Welcome to the final instalment of Birmingham Sports Media’s midseason review of Birmingham Legion FC.
With the halfway point of the season behind us, we’ve spent the week looking at all 28 players to feature in a Three Sparks matchday squad this season.
Now, it’s time to turn our attention to everyone else.
Previous instalments:
A club isn’t just about the players. The head coach is obviously a huge part of the team, while the front office can be just as, if not more, crucial to the team’s success.
For Birmingham Legion, 2025 has been a chaotic season, featuring the team’s first ever coaching change. So let’s look at how the new man has been doing, as well as those calling the shots at the very top.
Mark Briggs
Mark Briggs officially became Birmingham Legion’s second head coach in club history April 30, 2025. After already a stellar, near-decade of coaching in the United States, the 43-year-old Englishman made the Three Sparks the fourth stop of his coaching career.
Since his appointment, there have been flashes of positivity and change intermingled with moments of deep frustration. Notably, while the team has shored up its defensive woes, so has the attack dried up.
The team played eight games this season prior to his arrival, with a record of 2W-2D-4L. Legion scored 10 goals in that time frame while conceding 12. In the 13 games since the Englishman’s start, the Three Sparks have gone 4-5-4, with 15 scored and 16 conceded. Looking purely at these numbers, it doesn’t feel like all that much has changed.
It must be pointed out that the pre-Briggs record includes two wins under interim head coach Eric Avila. Soehn’s 2025 record read 2D-4L and featured just 4 goals scored for 9 against. Sacking Legion’s long-term head coach was therefore the right decision, though it has not panned out quite as well as many would have hoped just yet.
With just 1.18 points per USL Championship Game, Briggs currently holds a worse success rate than any individual Tom Soehn season barring the catastrophic start to this year. It is obviously harder to come in midseason, but a continuation of this poor form would almost certainly see the Black and Gold miss out on the postseason for the second consecutive year.
On the positives, the team has started to look more structured and dangerous in recent games. The switch to Briggs’ favored 3-4-3 has given the side a new dimension, and results since the change have been largely more positive. After a tough first game with the system against Louisville, the team has dropped just other game while rolling with the 3-4-3, albeit a game they should have won against Oakland Roots.
Since that disappointment, Birmingham have found themselves on a four-game unbeaten run, and, had finishing been better, it could easily have been a four-game win streak. Ruthlessness is currently key word, with the team underperforming its expected goals in five of its last six games. It’s hard to hold that against Briggs, however, given that, like he said, he cannot put the ball in the net for his players. He can only help them create those scoring situations, which the xG seems to suggest he is doing just fine.
The one thing that can be held against Legion’s new coach in these trying times are his team selections.
Despite repeatedly calling players out in his post-match comments, there has been little to no repercussions for poor performances when it comes to playing time. The same 15 or so players make up the starting XI most weeks, with really only a couple of positions seeing any real rotation.
If you’re going to publicly state that your players are not doing enough, then keep playing the exact same underperforming players every outing, eventually some of that is your fault.
On the flip side, there is something to be said for consistency and building team chemistry. Especially with a new formation, there is value in putting the players back out there and letting them figure things out as a unit.
The balance between that and a complete lack of accountability — a word Briggs has used repeatedly when talking to the press — is however a fine line, and one I’m not sure he is currently managing to his best.
Overall, it’s still too early to judge Mark Briggs’ Birmingham tenure. Thirteen games and no preseason isn’t enough time to mold a team in your image, and there have been plenty of bright sparks and positive changes already on display. The team has definitely shown more energy and cohesion since his arrival, and he did lead them to consecutive wins for the first time in nearly a year.
Briggs said a few weeks ago that a successful season will be determined by whether or not the Three Sparks make the playoffs, and that is what he should be judged on at the end of the day. If he can turn things around by then, he would have accomplished exactly what he was brought in for.
The club would then be able to build on that small accomplishment as it looks to deliver a more consistent challenge to the top USL Championship sides.
Season stats:
- 13 games managed, 4 wins, 5 draws, 4 losses
- *1 draw was followed by a loss on penalties
- 15 goals scored (1.15 per game)
- 16 goals conceded (1.23 per game)
Jay Heaps/The Front Office
When thinking of the decision makers at the club, Jay Heaps is the face of the organization.
The newly re-titled CEO and Chief Soccer Officer (previously President and General Manager) has been in the public eye this season more than ever following the club’s decision to sack Tom Soehn and hire Mark Briggs, as well as other behind-the-scene changes.
While the decision to sack Soehn was objectively the right one given how things were going, it did raise questions on why that did not happen in the offseason. After a poor season resulted in the team’s first ever postseason absence, it would have made logical sense to part ways with the man leading the team.
The Three Sparks instead chose loyalty to the only head coach they’ve known and tried to give him one last offseason to rebuild and turn the tide. Though the wrong choice in hindsight, it was a commendable show of loyalty in an industry that often lacks the merest understanding of the word.
When it became obvious things were only getting worse, they acted decisively to not only stem the bleeding, but then bring in one of the most sought-after coaches in the USL landscape.
Simultaneously, the team has made further strides off the pitch to continue to grow its brand and its on-pitch performance. Nick Hall came in as the club’s first-ever Chief Business Officer, while Augie Ruiz and Zack Day joined the technical staff as Director of Scouting and Player Recruitment and First Team Analyst, respectively.
