BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Facing the top team in USL Championship was only compounded by playing a second match in four days with a shorthanded roster, as Birmingham Legion FC could not keep up with the torrid second half scoring pace of Louisville City FC in a 4-1 defeat at Protective Stadium on Saturday night.
“What you was tired legs,” said coach Tom Soehn following his squad’s first loss in 20 days.
“Not to make excuses because they played better than us and took it to us, especially in the second half. We just had a tough time finding space and you could just see how tired we were as the game went on.”
With just five outfield players available on the bench due to a recent rash of injuries, The Three Sparks simply ran out of gas after getting to halftime with the match still scoreless. However, Louisville City’s press finally broke through in the 51st minute with a headed goal by Sam Gleadle off an assist from Wilson Harris.
Harris then followed that with his 11th goal of the season coming just eight minutes later after his corner kick went through the hands of Legion FC goalkeeper Jayden Hibbert and into the goal. The hits kept on coming with Ray Serrano sinking a free kick just outside the box in the 80th minute, and then Tola Showunmi capped off the scoring with a goal in the 87th minute.
“We struggled to get pressure to the ball,” said defender Alex Crognale, who was one of nine Legion FC players that started Saturday’s night after doing the same last Wednesday against Detroit City FC. “They were creating overloads all over the field and coming off a short week for us, we just were not able to perform to the level that we expect of ourselves.”
Birmingham’s lone goal came from Preston Tabort Etaka in the 82nd minute. The Cameroonian forward was able to get inside his defender off the dribble and into the box after receiving a long ball from Kobe Hernandez-Foster, before sending in a ball back across intended for Tyler Pasher. However, the pass was deflected right back to Tabort Etaka’s feet, leading to an easy tap-in for his second goal of the season, cutting the deficit at 3-1.
Playing a high press for much of the night, Louisville kept peppering the Legion FC defense for much of the evening, completing 344 of its 407 pass attempts, and more than half of those (210) occurred on the attacking half of the pitch.
“It was a tough, especially at home where we expect to be better,” Soehn said. “They controlled the game against us and that is something that we haven’t been used to lately with how we’ve been playing.”
For the match, Louisville outshot Legion FC 18-12 with 14 of those shots coming in the final 45 minutes of the match.
“It’s a disappointing result,” Crognale explained. “We just have to rebound, recover and get ready for next week.”
Having scored on a pair of corners a couple of days ago in Detroit, Legion FC almost opened the match in similar fashion with a goal off a corner in the 21st minute. Pasher whipped a ball towards the far post that deflected off Alex Crognale right back across the goal. Derek Dodson was able to redirect towards the right bottom right corner, but with not enough pace and goalkeeper Damian Las was able to make the diving stop.
Las was called into action again just four minutes later with another diving stop on a Pasher left-footed strike that the forward got off after dribbling against three Louisville defenders on a counter attack.
A scary moment occurred right before halftime with Hibbert and Louisville City forward Jorge Gonzalez colliding with both going after a ball in the box. Both were immediately attended to by team doctors. Hibbert remained in the game, but Gonzalez had to be stretchered off, with Gleadles coming in for him.
Match Details
| BOX SCORE | 1ST HALF | 2ND HALF | FINAL |
| LOU (12W – 3L – 2D) | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| BHM (7W – 6L – 3D) | 0 | 1 | 1 |
LINEUPS
LOU: Las – GK, Charpie, Ordonez, Totsch, Morris (Dia 90+1′), Davila, Wynder (McCabe 90+1′), McFadden (Wilson 84′), Gonzalez (Gleadle 42′), Harris – C (Showunmi 84′), Serrano
BHM: Hibbert – GK, Paterson (Hamouda 71′), Kavita – C, Crognale, Dodson, Mensah (Perez 64′), Hernandez-Foster, Martinez, Nwegbo (Kasim 54′), Tabort Etaka, Pasher
GOALS
LOU: Gleadle 51′, Harris 58′, Serrano 80′, Showunmi 87′
BHM: Tabort Etaka 82′
DISCIPLINE
LOU: Charpie (Yellow) 17′, Gonzalez (Yellow) 41′, Ordonez (Yellow) 45+4′
BHM:
NEXT UP
Legion FC get a bit of a break to recuperate following Saturday’s loss, but not much. The team travels to South Carolina later this week for a road matchup with the Charleston Battery, who won the first contest between these two teams back in May with a 1-0 win at Protective Stadium. Kick-off for the rematch is set for 6:30 p.m. on July 5.
