Speaker 1: Hello, and we'll go to this episode of Hammering Down.
Speaker 1: I'm my host, Cal Hodges. I'm hoping you're having a
Speaker 1: great day. I want to go ahead quickly apologize if
Speaker 1: my mic doesn't sound amazing. My microphone in the middle
Speaker 1: of the last episode just completely died on me. So
Speaker 1: I went back to an old microphone that doesn't sound
Speaker 1: as good and it's a little spotty, so if it
Speaker 1: loses connection, it sounds like it's the all the audio
Speaker 1: is coming through my computer, uh speaker, uh computer microphone.
Speaker 1: It's because it is. Hopefully I won't do that, Hopefully
Speaker 1: it'll survive, and hopefully you don't notice too big of
Speaker 1: a difference. So in this episode, we're gonna do our
Speaker 1: first half as we're gonna talk about the stadium. We're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about Protective Stadium. We're gonna have the conversation,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna go to a film study. If
Speaker 1: you're a YouTube watcher, the first half of this is
Speaker 1: going to be the stadium, and then there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a second video with this same intro that is going
Speaker 1: to be the film study. So they will be two
Speaker 1: completely separate videos. And then if you're podcast this is
Speaker 1: all one thing. So again, if you are watching the
Speaker 1: film study, this is the same intro as the stadium intro,
Speaker 1: so that's going to say the same. So without furdu,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and get into this episode, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna start off with the stadium. I've noticed, especially after
Speaker 1: playing Rhode Island FC, that a lot of people did
Speaker 1: not appreciate the fact that the the biggest attendances for
Speaker 1: Rhode Island came against Birmingham with a lot of our
Speaker 1: former players. And then Legion are still sitting in Protective
Speaker 1: and there was a really interesting moment after Charleston where
Speaker 1: the Welsh Fireman took over the stadium a little bit
Speaker 1: versus Charleston. The atmosphere was awesome, and I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people kind of got a taste of what
Speaker 1: a fantastic atmosphere was like and it happened in Protective
Speaker 1: and I'm just going to tell you this, there was
Speaker 1: nothing that the Fireman did any different that Legion fans
Speaker 1: can't already do. I think the issue with a lot
Speaker 1: of what is wrong with Protective in terms of atmosphere
Speaker 1: is that everybody wants an atmosphere, but not maning. People
Speaker 1: want to create it okay. So you know you had
Speaker 1: the Welsh doing like the big clap right that, there's
Speaker 1: no reason why the grandstand can't do that. Already, the
Speaker 1: Magisley Brigade does like the hammer down hammer down, and
Speaker 1: like half the crowd does it. There's no reason why
Speaker 1: the whole crowd can't do it every single time. I
Speaker 1: don't think there was anything that the Welsh did besides
Speaker 1: doing it that's different than the regular fans. All it
Speaker 1: takes is the regular fans doing it. So instead of
Speaker 1: just being a passenger, you know, let's all get on
Speaker 1: this train and drive it together pretty much. But you know,
Speaker 1: if you would rather be more of the I'm here
Speaker 1: to watch the game, I'm not here to sing, that's
Speaker 1: totally fine and that's totally fair. And a lot of
Speaker 1: people have talked about missing the old atmospheres at BBBA.
Speaker 1: People who've went to some of the matches at Donemo
Speaker 1: Valley down at the Valley, you would know that the
Speaker 1: atmospheres are pretty fun. If you've been out to Montavallo. Yes,
Speaker 1: even the album of soccer matches Birmingham Southern right, those
Speaker 1: matches have been fun. The atmospheres have been fun because
Speaker 1: it's a smaller stadium, everybody's close together and it feels
Speaker 1: more lively. So how do we get there? And I
Speaker 1: know everybody's going to say, build a studium, build a stadium,
Speaker 1: Build a stadium, build a stadium, Okay, and there is
Speaker 1: There's only so much you can do, right because if
Speaker 1: the club was just interested in building aue stadium, they
Speaker 1: would go out to Chelsea, they would go way out
Speaker 1: into Leeds or somewhere else in those counties and say
Speaker 1: we're building a little cheap stadium. They can do that,
Speaker 1: but they want to build it in Birmingham. And the
Speaker 1: issue with Birmingham is that's really expensive and the places
Speaker 1: that people are quote unquote willing to go is rather small. Right,
Speaker 1: And when we talk about because I have a list
Speaker 1: of all the stadiums in Birmingham that are pre built,
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to go through all the locations
Speaker 1: that Legion could buy because there's going to be conversations already.
Speaker 1: No matter what, there's going to be a sub section
Speaker 1: of the fan base that is not going to be happy. Right.
Speaker 1: If we go back to BBVA, well, the field sucks again,
Speaker 1: there's no drainage and if it sprinkles then we can't
Speaker 1: play a game that doesn't happen in protective y'all remember
Speaker 1: how bad it was. We want to look back rose tinted,
Speaker 1: but yes, even I look back at the FC Tulsa
Speaker 1: game that restarted at like eleven thirty at night, kind
Speaker 1: of fondly. But it was like me and two hundred
Speaker 1: people at the game. Most people, when they saw rain
Speaker 1: was on the radar, didn't even show up to the
Speaker 1: matches because they knew that it was going to get
Speaker 1: rained out. That's the way it was. In fact, we
Speaker 1: played against Memphis nine to one at Legion Field because
Speaker 1: the pitch at BBVA looked like a sandpit. It was
Speaker 1: closer to beach volleyball than soccer. Yes, that's just the
Speaker 1: truth of the matter. So when it comes to this
Speaker 1: field looks like crap and it's completely unplayable and it's
Speaker 1: borderline dangerous for players, there's gonna be a subsection of
Speaker 1: fans who don't want to support that. When we look
Speaker 1: at places like possibly buying land at Birmingham Southern, some
Speaker 1: people will say I would never go over there because
Speaker 1: I'm afraid for my safety, asking me a subsection of
Speaker 1: fans if I were to mention building the stadium at
Speaker 1: the training facility down at the Valley. I would never
Speaker 1: drive all the way out to Shelby County to watch
Speaker 1: the matches. This is Birmingham's club. That's a subsection of fans.
Speaker 1: So in order to appease everybody, you won't. You can't.
Speaker 1: And so I want to just kind of walk you
Speaker 1: through what's already built. And my criteria is it has
Speaker 1: to be a stadium that you can play soccer in
Speaker 1: and that you can can have food trucks that can
Speaker 1: show up and they can sell alcohol. Those are my criteria.
