It’s a quick turnaround for the boys as Rhode Island head to Alabama to take on Birmingham Legion on Wednesday night.  Both teams are coming off wins, as Rhode Island held on to defeat Miami FC 3-2 and Birmingham scored a late goal to take down Colorado 2-1 on Saturday night.  Rhode Island’s win extends our unbeaten streak to 5 games, with 3 wins and 3 draws over that span.  Birmingham have won 3 and lost 2 over their last 5.  It is worth noting that those 2 losses came to Charleston and Louisville, two of the better teams in the league.  So what should we expect in this mid-week contest?  We’ll get to that, but first I need to pat myself on the back.

I was pretty close to getting it right on the Miami game.  I called out our wingbacks, and Jojea Kwizera got an assist.  I called out Frank Lopez and Allen Gavilanes as dangerous players for Miami FC.  Lopez got their first goal and Gavilanes provided the assist for the 2nd.  I also had the score as 3-1 and it ended 3-2.  Now, you may be thinking to yourself: is this guy really giving himself credit here?  He wasn’t that close.  And you know what, you’re right.  But as I’ve been telling anyone who will listen: I’m never going to be this right again, so I have to brag about it.  I’m practically obligated to, even if it was just beginner’s luck.  Now, back to the task at hand.

Rhode Island lined up in our usual 3-5-2 in this last game and there’s no reason to think that isn’t going to continue.  It’s the old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  Where that adage maybe doesn’t apply however, is with the goalkeeper situation.  Koke Vegas got the start in net against Miami, replacing Jackson Lee.  From my point of view, Lee did no wrong against Indy Eleven despite conceding 3 goals.  On the other side of things, Koke didn’t do anything wrong against Miami FC either.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the goalkeeper situation going forward.  Of our 18 games so far, Koke has started 10 and Lee has started 8.  From everything we’ve seen this season, I get the feeling that Khano is loyal to Koke.  He isn’t blindly loyal and will play Lee if Koke struggles.  But if they are both performing at a similar level, I would expect Koke to be in net.

As for the rest of our lineup, the discussion is pretty similar to our last game.  I think the back line is still an issue without Alves, Stoneman or Twumasi fully fit.  We need a third center back to play next to Nodarse and Yao and at the moment we don’t have one.  As much as I’ve been calling for other options, we probably have to live with Clay Holstad in the back line once again.  I would expect the only reason we may see changes in this game would be due to just having played on Saturday.  Khano may have been preparing for that a little bit with some of his substitutions against Miami.  McGlynn and Nodarse only played 60 minutes.  JJ Williams and Marc Ybarra were both taken off after 70 minutes.  Some of this may have been due to other reasons, such as JJ and Nodarse both being on yellow cards.  But I have to think these players not going the full 90 would mean we could count on them to start in Birmingham.

Birmingham Legion currently sit 5th in the Eastern Conference on 27 points and should be a challenging opponent for Rhode Island.  They most often play a 4-3-3, with two strong center backs in Alex Crognale and Phanuel Kavita.  Crognale is 6’5” and his potential aerial duels with JJ Williams could be a fantastic battle if we decide to play long.  Birmingham are also solid in midfield with Kobe Hernandez-Foster and the versatile Jake Rufe.  Hernandez-Foster is one of 3 players to have started every game for Birmingham this season along with Kavita and USL legend Enzo Martinez (more on him later).  

Birmingham are a very solid team, but their lack of goal scoring is what has prevented them from pushing even further up the standings.  They have scored 20 goals this season, putting them in the bottom third of the Eastern Conference.  The lack of a true number 9 has been the biggest contributing factor to these issues.  Mohamed Buya Turay was brought in from Odense in the Danish league to be the number 9 this season.  However, he only played about an hour in their first match of the season against Phoenix and hasn’t played since due to injury.  This has forced Birmingham to get creative in how they score goals.  They have plenty of attacking talent from the wings and midfield and have had to rely on these players to put the ball in the net.  Martinez, Tyler Pasher and Stefano Pinho are all level on 3 goals to lead the team this season.  Martinez also has 3 assists, to give him the lead in goal contributions with 6.  While Birmingham have scored in a variety of ways, they’ve also conceded in a variety of ways.  I’ve seen them get beat through the middle of the field as well as on crosses into the box.  They’ve conceded 24 goals this season, which puts them right in the middle of the league.  I think it might take some good passing moves in order for Rhode Island to score.  Maybe something similar Dikwa’s second goal against Miami.

Before I go, it’s impossible to write a Birmingham Legion preview without devoting a paragraph to Enzo Martinez.  The Uruguayan was a South Carolina high school legend.  He won his state’s player of the year in all 4 years of high school and was named the best boys high school soccer player of the decade by ESPN in 2009.  He has been a staple in the USL, aside from his year with the Colorado Rapids in 2018.  Martinez has scored 28 goals for Birmingham in two and half seasons to go along with 18 assists.  While he’s had his success on the stat sheet, he is perhaps more well known for his on-field antics.  Martinez is as fiery as his majestic ginger beard would suggest.  He is one of those players who is always in the ref’s ear.  The kind of player you absolutely hate but would love if he was on your team.  I expect him to be the reason for more than a few colorful words and gestures during the watch party at the Guild sWednesday night. 

Overall, I expect this to be a tight game.  Birmingham are very well coached.  They’ve had to deal with a lot of continuity issues due to injuries (they’ve played 5 different goalkeepers this year) and they lack a true number 9.  This would have sunk a lot of other teams.  On our end of things, we have a lot of familiarity with Birmingham.  Khano Smith was of course an assistant there before coming here to lead Rhode Island.  We’re also one of the most in form teams in the league having gone unbeaten in our last 5 as I noted earlier.  I think this makes for a really tough matchup to call but I can see both teams finding a way to get a goal and the game finishing 1-1.  Up the tide!