 appearances, 9 starts, 5 yellow cards.

Ethan Kos

You could be forgiven for forgetting Ethan Kos exists, given the centerback has not made a matchday squad in over a month. He hasn’t played since Tom Soehn’s final game on March 29, when he was hooked at the half in favor of Hamouda.

Even last Friday, with both Kavita and Hamouda out injured, Mark Briggs opted against putting his only non-starting centerback on the bench. That probably tells you everything you need to know about a player who has yet to feature under the Englishman.

Previously in Ireland, Kos was signed to a permanent contract ahead of the season following a successful trial with the club. He made his debut in the team’s second game of the season, going the full 90 as Legion held Louisville City to a 1-1 draw. He played the full 90 again as the Three Sparks lost to Little Rock Rangers, before playing 70 and 45 minutes, respectively, against Detroit City and Pittsburgh Riverhounds.

Since then, Kos has made five bench appearances, while missing out entirely on 11 occasions, including nine of the last 10.

The writing is on the wall for Kos, who seems to be a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option at this point. The club might look to offload him this summer if he believes he can find playing time elsewhere. If not, expect him to become a free agent once again at the conclusion of the season.

Season stats: 4 appearances, 4 starts.

Jake Rufe

Birmingham Legion’s Alabama native and Swiss army knife has been his usual reliable self this season. Deployed in every position across the backline, the defender has gone about his business without any fuss once again in 2025.

After playing both fullback positions as well as centerback in the early portion of the season, Rufe has found his best form of late as the right-sided centerback in Briggs’ back-three formation. However, with Kavita now out with injury, the Englishman has opted to move Rufe centrally in the hope his experience can hold the defensive structure together in the absence of its leader.

With his versatility, Rufe has been near ever-present for Legion this season. He missed out on only one game, the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup first round loss, a testament to both his reliability and ability to stay fit and injury-free.

After making his 100th regular season appearance for the club earlier this season, the Huntsville-native finds himself two-shy of 125 total. Seven more appearances, which he should easily achieve if he is to remain injury-free for the remainder of the season, would put him in amongst the top five appearance-makers for the club.

Rufe scored the team’s first goal of the season just two minutes into the season opener, but his passing and defensive stats are where he makes his mark. With the third-most minutes played this season, it is perhaps unsurprising that the defender leads the team with 1,056 touches and 856 passes, 699 of them accurate (81.65%).

Rufe has notably been relied upon for his long passing ability, especially in recent games as Briggs has emphasized quick transitions and diagonals in behind. Rufe attempts 8.45 long balls per 90, a team-high amongst outfield players, making up over 17% of all his pass attempts. While his move centrally has limited these opportunities in the last two games, he will likely resume this habit when moved back wide whenever Kavita returns.

On defense, Rufe has won the second-most duels on the team, averaging a 56.8% success rate in these situations. He also leads the team in clearances (73), interceptions (12) and blocks (11).

Season stats: 20 appearances, 7 starts, 1 goal, 3 yellow cards, 1 clean sheet.

AJ Paterson

After sitting out the first 14 games of the season through injury, AJ Paterson has shown exactly what the team was missing upon his return.

It was perhaps logical for AJ Paterson’s return to coincide with the switch to a back-three, placing the left-footer as the left-most of the three centerbacks. Paterson, who can also play left-back and midfield, admitted that was the best position for him at the moment as he builds up fitness following his lengthy layoff.

But you would hardly know there’s been a layoff at all, given he’s started five of the six games following his return.

There can obviously be some debate as to which of Paterson or the formation shift has contributed to the recent tightening up of the defense, but what is certain is that things have been better since Paterson’s return. In the five games he has started, Legion have conceded only 4 goals, achieving their first two clean sheets of the season.

With one North Carolina goal coming after he was subbed off, and all four Louisville goals coming prior to his entrance in that game, the team has conceded just three goals in 425 minutes of play with Paterson on the field.

