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USL Birmingham Legion FC

Interview with Legion FC Center Back Alex Crognale

September 2, 2021 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Birmingham Legion FC News Release


Birmingham Legion FC center back Alex Crognale and his dog Theo
Birmingham Legion FC center back Alex Crognale and his dog Theo
(Birmingham Legion FC)

BIRMINGHAM, AL - Legion FC defender Alex Crognale sat down to chat about his second season in the Magic City, how fun it's been to play with his brother, Eli, what he learned playing for current-USMNT Head Coach Gregg Berhalter, his relationship with US goalkeeper Zack Steffen, and more!

How has it been moving into year two in Birmingham?

"It's been awesome. We're really, really enjoying it. We love to eat good food. We love to walk our dog. We just like to be outside and spend time in the community, and there's farmer's markets we can walk to, there's obviously the rotary trail and railroad park, so we take Theo [his Bernedoodle] all the time, and then all the restaurants downtown. So, we're really enjoying it. It's a perfect location where we are downtown, so it's given us a chance to actually see Birmingham for what it is, because last year we were so isolated in our island apartment complex [down 280], but this year we're enjoying it. We've been able to get out, make friends, and COVID is still really becoming more prevalent right now than the rest of this year, but it's been great."

One of the coolest things to follow along on the outside with the club has been you and your brother, Eli, playing together as he came in to preseason camp last year, earned one of the last roster spots, and played a bit last season as he figured out the ropes, so how has it been in year two seeing him play in nearly every game now this year, grow as a professional, and become an even bigger part of this team?

"It's been cool, because really at every stage of his career he's been overlooked. Coming out of high school he didn't have many Division 1 offers, ended up going to Belmont, made the transfer to a bigger school at Maryland, and came into his own at Maryland when he captained the team to a national championship. Then from Maryland he went into the draft, went to the combine, was undrafted, didn't have many offers from many pro teams, so he came down to Birmingham for preseason, worked his butt off to earn a contract, and you know, obviously COVID happened last year, but throughout the season each game, each week, became a more important piece to our team. And arguably by the end of the year was one of our most important midfielders.

"So, this year, in year two, we were just happy to be back together on the same team, because that's an experience that you never really get. It's one thing to become a pro soccer player. It's a whole 'nother thing to have a brother that's a pro soccer player, but then to be on the same team playing together it's a really cool experience. So, we're definitely not taking it for granted. To see him day in and day out fight for his spot - when things are good, seeing how he adapts, when things are bad, having someone there to support you through it I think has been helpful for both myself and him. So, it's just a really cool experience and of course my family loves it as well."

You mentioned Maryland - Zack Steffen, your teammate at Maryland, got to come to a Legion game already this year, which was awesome. Walk me through that relationship, how you guys got to be close and what you're up to now together.

"So, we met going into our freshman year at Maryland in 2013, and I don't know what brought us together, you know, but we just kind of hit it off from the beginning. We were never roommates but being a center back and him being a goalie we were playing right next to each other and obviously there is the relationship on the field. But we were just very similar, in our interests and values, and the way we grew up, the family dynamic was similar, so we had a lot of things to connect on and we just became really close in our two years together at Maryland.

"Then Zack went off to play in Germany. He signed for Freiburg, so he left after our sophomore season. To see him go off and sign a pro deal at that age was super cool. You never know what's going to happen to some of your friends when you're playing together day in and day out, especially in college, because you're literally together all the time in college, and then he went off to do his own thing, and it was just a crazy series of events. The Columbus Crew had his MLS rights if he ever came back, I think they bought them from Philadelphia, so once he decided he wanted to come back from Germany - he wasn't adapting as well as he would have wanted to, he's playing with the reserve team, he didn't speak the language, he was away from his family, there were several factors that went into that - so he came back to the US and signed with the Crew halfway through the season in 2016.

"So he was on the team for four or five months before I signed my homegrown deal and when he lived in Columbus he lived with my parents, in their basement for like a year and a half. So we were there together for a year before he ended up moving out. Since we already had this relationship from Maryland, my parents were like, 'Dude, just come stay with us. You've been away from family for so long. We'll take you in, you get the basement to yourself,' and he was just posted up in my parents' basement. Meanwhile he was one of the best goalies in the MLS. I think that just shows how close we are, that even when I wasn't in Columbus, I was still at Maryland, and he was living in my house, which is funny. But then I signed homegrown, and we were back playing together like he had never left. Obviously, circumstances were quite different, but being able to go into my first pro year with someone I'd known since the very beginning of my higher-level soccer career was pretty special. We spent the next season and a half together in Columbus before he made the jump to [Manchester] City.

