by Timothy Belin
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - April 12, 2025
As Birmingham Legion FC take to the field Sunday at Protective Stadium, the Three Sparks will usher in a new era. For the first time in club history, Tom Soehn will not be listed as the team’s head coach.
Soehn joined the Legion on August 16, 2018, ahead of the then-expansion team’s inaugural season. After 2,429 days in charge, the club decided it was finally time for a change Wednesday when they announced that they had relieved Soehn of his duties. Assistant coach Eric Avila will take charge of the team while they conduct a national search for Soehn’s replacement.
While Soehn was undoubtedly a success in his first five seasons in charge, taking the Legion to the postseason in all of the club’s first five years as well as a Lamar Hunt US Open Cup quarter-final, the sacking seemed inevitable following a recent downturn in form.
The Legion missed the playoffs for the first time in club history last year and are off to their worst-ever start to a season in 2025.
Soehn will always be a key figure in Birmingham Legion history, but the time was right for fresh eyes and new ideas. While Avila, as a member of Soehn’s backroom staff, is unlikely to stray too far from his former boss’ ideals, here are three things to keep an eye on as we enter the post-Soehn era.
1. Team Selection
One of the most common outcomes when a new manager comes in, even if like Avila it’s on an interim basis, is to see them stamp their authority on the team through a bold lineup change. As if to signal that there’s a new boss in town, new managers will often bring someone in from the cold or drop a previously undisputed starter as they look to refresh a struggling team.
While Avila presumably had some input in team selection as Soehn’s No. 2, we can also note that Soehn didn’t stray much from his preferred 11 in the first four games of the league season. Seven players started all four games, while Enzo Martínez started all three he was available for following his Matchday 1 suspension.
For a team that isn’t getting the necessary results, that’s a lot of faith gone unrewarded.
While some of it was down to injuries limiting how many pieces Soehn had to play with, one can still wonder if he would have been better off changing things up a little bit more in those opening games.
As such, it would be little surprise to see some unexpected choices in Sunday’s lineup.
Matt van Oekel, Kobe Hernandez-Foster, Ronaldo Damus, Preston Tabort Etaka, Dawson McCartney, Jake Rufe and Roman Torres are the players with already four league starts to their name. While van Oekel and Damus are likely locks given their respective positions, any of the remaining five could easily be dropped.
One of Torres, Hernandez-Foster or Martínez could make way for new signing Sam McIllhaton, while Temi Ereku can also play in those central positions. Rufe has played both right-back and centerback so far this season, giving several players the chance of usurping him in either spot, while both McCartney and Tabort Etaka should fear the return from injury of both Danny Trejo and Tyler Pasher, as well as Sebastian Tregarthen’s positive cameo in his one appearance so far.
None of these changes would be a guarantee of improved results, but they would be a signal of intent by Avila and a clear sign that this isn’t Tom Soehn’s Birmingham Legion anymore.
2. Intensity
There’s no hiding it, Birmingham Legion have not been proactive enough this season.
Other than a second-minute goal in the very first game of the season - an action that led to tragically false hope for the rest of the game and season - the Black and Gold have been a team content to sit back, defend and react to their opposition’s plans.
Discounting the US Open Cup game against League Two minnows Little Rock Rangers, the Three Sparks have not finished a single game with the majority of possession. They’ve also strung together more than 400 passes on just one occasion and averaged 324 of them in their other three league appearances.
For comparison, their four league opponents averaged 413 passes against the Legion.
Passing accuracy has also been lower than their opponents in each of their first four USL Championship games this season, in both the total accuracy (currently averaging 72%) and accuracy in the opponent’s half (averaging 58.7%).
With little of the ball and poor passing when in possession, it’s no surprise shots on target have also been few and far between. The Three Sparks had just 11 attempts on frame in their first five games, and three of the Legion’s four goals have come from set-pieces.
This all came from the cautious approach we have seen in the opening matches, one where the Legion players don’t seem to come alive until after they’ve gone down a goal.
Across 450 minutes of soccer so far this season, the Three Sparks have been in the lead for a grand total of three minutes. Nearly half their season (212 minutes) has been spent trying to get back into a game.
If Avila and his eventual long-term successor want to have any chance of success, those numbers will have to change.
Nobody expects Birmingham to dominate every game, but they certainly have the players to cause significantly more trouble to their opponents. They’ve shown in glimpses that they are capable of rivalling some of the best USL Championship outfits out there, now it’s about bringing that intensity for the full 90 minutes.
3. Attendance
The team’s style of soccer in the last few games is directly connected with our final point, that of fan support. While the Legion faithful showed that Birmingham could have a successful soccer team in the city in its infant seasons, excitement for the team appears to have dried up recently.
Though 12,722 fans came to see the Three Sparks defeat MLS’ Charlotte FC in the 2023 US Open Cup, and 18,418 turned up for the subsequent quarter-final loss to Inter Miami CF, season averages have been closer to the 5,000 mark and dropping since the move to Protective Stadium.
It’s unrealistic to expect Legion to fill Protective anywhere near what they did for their Open Cup run, but that isn’t to say the attendance isn’t becoming a problem. A 5,000 average would be respectable, but so far this season has seen just 2,762 and 3,724 fans show up to the two home games.
Legion hired Nick Hall as the club’s first-ever Chief Business Officer last week and gave him the remit of improving fan atmosphere and attendance at games. With an announcement already made earlier this week about family-friendly concession prices, Hall is certainly headed in the right direction, but only so much can be done for the atmosphere without on-field performances to match.
While wins will still be hard to achieve, coming out with a more attacking intent should already do wonders for the casual fan experience. Diehard soccer fans might be tired of hearing how “boring” a 0-0 stalemate is, but it is true that a pulsating 3-3 draw is more likely to get the one-time visitor to turn into a regular.
Fans want excitement and they want goals, two things that have been in short supply so far this season. This has led some fans to put the blame on Soehn and his perceived negative tactics, with many claiming they would not return to the stadium until the long-time head coach was no longer there.
Now that his departure has come to pass, it remains to be seen if these fans will be true to their word, but more importantly if the post-Soehn era will be different enough to keep them around.
Birmingham Legion's fresh start begins at 4 p.m. Sunday as the Three Sparks host El Paso Locomotive at Protective Stadium.