SMITHFIELD, RI – The road magic that the club has possessed for much of the season was not there for Birmingham Legion FC on Saturday night. A pair of second half goals from Rhode Island FC spelled doomed for The Three Sparks as it falls 2-0 at Beirne Stadium for a third consecutive loss – its longest such streak of the 2024 USL Championship campaign.
“We need to fix where we are going,” said Legion FC coach Tom Soehn. “We haven’t lost three straight this year, so we got some work to do.”
The setback sees Legion FC drop a spot to seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, while Rhode Island jumps up two spots to fifth.
Absorbing pressure from the home side for the majority of the match, the dam finally, and unfortunately, broke midway through the second half with a Rhode Island goal from Spencer Turnbull. Substitute JJ Williams, who provided the assist for Turnbull earlier, then doubled the lead in the 90th minute.
Meanwhile, the offensive struggles continued for Birmingham as it was outshot 15-4 en route to a third straight outing without finding the back of the net.
“We just didn’t create enough chances on the night,” said Soehn. “It’s frustrating.”
Having trouble finding openings on the attack, Legion FC’s only two shots on target were both long range efforts.
The first occurred in the 16th minute with midfielder Rida Zouhir lacing one low and away but not enough to trouble Rhode Island goalkeeper Koke Vegas who corralled the ball. Dawson McCartney then tried to equalize the match almost immediately after Turnbull’s opener with a rocket from well outside the box that forced Vegas to leave his feet and make the catch over his head for his second and final save of the evening.
“We just kept losing the ball in key spots,” Soehn said of the lack of goal-scoring opportunities, with Rhode Island FC winning possession eight times in the attacking third of the field.
“We’d connect on two or three passes and then give it up and because we kept losing the ball we started playing a little more direct and that made it easy for them to defend.”
Things were much more eventful for Birmingham goalkeeper Matt Van Oakel, who finished the night with four saves including an incredible reaction on a first-time shot from Clay Holstad in the 66th minute. He then somehow got his left-foot on what appeared to be a sure goal for Jojea Kwizera in the 89th minute.
However, those two chances appeared to be warning shots from Rhode Island as Turnbull found himself alone in front of goal for a first-time finish in the 70th minute after Williams got a touch to him off a cross from Marc Ybarra on the left-side of the box. Williams then sealed Legion FC’s fate with a free header off corner to the near post that saw the ball glance of the bottom of the cross bar and go in.
“We were defending well for much of the night and I felt the effort was there,” said Soehn. “The first one came on kind of a broken play and then from there we were chasing the game and gave up another one.”
Rhode Island FC grabbed ahold of the momentum with seven of its 15 shots coming within the opening 25 minutes of the match. The battle for final third possession entries was close with Legion FC getting to that area 46 times to the 52 from its opponent, but the difference was shown in the passing numbers with Rhode Island completing 75.8% of its 149 passes in the final third, while Birmingham achieved 53.2% of its 77 passes.
Match Details
| BOX SCORE | 1ST HALF | 2ND HALF | FINAL |
| BHM (10W – 11L – 5D; 35 PTS) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| RI (8W – 5L – 13D; 37 PTS) | 0 | 2 | 2 |
LINEUPS
BHM: Van Oekel – GK, Mensah (Paterson 80′), Crognale (Pinho 80′), Kavita – C, Dodson, Hernandez-Foster (Rufe 69′), McCartney, Martinez, Zouhir (Perez 87′), Kasim (Corcoran 69′), Tabort Etaka
RI: Vegas – GK C, Nodarse, Yao, Duggan, Kwizera (Alves 90+2′), Ybarra, Holstad, Turnbull, Fuson (Williams 67′), Dikwa (Doyle 90+2′), Panayotou
GOALS
BHM:
RI: Turnbull 71′; Williams 90′
DISCIPLINE
BHM: Crognale (Yellow) 30′; Paterson (Yellow) 90+3′
RI: Duggan (Yellow) 19′; Turnbull (Yellow) 72′; Kwizera (Yellow) 89′; Brito (Yellow) 90+3′
NEXT UP
Following the loss, Legion FC will have to wait a little bit before its next opportunity to get things back on track. The squad returns to Protective Stadium on Wednesday, September 11 to face the Tampa Bay Rowdies for a special Salute to Service Night match. Kick-off is set for 7:00 p.m. and tickets can be purchased HERE.