Paterson’s personal stats jump off the stats sheet in their own right, with most notably a 100% success rate in the tackle since his return. He also averages over one interception per 90, one of only five Legion players who can claim the same, while also making the team’s top five for duel and aerial duel success rates, both at over 50%. He also concedes the third-lowest number of fouls per game (0.85) — the lowest among centerbacks — and comes second only to Jake Rufe for clearances per 90 (6.14).

Paterson has quickly got back into the groove of things, and the Three Sparks will hope he can maintain these levels while staying fit the rest of the season. Whether Paterson’s return or the formation shift has been more important to the recent uptick in defensive form is irrelevant, as neither would be the same without the other.

Season stats: 6 appearances, 5 starts, 1 yellow card, 2 clean sheets.

Tiago Suárez

After being in and out of the team in the first quarter of the season, Tiago Suárez seems to have come into his own after reuniting with Mark Briggs, the man who gave him his debut as a 16-year-old at Sacramento Republic.

On loan from New England Revolutions, the 20-year-old centerback found himself used as much at right-back as at centerback in his early Legion career. Since his former head coach’s arrival, however, he has Briggs’ trust to line up in his preferred central position, to great effect.

Suárez’s first start following Briggs’ appointment came as the result of a warmup injury to Hamouda, but he made the most of it. The young centerback went on to start the next five games, earning USL Championship Rising Star honors three consecutive weeks as a result.

Now playing in the same back-three he was familiar with in Sacramento, he has made himself a valuable rotation option for the team. Standing 6’5″, Suárez has most notably been a dominant aerial presence for a team that otherwise struggles in the air. He wins 3.34 aerial duels per match on average, boasting a 71.15% success rate in the air.

Like Hamouda, Suárez’ youth can still contribute to the odd mishap, most notably with a horror-show at Louisville. However, the pros have outweighed the cons so far, and he looks set for another extended stay in the side as the right-most centerback while Kavita recovers from his hamstring injury.

Season stats: 17 appearances, 11 starts, 3 yellow cards, 1 clean sheet.

Stephen Turnbull

New-arrival Stephen Turnbull was a mystery to a lot of Legion fans early on, by no fault of his own.

Birmingham’s most expensive offseason signing, Turnbull did not feature in the first game of the season in what Soehn described at the time as a “coach’s decision.” He started the next two games, but then disappeared from view for a little while with just one start in the next 10.

Nobody suspected an injury, given he was still making the bench and getting the odd substitute appearance. Only recently did Mark Briggs reveal that Turnbull had actually been fighting an illness all along, one which led him to lose considerable weight.

With the explanation, Turnbull’s disappoiting start to his Legion career became much more understandable. And now fully fit, he’s showing exactly what fans expected of him when he signed.

Since the shift to a back-three, Turnbull has been nearly everpresent as one of the two wingbacks, even playing on the left when necessary. He has recaptured the fitness to make constant bombing runs down his preferred right side and has started to develop a great understanding with Tyler Pasher, who often prefers roaming infield and allowing Turnbull the space on the overlap.

Despite his complicated start to the season, Turnbull is also tied with Pasher and Roman Torres for the most assists on the team, though that number is merely two. The one he provided for Damus at the home of his former team, Rhode Island, a few weeks ago should have fans salivating for more, however. Turnbull showed great tactical awareness, but also the pace and power you would not associate with a player recently returned from illness to shrug off his defender before laying on a perfect cross for Ronaldo Damus.

Turnbull has one of the team’s best pass accuracies in the final third (68.4%), most notably proving one of Legion’s most reliable crossers of the ball. He also boasts the most duels won per 90 (6.65) and third-best duel success rate amongst outfielders (59.09). This includes a 64.51% success rate in the air — second only to Suárez — giving him 2.56 aerial duels won per game.

Season stats: 13 appearances, 9 starts, 2 assists, 1 yellow card, 1 clean sheet.

Dawson McCartney

Dawson McCartney is listed as a midfielder on Birmingham Legion’s website and started the season on the left wing. He then became a fullback under Eric Avila’s interim reign and started as left-back in Briggs’ first game in charge.

Since then, however, he has struggled with injury issues. He was forced on as a substitute for the injured Moses Mensah on May 24 while coming back from injury himself. The plan had been to give him 45 minutes maximum, but instead he played nearly an hour out of necessity before being forced off himself.

