Player Ratings: Birmingham Legion 1-1 Louisville City

What a difference a week makes. After a very poor showing against Loudoun United a limping Legion squad showed up big time against Eastern Conference powerhouse Louisville City to earn a much-deserved draw. A double-game week coming up but let’s review their performances Sunday.

GK: MATT VAN OEKEL – 9. MVO was left out to dry on the Lou City goal, but made his presence felt in a masterful way otherwise. 5 official saves; the stadium scoreboard (which is almost always wrong) credited him with 7 and in this case the board may have been right. A Man of the Match outing.

LB: RAMIZ HAMOUDA – 6.5. Ramiz is already on two yellow cards and was the player caught too far upfield on Manny Perez’ goal but was generally pretty good. Again. 2 clearances, 1 tackle, 1 interception and 5 for 10 in duels. He also created a scoring chance.

CB: ETHAN KOS – 7. Called into the starting lineup to cover for the injured Phanuel Kavita, Ethan is not exactly the looming presence that Phanny presents. He got the job done though. 1 tackle, 5 clearances and 2 interceptions and 2 of 5 in duels. He was also accurate on 24 of 26 passes. He was in the box on Legion corners but they all sailed over his head.

CB: JAKE RUFE – 7. Mr. Jack of All Trades shifted to a centerback position this week as a necessity. No goal this week although he was far enough upfield to get caught offside once. 1 tackle and a whopping 9 clearances. 2 of 7 duels.

RB: STEPHEN TURNBULL – 8. Another new face on the Legion back line, Stephen was huge in defense and fairly impactful in attack too. 1 tackle, get this: 11 clearances, and 1 block. He won 8 of 10 duels. Passing was mediocre at 64% accuracy on 25 tries, but he had 1 shot blocked, sent in two crosses, hitting his target once and was credited with 1 scoring chance.

DM: ENZO MARTINEZ – 6.5. Back from his red card suspension the Three Sparks’ talisman took all of 10 minutes to pick up another card – just a yellow this time. It did not slow him down of course. He was key in defense, making 3 tackles and 4 clearances, one of which was from well behind MVO. 2 shots – wildly off target – and 1 unsuccessful cross.

LW: DAWSON MCCARTNEY – 7. Dawson is fast becoming a major part of the Legion game plan. He is fast, has good ball control and is not afraid to get stuck in. His one shot went off frame but he created 2 chances and sent in two unsuccessful crosses. Passing was OK at 75% on 24 attempts.

LM: ROMAN TORRES – 7.5. Another week, another free kick, another assist. He keeps this up Minnesota is not getting him back. No shots, but 2 scoring chances created and 5 crosses launched (only the free kick was good). Louisville tried to get past him but he also won 11 of his 13 duels. Impressive. Spoiled it a bit with a yellow card.

RM: KOBE HERNANDEZ-FOSTER – 7. Kobe was rather more visible this week than last but was still not the most obvious contributor to either defense or attack .Still, good on 1 of 4 crosses and 2 scoring chances created. Passing was very accurate, finding his man 35 times in 40 tries. Only 1 duel – which he lost – but that means he was being avoided.

RW: PRESTON TABORT ETAKA – 7. The left-footed Preston is more or less a fixture on the right wing now and he seems to be getting the hang of off-foot crossing. He attempted 5 of them and hit the target once. He also had 3 shots, 2 being on target (the only ones other than the goal). And as for his footwork…

FWD: RONALDO DAMUS – 7. Ronaldo put his evident frustration from last week behind him and did what strikers are supposed to do. He scored the Legion’s tying goal and had two more attempts go wide. His best chance though for the go-ahead goal ended up with him tripping over the ball. Them’s the breaks.

SUB: MOSES MENSAH – 7. Moses came on in the 67^th minute for Roman, which looked very much like the Legion was settling for the draw (it really wasn’t the case). He logged 1 tackle and 2 clearances and was perfect on 4 passes.

SUB: LUCCA DOURADO – N/A. Lucca came on for Preston in second-half stoppage time for no real apparent reason and was unable to do anything in very short time.

HC: TOMMY SOEHN – 7. Tommy’s team was much more cohesive this week despite the injury issues (which can, ironically, be a strong motivator). The 4-1-4-1 was far more successful tactically than last week’s confused formations. A well-designed and executed game plan.