Birmingham Legion FC plays its first home playoff game at 5 p.m. on Sunday at Protective Stadium.

Hammer Down, as they say.

And hammer the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, too.

Legion has a team that can make a deep run in the USL Championship playoffs, and I think they can do it. It all starts with a victory at home, though. Time to pack out Protective Stadium, and get loud for a club that has fought through so much to bring this game to Birmingham.

“We’ve worked so hard for this moment,” Legion forward Prosper Kasim said. “Our hard work is finally paying. We’ve come so far.”

Kasim is the fan favorite who has been with the team since its first season in 2019. The Ghanaian grew up in one of the most notorious slums in West Africa, but he has made a name for himself in Birmingham. He’s so humble, though. Kasim still didn’t have a car this season because he sends so much money home to his parents. He scored the first goal in club history back in 2019, and last week at Protective Stadium it was Kasim’s effort that clinched Legion’s first-ever home playoff game.

It came down to the last game of the regular season. Legion needed a victory to finish fourth in the USL Championship Eastern Division standings. Kasim assisted on the first goal and then scored the second. It would eventually stand up as the game-winner in Legion’s 3-1 victory against Indianapolis club Indy 11. With the win, Legion earned the right to bring the postseason to Birmingham.

I love the story of Birmingham Legion FC. How can you not? Nothing is given to these guys. It’s an endearing club, and enduring. This grassroots team started with nothing, and has built a consistent winner despite some challenging circumstances along the way. It’s impressive how Legion has grown since its first season, and the team has earned my respect with how it always rises above one cosmic twist after another.

Seriously, Legion’s journey to this point makes Ted Lasso’s club across the pond seem lucky by comparison. But all Legion does is win. That’s the mark of a great pro team.

It was Pittsburgh that Legion was supposed to play last year in its first-ever home playoff game, but it was canceled suddenly after some of Pittsburgh’s players tested positive for COVID-19. Such a let down. Legion then went on the road for the conference semifinals and lost 1-0 to the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

“This home playoff game is so great because we’re still building our brand,” Legion coach Tommy Soehn said.

What’s the Legion brand? For me, the club has come to stand for resiliency, professionalism and great soccer. Everything this club does is first class. The attention to detail is there and it shows through the ability of Soehn and president Jay Heaps to attract top talent. Just look at the roster management this season.

What was the turning point for Legion that led to this moment of history for Birmingham? It was the pick up of MLS standout Juan Agudelo, who joined Legion on March 31, and began transforming the offense for the benefit of players like Enzo Martinez, Prosper Kasim and Marlon Santos.

Agudelo came to Birmingham because he knew Legion had a reputation for developing players and doing things the right way.

A great holding forward, Agudelo is like a center in basketball. The ball finds him, and then he finds his teammates to create offense and scoring opportunities. Martinez finished the regular season with a club-high 15 goals. Santos, the Brazilian in his first season in Birmingham, scored nine. Kasim takes eight goals into the playoffs.

Agudelo, who has seven goals this season, is the type of leader who makes everyone around him better, and that’s the kind of player needed for a strong run in the postseason. Agudelo has played internationally for the USMNT, and he brought that level of talent to Birmingham’s cause. This team is a group of fighters, going 8-6-3 on the road in 2022. Louisville City FC, which finished first in the East, only won one more away game than Legion.

Birmingham split with the Riverhounds this season, losing 1-0 at Pittsburgh and then scoring some revenge at home with a 2-1 win on Sept.14. It was a key victory, considering how the standings in the East finished on the final weekend of the season. Legion (17-10-7) took the fourth spot, earning the home playoff game, thanks to 58 points on the season. Pittsburgh (16-9-9) had 57 points.

“Jay and Tommy have done a great job of building this team,” said defender Mikey Lopez, another fan favorite who has been with Birmingham since the beginning. “And it’s only going to get better.”

The expansion season for Birmingham was 2019, and Legion has made the playoffs every season. That’s rare, and the sign of a first-class franchise. But look at what Legion has had to deal with along the way.

In 2020, the pandemic hit a couple days before the beginning of the season. In 2021, huge amounts of rain — and Year Two of the pandemic — kept fans away. This year, Legion moved to Protective Stadium, but the majority of home games were on Wednesday nights because of the USFL. On top of that, World Games 2022 sent Legion on the road for more than a month.

Through it all, the soccer team in Birmingham has been nothing but a winner. It has invested in quality players and developed them. Abroad, Legion has gained quick respect from the American and international soccer communities. At home, the club started an academy system to help develop young players in Birmingham and Alabama.

In Charlotte, Louisville, Nashville and Atlanta, they pack stadiums for their beloved pro soccer teams. Memphis announced on Tuesday that it’s building a soccer specific stadium for Memphis 901 FC, Legion’s rival. The stadium will seat 10,000. In Birmingham? Well, can’t say the home team isn’t trying its best and doing its part.

When it comes to Legion, sometimes I don’t think Birmingham fully appreciates what it has representing the city. Legion is a fully independent club in the USL Championship, which means it’s not a farm team for a club in Major League Soccer. Legion is Birmingham’s team, in other words, and no one else’s. It’s not tied to anything, and that’s what the local ownership group wanted for the city.

It’s a chance to grow.

Birmingham recently sold out Legacy Arena for a preseason exhibition basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Atlanta Hawks. Yeah, Birmingham is a great basketball town, but an NBA franchise isn’t coming to this city. Know why? Because the Pelicans put a G-League team here to own the market.

Legion is the homegrown team, and its spirit reflects the city. These are blue-collar guys. You run into them at the dog park. Their kids go to local schools. The club is invested in Birmingham and the success of the city.

Think of Legion this way, and use this for perspective when considering Birmingham’s hometown soccer club. For now, Birmingham plays in the second division of American soccer, but in a way the team is run more like a quality European club than any of the teams in Major League Soccer.

Legion is independent, and is making it on its own. All the teams in Major League Soccer are owned by MLS. The players sign contracts not with their individual teams, but with MLS. Birmingham Legion FC is of Birmingham and by Birmingham and for Birmingham.

Those are the Three Sparks of self-determination, and Vulcan’s Hit Men are taking aim at history on behalf of their city.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.