Speaker 1: They have to be able to do those things. Why
Speaker 1: because some people will not show up to a match
Speaker 1: if they can't buy beer or if they can't tell
Speaker 1: gate beforehand. You know it's true, they're'll be like this
Speaker 1: is so minor league, this is so Mickey Mouse. I
Speaker 1: can't buy a beer at the game. People won't show
Speaker 1: up for that. So it has to be you have
Speaker 1: to be able to play soccer there. It has to
Speaker 1: be at least already somewhat established, and you need to
Speaker 1: be able to buy alcohol and then buy food, whether
Speaker 1: it be from food trucks or already built concessions. So
Speaker 1: with all that, we obviously have protective stadium, and in
Speaker 1: all reality they're going to be looking at staying a
Speaker 1: protective long term until an actual feasible stadium option in
Speaker 1: Birmingham pops up. That's the truth of the matter. Doesn't suck,
Speaker 1: sure because it's the b JCC. But I also want
Speaker 1: to remind you that if Legion build their own stadium
Speaker 1: and don't raise the funds primarily themselves, the b JCC
Speaker 1: will still run Legion FC Stadium. If the city puts
Speaker 1: in primary like the majority of the money into the stadium,
Speaker 1: the b JCC will own it. So you're just gonna
Speaker 1: be dealing with protective but smaller, which some people would
Speaker 1: be okay with, but some people wouldn't. Again, no one's
Speaker 1: gonna be happy. So I have made a little slide
Speaker 1: show so if you're a visual person, it's all here
Speaker 1: the Bank BNC Field, BBVA Field. The capacity is five
Speaker 1: thousand so it is right on the line for the
Speaker 1: second division Professional league standards. Hey, it's a great size,
Speaker 1: it's an awesome location. I think everybody would agree that
Speaker 1: the location was awesome and we have fun memories of
Speaker 1: the place. The cons and the reason buying will probably
Speaker 1: never happen. It did not end on good terms with UAB,
Speaker 1: It just did not. And the chances of Legion just
Speaker 1: buying the stadium out entirely is very slim to none.
Speaker 1: The only group of people in the history of mankind
Speaker 1: that has ever loved the land more than expansion era
Speaker 1: of the United States government with manifest destiny is the
Speaker 1: UAB Board of Trustees when they see a patch of
Speaker 1: grass in the city of Birmingham, right like, the UAB
Speaker 1: will never sell the land unless Legion come out with
Speaker 1: an insane bid, which at that point they might as
Speaker 1: well build their own. Samee. The inconsistent pitch conditions that
Speaker 1: we unless they completely change everything and let Legion completely
Speaker 1: run everything, the pitch conditions are going to be bad.
Speaker 1: You have the men's team for UAB, you have the
Speaker 1: women's team from UAB, and then you'll have Legion also
Speaker 1: playing there. It's going to destroy the field and we're
Speaker 1: going to be back where we first started. I think
Speaker 1: I saw somewhere that was originally a seven or eight
Speaker 1: year lease that Legion broke to get out of this
Speaker 1: thing and right, and it was because the field conditions
Speaker 1: were that bad. Also, people don't really remember this. It
Speaker 1: was kind of far from the pitch. If you decide
Speaker 1: to sit close to the field at Protective Stadium, you
Speaker 1: are less than ten yards from the game at all times.
Speaker 1: If you decide to sit in the general emission side
Speaker 1: of the stadium, you had the field and then like
Speaker 1: the touch line, you had a full like three to
Speaker 1: four yards before the ad boards, and then about ten
Speaker 1: five to eight yards from the ad boards to the
Speaker 1: fence where they had people sitting, and then there was
Speaker 1: an entire sidewalk. So if you were in the very
Speaker 1: front row of the general emission you were about twenty
Speaker 1: five to thirty yards away from the action. That's pretty far.
Speaker 1: And I know some people say, well, when you're at
Speaker 1: the very top of Protective Statium, that's even farther away. Yes,
Speaker 1: but you chose to sit there. They'll say, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I chose to sit there because of the shade. There's
Speaker 1: no shade at BBVA none, there's zero. If you're lucky
Speaker 1: enough to sit in the five foot overhang that's on
Speaker 1: the rich people's seats. Cool, I'm proud of you, But
Speaker 1: there was none. Right, so your father away from the pitch,
Speaker 1: and it will not fit the current First Division Professional
Speaker 1: League standards, which currently require fifteen thousand seeds stadium. I
Speaker 1: do think that's going to change, I really do. But
Speaker 1: five thousand is not enough. Could they expand this up
Speaker 1: to roughly around eight ten thousand. I could see that,
Speaker 1: I really could, and maybe that would get you closer,
Speaker 1: But that would involve Legion putting in even more money
Speaker 1: to a stadium that they're not going to own. So
Speaker 1: would it be nice to go back and have close
Speaker 1: and have like that nice sentiment atmosphere. Yes, but there's
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons why I BBVA just wouldn't work.
Speaker 1: So what about Region's field and the stadium size is
Speaker 1: great eighty five hundred. The location is awesome, but like
Speaker 1: right by Railroad Park, you have good people brewing across
Speaker 1: the streets and it's a great location. It's a baseball field.
Speaker 1: With baseball field comes in consistent pitch conditions, You're going
Speaker 1: to be really far away from the pitch like at
Speaker 1: all times there is other than what would be the
Speaker 1: right field wall, which it's going to be a very
Speaker 1: intimate atmosphere. And it doesn't fit the first Division Professional
Speaker 1: League standards because it's eighty five hundred people and it's
Speaker 1: a baseball field that I mentioned is the baseball field
Speaker 1: that said if you're desperate to get out of protective
Speaker 1: setting um and you say we'll take anything. I don't
Speaker 1: think Region's field's a bad idea. The whole putting turf
Speaker 1: on the infield. It can cause injuries, it can cause issues,
Speaker 1: it looks bad, and it causes inconsistent play. That's all
Speaker 1: really bad. That's not great. But if you are on
Speaker 1: the boat of anything but protective, I actually think Regions
Speaker 1: Field wouldn't be a bad idea. Rick wid Field Okay,
Speaker 1: so just a little bit smaller than Regions. It's a
Speaker 1: great size and it's a historic landmark. And before you say,
Speaker 1: while will we ever do that? Actually, the Cosmos which
Speaker 1: are coming back as New Jersey USL, they're coming back
Speaker 1: to play at a historic baseball field, and you know,
Speaker 1: I believe it's Miles uses Rickwood as their field. So
Speaker 1: it does have consistent use and it would be a
Speaker 1: nice tie into the community. I think that it would
Speaker 1: be really fun to see Rickwood be used constantly. And
Speaker 1: if Birmingham Legion FC want to be Birmingham's club, making
Speaker 1: Rickwood Field the field, I think it would be really cool. However,
Speaker 1: it's a baseball field. It's still a baseball field. Some
Speaker 1: people wouldn't like the location. They would say I would
Speaker 1: never drive out there just to get shot for a
Speaker 1: minor league soccer game. I you know, while I don't
Speaker 1: agree with the location thing or the minor league soccer thing,
Speaker 1: people are going to say that, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of people who would say that, So you would
Speaker 1: probably have smaller attendances for these matches despite it being
Speaker 1: such an incredible location. It's also a baseball field and
Speaker 1: it's not modern, Like it's been modernized, but it's not modern.
