The Birmingham Legion’s progress toward becoming a playoff contender in the USL Championship starts with former New England Revolution defender and head coach Jay Heaps (Longmeadow, Mass.), who was named team president in January 2018.
Heaps hired Tom Soehn, his former assistant with the Revolution, as head coach and Khano Smith, his former Revolution teammate, as an assistant. They then added several ex-Revolution players: Femi Hollinger-Janzen, Daigo Kobayashi and goalkeeper Trevor Spangenberg. Current first-teamers – midfielder Zach Herivaux (Brookline, Mass.) and forward Brian Wright (Vermont) – are also there on loan. Another local is defender Tyler Turner (Milford, Conn.).
The team’s recent rally – the Legion will take a five-game (4-0-1) unbeaten streak and 465-minute shutout streak into Saturday’s game against Memphis 901 – has been sparked by recent additions of midfielder Anderson Asiedu, winger Eddie Opoku (Millbrook School), defender Akeem Ward and forward JJ Williams. They all started the 2019 season with MLS teams.
