For the past two Saturdays, in the name of sports, and social science, and cultural discovery, and drinking beer — lots and lots of locally brewed beer — I embedded myself as a professional journalist inside the supporters’ group of Birmingham’s new soccer team.

I’ve had a lot of challenging assignments in the 20 years that I’ve been reporting and writing and talking about sports. This wasn’t one of them.

Birmingham Legion FC is the new team in town, and its supporters’ group is the Magic City Brigade. For these fans, every moment of every game at BBVA Compass Field is a party.

Admittedly, there are many of us here in Alabama new to the ways and rhythms of professional soccer. A supporters’ group is like a club for the loudest fans of a soccer team. The U.S. Men’s National Team has the American Outlaws, which has chapters across the country. Legion FC has the Magic City Brigade, which tailgates around an old RV before games, practices their chants and songs and, of course, smokes various types of meats in the company of coolers and coolers of ice cold beer.

This is Alabama, y’all.

During games, the Magic City Brigade never sits down, and they never stop being loud. No matter what. No matter how frustrating things might become.

Over the course of the first seven weeks of Legion FC’s inaugural season, things became pretty frustrating. The new expansion team of the United Soccer League didn’t score a single goal at home for the better part of two months.

In the amount of time it took Legion FC to score its first home soccer goal in club history, the Birmingham Iron football team went completely history.

In soccer time, it was 384 minutes.

In real time, it was 49 days.

Understand, this isn’t a bad soccer team, which made the home-field scoring drought all the more difficult to bear for the Magic City Brigade.

Legion FC scored on the road plenty during that time. In fact, the team defeated two-time defending USL champions Louisville City FC 3-2, and then knocked off first-place Saint Louis FC 3-2. That’s an amazing amount of away goals for a first-year expansion team in its first two road matches.

The road-white uniforms were getting the job done.

Back in Birmingham, though, Legion FC’s “Boys in Black” weren’t giving their loyal fans anything in their home-black kits. The team has packed their shiny new soccer stadium, BBVA Compass Field at UAB, for every match, but the good guys weren’t scoring.

Here’s what I wanted to know: what motivates people to constantly cheer for a team that never scores?

Also, and more importantly, what type of beer do they drink?

Because, and you might not have realized this, cheering for teams that are unsuccessful is a foreign concept here in Alabama. We’re a pretty spoiled bunch.

In Tuscaloosa, Alabama football is enjoying such unprecedented success that the school has to figure out creative ways to keep fans in the stadium for the entire length of games.

In Auburn, the fanbase is so devoted and demanding that a dip in form sets off mass panic and hysteria.

In Birmingham, UAB hasn’t lost a home game since the team was restored two years ago.

Many members of the Magic City Brigade are Alabama, Auburn and UAB football fans. How do they find motivation when there’s nothing to be motivated about? This concept of only supporting success, I learned over two weeks, might not be the best way to cheer for our teams.

The Magic City Brigade has fun no matter what. Like, a lot of fun, and a different type of fun than I’ve ever experienced at a sporting event.

They chant.

They sing.

They dance.

There’s a smoke machine.

The Magic City Brigade plays drums to keep rhythm, and they have a horns section.

Most importantly, they never sit down.

The Brigade does this for the entire length of the match, and then afterwards, win, lose or draw, they continue to sing.

“It’s not really all about what’s going on on the field,” said Nic Gulas, who, with a stylish black beard and extremely loud voice, leads the cheers for the Magic City Brigade. “We’re reacting to what’s going on on the field, but it’s as much about enjoying the game with your friends as much as it is enjoying the game in front of you.

“You can enjoy the game at home in front of your TV, but when you’re actually there in person, and you’re doing it with people in a big group who are all there cheering, shouting, waving flags, throwing streamers together, it’s a different feeling, and a different atmosphere, and it’s contagious.”

Oh, and the beer might be deeply discounted. Did I mention that? Did I bury the lede? It’s not free beer [WINK WINK], but let’s just say people who join the Magic City Brigade, and march into the stadium and make noise and have fun — those people might get a sponsor’s exemption on their beer.

“The supporters group is there to make noise,” Gulas said. “We all know what fandom is in Alabama when it comes to sports and football, and it’s definitely different in the sense that we’re there for every match win, lose or draw.

“And that’s the baseline of what the supporters’ groups is. We’re going to celebrate the highs and deal with the lows, and our job is to be there no matter what, and be loud.”

For whatever reasons, there has always been a cultural divide between older football fans and older soccer fans. The younger generations don’t care. Gulas, who is 31, is a diehard, lifelong Alabama football fan.

At Legion FC games, the crazy fans like Gulas are just as much a part of the show as the team on the field. They wave flags throughout the match, and have streamers at the ready for goals. The streamers went unused until last Saturday.

Despite outshooting their opponents 15-4, including 10-1 in the second half, it appeared like Legion FC was going to go another maddening home game without scoring a goal. The team even wore their road-white uniforms to, maybe, change the home-field luck. Yet, nothing.

Then, in dramatic fashion, Legion FC scored, finally, with less than a minute left in its game against Loudoun United FC of Leesburg, Va.

LADIES & GENTLEMEN, PROSPER KASIM WITH THE GAME WINNER!



His goal gives Legion FC it's first win at home in club history #HammerDown pic.twitter.com/e3kKxAswZL — Birmingham Legion FC (@bhmlegion) April 28, 2019

The goal, a game-winner, came in extra time — the 94th minute of a 94-minute match. The game was a mad scramble at that point, and a shot deflection found the left foot of Legion FC forward Prosper Kasim. He buried it in the back of the net, and then all hell broke loose.

The stadium exploded in mad celebration — The first goal! For a game-winner! At the death! — and the members of the Magic City Brigade collectively lost their glorious minds. Some jumped the fence. Others rushed to join. Pretty much everyone forgot to the throw the streamers.

Kasim, the goal scorer, didn’t celebrate his team’s first home goal in club history with his teammates. No, he ripped his road-white jersey off Brandi Chastain-style — indeed, he was wearing what looked like a black sports bra — and ran 80 yards at a dead sprint to the loyal supporters’ group. He jumped into the arms of Gulas, the Magic City Brigade’s colorful master of ceremonies. The rest of the team joined him.

“It was just a massive release of energy,” Gulas said. “If that goal comes in the first half, I don’t react the same way, and I don’t think everyone else does. It was very much a perfect storm for the time and place and scoreline. It was so great that it came for a win, it finally came at home, and just the reaction of everybody was just a giant blur for me.”

Why did Kasim celebrate with the fans instead of his teammates?

“I wanted to celebrate with the fans first because they’ve waited so long for that joy, for that moment,” Kasim said. “It was perfect.”

And all the good people, who had waited so long, were covered in locally brewed beer.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.