Speaker 1: So a lot of things that people have grown to
Speaker 1: enjoy about places like protective with it that's very modern,
Speaker 1: and like there's places to go with ac and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, you're not going to get that here.
Speaker 1: But if you're looking to be very Birmingham, it is
Speaker 1: very Birmingham, and it doesn't fit the first division professional
Speaker 1: league standards and there's no way to really expand it
Speaker 1: to fit it. It's just not going to happen. It's
Speaker 1: just when I had to stay a baseball field as
Speaker 1: it should, it should stay a baseball field. There's no
Speaker 1: buying the land and making it our own outlaying. This
Speaker 1: is way too historic of a spot to do that,
Speaker 1: so I would be very against that in general. But
Speaker 1: if this was a temporary solution for Legion to build
Speaker 1: their own stadium, I think it would be actually really
Speaker 1: cool Legion Field. It's like Protective but worse. It's not
Speaker 1: the b JCC. It's the historical landmark Legion Legion f
Speaker 1: C at Legion Field. Wow. And if it's the first
Speaker 1: division professional league standards, a huge, huge stadium, the location
Speaker 1: isn't great. Again, some people would be like, I'll if
Speaker 1: I go out to Legion Field, I'll die. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: it's not modern. It's been kind of modernized because of
Speaker 1: the like World Games and stuff, but also like it's
Speaker 1: Legion Field and I put turf on here. But actually
Speaker 1: it's very similar turf to what we have at Protective,
Speaker 1: which honestly a lot of players, including away players, seem
Speaker 1: to really like. Apparently it plays very similar to grass.
Speaker 1: It plays faster, but it's not very hard. If grass
Speaker 1: doesn't like it, the ball doesn't bounce higher. There's not
Speaker 1: a lot of risk of injuries like there comes with
Speaker 1: with old astro turf, so in terms of turf, it's
Speaker 1: actually very good stuff, but also like it's Legion Field
Speaker 1: General crew Lock and I think that's how you pronounce it.
Speaker 1: This was Birmingham Southern's old stadium. Obviously Birmingham Southern no more.
Speaker 1: So if Legion were to buy this, it's probably fairly
Speaker 1: affordable if they wanted to go in on it and
Speaker 1: make this the home of Legion FC. It is very small,
Speaker 1: so it's about sixteen hundred people can play can fit there,
Speaker 1: which does not even fit the USL Championship standards. The
Speaker 1: location again, some people would say, I'm not going out
Speaker 1: to Birmingham Southern. I'll die. You're going to lose fans
Speaker 1: from that, you just will. I do think it'd be
Speaker 1: a nice location. I think there's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that you can do. I think you can build on
Speaker 1: the track. The track's not going to be used anymore,
Speaker 1: and if you wanted to use this particular location to
Speaker 1: build up to being the home of Birmingham Legion, I
Speaker 1: think it'd be awesome because it is at Birmingham Southern
Speaker 1: and that's a staple of the city and at least
Speaker 1: something would stay Birmingham there. And I do think that this,
Speaker 1: like the sports complex, would be affordable. Again, you would
Speaker 1: have to build it up pretty massively just to fit
Speaker 1: USL Championship standards, not even thinking about First Division. Same
Speaker 1: thing goes from a go far field at a I say,
Speaker 1: Barrelson Soccer Park I believe, which has one set of stands.
Speaker 1: Everything else is just kind of general seating. It's about
Speaker 1: one thousand probably affordable. It's grass, It's actually decent grass.
Speaker 1: Legion played Tormenta there a few years ago in one
Speaker 1: of the worst matches I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1: You would have to build it massively. You would have
Speaker 1: to add in over four thousand seats just to be
Speaker 1: USSEL Championship compliant. And again same thing with the other place.
Speaker 1: Locations not amazing depending on who you are, But I
Speaker 1: think you can build something special here. This is very
Speaker 1: similar to what BBVA looked like before Legion. This field
Speaker 1: is very similar to what BBVA was And so if
Speaker 1: Legion wanted to have a footprint and build it up,
Speaker 1: they've already done it before. They've used this footprint, before,
Speaker 1: they've done this, they've used it this blueprint, not footprint,
Speaker 1: they've used this blueprint before. Small area, small, kind of
Speaker 1: stadium and build it up to fit the requirements. They
Speaker 1: have done this. This would be honestly my prime candidate
Speaker 1: if they wanted to buy something pre established and build
Speaker 1: it up. But again there's gonna be people who would
Speaker 1: refuse to go to matches because of the location. Lost
Speaker 1: in Field seventy five. Actually it's a decent place to
Speaker 1: watch matches. If you've ever been out to an FC
Speaker 1: Birmingham match, it's actually a pretty fun place to go.
Speaker 1: The stands built into the hill is classic. It's very Birmingham.
Speaker 1: It's very affordable to rent. It is a very affordable
Speaker 1: place to rent. It's AstroTurf. In fact, I believe it's
Speaker 1: the old astro turf that was originally at Legion Field
Speaker 1: before the Olympics. So like it's old AstroTurf. It's rough.
Speaker 1: The locker rooms are awful. The facilities are not great
Speaker 1: for fans. Bathrooms are not ideal. Uh. You can bring
Speaker 1: up all the food trucks you'd ever want here, that's great.
Speaker 1: It has decent spots to set up cameras. It's not amazing,
Speaker 1: but you can do it. In fact, FC Birmingham sets
Speaker 1: up live streams every single week from here. It's possible.
Speaker 1: It doesn't fit the first division professional league standards, but
Speaker 1: if you're looking for a stop gap before Legion FC
Speaker 1: is built, like Legion FC Stadium is built, and you're
Speaker 1: looking for somewhere that's affordable, this is it. It gives
Speaker 1: me very Keyworth vibes in terms of it's gritty, it's
Speaker 1: kind of nasty, but if you're willing to deal with it,
Speaker 1: I think Lost and Field would not be awful. Honestly
Speaker 1: you it's again affordable, and it's honestly not bad for fans.
Speaker 1: I think God actually be a decent location for fans
Speaker 1: to go to. So it's an option the Hoover met
Speaker 1: Some people would love the location, so peop would hate it,
Speaker 1: but I think that location is a plus. It's a
Speaker 1: great size. It's just under eleven thousand at ten thy
Speaker 1: eight hundred, and hey, the parking lot is great for
Speaker 1: tailgating the cons. It's a baseball field kind of because
Speaker 1: sometimes it's a football field for Hoover, which means when
Speaker 1: the Hoover Bucks are playing, their Legion can't play there.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how much work it would take
Speaker 1: to tear all the Hoover high stuff down and put
Speaker 1: it back up, and I know they kind of do
Speaker 1: that would protective already, but is that something we want
Speaker 1: to deal with for it to be a baseball field.