McCartney has missed the nine games since that win in Miami, but has appeared in recent training photos that could suggest a return is imminent. With his recent absence, it’s unclear where he will be tasked to play in a Briggs system, or if the Englishman rates him at all.

I am however hopeful that he could be an excellent fit for the current 3-4-3 formation.

As a left midfielder by trade, McCartney undoubtedly possess the attacking attributes required of a Mark Briggs wingback. His brief spell as a fullback also showed he is a capable defender, though perhaps not one you want to see going up against the league’s best wingers. A left wing-back role could therefore be ideal, the extra centerback providing the cover his restricted defensive abilities would benefit from while giving him license to roam forward and swing in crosses.

McCartney’s was one of the team’s brightest sparks during the tumultuous start to the season and will hope to recapture that form when he returns.

Season stats: 8 appearances, 7 starts, 1 goal, 1 assist.

Erik Centeno

Signed midseason as a free agent, Erik Centeno was thrown straight into the fire with consecutive starts in his first four games for the club. Though the starts have dried up since then, he has remained a valuable bench option to come on late in place of either wing-back.

A diminutive fullback, Centeno is still only 23 years old and with a lot of potential to grow. There was some confusion at the time of his signing seeing that the team already had two right-backs for its back four, but now with the 3-4-3 Centeno is being given a chance to shine.

While work can still be done on his defensive abilities (he notably has the third lowest tackle success rate on the team), neither are they shocking to the point of concern. He should however be regarded as the type of wingback who is expected to bring more to the attack than he is to the defense.

Erik Centeno currently leads the team for passing accuracy, completing 92.45% of his 159 passes. He also creates an average of 2.07 chances per 90, second only to Tyler Pasher. A lot of that comes from his crossing, delivering nearly three balls into the box per 90, the fourth-most on the team.

Centeno might not be lighting up the league, but he is reliable cover for Turnbull. Given he joined on a free nearly a dozen games into the season, that is a perfectly acceptable return for a player with plenty of time still to grow.

Season stats: 9 appearances, 4 starts, 2 yellow cards, 1 clean sheet.

Moses Mensah

Though he started the season rotating in and out of the team, Moses Mensah has made himself a lock at left wing-back since the switch in formation.

The Ghanaian has started five of the last six games in that left-sided role, coming on as a sub in the other. For a player who looked defensively questionable at times in a true fullback role, the shift in system has been the perfect solution.

With his high energy levels, Moses has shown a real ability to get down the flank while still upholding his defensive responsibilities. Recent games have also seen him start to develop a great connection with Danny Trejo on that left side, which should only help both players as well as the team’s overall cohesiveness.

But now in his third season at the club, it’s probably time for Mensah to truly establish himself in the USL Championship. He has the tools to do it, but also displays inconsistencies that lead to doubts as to his long-term suitability for the team.

Offensively, he has put up the team’s second best passing rate in the final third (74.08%), yet his crossing accuracy has been the worst on the team at a measly 18.75%.

Defensively, he regains the ball at an average of 4.25 times per 90, the fourth highest number for the Three Sparks, but also has the fourth-lowest tackle success rate amongst his teammates.

The tools are there. If he can fix those the negatives while maintaining the positives, he could become a real fixture for the club for years to come. But one month out from his 27th birthday, it does feel like this season could be crucial to any long-term future in Birmingham.

McCartney’s eventual return to the side might prove a boost to Mensah, who will have a real fight on his hands for that left wing-back slot. If both players can push each other to be the best versions of themselves, the team could suddenly look very strong at that position.

Season stats: 17 appearances, 13 starts, 1 penalty won, 1 yellow card, 1 clean sheet.

That’s it for Birmingham Legion’s defensive options. If you haven’t seen it, check out yesterday’s review of the Three Sparks’ goalkeepers. And check back in tomorrow as I dive into the team’s midfield options.

In the meantime, follow Timothy Belin on Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook or Bluesky to stay up to date with Birmingham Legion coverage.