
EL PASO, Texas – For weeks, Birmingham Legion FC has felt that its scoring form would eventually come around. Those beliefs proved to be true Saturday evening at Southwest University Park, as The Three Sparks found the back of the net seemingly at will in a 3-1 victory over El Paso Locomotive FC.
“We emphasized the attack a little bit more coming into this one,” said Birmingham coach Tom Soehn. “Changing that mentality is always something that takes repetition and time, so it was good to see guys capitalize on areas that we thought we could hurt them and finish those chances.”
Having been held scoreless for 229 minutes of play over the course of more than two matches, Dawson McCartney and Prosper Kasim opened the floodgates with a pair of goals in the opening 45 minutes for their first of the 2024 season, while Tyler Pasher capped off a thrilling individual performance with a worldie of a goal early in the second half.
“A match like this is huge because we have a good defensive discipline but that doesn’t mean much if you don’t score goals.” explained Soehn. “Tonight we saw it come to fruition on the attacking side because the guys executed, so we are heading in the right direction.”
Dropping numbers back and ready to pounce anytime El Paso turned the ball over, Legion FC was ruthless when on the attack, leading the match with seven shots on goal and 18 total shots – 12 of which occurred inside the box.
Pasher played a big part in that by wreaking havoc upon the El Paso defense. In 84 minutes of work, the Canadian forward led Birmingham with four successful dribbles, 18 passes in the final third and four crosses while also winning seven of his 13 duels.
He put an exclamation point on his performance in the 64th minute when he perfectly placed a left-footed curler from about 15 yards out for his second goal of the season to put Birmingham in the driver’s seat with a two-goal advantage.
“He was so active tonight and caused them a lot of issues,” Soehn said of Pasher. “He could’ve had even more goals because we missed him a couple of times when he got in behind and then their keeper made kind of a lucky save on a really good shot from him.”
Pasher’s goal came on the end of a fantastic spell of Legion FC possession that saw 11 consecutive completed passes among seven different players.
“There were some really good moments and build ups that we had throughout the match,” Soehn said. “It always helps when you take advantage of those opportunities and put them in the goal.”
Birmingham opened the match’s account in the 26th minute off a throw-in deep in El Paso’s half where Kasim picked out Enzo Martinez at the top of the box and the star forward kept the sequence going with a perfect through-ball to spring McCartney free. The midfielder finished the job with a shot to the far post that froze El Paso goalkeeper Jahmali Waite.
It marked the first goal for Birmingham since Martinez scored a 67th minute winner against the Tampa Bay Rowdies on May 11. It was also the club’s first goal in the first half of a match since Martinez scored in the 23rd minute in a 1-1 draw with North Carolina FC on April 14.
Following a Locomotive FC equalizer from Justin Dhillon right before the halftime break, Kasim quickly answered in the third minute of stoppage time by getting on the end of a ball that was played over the top from AJ Paterson and blasting it into the goal to give Birmingham the lead right back.
“That’s a good character builder to be able to respond like that,” Soehn said of Kasim’s goal. “It was great because we worked on that this week, knowing that their backs push up really high and that those balls into the pockets were on and it was good to see us finish like that.”
Match Details
BOX SCORE | 1ST HALF | 2ND HALF | FINAL |
BHM (5W – 4L – 3D) | 2 | 1 | 3 |
ELP (2W – 9L – 2D) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
LINEUPS
BHM: Van Oekel – GK, Paterson, Kavita – C, Crognale, Dodson, McCartney (Perez 69′), Hernandez-Foster, Rufe, Pasher (Tabort Etaka 84′), Martinez (Mensah 84′), Kasim (Nwegbo 79′)
ELP: Waite – GK, Stauffer (Lyons 28′), Alfaro, Craig, Hinds (Dollenmayer 79′), Rivas (Zacarias 64′), Moshobane, Rose (Akinyode 64′), Calvillo – C, Moreno (Petrovic 64′), Dhillon
GOALS
BHM: McCartney 26′, Kasim 45+3′, Pasher 64′
ELP: Dhillon 44′
DISCIPLINE
BHM: Pasher (Yellow) 34′, McCartney 45+7′
ELP: Craig (Yellow) 29′
NEXT UP
After a pair of matches out west, Birmingham returns home to Protective Stadium for a date with USL Championship Eastern Conference foe, Indy Eleven. Kick-off is set for 6:00 p.m. CT on Sunday June 9. Tickets can be purchased HERE.