Birmingham Legion FC goes on the road for a Sunday showdown against fellow USL Eastern Conference foe Bethlehem Steel FC.

The match in Pennsylvania pits two teams in playoff contention against one another and affords Birmingham the opportunity to extend its league-leading shutout streak to seven games.

Here are the keys to a victory for Birmingham Legion on the road.

What you need to know about Bethlehem

Bethlehem Steel FC, the affiliate team of Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union, currently sits in 13th place in the USL Eastern Conference with a 6-5-12 record and 23 total earned points. In comparison, Birmingham is in 10th place with 29 points; the top ten teams at the end of regular season play advance to the USL playoffs.

Bethlehem won just once in July and hasn’t played since August 10, when it battled to a 0-0 draw against MLS-bound Nashville SC; this past weekend the team had a bye.

The team has been bolstered, however, with the addition of new goalkeeper Todd Morton. The recent transfer (from the beginning of August) came to Pennsylvania from the Western Conference’s Real Monarchs, and he’s made an immediate impact. He had seven saves in a clean sheet in the Nashville game and was named to the USL Championship Team of the Week for his efforts.

Morton sees himself as a team leader and said after the Nashville match: “I’ll do whatever it takes, whether that be making saves, just having a game where I’m organizing everyone or something like that, basically whatever I can add to the game to help us be successful.”

With eleven full weeks still on the USL schedule, Bethlehem knows its still in the playoff hunt.

What you need to know about Birmingham

Birmingham Legion FC is riding its best wave of success in its inaugural USL season, having won five of its last six games, with the other game a draw, and all of themwere shutouts. That shutout streak is the best current one in the USL and consists of 555 minutes of play without a goal scored against them.

Birmingham’s record is 8-5-10 with a 10th place standing in the conference.

The team’s recent success has happened both at home and on the road --with a 0-0 draw in Ottawa and a 1-0 win against then league-leading Tampa Bay. The team comes off a dramatic 1-0 win last week in the 90th minute against Memphis 901 FC at home at BBVA Field.

Last week’s offensive hero was Daniel Johnson, who scored the game winner as regulation time expired; dealing with a calf injury, he came in to the game in relief of Joe Holland to get the win.

Johnson now sits at three goals on the season, tied with JJ Williams and Brian Wright for second-most on the team. Prosper Kasim and injured Chandler Hoffman both sit atop the stat sheet with four goals each.

Goalkeeper Matt Van Oekel continues to play with fire and precision. He has eight clean sheets and 52 saves this season and has contributed alongside the team’s defensive play as a whole to Legion FC’s shutout streak.

Legion FC continues to deal with the injury bug, and last week saw the absence of Kyle Culbertson, Kyle Fisher, Zachary Herivaux, Femi Hollinger-Janzen, Hoffman, Daigo Kobayashi and Gael Mabiala in addition to Johnson. No starting lineup for the Bethlehem game has been announced.

Game details

The game between Birmingham and Bethlehem starts at 5 p.m. CT on Sunday from Talen Energy Stadium in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It will be broadcast locally to Birmingham fans on MY68.