Danny Trejo Takes Charge as Legion FC Secures Jagermeister Cup Win

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USL Birmingham Legion FC

Danny Trejo Takes Charge as Legion FC Secures Jagermeister Cup Win

April 27, 2025 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Birmingham Legion FC News Release


Birmingham Legion FC vs. Chattanooga Red Wolves SC
Birmingham Legion FC vs. Chattanooga Red Wolves SC
(Birmingham Legion FC)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - With Tyler Pasher celebrating a birthday on Sunday, his Birmingham Legion FC teammates figured a victory in the club's first ever USL Jagermeister Cup match would be the perfect present for the newly-minted 31-year-old forward. So after a 3-1 victory over Chattanooga Red Wolves SC, the natural response was for the rest of the team to serenade Pasher on what was truly a special afternoon at Protective Stadium.

"Now, I get to go home and just relax with the family and enjoy the rest of the day," Pasher chuckled afterwards. "Everybody's in a good mood because it's exciting when the team can come together and put together a strong performance collectively like that."

A goal within the first 10 minutes from forward Danny Trejo set the tone and second half goals in quick succession, following a Chattanooga red card, from Preston Tabort Etaka and Ronaldo Damus locked up the result as Legion FC secured three points in Group 3 of the in-season tournament.

"This game was a full team effort," said interim head coach Eric Avila. "We're going after a trophy so we wanted to go after this game and establish ourselves. It was just a good team win and we're very happy."

Sunday's contest was nearly Birmingham's first clean sheet across all competitions in 2025, If not for a late stoppage-time goal from Chattanooga's Eric Kinzner. However, the result was dominant nonetheless with the three goals tying a team-high as Legion FC fired off six shots on target to Chattanooga's one.

Additionally, Legion FC controlled the pace of the contest from the opening whistle, finishing the match with 69.2% of the possession and completing 85.2% of its 520 total passes.

Trejo, who will also be celebrating a birthday on Tuesday, found himself in the middle of a lot of positive actions with an assist to go along with the early goal.

"I came to Birmingham Legion because I want to help this team win," Trejo explained. "I want to put this team where it deserves to be and my goal is to everyday show up with those expectations. Injuries slowed that down a little bit, but I'm starting to feel like me again."

Trejo's first goal of 2025 began with a short corner, as the ball worked its way to Enzo Martinez at the top of the box. The veteran midfielder then quickly played a ball to Jake Rufe with his back to goal, his shot was blocked and so was Damus' follow-up, but third time was the charm for Trejo who blasted his shot into the back of the net.

"Our coaching staff always points out how important set pieces are," said Trejo. "It's important to be locked in during those moments. It's a mentality and we have to keep it up."

Trejo bookended Legion FC's scoring output in the 79th minute by playing a perfect backline-splitting ball that freed up Damus for the forward's fifth goal across all competitions. That occurred just eight minutes after Preston Tabort Etaka capped off a beautiful build up to make it 2-0.

Already plentiful for much of the afternoon, the space really opened up for Legion FC following a hard challenge from Red Wolves SC midfielder Michael Knapp on Kobe Hernandez-Foster drew a red card in the 65th minute, forcing Chattanooga to play down a man for the remainder of the match.

"It just gave us more opportunity, but the mentality (to attack) stayed the same," said Pasher. "We knew it was something we had to take advantage of."

The two teams combined for seven total bookings with each side tallying three yellow cards in addition to Knapp's red.

"The whole week, we knew they were going to come in a be aggressive," Avila explained. "We knew what to expect and the message today was not to match their intensity but set our own intensity, but also understand that they were going to try and make things chaotic, but we needed to stick to our gameplan and we did."

Defender Phanuel Kavita made his return to the Birmingham starting lineup and played 45 minutes after not playing since March 8. Goalkeeper Fernando Delgado got the start in goal for Legion FC and was involved in Tabort Etaka's goal with a long diagonal pass to Moses Mensah, who sprung Martinez.

It was Delgado's first action in goal since he started on March 19 in the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

BOX SCORE

USL JAGERMEISTER CUP | GROUP 3 1ST HALF 2ND HALF FINAL

CHATTANOOGA RED WOLVES SC (0W-1L-0D | 0 PTS) 0 1 1

BIRMINGHAM LEGION FC (1W-0L-0D | 3 PTS) 1 2 3

LINEUPS

CHA: Jerez - GK, Kinzner, Watters, Green (Tapia 72$B!l(B), Ayimbila, Knapp, Ualefi - C (Wessels 84$B!l(B), Ramos (Lelin 84$B!l(B), Vazquez (Hernandez 58$B!l(B), Bentley (Alhassan 72$B!l(B)

BHM: Delgado - GK, Rufe, Kavita (Suarez 45$B!l(B), Hamouda, Mensah, Martinez - C (Torres 84$B!l(B), Hernandez-Foster, Pasher (McIllhatton 84$B!l(B), Trejo (Calloway 88$B!l(B), Tregarthen (Tabort Etaka 61$B!l(B), Damus

GOALS

CHA: Kinzner 90+4$B!l(B

BHM: Trejo 10$B!l(B; Tabort Etaka 71$B!l(B; Damus 79$B!l(B

DISCIPLINE

CHA: Jerez (Yellow) 32$B!l(B; Watters (Yellow) 63$B!l(B; Knapp (Red) 65$B!l(B; Hernandez (Yellow) 86$B!l(B

BHM: Damus (Yellow) 42$B!l(B; Delgado (Yellow) 86$B!l(B; Hamouda (Yellow) 90+2$B!l(B

NEXT UP

With the USL Jagermeister Cup having started off nicely, Legion FC jumps back into USL Championship play as it heads on the road to take on the Tampa Bay Rowdies at Al Lang Stadium on May 3. The Black and Gold then return to Protective Stadium on Wednesday March 14 to host last season's Eastern Conference champion Rhode Island FC.

Birmingham's next match in the Jagermeister Cup is on May 31 when it travels to face fellow USL-C side FC Tulsa.

Check out the Birmingham Legion FC Statistics




Images from this story

Birmingham Legion FC congratulate Danny Trejo
Birmingham Legion FC congratulate Danny Trejo
 Birmingham Legion FC vs. Chattanooga Red Wolves SC
Birmingham Legion FC vs. Chattanooga Red Wolves SC
  

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