"We always stay in touch and when things were going on with George Floyd, last year, we were talking really daily, and we knew that we needed to do something, so we brainstormed for a while and settled on this idea of creating a community of professional athletes across the country, across the world, who were dedicated to fighting for equality, and we turned that community into a nonprofit that is now VoyceNow. It's been a super fun and rewarding process, building a non-profit with someone so close to you and working with some really cool people along the way. Obviously, my fiancée Kyle is involved and one of our friends from Maryland is involved, and it's just been awesome to work with so many professional athletes, black, white, whatever, race doesn't matter, we're all fighting for the same thing because there is so much injustice out there."

While at Columbus, you and Zack played under current United States Men's National Team Head Coach Gregg Berhalter, and the USMNT starts World Cup Qualifying tonight with a crucial match at El Salvador. How was it playing under Gregg when you started out in Columbus?

"Gregg is the most detail-oriented guy I've come across in the soccer world. Every day, every training and every drill is meticulously planned. Everything that goes into the product on the field is so well thought out. His mind towards the game is just different than most people. With Gregg, there was always a solution, there was never a moment where you chalk it up to just luck, or 'next time it'll go my way,' it was always 'why did this happen, and what can you do to correct it?' Unfortunately, I think I was so inexperienced coming out of college that I took some of that for granted. That was the first pro coach that I had, so I didn't really know what to expect, but he put in so much time individually with me. He was a center back, so after every game he would call me into his office and we would watch the game back together and dissect it as he showed me everything I did well and everything I needed to work on, but before each game, he was one of those coaches, where you knew exactly what your role as a player was in that game. I think that's something that a lot of people on the outside may not know from him. He's not only the most prepared coach, but he makes sure that each player is so prepared going into each game and knows exactly what to expect from them."

Have you talked to Zack at all? How is the team feeling ahead of WCQ?

"Zack knows Gregg well, so it's nothing new to him, but you could see early on in Gregg's tenure with the national team that they struggled a little bit, because he doesn't get as much time with the players as he would at the club level, because it's only a two-week camp or a month-long camp instead of a full season where he's able to implement his system. And the players keep rotating, there's no consistency there. But now you see, after two or three years that Gregg's been there, all of his players have been through the system, been in a few camps and played in several of games so they know what to expect now, so I think we're starting to see the product of all the work that he's put in over the last few year implementing his style of play, and it's really exciting to watch. He is a brilliant football mind and when he's given players like we now have at the US international level, with guys playing all over Europe, the top players in MLS, you're seeing a really great product on the field and that's only going to improve. That's really exciting going into World Cup Qualifying after being severely disappointed last time out, Gregg gets a crack at making it right. I think people are going to like what they see."

Last question - your family is Italian, correct? So, Gregg calls you, or Brian McBride [USMNT General Manager and former USMNT player] calls you tomorrow morning, and then the Italian Federation calls you tomorrow afternoon, and both sides want you to come in and play for the national team, who do you choose to represent?

"Man.... That's such a hard question. I never even considered Italy because, coming up, they're World Cup winners and at a much higher level. So if there is that chance to play for Italy, I would think I'd want to do that. But, man, that's such a difficult question. I think the US is a little more realistic, you could say, if things might have gone my way, but playing in Italy with those guys would be crazy. So, I would say Italy."

Alex and his teammates' next match is in Memphis against the rivals at 901 FC on Saturday, September 4 at 7:00PM. Fans can tune in to watch the match on My68 or ESPN+ or follow @bhmlegion on twitter for live updates.

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Images from this story

Birmingham Legion FC center back Alex Crognale
Birmingham Legion FC center back Alex Crognale
 Birmingham Legion FC center back Alex Crognale
Birmingham Legion FC center back Alex Crognale
 Birmingham Legion FC center back Alex Crognale and Zack Steffen
Birmingham Legion FC center back Alex Crognale and Zack Steffen
Birmingham Legion FC center back Alex Crognale and his dog Theo
Birmingham Legion FC center back Alex Crognale and his dog Theo
   



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