Birmingham Legion set to host MLS’ Charlotte FC in U.S. Open Cup
The Birmingham Legion professional soccer team will host the Colorado Springs Switchbacks July 13 at Protective Stadium. (contributed)
A game can be more than just a game, and Wednesday’s 7 p.m. soccer game (or match if you’re British) at Birmingham’s Protective Stadium is clearly more than just a game.
For the first time in club history, Birmingham Legion FC, a USL Championship team, hosts Major League Soccer’s Charlotte FC in the round of 16 of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
Commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), the tournament is a single-elimination battle and the nation’s oldest-running soccer competition. This year’s edition began with more than 100 teams.
Fourteen of the remaining squads are part of MLS, the sport’s highest level in the United States. The other two are in the USL Championship – Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and Birmingham Legion.
Legion season ticket holders can claim their tickets for the match in the Legion FC Account Manager. Single-game tickets can be purchased online via Ticketmaster. Alabama Power is among the Legion’s corporate supporters.
Birmingham Legion ready to host Major League Soccer’s Charlotte FC in U.S. Open Cup from Alabama News Center on Vimeo.
Legion coach Tommy Soehn cautions casual observers not to be too quick to call this a David vs. Goliath event. On any given day that his squad shows up, he said the Legion can notch a win.
“You could say there’s an advantage because they come from a higher league,” Soehn said. “A lot of it is how you prepare yourself – what kind of heart you have in a game like that.
“I guarantee our guys will be ready,” he continued. We have that underdog card we can play a little bit, but I don’t think I’ll need to play that too hard.”
Not with what’s at stake. A victory by the Legion on Wednesday will assure the team a second straight home game in the tournament.
“We know what this game means, what it means not just for us but for the city,” Soehn said. “We’re really, really excited to play. I’ll probably be holding them back to make sure we don’t get too excited for a moment like that.”
Legion President and General Manager Jay Heaps said the U.S. Open Cup game could be the culmination of all the things that the franchise has done since it launched in 2018 and played its first USL season in 2019.
“I feel like we’re in a position now to take advantage of everything we’ve done,” he said, citing a strong local ownership group and a solid first unit with a lot of MLS experience. “It could be that moment that says, ‘Hey, Major League Soccer is playing against the Birmingham Legion in a real competition, right?’ We built together a really good team. What I’m hoping is that Birmingham residents and people around the state of Alabama understand what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. This is that opportunity for them to see it at the highest level.”
And it’s not just Birmingham and Alabama soccer fans who will be watching.
“If we talk about Birmingham as a major sports town, a place where major professional sports teams want to come, this is the opportunity to show it,” Heaps said. “This is when Major League Soccer is looking at us. This is when U.S. Soccer is looking at Birmingham to see what kind of event we can put on.
“What is pushing eyes onto our city? Well, this game is it,” the general manager said. “Can we get all these people into the stadium to show that Birmingham is a major sports town? We can do it through the vehicle of soccer.”
The Legion is coming off a 2-1 Saturday loss to El Paso Locomotive FC of the USL Championship Western Conference. Despite the disappointment of that defeat, the Legion’s confidence is unshaken with Charlotte on its way.
“We have to put this one to bed and move on to the next one,” Soehn said. “Everybody does it in different ways, but we have to make sure we’re cleaner. (Saturday), I said we weren’t as good on the ball as we needed to be, and against Charlotte we’ll have to really be.”
Midfielder Anderson Asiedu said the Legion’s most important game is its next one.
“I feel like everybody knows what the next game means and everybody is going to put this behind and we’re going to go to war next game because it’s one game at a time,” said Asiedu. “Some games will be good; some games will be bad. The next one is the most important. That’s what we’re looking up to.”
