Home away from home, the 3 Sparks of Birmingham, Ala. took on the 3 Stars of South Mississippi in Tuscaloosa, Ala. After a tight first half, the Birmingham Legion scored three goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half and prevailed by the score of 3-1.
While the Legion (USL-Championship) were the clear favorites coming into the match based on talent alone, the Stars (NPSL) absolutely earned their way into the Second Round through pure domination of the Georgia Revolution. Even though this was a match over an hour away from home, the Legion supporters were loud and rowdy for their first US Open Cup appearance since 2019.
Early on, it was a cagey affair with neither team fully able to take control of the match. While Legion were having the better of the possession, the first half consisted of a Stars team who lived by bending, and not breaking. Stars allowed the Legion to maintain the pace of play but would pull out the occasional counterattack that would catch the 3 Sparks on their backfoot. The first half ended with the Legion winning the possession battle with nearly 70% possession, but still tied on the scoresheet.
To begin the second half, neither team made a single substitution, trusting their guys to get the result to push their team on to victory. In the 48the minute, Legion winger Prosper Kasim decided to take matters into his own hands and curled a beautiful goal in from the top of the box.
Not long after, Legion made their first substitutes of the match. First being Macky Diop for their star signing of the offseason, Juan Agudelo. The former US National Team forward would make his debut with the club as he entered with Marlon Santos who replaced the goalscorer Kasim.
In the 62nd minute, Legion’s Enzo Martinez opened space and created a goal scoring chance from thin air. Martinez laid the ball off to the “Brazilian Magician” Bruno Lapa, who placed the ball perfectly in the bottom left corner. Not even two minutes later, the Legion bagged their third of the night with a goal by Marlon Santos, assisted by Anderson Asiedu, who completely carved open the Stars midfield.
In the 73rd minute, Southern States SC Stars opened their Second Round scoring account with a goal by Mason Walsh, who was assisted by Lucas Rivera. The celebrations were short as the team looked to capitalize on their momentum, but as quickly as they came, the goal scoring flood dried up completely.
For the rest of the match, the only news was substitutions where the Legion’s Edi Horvat came on in the 79th minute, and the Stars brought on Erwin and Lai in the dying minutes of the match.
“If you look at the game in its entirety, we had the same build ups and the same opportunities, today we just finished them,” said Legion head coach Tom Soehn.
With the win, Soehn moved up in the Open Cup record books. Soehn, who is among a select group of people who have won the US Open Cup as a head coach (2008 D.C. United) and a player (1997 Dallas Burn, 1998 & 2000 Chicago Fire), improves his career coaching record in the tournament to 9-3-0. His winning percentage of .750 moves him into a tie with Scott Schweitzer for second among all head coaches in the Modern Era.
“I know I’ve won this thing a few times … it’s an awesome tournament when amateur teams get to make runs. I was in MLS when we did that, but now we hopefully get a crack at an MLS team,” said Soehn.
Birmingham will have a chance to draw a MLS team when the Round 3 draw takes place on Friday at Noon ET. The USSF announced that they have been placed in a group with defending US Open Cup champion Atlanta United (MLS), Chattanooga FC (NISA), and South Georgia Tormenta FC (USL-1).
the Samba boys are flying ⚽️🇧🇷#ThreeSparks | #USOC2022 https://t.co/tQoFPUJI82
— Birmingham Legion FC (@bhmlegion) April 8, 2022
Pick out the corners, son | ⇱⇲
Bruno Lapa slide-rules the ball into the net to increase the @bhmlegion‘s lead over @SouthernState10. pic.twitter.com/3HLDQg4H8v
— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) April 8, 2022
Pick out the corners, son | ⇱⇲
Bruno Lapa slide-rules the ball into the net to increase the @bhmlegion‘s lead over @SouthernState10. pic.twitter.com/3HLDQg4H8v
— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) April 8, 2022
