USL Birmingham Legion FC

Birmingham Loses 3-1 to San Antonio on the Road

Published on July 2, 2023 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Birmingham Legion FC News Release


SAN ANTONIO, TX - Legion FC fell on the road to San Antonio FC, conceding once in the first half and two in the second. The Black & Gold looked like the better side throughout the first half, leading in expected goals (.59 to .1) and shots (8 to 3), but could not convert those chances into goals. San Antonio only needed one shot on target in the first half to go up by one goal, and from then on the Legionnaires were chasing the game.

San Antonio's opening goal came in the 10th minute. Receiving the ball out wide from teammate Ismaila Jome, Jorge Hernández curled one into the top left corner of VanOekel's goal.

"We worked all week on combinations and how to expose their man-for-man press, and I thought we did a fantastic job of breaking down until we got to the goal," said Head Coach Tommy Soenh. "We had five really good looks, and then if you don't capitalize on that, you keep a team around. That's the frustrating part on our side."

Legion went into halftime down a goal, and in the second half, San Antonio changed its game to be more defensive, making it harder for Birmingham to break its defense down. After the Texas side scored another in the 62nd minute, the momentum heavily shifted in favor of the hosts.

The Black & Gold found a goal in the 81st minute. Juan Agudelo laid a ball in behind for Tyler Pasher, and Pasher drove the ball forward and put it away with his non-dominant foot for his third of the season.

The one goal was not enough to catch this game. The 2022 USL Champions got another in the 90+1 ‚¬Â² to put Legion away for good.

"We were chasing the game and they knew that," said Soehn. "Eventually we took chances to open ourselves up, but we made a really poor mistake on the second goal. Then we got stretched, obviously, we're putting everything in and trying to get back at 2-to-1, and they got the third one."

The focus shifts to next week's game in Las Vegas on July 8.

Box Score:

1st Half 2nd Half

SA 1 2

BHM 0 1

Goals:

SA - 10' - #8 Jorge Hernández (assisted by #30 Ismaila Jome)

SA - 62' - #16 Tani Oluwaseyi (assisted by #5 Jacori Hayes)

BHM - 83' - #15 Tyler Pasher (assisted by #9 Juan Agudelo)

Starting XI:

BHM - 4-2-3-1 - #1 Matt VanOekel; #3 Phanuel Kavita, #16 Gabriel Alves, #21 Alex Crognale, #13 Jake Rufe; #6 Anderson Asiedu, #5 Mikey Lopez; #19 Enzo Martinez, #15 Tyler Pasher, #10 Prosper Kasim; #9 Juan Agudelo

Watch the Black & Gold play again next Saturday! The Legionnaires travel to Las Vegas to take on Las Vegas Lights FC at 9:30pm CT.

Check out the Birmingham Legion FC Statistics

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United Soccer League Championship Stories from July 2, 2023


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