What to Watch for as LouCity Takes on Birmingham in New-Look Matchup
USL Louisville City FC

What to Watch for as LouCity Takes on Birmingham in New-Look Matchup

Published on June 2, 2026 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Louisville City FC News Release


Louisville City FC with the ball against the Tampa Bay Rowdies
Louisville City FC with the ball against the Tampa Bay Rowdies
(Louisville City FC, Credit: Connor Cunningham)

Louisville City FC travels to Birmingham, Ala., to face Birmingham Legion FC on Wednesday. Kickoff at Protective Stadium is set for 8 p.m.

The game will be the 16th all-time meeting between the clubs, but it marks the beginning of a new era in the matchup: It will be the first game in the series since 2019 without either Danny Cruz or Tom Soehn on the sideline.

Cruz and Soehn were defining figures for their respective clubs over the last half-decade. Both are their respective clubs' longest-tenured and winningest coaches. Their replacements, though, arrived by much different paths.

LouCity replaced Cruz with his chief lieutenant, Simon Bird, who has led LouCity on an interim basis since the third game of the season.

In Soehn's place is the man who was previously his boss: Jay Heaps.

The 49-year-old holds two titles with the Legion organization: chief executive officer and head coach. Heaps has been with the club since its inception - he was the club's first hire as president and general manager in 2018, and has also held the title of chief soccer officer.

Heaps has been a head coach before. He managed the New England Revolution in MLS from 2011 to 2017, leading the Revs to a runners-up finish in MLS Cup in 2014.

Heaps is Birmingham's fourth coach in the last 13 months - a period of leadership instability for what had been one of the USL Championship's most stable organizations.

Eric Avila replaced Soehn on an interim basis before Mark Briggs took over midway through last season. In January, though, Briggs left Birmingham to become an assistant coach with FC Dallas of MLS - a career move that was later echoed by Cruz, who both played and coached under Briggs - leading to Heaps' move to the sideline.

The two men who were were the figureheads of this Eastern Conference matchup, Cruz and Soehn, now work alongside one another. The pair joined the Minnesota coaching at the same time, announced together on March 18.

LouCity (5-5-1, 16 points) comes in on a four-game losing streak in league play. The boys in purple are in sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings, four points clear of the playoff line.

Birmingham (2-3-4, 10 points) is on the wrong side of that line, in 10th place - four points behind eighth-place Rhode Island FC. The club is coming off a loss to Monterey Bay FC last time out, but was unbeaten in five league games prior to that.

Follow Along

- The match will air locally on WBKI/The CW and ESPN Louisville's 680 AM and 105.7 FM. For streaming, log on to WDRB+ or the CBS Sports Golazo Network.

- For starting XI and in-game updates, follow @loucityfc on Twitter. Also, find the club at louisvillecityfc on Instagram and Louisville City FC on Facebook.

Storylines...

All-time: LouCity leads the all-time series, which dates to the 2019 season, 8-4-3, including USL Championship regular season games and a U.S. Open Cup clash from May 2019. The two sides have never met in the playoffs. LouCity has lost just twice away to Birmingham, in 2021 and 2023.

Milestone: Sean Totsch has played 24,923 career USL Championship minutes in his 12-year career. Should he play 77 minutes this week, he would become the second player in league history to reach the 25,000-minute mark behind only Indy Eleven's Aodhan Quinn, who reached the milestone himself just last week.

Second: The matchup pits the league's second-highest scoring offense against its second lowest. LouCity ranks second in the league with 19 goals this season, while Birmingham has scored the second fewest at 10, ranking 24th in the league.

Goose egg: LouCity lost 2-0 to the Tampa Bay Rowdies last week. LouCity has not been shut out in back-to-back league games since July 19, 2023.

Check out the Louisville City FC Statistics

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Images from this story

Louisville City FC with the ball against the Tampa Bay Rowdies
Louisville City FC with the ball against the Tampa Bay Rowdies
(Connor Cunningham)		   



United Soccer League Championship Stories from June 2, 2026


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