Speaker 1: It doesn't fit the first division Professional league standards, although
Speaker 1: it probably is close enough. I think that it will
Speaker 1: get a waiver and you'll be homeless for every single
Speaker 1: SEC tournament. So already two full weeks, two to three
Speaker 1: weeks that legion would not be able to play at home.
Speaker 1: And honestly, the best time to play there, which is
Speaker 1: beginning of spring and people are just getting out of
Speaker 1: school or you know all that kind of sacificaning spring
Speaker 1: like the middle of May, so I people are getting
Speaker 1: ready to get out of school. It's not too hot yet,
Speaker 1: it's not miserable. You know. It is what it is,
Speaker 1: the Hoover meant. And here's the last one, Albert J.
Speaker 1: Sloan Alumni Stadium, which is Miles Stadium. I kind of
Speaker 1: like this option. I gotta be honest with you. It's
Speaker 1: a great stadium size with eighty five hundred. There's no
Speaker 1: renovations needed for soccer. They already have the lines already
Speaker 1: on the field, and you would sit there and say, ah,
Speaker 1: football lines. I hate football lines. If you're looking for
Speaker 1: a stop gap location, it's not a bad idea. It's
Speaker 1: a small stadium that you don't have to renovate. You
Speaker 1: can bring in food trucks if they will let if
Speaker 1: they'll allow you. There's so much space to bring in
Speaker 1: the food trucks there as far as I know. You
Speaker 1: can buy alcohol at these games. And the things that
Speaker 1: would kill people turf football lines location. People would one
Speaker 1: go out to Fairfield to go to matches, fine, and
Speaker 1: you'll be homeless for every Miles home football game, but
Speaker 1: you're al ay homeless for every UAB football game. If
Speaker 1: you're looking for a stop gap, I kind of like
Speaker 1: Albert J. Sloan Alumni Stadium. It Again, it's turf, you
Speaker 1: don't have to pay for upkeep. It's a great size
Speaker 1: for eighty five hundred a sellout game. Again, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be one of the better attendances in the league. It's
Speaker 1: going to be a little bit better for fans. And
Speaker 1: there's no renovations needed. It's already done. You can just
Speaker 1: show up and play. If I'm Legion and I am
Speaker 1: looking at places to go, places that maybe I would
Speaker 1: like to use, I think Miles College their saving would
Speaker 1: be great. I think that for a year, Lawson could
Speaker 1: be okay, but not great. I think one of the
Speaker 1: Birmingham Southern stadiums would be an awesome fit if they
Speaker 1: want to buy and build. If this is going to
Speaker 1: be the home of Legion FC forever, I think the
Speaker 1: two you are, the two Birmingham Southern stadiums would be amazing,
Speaker 1: and then the rest are kind of what they are.
Speaker 1: So if you're looking to buy, I think go far
Speaker 1: Field which is the Birmingham Southern Soccer Stadium, or General
Speaker 1: krue Lock, which would be the old Football Stadium. Or
Speaker 1: if you're looking I think those would be the places
Speaker 1: to look at, already made places that are in Birmingham,
Speaker 1: or if you're looking for a stop gap, Albert J.
Speaker 1: Sloan alumni which is again Miles College. It's not a
Speaker 1: bad idea. I think there's a lot of issues that
Speaker 1: come with building a stadium. Obviously, if it was easy,
Speaker 1: they would have already done it. A couple things that
Speaker 1: I always want to remind people of. If the city
Speaker 1: of Birmingham or even Jefferson County pay a primary amount
Speaker 1: for Legion FC stadium, the b JCC would run it.
Speaker 1: If Birmingham or Jefferson County pay for primary amounts of
Speaker 1: the stadium, the BJCC would run it that. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: there is that if it was affordable to build in Birmingham,
Speaker 1: it would be done already, just simple as that. So
Speaker 1: if you want the stadium built by let's call it
Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven, give them a full year to build
Speaker 1: a stadium. It's probably not going to be in Birmingham,
Speaker 1: I hate to say it, And that's going to lose
Speaker 1: fans depending on where you put it. If you put
Speaker 1: it not over the mountain, which is where a lot
Speaker 1: of the most influential fans are, those fans aren't going
Speaker 1: to come anymore. If you put it over the mountain,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be quote unquote in Birmingham anymore.
Speaker 1: And you're going to lose a lot of fans from that.
Speaker 1: Because this is Birmingham Legion, not Mountain Brook Legion or
Speaker 1: Vestavia Hills Legion or whatever you want to call it legion.
Speaker 1: It's not Shelby County Legion FC. It's not Saint Clair
Speaker 1: Legion FC. It's not Coleman County FC. Thank God, that
Speaker 1: was an unnecessary shot at Coleman County. You can tell that.
Speaker 1: I'm a Walker guy, but you know, those are things
Speaker 1: to consider. Legion FC are in a rock and a heart,
Speaker 1: that's in a rock and a hard place. It's just
Speaker 1: the truth. And everybody's going to clamor for BBVA, but
Speaker 1: it has issues. They're not gonna UAB is not going
Speaker 1: to sell it. They're just not. And if they did
Speaker 1: sell it, Legion might as well build their own stadium
Speaker 1: because it's probably going to take this similar cost if
Speaker 1: we're being completely honest. So that's kind of my thoughts
Speaker 1: on the stadium. I wanted to just kind of fully
Speaker 1: flesh that out of possible locations for Legion to go.
Speaker 1: That's not protective and I saw it. Just let you
Speaker 1: guys know all that stuff. So if you are someone
Speaker 1: who watched the first this first episode that's on the stadiums,
Speaker 1: check out my film study that is going to be
Speaker 1: coming out right now. It's going to be on the
Speaker 1: YouTube channel. If you're a podcast player, let's go ahead
Speaker 1: and get into it, all right, So let's talk about
Speaker 1: the Rhode Island FC match. It ends up in a
Speaker 1: one one draw, both goals scored in the first half.
Speaker 1: And I will say this, I don't know if Legion
Speaker 1: earned three points in this match. I think the second
Speaker 1: half was pretty dominant Legion, while the first half was well,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't even say dominant Rhode Island. It was just
Speaker 1: kind of abysmal Legion. The midfield performance was rough. That said,
Speaker 1: I thought that Turnbull and Tower Passer were out standing
Speaker 1: in this match, absolutely outstanding in this match. I thought
Speaker 1: Domas had a solid match as well. And the thing
Speaker 1: is is that what they needed from domis which is
Speaker 1: kind of like that drop in dB connector. He's not
Speaker 1: really that kind of player. He can, but he's not
Speaker 1: that kind of player. But with the midfield issues that
Speaker 1: Legion were having in this match, was not the solution.
