
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Wednesday night was cathartic in a lot of ways for Birmingham Legion FC, as the club produced its largest margin of victory this season in a 3-0 win over San Antonio FC. The Three Sparks also looked good in doing so, with the special Juneteenth kits making a triumphant debut at Protective Stadium.
“We were able to create really good opportunities,” said Legion FC coach Tom Soehn. “But you still have to capitalize on those opportunities and once we got that first goal, they had to come out and try to get back into the game and we were able to control things a bit better from there.”
After narrowly missing early scoring opportunities while trying to figure out San Antonio’s low-block in the first half, a 51st minute goal from Alex Crognale off a set piece opened the floodgates with Preston Tabort Etaka and Tyler Pasher following suit to cap off a much-needed high-octane offensive showing in front of a home crowd.
“We had plenty of possession but we were just lacking the final pass,” Crognale said of a first half in which Birmingham mustered only four shots and none on target.
“To put a few on the board and having different guys find the goal in the second half is big for our confidence and it gave us a much-needed big result at home.”
Crognale’s goal was his first of the season and it came right off the training ground.
Having won a corner kick, Pasher played an in-swinger that was headed towards the back post by AJ Paterson and served on a platter for Crognale who redirected it towards goal. It appeared San Antonio goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh may have kept it out on first glance, but the officials quickly rewarded the Birmingham defender with the goal.
“It’s always good to get a goal like that, especially off a set piece that we had been working on all week in training,” said Crognale. “We took control of the game after that and the opportunities just started to flow.”
Things immediately opened for Birmingham from there, and just four minutes later, the home side doubled its lead with Tabort Etaka, having just entered that match out of halftime, receiving the ball on the break before beating San Antonio FC defender Mitchell Taintor with some slick dribbling and slotting one far post by a diving McIntosh.
“It felt so good to get my first goal of the year,” said Tabort Etaka. “And to do it in front of our beautiful fans was really something good. That type of goal is what I’m good at in training, but if you do it just in training it doesn’t count, so I’m thankful that I finished it in a game.”
With the match well in hand in the 87th minute, Pasher put an exclamation point on the fun with a beautiful turn off a feed from Derek Dodson, followed by a strike just outside of the box and into the left corner for the Canadian forward’s third goal in USL Championship play.
“It was nice to dominate at home,” Pasher said. “We needed that for a good boost in morale. Getting that third goal just makes it so much easier for the guys because everybody knows that a 2-0 lead isn’t always an easy one to hold.”
For the match, Birmingham out possessed SAFC 64.5% to 35.5% with 30 touches in its opponents box, leading to 21 total shots and nine on target – the most from the club in any match this season.
“We were kind of playing without a true forward,” Soehn explained of his starting lineup. “That can be hard but Pasher was running in behind all game, Preston came in and added something with Prosper (Kasim) moving around to be more of a 10 and Enzo (Martinez) won some really big balls that led to our chances.
“Our guys are pretty versatile and that’s always a good thing.”
Having just been acquired on loan from the squad to spell an injured Matt Van Oekel, goalkeeper Jayden Hibbert posted a clean sheet in his Legion FC debut . Other than getting tested with a long ball right off the opening kick-off from San Antonio FC, the 19-year-old Atlanta United loanee was not bothered much throughout the match, facing just one shot on target which ended with an easy save.
Hibbert finished the match with 31 completed passes on 36 attempts.
“He was strong and communicating the whole game,” said Crognale of his goalkeeper. “When we needed him, he made plays. It’s great that we can have a young player like that come in and fill the role to do his job right away.”
Match Details
BOX SCORE | 1ST HALF | 2ND HALF | FINAL |
SA (4W – 7L – 5D) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
BHM (6W – 5L – 3D) | 0 | 3 | 3 |
LINEUPS
SA: McIntosh – GK, Taintor – C, Burks, Windbichler, Flores, Chol (Garza 89′), Haakenson, Hernandez, Gomez, Lacey (Mulato 71′), LaCava (Fernandez 89′)
BHM: Hibbert – GK, Paterson (Hamouda 86′), Kavita – C, Crognale, Dodson, McCartney, Rufe (Tabort Etaka 46′), Hernandez-Foster (Perez 90+1′), Pasher, Martinez, Kasim (Pinho 86′)
GOALS
SA:
BHM: Crognale 51′, Tabort Etaka 55′, Pasher 87′
DISCIPLINE
SA: Gomez (Yellow) 51′, Taintor (Yellow) 65′
BHM: Rufe (Yellow) 16′
NEXT UP
Looking to build off of this momentum, Legion FC hits the road in a week with a match at Detroit City FC on Wednesday, June 26 for a 6:00 p.m. CT kick-off. The club will then quickly head back south for a home match on Saturday, June 29 against USLC Eastern Conference leader Louisville City FC. Tickets can be purchased HERE.