Birmingham Legion’s final home game was a fitting finale to an underwhelming season.
Despite playing a man-up for much of the game, the Three Sparks struggled to create clear-cut chances. On defense, individual errors cost them ahead of a 3-2 loss to the previously-bottom team in the USL Championship, a spot now occupied by the Three Sparks.
“Disappoiting result,” Mark Briggs said. “I selected the team. I put people on the field that I felt could win us the game, and it cost us. It’s individual errors again.”
When the lineups were announced, the big news were the returns of Samuel Shashoua to the starting lineup and Sebastián Saucedo to the bench. But minutes into the game, it was a positional experiment that caught the eye.
Edwin Laszo, nominally a defensive midfielder, lined up as the centermost centerback of Legion’s back three. Ramiz Hamouda, previously deployed at left back and centerback, took the midfield role in his place.
While on paper you could understand why it was tried, in practice it backfired horribly.
Only a couple minutes into the game, Laszo misplaced a straightforward back pass for a corner. It came to nothing, but a few minutes later the Colombian misplaced another pass, this one straight at a Miami forward. The visiting team took full advantage on the second occasion to get down the left, put in a low cross and squeeze the ball under Matt van Oekel.
After eight minutes, Miami led 1-0.
To their credit, after being a team that often conceded in pairs this season, Legion did not put their heads down. Instead, Peter-Lee Vassell drove at the Miami defense and earned a dangerous free-kick right on the edge of the box.
After scoring a stunning set-piece just a few weeks ago, everyone expected the Jamaican to take it. Instead, he ran over the ball and rolled it backwards for AJ Paterson to latch onto. The defender sent a fierce daisy-cutter into the bottom corner to level the tie with his second goal in as many games.
The parity did not last long, as Miami went back ahead off a free-kick of their own just seven minutes later. Jonathan Ricketts lost his man on a wide set-piece and powered a header past van Oekel for the 2-1.
The drama was far from over, as seconds after the restart Birmingham’s veteran goalkeeper launched a ball forward for Vassell to chase. The Legion man got to it milliseconds before Miami’s goalkeeper, Nicolás Campisi, could, poking it past him before going down under the shotstopper’s challenge.
The referee showed no hesitation in brandishing the red card for denial of a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
Miami were forced into an early change to bring on backup goalkeeper Felipe Rodriguez, a 21-year-old with just 17 professional games to his name. It should have been a clear shift in momentum, but instead it was Miami who got the next goal to extend their lead.
Laszo was once again at fault, underhitting a pass and allowing a Miami player to steal it. The initial shot cannoned off the crossbar, but Miami’s Tobías Zárate was the only one to react. With 38 minutes on the clock, he sat van Oekel down before calmly passing it into an empty net for the 3-1.
“There was individual errors, but I also felt at times that we played like it was a preseason game,” Briggs said. “We played like the season was done. And, look, people will say it is done, but the energy, the tempo, the speed of play just wasn’t there in the first half.”
Laszo was moved to midfield with Hamouda dropping to centerback following the former’s most recent giveaway, and then promptly hooked at halftime. The damage was done, however, and Legion struggled to get back in it despite the change.
With the two-goal lead, Miami were happy to sit all 10 players behind the ball. Birmingham had a majority of possession, but very little to show for it. Most of their attacks ended in hopeful crosses — not the smartest tactic when Dawson McCartney, standing all of six-feet-zero-inches, is your tallest non-centerback player on the pitch.
“I felt like we were putting hopeful balls in, versus we wanted [them] to get into the assist zone,” Briggs said. “Outside the eighteen yard box, you’re putting a hopeful ball in. You need a David Beckham to put in balls from there, and we don’t have a David Beckham. So we need to get into the assist zone way more.”
Vassell and Shashoua looked the most likely to make something happen with clever combination-play down the middle, but the final touch or pass kept lacking. It wasn’t until the 66th minute, after a double-change on the hour-mark, that Birmingham finally pulled one back with their first shot on target since their previous goal.
Unlike with the earlier hopeful attempts, Amir Daley found space closer to goal to send in a low cross. Ronaldo Damus and Tyler Pasher both ran onto it, with the Haitian getting the crucial touch for his 14th of the season.
But even with the momentum in their favor, the Three Sparks continued to struggle to break down Miami’s deep block. Despite the numerical advantage, they did not have another shot on goal until the 87th minute, when Saucedo had a perfect opportunity to equalize from within the six-yard box only for Rodriguez to deny him with a brilliant save.
“There’s a young keeper, you could tell he was nervous,” Briggs said. “You could tell he was anxious, so we spoke about hitting the target. We spoke about putting him under pressure. But that was the only shot in the second half he had to save.”
Two minutes after that shot, Legion had Damus break free behind the Miami backline, only to be wrongfully called back for offside. Saucedo then had a half-opportunity at the backpost but could not sort his feet out fast enough to get off a shot, and Jackson Travis sent the game’s final shot wide and over soon after.
The result moved Miami level on points with Birmingham, and ahead on tiebreakers. As a result, Birmingham will finish the season as the bottom team in the USL Championship unless they can get an unlikely result away to Charleston Battery next week.
“We’ve just got to try and go out there and put out a performance that at least shows a bit of pride,” Briggs said. “Right now we’re carrying the wooden spoon, and it’s not where anyone wants to be.”
Birmingham Legion travel to Charleston Battery at 4 p.m. October 25. The game will be on WABM My68 locally and streamable live on ESPN+ nationally.
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