BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – With a monumental upset up for grabs, Birmingham Legion FC had its share of chances against the Charleston Battery at Protective Stadium. Unfortunately for the home side, it found a tough time in converting those opportunities in a 1-0 loss to the undefeated USL Championship leaders on Wednesday night.
“When you play good teams, it’s about who takes advantage of those opportunities and they got one and we didn’t,” said Legion FC coach Tom Soehn. “I do feel like we are headed in the right direction and we’ve shored up some of the areas that we needed to fix but we came out on the wrong side of this one, so it hurts.”
Goal-scoring opportunities were at a premium in the match, and it was Birmingham that had more total shots, more shots on target and an advantage in the expected-goal metric at 0.69 to Charleston’s 0.61. Ironically, it was in the 61st minute that the Battery struck with Emilio Ycaza finding open space inside the box off a pass from Mark Segbers and finishing with his right foot.
“It’s disappointing, especially at home,” said Legion FC defender Alex Crognale of the loss. “Overall, I think we competed hard. It’s something we can build on because we’re getting into the right spots, it’s just about making the correct decisions and being sharp on the ball.”
The game’s only goal came against the run of play with Legion FC controlling the possession numbers to that point after Charleston had the advantage in the first 45 minutes. But a costly Birmingham turnover in the midfield sprung the Battery attack.
“One mistake is all it took,” Crognale explained. “We we outnumbered the other direction and that ends up being the decider.”
After falling behind, The Three Sparks threw even more numbers in the attack and had Charleston exclusively in a bunker for the rest of the match.
The best opportunity for an equalizer came in the 84th minute with Diba Nwegbo, having entered just three minutes prior, nearly became the most super of substitutes when he received a long ball just outside the box on the left side and quickly cut in to fire a shot low right-footed stinger that beat his defender, but not Battery goalkeeper Adam Grinwis, who went down to parry the ball wide.
“We had a bunch of different looks,” said Soehn. “We have to find ways to come out of games like this and get that goal. If we bury those, it’s a different game. But that’s how this game is, it’s always about one or two chances and whoever takes finishes those.”
Legion FC nearly got on the board ten minutes into the match. In the team’s first real spell of possession, Crognale played an inch-perfect long ball switch to Stefano Pinho down the left side. A couple of passes later saw the ball switch back to the right side to Mujeeb Murana, who sent in a cross to Dawson McCartney, but his one-time volley glanced off the outside of the post and out of play.
Right before the end of the first half, the two sides traded a pair of chances that sailed over the crossbar. Coming out of the second half, it was again Birmingham who came out on the front foot with with Murana again in the middle of it as he picked out Pinho in front of goal. A header into the box found Enzo Martinez who rocketed one with his left foot while falling, but right at Grinwis for the second of his five saves on the evening.
Match Details
| BOX SCORE | 1ST HALF | 2ND HALF | FINAL |
| CHS (8W – 0L – 3D) | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| BHM (4W – 4L – 3D) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
LINEUPS
CHS: Grinwis – GK (Kuzemka 90+9′), Dossantos, Smith, Archer – C, Segbers, Allan (Crawford 90+5′), Molloy, Torres (Conway 88′), Ycaza (Rodriguez 79′), Markanich (Drack 88′), Myers (LaCava 79′)
BHM: Van Oekel – GK, McCartney (Nwegbo 81′), Kavita – C, Crognale, Murana, Hernandez-Foster, Rufe (Perez 65′), Martinez, Paterson (Mensah 65′), Pasher (Kasim 71′), Pinho (Tabort Etaka 71′)
GOALS
CHS: Ycaza 61′
BHM:
DISCIPLINE
CHS: Molloy (Yellow) 69′, Rodriguez (Yellow) 88′
BHM: Martinez (Yellow) 45′, Crognale (Yellow) 74′, Tabort Etaka (Yellow) 86′
NEXT UP
Having played three matches over eight days, Birmingham won’t be back on the pitch for ten more days when it travels west for a match on Saturday, May 25 against Sacramento Republic FC. Like the Charleston Battery, SRFC has yet to drop a match this season and is currently at the top of the USLC West Conference table with 20 points. Legion FC return to Protective Stadium on June 9 against Indy Eleven.
