
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – It was a Wednesday night that just did not seem to go Birmingham Legion FC’s way from the very beginning. Having to fight from behind after giving up a first minute goal proved costly for The Three Sparks, as it dropped three points at Protective Stadium in a 3-1 loss to Rhode Island FC.
Noah Fuson got a goal for the away side in the opening minute, followed by Rhode Island, and former Legion FC, forward Zach Heriveaux coming on as a second half substitute to tally a brace with goals in the 68th and 77th minute. It answered a Prosper Kasim wonder strike that equalized the game for Birmingham right out of halftime in the 50th minute.
“It shows a lack of concentration from us,” said Birmingham coach Tom Soehn. “We were behind the eight-ball immediately and that’s no way to start a game. I hope that’s an anomaly going forward, but we simply can’t afford to do that,”
With the loss, Legion FC falls back to a .500 record on the season and is now 3W-5L-1D at home, while Rhode Island FC pushes its unbeaten streak to six games.
“This one hurts,” said midfielder Enzo Martinez. “It’s been happening too much and we just got to figure it out as a team and put a good stretch together, so we can get ourselves back up to a good standing.”
With a lively home crowd behind it, things seemed to be trending towards Birmingham’s favor early in the second half when Dawson McCartney triggered a four-on-three break in the attacking third. He slotted a pass to Kasim just inside the right corner of the box and the Ghanian forward got off a left-footed curler that froze Rhode Island FC goalkeeper Koke Vegas, as the ball sailed into the upper left corner to tie the match up at one goal apiece.
It was Kasim’s second goal of the season and first since his second half strike in a 3-1 win over El Paso Locomotive FC on June 1.
“When the goal went in we had a belief,” recalled Martinez. “We were all on the same page about pushing for the second goal and trying to get the three points We worked so hard to get back in, but unfortunately it just didn’t happen.”
However, the equal score line was short lived when a costly turnover in Legion FC’s own half sprung JJ Williams, who dribbled into the box before backheeling it to Heriveaux, who slotted it home to put Rhode Island FC back in front.
Williams then doubled up his account eleven minutes later with a shot from the top of the box that a diving Trevor Spangenberg was only able to get his fingertips on.
“I thought we made some good adjustments at halftime and we kind of controlled the game up to that point,” explained Soehn. “But then we gave a really poor ball away to hand them the second goal and from there, the rest was history.”
Rhode Island FC came out of the gates with an ambush on its mind as Fuson got off a first-time strike that beat Spangenberg to the lower right corner for a 1-0 lead just 45 seconds into the match.
“It makes the game a lot tougher,” Martinez said of falling behind early. “After that goal, they didn’t have the need to push forward as much, so they just sat back and made it even harder to break them down. They are team that benefits from that counter and that’s exactly what they did to us.”
McCartney nearly answered with an equalizer 17 minutes later when he received the perfect layoff from Kasim following a cross from Stefano Pinho. McCartney took a touch before firing off a shot that glanced off the cross bar and out of play.
The midfielder had another chance in the 39th minute via a left footed strike that forced Vegas to push it wide on a diving stop to his right. Legion FC went into halftime with the advantage in possession, passing accuracy and even expected goals, but had yet to find a way to nullify its opponent’s early goal.
It marked the 16th time this season that Legion FC failed to score a first half goal.
“We got to find a way to get around this,” said Martinez. “I believe we’re a good team, but we have to get it done on gameday.”
Match Details
BOX SCORE | 1ST HALF | 2ND HALF | FINAL |
RI (5W – 4L – 10D) | 1 | 2 | 3 |
BHM (8W – 8L – 3D) | 0 | 1 | 1 |
LINEUPS
RI: Vegas – GK C, Stoneman, Yao, Nodarse, Kwizera (Smith 84′), Holstad (Heriveaux 63′) , Ybarra, Turnbull, Fuson, Williams (Brito 72′), Dikwa (Doyle 84′)
BHM: Spangenberg- GK, Hamouda (Paterson 64′), Kavita – C, Crognale, Dodson, Rufe (Mensah 78′), Hernandez-Foster, McCartney (Tabort Etaka 59′), Martinez, Pinho, Kasim (Perez 78′)
GOALS
RI: Fuson 1′. Hariveaux 68′, 77′
BHM: Kasim 50′
DISCIPLINE
RI: Dikwa (Yellow) 7′, Ybarra (Yellow) 13′
BHM: Crognale (Yellow) 31′, Paterson (Yellow) 78′
NEXT UP
There is no time to sulk on the loss for Legion FC, as it gets just one day of training before hopping on a plane and heading out west for a match at New Mexico United on Saturday.
“We just have to forge ahead,” said Soehn of his message to the team. “We have to put this one behind us, have a short memory and get back at it this weekend.”
Kick-off is set for 8:00 p.m. Birmingham then returns home to Protective Stadium the following Saturday on July 27 to face Orange County SC. Tickets for that match can be purchased HERE.