BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A late rally was thwarted by the clock on Sunday evening as Birmingham Legion FC ran out of time in a 3-2 loss to North Carolina FC at Protective Stadium. The defeat now puts The Three Sparks in a precarious spot with three matches left to play in the 2024 USL Championship regular season.
Midfielder Rida Zouhir notched his first goal for the club with a long-range strike in the 89th minute to pull within a goal. Birmingham made sure to keep the ball in the attacking half of the pitch for the seven minutes of stoppage time, but was unable to find an equalizer as the second of two goals on the night from North Carolina’s Ezra Armstrong held up in the end.
Legion FC remains in seventh play in the USL-C Eastern Conference standings on 42 points, but no longer controls its own destiny with eighth place Loudoun United FC sitting on 41 points with a game in hand, while North Carolina FC is three points back in ninth on one less game and has the head-to-head tiebreaker over Birmingham with Sunday’s result.
With the match tied at one apiece to begin the second half, the visitors flipped the script with a pair of goals in the span of six minutes to grab the momentum. Legion FC had already clawed itself out of a deficit in the first half when midfielder Enzo Martinez answered an eighth minute goal from North Carolina FC by nabbing his fifth goal of the season in the 32nd.
Legion FC finished with a higher expected goals metric than its opponents (1.18 – 0.93) and had 22 total shots to NCFC’s 14 on 20 more final third entries (77-57), but were ultimately unable to convert on enough of its chances.
With goalkeeper Matt Van Oekel out due to injury, Trevor Spangenberg was quickly called into action in the second minute for his first save of the match. North Carolina then grabbed a lead six minutes later with Armstrong receiving a switch on the left side before cutting in and firing one past Spangenberg.
The more opportunities then began to come on the other side of the pitch with Legion FC probing NCFC’s high backline. After a couple of offside calls and some half chances, the breakthrough finally came with Martinez timing his run to receive a through-ball from Tyler Pasher, putting the veteran midfielder into space. Martinez finished things off with a left-footed blast that glanced off goalkeeper Jake McGuire on its way into the net.
It was Martinez’ first goal since he scored on August 4 against Hartford Athletic.
Birmingham nearly pulled out in front right before the stroke of halftime with Derek Dodson heading a corner that hit off the outside of the post.
Missed chances were unfortunately a theme on the night for Legion FC with forward Stefano Pinho having a shot inside the six-yard box deflected away on some last ditch defending in the 14th minute. Pinho then nearly got a foot on a driven centered ball from Dodson in the 23rd.
North Carolina FC regained the lead 14 minutes into the second half when forward Oalex Anderson chested down a cross from Rafa Mentzingen and got a right-footed shot off that split Spangenberg and the near post. It marked Anderson’s team-leading 10th goal of the season.
Armstrong would then complete his brace in the 65th minute with a driven shot from just outside the box on the left side that found the side net in the far corner to put Legion FC in a 3-1 hole.
With numbers thrusted forward for the rest of the evening, Zouhir pulled one back just before stoppage time when he received a pass from Moses Mensah, saw that NCFC defenders were giving him space from roughly 30 yards out and unleashed a heated curler that a diving McGuire could only get a fingertip on as he watched it go past him and in.
With Sunday’s result, Birmingham has now gone winless in its last seven matches in which it has conceded the first goal. The last time Legion FC came back from such a deficit was on July 14 in a 3-1 victory at Protective Stadium over Colorado Springs Switchbacks SC.
The defense continues to feel the absences of Phanuel Kavita, AJ Paterson and now Van Oekel due to injury with opposing teams having scored eight goals in the last four matches.
Match Details
| BOX SCORE | 1ST HALF | 2ND HALF | FINAL |
| NC (10W – 11L – 9D; 39 PTS) | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| BHM (12W – 13L – 6D; 42 PTS) | 1 | 1 | 2 |
LINEUPS
NC: McGuire – GK, Craig – C, Washington, Batista, Armstrong, Maldonado, Martin, Mentzingen (Brewer 82′), Perez (Conway 45′), da Costa (Servania 72′), Anderson (Hayes 88′)
BHM: Spangenberg – GK, McCartney, Rufe, Crognale, Dodson (Tabort Etaka 72′), Zouhir, Hernandez-Foster (Corcoran 72′), Martinez – C, Matheus (Nwegbo 60′), Pasher (Mensah 64′), Pinho
GOALS
NC: Armstrong 8′, 65′; Anderson 59′
BHM: Martinez 32′; Zouhir 89′
DISCIPLINE
NC:
BHM: Rufe (Yellow) 45+3′; Hernandez-Foster (Yellow) 46′; Zouhir 80′
NEXT UP
With no room left for error, Legion FC will look to close out its 2024 home slate at Protective Stadium next Sunday, October 13, with a win when it welcomes in Las Vegas Lights FC. Kick-off is set for 5:00 p.m. and tickets can be purchased HERE. Birmingham will then close out the regular season with trips to Indy Eleven on October 19 and Oakland Roots SC on October 23.