Speaker 1: I think there's a world where and I believe it
Speaker 1: was Sacramento where they brought an Enzo to come up
Speaker 1: top and he was kind of coming in and being
Speaker 1: that connecting guy, which I could see working in this match. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I think that it could have been a solution, but
Speaker 1: you also don't want to take off Dominics, who just
Speaker 1: scored and I think that he was a great great fit.
Speaker 1: Trey Ho came in in the second half and I
Speaker 1: think it really livened things up. I think you saw
Speaker 1: what Trey Ho does bring to this team, but just
Speaker 1: in general, the midfield was just sloppy, just not connecting passes.
Speaker 1: The midfield press from Rhode Island was just absolutely eating
Speaker 1: this Birmingham team alive. The second half was a very
Speaker 1: a slightly different story vary is a bit of an exaggeration,
Speaker 1: but with this, I wasn't able to go full deep
Speaker 1: dive into film like I normally do because CBS is
Speaker 1: very protective of their film and so I can't quite
Speaker 1: grab snippets from CBS like I could ESPN. So because
Speaker 1: of that, I'm kind of beholden to what is publicly available.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of moments that I wasn't able
Speaker 1: to get videos of, and I'm sorry about that. So
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of at the mercy of what the
Speaker 1: league has available. So with that, let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: into this film study. And we're starting pretty early on
Speaker 1: into this match, and I think it really just kind
Speaker 1: of shows the sloppiness of what we've seen in this match.
Speaker 1: And this does kind of this is a fan, what
Speaker 1: could be the moment, but this ball comes to him
Speaker 1: and he tries to play it out to last, So
Speaker 1: but he just doesn't quite get enough on it, and
Speaker 1: obviously Famil Kavita ends up leaving this match with a
Speaker 1: hamstring injury. We haven't heard much update on that, but
Speaker 1: it didn't look great in the moment. But it leads
Speaker 1: to a turnover where the back line in the midfield
Speaker 1: is not ready. So normally you would have Lasso kind
Speaker 1: of filling in this space at the top of the
Speaker 1: D and it's just not there right because this turnover
Speaker 1: left everybody out to dry a little bit. So with
Speaker 1: what I believe is that, I believe that's going to
Speaker 1: be Chicago Suarez kind of filling up that spot on
Speaker 1: the D. He's having to just kind of fill in space,
Speaker 1: doesn't quite pass it down, doesn't quite close it down,
Speaker 1: but the luckily the shot goes wide to the post.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of issue we were Legion were
Speaker 1: suffering from all game long. Mistimed pass, easy counterattack and
Speaker 1: it's a shot on goal because there's no one to
Speaker 1: break it up in the midfield because the midfield's out
Speaker 1: of position because of the bad pass. Here we see
Speaker 1: the brilliance of what Briggs has been doing, and we
Speaker 1: talked a lot with the indie kind of film study
Speaker 1: where Legion are trying to get these long diagonal balls
Speaker 1: into the half space, go over the top long diagonal balls.
Speaker 1: And I also mentioned that if the Legion are going
Speaker 1: to have Delgatto a net, they are only going to
Speaker 1: go as far as Delgado is going to let them
Speaker 1: go in terms of distribution. And I want you to
Speaker 1: check this out. Del Gatto takes a touch. It's a
Speaker 1: great pass back by Fanwell, I know, yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: pass back k or whatever. It's a nice passed back
Speaker 1: by Delgatto. He takes his touch and he knows where
Speaker 1: he's going. He knows good and well that somebody on
Speaker 1: the right hand side, a wing back or a winger
Speaker 1: is making a run into the half space. So check
Speaker 1: this out. The ball goes along and here's where I
Speaker 1: want to slow it down. Now, I saw a little
Speaker 1: bit of confusion on why the back line was slow
Speaker 1: to react. I want you to look right above the
Speaker 1: center circle and you have two things. Yeah, right under
Speaker 1: the score bug is Stephen Payne. Stephen payin Stephen Payne,
Speaker 1: That's not who it is. Steven Turnbull. Stephen Payne plays
Speaker 1: for Westchester from Birmingham. Stephen Turnbull is right underneath the
Speaker 1: score bug, and then there's Tyler Passer, and Tyler Passer
Speaker 1: makes this run just a little bit sooner than Turnbull,
Speaker 1: which kind of pulls the back line back. But they
Speaker 1: also know that Pastor is offside, so when this ball
Speaker 1: goes over the top, they don't know that Turnbull is
Speaker 1: on the right hand side making this run as well,
Speaker 1: which is why they were just a little bit slow
Speaker 1: to react. And look at how good of a ball
Speaker 1: this is. And this is all created, yes, because Pastor
Speaker 1: was offside, But if you've ever if you're a young
Speaker 1: player listening to this, if you are someone who's in
Speaker 1: high school, middle school in the academy area, when coaches
Speaker 1: tell you make the run, even if the ball doesn't
Speaker 1: come to you, you're creating space. This is exactly what
Speaker 1: they talk about. Check this out. Yes, Pasture's offside, but
Speaker 1: he made the run. It pulled the defense back. They
Speaker 1: know that he is offside, and without realizing that Turnbull
Speaker 1: was making the run because they were so caught up
Speaker 1: on Pasture, it left all the space right where they
Speaker 1: were standing. He is able to outpace a defender and
Speaker 1: get a touch out wide where he could have taken
Speaker 1: a shot but he has options. He knows that he
Speaker 1: has Damas making this run and it is a really
Speaker 1: nice chip in where all Damas has to do is
Speaker 1: headed away. And this was a fantastic ball by Turnbull.
Speaker 1: There was a nice bit of physicality from him which
Speaker 1: we wouldn't be to see earlier this year because again
Speaker 1: he was super ill and lost a lot of weight.
Speaker 1: He bodies the player and is able to get in
Speaker 1: and make a nice pass. But again I just want
Speaker 1: you to notice again Delgatto looks for that half space
Speaker 1: run from the winged area. This space is not available
Speaker 1: if Pasture did not make his run in behind. That
Speaker 1: space was created by a Pasture. It was filled in
Speaker 1: by Turnbull, who's able to use his pace to use
Speaker 1: his strength to win the ball forward and he's able
Speaker 1: to put in a nice cross and Domis has the
Speaker 1: easiest finish ever. To me, this is just as much
Speaker 1: a del Gatto's assists, but Turnbull does an amazing job.
