The last time Birmingham Legion FC midfielder and captain Mikey Lopez was in the Magic City was when he helped lead the North Carolina Tar Heels to the 2011 NCAA championship.

The soccer title game was held at the Hoover Met where he, ironically, beat Birmingham native and Legion teammate Chandler Hoffman and the UCLA Bruins.

Lopez, 25, said that he has few memories of Birmingham from that time, but that now he’s embracing his new home.

“It’s been quite a while since I’d been to Birmingham, and I didn’t get to see much back then,” Lopez said, “but now I just love it. It’s a great city, and there’s a lot of attention and people talking about the team. The support here has been phenomenal.”

The Texas native has plenty of winning in his background and now wants to bring victories to fans of the newest United Soccer League franchise team.

In addition to winning the collegiate title, Lopez also played for the United States Under-20 team that qualified for the 2013 World Cup. He was drafted as the 14th overall pick in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft by Sporting Kansas City, making 14 appearances in three years for the squad. He then played with with the MLS’s New York City FC during the 2016-17 season, helping the team finish second in the Eastern Conference and make the MLS playoffs.

He most recently played with USL team San Antonio FC, where he scored four goals and started 29 games.

That experience has helped the Legion FC captain keep the team on track during a difficult first portion of the season.

“I try and keep everyone positive. There are going to be moments when someone makes a mistake, when I make a mistake,” Lopez said. “We have to keep a level mindset, keep a level head and keep fighting for the full 90 minutes of the game.”

Legion FC lost its first two games of the season (2-0 to Bethlehem Steel FC and 1-0 to Ottawa Fury), and travels Saturday for a challenging road game against the defending two-time USL champion Louisville City FC.

“The first two teams were a bit frustrating because we felt like we dominated most of the game for both games. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t been able to score,” Lopez said. “But we know that once that first goal goes in, it will change everything for us and turn everything for the better.”

“We’re really fighting for that win,” he said.

Louisville, he said, knows how to win, so taking advantage of any opportunities in the game will be key for Legion to get its first victory.

“We need to break their initial pressure, then things will open up,” he said. “We look at what they do, what their weaknesses are and, hopefully, we can exploit that as much as possible.”

“They’re a tough team, a championship team,” he added. “They know how to win, so it will be a tough game. We gotta go there and play our game.”

For Lopez, getting motivated for a match is easy.

His love for soccer goes deep into his childhood, and his passion for the game shines through in his voice and on his face.

“It’s everything,” he said. “I love everything about soccer -- the ups and downs of a game, the family you build with your teammates. It’s amazing."

Lopez discovered soccer when he was just 4, and his affinity for the game was obvious from a young age.

At 12, he realized that he “could probably do something with it in life” when he moved to Austin, Texas, to attend a boarding school that ran a soccer academy.

“That experience helped me get better and then at 14 I made my first national team,” he said. “I stayed with the national team until I was 20, and was also recruited by North Carolina. [At that point] I realized this was something I could do.”

That understanding quickly evolved into the passion he has today.

“If you find something you love, you just gotta pursue it,” Lopez said.

Now that he’s settled into Birmingham and is becoming familiar with his teammates, Lopez said he’s ready to help the team push their achievement to another level.

Lopez said that Legion FC players believe they have a quality team that can make it into postseason play in the first year of existence --despite the tough early losses.

“Right now, it’s still early in the season. The two losses hurt, but we still have 30-odd games left. We can still do something special,” he said. “If we keep building and peaking at the right time, we feel like we have a team that can make the playoffs. Then we’ll start thinking beyond that.”

“We all feel like we have a good solid team that can do some damage,” Lopez said.

Ultimately, he wants that success for his newfound home and its soccer fans.

Lopez said that he regularly talks to a Birmingham neighbor as he’s out walking his dog. That neighbor has become a Legion FC fan, despite not knowing as much about soccer as more passionate fans in the city.

“He tells me that he had never really paid attention to it before, but that he’s excited now and supports us,” he said. “You can tell the city’s really behind the team.”

The support of that new fan and the others that fill the stands at BBVA Compass Field for home games encourages Lopez, he said, to keep pushing.

“When we’re in the game, we feel their presence the entire 90 minutes. We players are in love with that,” he said. “We want to give them something to cheer about.”