WHO: Birmingham Legion FC

WHAT: A third round U.S. Open Cup match

WHEN: Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: Lynn Stadium on UofL’s campus

WATCH: At the match! You can still get tickets via the club website or on SeatGeek. If you can’t make it, shame on you, but stream it on ESPN+. There’ll also be a radio call, I think, probably on 790 KJK.

MARCH: Like last round’s game against Reading, nothing particularly special is planned. The march will (likely) start in the lot between Floyd Street and Cardinal Stadium and go straight on in, starting (probably) at 6:30.

WHO, AGAIN? Is this deja vu? We literally just played these guys. Chandler Hoffman. Daniel Johnson. Almost no centerbacks. Quite a few loanees.

However, given the preceding and upcoming weekend league slates, we can probably expect a lot of rotation from both sides. For City, I’m expecting Napo to start, given his abbreviated appearance on Sunday. Probably Pat McMahon on the right, joining Taylor Peay, Sean Totsch, and Question Mark on the left. Sunny Jane starting in midfield would also be pretty good. Geoff Dee did a nice job last time out, let’s try that again! Hubbard should be in goal, of course. A Richie Ballard start in attacking midfield would be choice. That leaves us with options for the other two spots, because I think we can still put two or three of our international guys in this match without making the USOC people angry. I’m guessing Thiam at the nine, but I’m not sure about who else could go up there right now. EXCITING.

Legion haven’t had a game since last Wednesday, so they have some slightly better roster options. Tom Soehn will probably be taking this game pretty seriously, but he’ll still have injury and table-related issues to tackle. I think we still see Hoffman and Johnson play, along with Guy I Don’t Like, Kyle Culbertson. Femi, Avila and Prosper Kasim are all internationals so I’d be a little surprised if they all played in this match. Prosper is a headache so don’t be surprised if he starts.

These games are fun and this is a team even a B-squad from City can beat. Let’s go have a good time and get to Round 4, where the fun really starts.