Speaker 1: And what's not shown here is everybody went to celebrate
Speaker 1: with Turnbull, which was always fun to see. So here
Speaker 1: we have again where the midfield press and the really
Speaker 1: aggressive intercepting from Rhode Island comes into play. Rhode Island
Speaker 1: intercepts the ball and it's an immediate countertack. This is
Speaker 1: how Rhode Island was living all night long. And this
Speaker 1: is where we kind of see the issues of this
Speaker 1: Birmingham team kind of pop up. The ball is just
Speaker 1: kind of rotating around and they're kind of in a
Speaker 1: set piece now. So, yes, the ball was given away cheaply.
Speaker 1: Let's not let's not forget this. The ball was given
Speaker 1: away cheaply. These are the moments that were costing Legion
Speaker 1: all night long. However, do you want to applaud the
Speaker 1: defensive structure here, because look, ball was lost. You have
Speaker 1: Turnbull over here, we have lasts over here. You can
Speaker 1: see a Familkvida at the right hand side of your screen,
Speaker 1: and they were able to get back into position really well.
Speaker 1: Mensa was able to close down Brito over on this
Speaker 1: left hand side. Innzo was able to push out the
Speaker 1: ball carrier to again this left hand side, and from
Speaker 1: here you have five people in the back line, including
Speaker 1: a holding midfielder in Lasso. Enzo is already cutting down
Speaker 1: a passing lane and so is Preston over here on
Speaker 1: the left hand side. When this Legion team is transitioning well,
Speaker 1: even after a counter attack or after being counterattacked, when
Speaker 1: they can transition properly, they cut out any scoring chance
Speaker 1: that Rhode Island could possibly have. You did not see
Speaker 1: that earlier in this game. But look, this counter attack
Speaker 1: stalled out to absolute nothing. And you do see that
Speaker 1: there's a ball through, but again, family could be able
Speaker 1: to shield it out. I want you to see it
Speaker 1: in full time. I want you to see just whenever
Speaker 1: this works, whenever the structure works, it works. Well, just
Speaker 1: watch it in full time. It's a poor is a
Speaker 1: poorer giveaway. But we're already back in our structure. There's
Speaker 1: are a five men behind the ball, there's a holding
Speaker 1: midfielder above the d and Nowad Island isn't able to
Speaker 1: outpace Legion and able to make one of those cutting
Speaker 1: balls into the box that were really causing Legion issues.
Speaker 1: It's the same ball we saw earlier. Now we're going
Speaker 1: to see it later. How it doesn't work whenever transitions
Speaker 1: are slow, but look, nobody's there. Yes, this ball comes through,
Speaker 1: but nothing comes of it. So let's check out when
Speaker 1: it doesn't work, and let's talk about why. Here you
Speaker 1: see pressing the ball is in the Martinez into Martinez
Speaker 1: has kind of been depressing midfielder all season long. This
Speaker 1: is very normal. But whenever Enzo goes up, somebody has
Speaker 1: to take his place. Now you would think it would
Speaker 1: be Lasso, which you see Lasso in the middle of
Speaker 1: the center circle right here, and I'm not. This is
Speaker 1: all with relative this is hindsight twenty twenty. I get
Speaker 1: to have revisionist history for me. I think that if
Speaker 1: I were Lasso, I think that you probably and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to go back to this. If I am Lasso,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing Enzo Press, I'm probably moving to the center,
Speaker 1: like the to the center of the dot right, and
Speaker 1: he does do that eventually. But where you see Enzo
Speaker 1: leave his space, somebody has to fill in that space,
Speaker 1: and that is Thiago Suarez. If you see Tiago Swarez,
Speaker 1: he's at the very bottom of the center circle here
Speaker 1: on the right hand side, and he is having to
Speaker 1: leave his center back position and a long ball over
Speaker 1: the top again transitions. We just saw a successful transition
Speaker 1: from Birmingham. This is an unsuccessful transition because somebody kind
Speaker 1: of left somewhere open that wasn't supposed to be And
Speaker 1: it's a really nice ball it just kind of skips
Speaker 1: up well, and this is where we saw earlier Lasso
Speaker 1: was sitting at the front of the edge of the d.
Speaker 1: We already have five players behind the ball. Lasso is
Speaker 1: behind the play. If you look at where the referee is,
Speaker 1: he's on the left hand side of the referee. When this,
Speaker 1: when the transition was smooth and connected Lasta was standing
Speaker 1: on top of the box, was standing on top of
Speaker 1: the d instead, Suarez is having to run back because
Speaker 1: he was filling in the position of Nzo. Inenzo was
Speaker 1: doing his job as a pressing midfielder. That's fine, but
Speaker 1: you see what that causes here. We are able to
Speaker 1: see a touch inside with who I believe was If
Speaker 1: you saw that scored this ball and he was able
Speaker 1: to get a shot off without any kind of real pressure,
Speaker 1: you can kind of maybe say aj should have closed
Speaker 1: down a little bit harder, but I'm not really willing
Speaker 1: to do that. And let's be honest here, it's a
Speaker 1: nice finish. It's a really nice finish. But let's compare
Speaker 1: this transition moment right. Let's watch this one at full
Speaker 1: speed to where we see again no one is on
Speaker 1: the center circle. The transition was slopped and it was
Speaker 1: because somebody didn't fill in a spot where they were
Speaker 1: supposed to. A long ball beats them. It's a goal.
Speaker 1: Compare that to earlier where you see here on this
Speaker 1: counter attacking opportunity, it was already cut off. There was
Speaker 1: nothing there, nothing available for Rhode Island. See like this
Speaker 1: is when you see Lasso is already on top of
Speaker 1: the d pause. When you have Enzo pushing over to
Speaker 1: this right hand side, the left hand side of the
Speaker 1: field for Brito, there's nowhere for it to go. That
Speaker 1: was a good transition and what cost Legion here was
Speaker 1: a poor transition where everybody was all out of sorts.
Speaker 1: Suarez was filling in space like he was supposed to do,
Speaker 1: but that cost Legion, and that's what costs Legion this game.
Speaker 1: Now here we have an interesting moment where Bring has
Speaker 1: mentioned this idea of ruthlessness so many times, and Timothy
Speaker 1: Bellen has done a great rite up on this and
Speaker 1: so read that on Burningham sports dot Net and it's there.
