Game Preview: Birmingham Legion @ Hartford Athletic

A potential trap game

The Legion got a much-needed home victory last week in the first game under Eric Avila. They will be looking to build momentum on that and this week's opponent nis likely a very good opportunity to do just that.

Hartford Athletic joined the USL Championship the same year as the Legion. Their performance has historically been pretty much the opposite. They have qualified for the playoffs just once in 2020. They are currently on their seventh head coach (including an interim appointment). Woof.

This year they are 0-4-0 in league play and have been outscored 7-1, the only goal coming in a loss to El Paso Locomotive. The only win they have managed was a 3-0 affair over New York Shockers of the NPSL in the first round of the Open Cup. They proceeded to lose to USL League One Portland Hearts of Pine in the second round (going down 4-2 on PKs after a 1-1 draw). Even getting good shots in has been a struggle: they have just 5 shots on target in league play.

The lone goal is worst in the league; no one else has less than 4. They also rank last in shots (25, 11 adrift of the next worst team) and despite the low shot total also last in conversion rate (5%). It's a pretty punchless attack.

The winless and drawless start is not exactly new territory for the Athletic. In 2019 they didn't earn a point until the 9th game and didn't win until the 11th. In 2022 their first win was the 8th game. In 2023 it was the 6th game. Slow starts are pretty much par for the course for these guys.

Thjis week won't be helped by the fact that they incurred two red cards in their last game, a 0-2 loss at Loudoun United. The suspensions would have been served last week against Indy Eleven, but that game was postponed due to weather issues. So defender Adrian Diz Pe and midfielder Beverly Makangila will be out tomorrow. Both are regular starters for the team so this is a huge advantage for the Three Sparks before the game even kicks off.

It is hard to guess what formation Hartford will be using tomorrow (3:00pm, ESPN+). In four games they have deployed 3 different setups: 4-2-3-1 (twice), 4-1-4-1 and 5-4-1. The last was against Loudoun; the extra defender clearly did not help (Makangila was red-carded 5 minutes into second-half stoppage time so that had no impact). I would anticipate a 4-man back line tomorrow but how they arrange the remaining playres is a mystery.

It should however be noted that they have only played one home game to date and that was the game they scored in. Thus they can be expected to want to build on that and vigorously defend their home turf. I asked Eric about that and how this is potentially a trap game. He said, "Boy, ity's one of those where we don;lt know what's going on, right? They're still trying to find their identity and they're still trying to figure out who they are, and sometimes that can be dangerous." He added that Hartford is "a team that's hungry and wants to play at home [after not having] played in two weeks...We're going to be expecting a very aggressive team."

Asked about how he rated Sam McIllhatton;s debut game he said, "I think he;s been a great addition to our teaam, someone that is more of a number 6 role...He comes from a place that he's already fit, so it wasn't too much getting him up to speed. But tactuically he's been helping us out at least being very stable." Eric also praised his organization and discipline (both important in that position). He also noted that "he could be pushing up to a number 8."

Finally, I talked to Tyler Pasher about his recovery from surgery and first start of the season. He said that this week he "probably could push another 15-20 minutes." That's obviously good although coach may be a little more careful with him. However, he was so-so on his performance against El Paso. "Not as good as I...could have been, but, you know, at the end of the day the team won. So that's all that matters" Elaborating on that he said, "I think we got a lot of energy coming off of a good strong home win, so you know the guys are really starting to come together as a group, so I think we'll take that momentum from this past weekend and carry it forward."

Prediction: Well, the Three Sparks got the new coach bounce last week and are now in much better mental shape. That doesn't mean they can relax against an obviously weaker opponent. If they keep their heads in the game, they will win, likely by multiple goals again. And that is exactly what I expect them to do.

(Excerpted from the Football Forge)