The two latter hires were important moves as the club strives to remain on the forefront of soccer innovation, while Hall will hopefully work to address the the club’s biggest off-field issue: the stadium.
While there are currently no plans for Legion to find a new home, no matter how much fans like to dream about what that could look like, Hall has started working on improving the Legion gameday experience.
Protective now has a family-friendly-priced concession stand, though why it’s only one stand and not the whole stadium remains a mystery, and yesterday the club announced a host of special events for the remaining home games this season. While it can feel like trying to make the most of a bad situation, it is hard to see what more the Legion can do barring a, unlikely change in venue.
All these decisions go to show that, despite struggles on the field, Birmingham Legion is still a club headed in the right direction. After an initial misstep in keeping Soehn on, the club showed the ruthlessness needed to correct course. They’ve shown ambition with their offseason signings, their choice for new head coach and in their willingness to back him with the players he wanted, already signing four additional players to the roster since Briggs’ arrival.
With a state-of-the-art training facility and its two new data-oriented personnel, the club is also maintaining itself as a modern, forward-thinking team. If they can one day add a stadium as nice as the training facility, they would definitely be one of the most exciting and attractive teams in the USL sphere.
The main blemish when considering the season of the front office personnel is through Jay Heaps, however.
Though his decision making, along with those above him, has been bold and positive, his actions have not always displayed the club in its best light. During Eric Avila’s interim charge, Jay Heaps appeared to make himself interim head coach No. 2.
While it was first and foremost just a confusing situation, with Hartford Athletic commentators even confusing Heaps for Avila during that game due to his much more visible sideline presence, Heaps’ character also raised further concern. In the three matches he and Avila stood on the sideline, the CSO earned himself two yellow cards for his constant commentary at the referee.
Having the front office “babysitting” the interim coach is a bad enough look, getting in trouble while doing so just makes it worse.
For a club that has done everything else right to build its image both locally and across the nation, the situation screamed of amateurism. Thankfully, since Briggs’ arrival, Heaps has returned to his seat inside Protective Stadium and remained far from the pitch except for during the team’s usual on-field appreciation.
Overall review
To close things off, its important to look at the big picture of the season so far.
Amidst all the chaos of a coaching change and disappointing league season, there are still a couple of bright spots to be had.
The biggest one so far has been the team’s inaugural USL Jägermeister Cup campaign. With one group game remaining, the Three Sparks are guaranteed at minimum a wildcard spot for the quarter-finals if they can defeat USL League One’s Forward Madison in 90 minutes.
Depending on Indy Eleven’s result against FC Tulsa, they could also still finish as Group 3’s outright winners.
Once teams reach the knockout stage, everyone should believe in their chance at silverware. And for Legion, that’s an opportunity for the club’s first-ever trophy.
With Eastern Conference big-hitters like Louisville City and Charleston Battery both on the outside looking in, as well as two of the current top three teams in the West unlikely to advance, there’s a serious opportunity for the final eight teams to write their names in the history books.
We won’t speak of the team’s performance in the other national cup, but the Three Sparks first ever foray into USL Jägermeister territory has so far looked like a genuine shot at glory for the Black and Gold.
As for the league, we all know it has not been good enough.
After 17 games, the team currently sits in eighth, the final playoff spot, but with the same number of points as 9th-placed Miami, who hold two games in hand. In fact, Birmingham Legion has played either one or two more games than everyone in the Eastern Conference not named Charleston Battery, with only Monterey Bay in the West doing better with 18.
Birmingham therefore faces an anxious wait in the next few weeks as their rivals catch up to their game tally, and either surpass them for those below, or pull further ahead for those in front.
The 1.05 points per game is by far the team’s worst tally in a season, but there is still hope. At this same stage in their inaugural year, Legion was actually five points worse off. Seven wins in their next nine games completely flipped the script to nab that year’s final playoff ticket.
Though Charleston, Louisville and Loudoun United are seemingly already out of touch, everyone else is still fighting each other in a pocket square. Only three points (one win) separate Legion from 5th-placed Pittsburgh Riverhounds, while 4th is occupied by North Carolina FC, a team the Three Sparks just defeated on their own soil.
With performances, if not yet results, have been on the upturn in recent weeks, Birmingham are just one good run of form away from erasing their early season troubles. They’re not going to win the league and most likely can’t hope for a home playoff, but places 5-8 are fully up for grabs if they can find the momentum in their final 12 games of the season.
And it all starts tomorrow with a must-win game over last-season’s USL Championship champions, Colorado Springs Switchbacks. The Switchbacks are currently bottom of the Western Conference and winless in over a month.
If the Three Sparks can get the job done at Protective Stadium, they suddenly have back-to-back wins, find themselves on a five-game undefeated streak and head into next weekend likely to further the positive vibes around the club with a spot in the USL Jägermeister Cup’s final eight.
Soccer is all about momentum, and getting to August with wins in their next two home games could make a world of difference to a team who has struggled to build any sort of meaningful momentum so far this season.
Season stats:
- USL Championship: 17 games, 4 wins, 6 draws, 7 losses, 19 goals for, 24 against
- USL Jägermeister Cup: 3 games, 2 wins, 1 draw/shootout loss, 6 goals for, 3 against
- Lamar Hunt US Open Cup: 1 game, 1 loss, 0 goals for, 1 against
- Overall: 21 games, 6 wins, 7 draws, 8 losses, 25 goals for, 28 against
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