Speaker 1: But he mentioned ruthlessness as well, and this is where
Speaker 1: you're going to see it. You have pastors standing over
Speaker 1: the ball and he puts in a really nice ball
Speaker 1: and I think this was planned. So this is really
Speaker 1: nice set piece design. By the way, you have uh
Speaker 1: Aj Patterson who's off lining up offside, but it's just
Speaker 1: to kind of create a little bit of havoc and
Speaker 1: also kind of create a better better positioning for him
Speaker 1: because he doesn't quite have the pace of some of
Speaker 1: the other players. So when this ball is coming in,
Speaker 1: he has a little bit of a head start. Look
Speaker 1: at this bank, he's on side. He starts off side,
Speaker 1: he's now on side, and he's able to move forward.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have to go that far. He doesn't have
Speaker 1: to work that far to get this far, and he
Speaker 1: heads it to Enzo Martinez. But Enslo slows up his
Speaker 1: run and just doesn't He's waiting to read the header
Speaker 1: as opposed to trusting the header. Right, He's waiting to
Speaker 1: read the header, not trusting the header. Now, maybe Enzo's
Speaker 1: doing what they've done in training and that's that's not
Speaker 1: what Aj was supposed to do. But Aj puts this
Speaker 1: ball right where you think Enzo will be. Instead, Enzo
Speaker 1: slows his run to read and by the time that
Speaker 1: he recovers, Jackson Lee is able to recover pretty well.
Speaker 1: This was a moment of and Timothy kept using ruthlessness
Speaker 1: because that's the word that Briggs used. I think this
Speaker 1: is a moment of lack of trust. And that's not
Speaker 1: me saying that Zo doesn't trust AJ. That's not what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I don't. I'm not saying that Inso thinks
Speaker 1: that AJ is a bad player. That's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So don't get that twisted. Please. What I am saying, though,
Speaker 1: is that look at the where Enzo's run is going.
Speaker 1: AJ puts it right exactly where. If Inzo just continues
Speaker 1: his momentum, it's a goal, man, it's a goal, and
Speaker 1: it's really clever set piece design. If this is the
Speaker 1: way that this was supposed to be done, if Aj,
Speaker 1: we're assuming AJ did his job correctly. Here, by the way,
Speaker 1: this is all just assuming that AJ did his job.
Speaker 1: That if Inso just continues his run exactly how he was,
Speaker 1: it's a goal. It's a tappen. Instead, it's still a
Speaker 1: draw versus leading are still drawing. Here's a nice little
Speaker 1: moment that I really enjoyed. Uh you see this nice
Speaker 1: little flick by Enzo, And again this is not an
Speaker 1: enso bad pod. Okay, this is just why you keep
Speaker 1: an into Marketinez on the pitch. Just look at this,
Speaker 1: Look at two players on him, pass in and just
Speaker 1: to clever flick through and Rinaldo Damas is just offside,
Speaker 1: just offside. But you can see what this is supposed
Speaker 1: to be. You can see what this Legion team can
Speaker 1: do if this ball is just chipped a little bit earlier,
Speaker 1: if Ronaldo just holds his run just a little bit longer,
Speaker 1: it's a nice touch and a nice finish. I seriously
Speaker 1: I loved this moment and it's one of those things
Speaker 1: of Braggs has said it. All the pieces are there
Speaker 1: and you can see how it works. Again, Into does
Speaker 1: a great job of just beating two men on him
Speaker 1: and also full credits a Rhode Island here for like
Speaker 1: for having a good line. But Ronaldo just misreaddit and
Speaker 1: he is just offside. It's legitimately a step, but a
Speaker 1: step is still offside. But still this is what you're
Speaker 1: seeing from this Legion team. He was a really nice
Speaker 1: moment that I like. And this was after a Famil
Speaker 1: Cavida gets taken off and Jake Ruf comes on and
Speaker 1: I think you see why you want Jake Roof on
Speaker 1: the pitch and this also comes down to a very
Speaker 1: nice ball later if I'm remembering this correctly. So Trey
Speaker 1: Hoo gets it. It's a passed back by Mensa, goes
Speaker 1: over to Aj Patterson to Jake Ruf. Jake Ruf reads
Speaker 1: the field. He fakes one way kind of bite to
Speaker 1: the fender, and if you look, this is really hard
Speaker 1: to tell, but if you look at Jake Ruf's body language,
Speaker 1: you can see that he's scanning the field just a
Speaker 1: little bit and he knows, and we've talked about this,
Speaker 1: that long ball, the long diagonal ball over the top.
Speaker 1: He knows that's what he's looking for and he sees
Speaker 1: it coming on this coming over here right. So if
Speaker 1: he plays this ball at Thiago and this is where
Speaker 1: you can see it, Jake Ruf is already seeing this
Speaker 1: ball happen, but he knows he doesn't have the best
Speaker 1: chance on it. He then goes out to Aj where
Speaker 1: watch Lasso here. Laso is in the center of the circle.
Speaker 1: Check this out. Lasto immediately points play the ball. Play
Speaker 1: the ball, one touch, bang and it's Tower Pasher on
Speaker 1: side and it's a wonderful run. But again, this doesn't
Speaker 1: happen without Jake also reading the defense right, AJ's here,
Speaker 1: Jake sees it, he sees where he's supposed to be,
Speaker 1: He fakes it, sees the run happening. AJ looks his
Speaker 1: head up last those pointing. Everybody sees the run. And
Speaker 1: this is what we're talking about, these long diagonal balls
Speaker 1: into half spaces entire Pastor's there, and let's be honest here,
Speaker 1: this is just an amazing save by Jackson Lee. If
Speaker 1: I if this is not for Save of the Week,
Speaker 1: it it should be. It absolutely freaking should be, because
Speaker 1: this is a goal and this is another great team moment.
Speaker 1: This is another amazing moment by the team where unfortunately
Speaker 1: Pastor is just not rewarded. But it's a wonderful long
Speaker 1: diagonal ball by AJ touch and then just shot and
Speaker 1: Jackson Lee barely saves it onto the post and it's
Speaker 1: able to be cleared away. But again you're seeing what
Speaker 1: this team can be doing. Here was a corner kick
Speaker 1: and I don't remember why I said, Oh, this is
Speaker 1: Enzo's like kind of hip chance and I think he
Speaker 1: mishits this I do. I don't think this is a shot,
Speaker 1: but it kind of works because if it's on target,
Speaker 1: it's a problem, but this is really clever and to
Speaker 1: me this looks like very clearly what the plan was.
Speaker 1: So short corner with trey Ho and I think pasture
Speaker 1: and trey Ho gets it and instantly sees Inzo. From
Speaker 1: what I'm reading here, I think Enzo's trying to get
Speaker 1: this to the back post because check this out, there's
Speaker 1: no one there. There's a run happening. I think it's
Speaker 1: Aj Patterson, but I can't fully tell. There is this
Speaker 1: run happening to the back post that if this makes
Speaker 1: it to the back post, it is a tap in.
Speaker 1: Actually that might be Tiago Suarez, but I think he
Speaker 1: gets it just a little bit wrong. But this is
Speaker 1: two moments on set pieces that I think it's very
Speaker 1: nice design and it was just a slid. I think
Speaker 1: this I think a slight, just kind of technique malfunction
Speaker 1: from Nzo, But it's a really nice curling ball that
Speaker 1: if it's on target, it's a straight up goal. Jackson
Speaker 1: Lee completely misreads it, just completely misreads it. But Enzo,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's very nice and it's I think it's
Speaker 1: supposed to be a pass to the back post, just
Speaker 1: slightly gets it wrong. Jackson Lee was way too trusting
Speaker 1: that this was going to go in, but are not
Speaker 1: going to go in. But again, just a really nice
Speaker 1: mode from Enso here's a long ball that kind of
Speaker 1: causes Legion just a little bit of issue if I
Speaker 1: do remember correctly. Yeah, so touchdown here. And this was
Speaker 1: kind of the issue all night long. You have two
Speaker 1: players just right on top of each other, just two
Speaker 1: players just completely on top of each other. Lasso Mensa
Speaker 1: just kind of going for the same ball, their boats
Speaker 1: on top of each other. Mensa falls and it's an
Speaker 1: immedia counter attacking opportunity. And I thought that Legion did
Speaker 1: a very good job in transition. Here again you see
Speaker 1: four men back. You see I believe that's Lasso coming
Speaker 1: in to fill in his midfield space, and it's a
Speaker 1: very nice tackle again by I think that's Aj Patterson,
Speaker 1: and it's wonderful stuff. But you see how these mishaps happened.
Speaker 1: But it was also a very good transition by Legion
Speaker 1: in the defense. So they're already kind of back to
Speaker 1: not fully fair but sloppy midfield play. It kind of
Speaker 1: mints up, but still it's in the midfield midfield play,
Speaker 1: and it's a counter attacking opportunity. Legion does a great
Speaker 1: job of recovering. It's a very good job by Aj Patterson.
Speaker 1: Here's a throw in moment against sloppy They just another
Speaker 1: sloppy midfield moment where it's just a cheap turnover to
Speaker 1: throw in. Domas not fully able to control it because
Speaker 1: of the press from Rhode Island. Rhode Island does a
Speaker 1: great job in a press and it's another transition moment
Speaker 1: where the ball's not quite picked off of the Rhode
Speaker 1: Island player now over to the right hand side and
Speaker 1: you're getting across into the back post. Nothing really ends
Speaker 1: up becoming of this where it just kind of ends
Speaker 1: up being ping pong across the pitch and it's just
Speaker 1: a lot of volleyball all over the place. Holstad puts
Speaker 1: in a cross and if you saw misses a chance
Speaker 1: there at the very end, I've kind of forgot about that.
Speaker 1: I believe it if you saw anymore. But in general,
Speaker 1: you just kind of see the sloppy play that would
Speaker 1: lead to Rhode Island chances. And this is what kept
Speaker 1: Rhode Island in this match. Rhode Island did not The
Speaker 1: only thing that they really truly earned out of this
Speaker 1: match was doing a great job in the midfield. Press
Speaker 1: they knew that if you press this midfield, they're going
Speaker 1: to have problems. But it's not like they were out
Speaker 1: playing Legion. They were just they were just waiting for
Speaker 1: Legion mistakes and it's worked for a lot of teams
Speaker 1: this year. It just wait for them to screw up again,
Speaker 1: throw in kind of a heavy touch. The press has
Speaker 1: a great job and again full credits of Rhode Island
Speaker 1: for forcing issues. But again you see here just a
Speaker 1: mistake in the midfield creates a scoring opportunity. I kind
Speaker 1: of forgot how this one ended up, but yes, so
Speaker 1: like this one just goes to the back post again,
Speaker 1: a misplayed header by Turnbull. This one goes to the
Speaker 1: back post and it's a lot of ping pong. It's
Speaker 1: actually really nice cross in the end by Holstad who
Speaker 1: mensa kind of just gets body a little bit, but
Speaker 1: it's a nice cross in kick just goes over the bar.
Speaker 1: But it was moments like that all game long by
Speaker 1: Birmingham in the midfield just being sloppy. Again, Rhode Island
Speaker 1: forced the issue, but it was just sloppy. But there
Speaker 1: you can also the moments of brilliance. You can see
Speaker 1: what's there. You can see lots of clever set pieces on.
Speaker 1: You can see what they're trying to do with the
Speaker 1: wingers and the wing backs trying to get into these
Speaker 1: spaces and those long diagonal balls. It's going to work.
Speaker 1: It is going to work. Like I'm willing to stamp
Speaker 1: this while because Legion got a result out of this
Speaker 1: match because of the tactical changes that Mark Briggs has done,
Speaker 1: and even with that, it was a horrible midfield performance.
Speaker 1: Just to be completely honest, it was a horrible midfield
Speaker 1: performance and even that got to result away from home.
Speaker 1: Should you be getting all three points? Yes? Am I
Speaker 1: happy about just things not going well? Not getting all
Speaker 1: three points from a match that you know kind of
Speaker 1: deserved it. Yeah. Pastor had two balls that went off
Speaker 1: the post that could have been goals. Jackson Lee had
Speaker 1: two fantastic saves. What can you do about that? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think that Legion had earned it, had
Speaker 1: earned it through Pasture and Turnbull. I think that those
Speaker 1: were created moments. How are amazing? I just for me.
Speaker 1: If the midfield doesn't get it right, Legion are going
Speaker 1: to have issues getting all three points. But you are
Speaker 1: one goalkeeping mistake. When I say mistakes, slightly misreading the
Speaker 1: ball by a centimeter from Legion winning that match to one,
Speaker 1: you are Tyler Pascher putting the ball just a little
Speaker 1: bit closer inside the far post from Legion winning that
Speaker 1: match to one. And that's what's with a horrible midfield performance.
Speaker 1: When it clicks, this is a good team when it clicks.
Speaker 1: This is a top four team in the East. But
Speaker 1: everybody has to be on the same page. The midfield
Speaker 1: has to make simple passes. The back line has to
Speaker 1: transition adequately. We saw it all in this match. You
Speaker 1: saw the back line transition positively, so it's not like
Speaker 1: they're unable. You saw those long diagonal balls that Briggs
Speaker 1: once and it worked. But you also saw sloppiness, which
Speaker 1: Briggs has talked about since the day he got here.
Speaker 1: Was it going to take to fix it buy in
Speaker 1: or tear it apart at the end of the season.
Speaker 1: But if they can get most of these players bought in,
Speaker 1: this is a playoff team. If everybody buys in, I
Speaker 1: can guarantee you they are going to be competing for
Speaker 1: a home playoff spot. Thank you all so much for watching.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you all. Thank you and thank you for
Speaker 1: watching this film study, and if you watch the stadium video,
Speaker 1: thank you for watching as well. If you're a podcast player,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you so much. To next on, guys,
Speaker 1: keep hammering on.