With their backs against the wall, the Riverhounds embark on a crucial two-game road trip to climb back into the Eastern Conference playoff spots.
On Saturday, the Hounds return to the site of their last playoff triumph, Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama, where they will face Birmingham Legion FC for the first time this year.
A missed opportunity to finish off a 2-2 draw with Colorado Springs last Saturday with a win leaves the Hounds five points off the top eight, but Birmingham – the only team the Hounds have played twice in their last nine games – are just seven points ahead of the Hounds in fifth place.
This gives Saturday’s competition additional significance.
Although the Hounds are unbeaten in their last seven games, they need to pick up between four and six points on this away tour to stay within striking distance of the play-offs.
The Hounds’ last two away games at Protective Stadium ended in draws.
Robbie Mertz scored the equalizer to make it 1-1 in the opening game of the 2023 season, and Edward Kizza’s two goals – one in regulation time and one in overtime – made it 2-2 in the 2022 Eastern Conference quarterfinals before the Hounds advanced on penalties.
Pittsburgh enters this contest with a mostly healthy roster and no one appears on the injured list.
A closer look: Birmingham Legion FC
The Legion has been in the USL Championship since 2018 and, as a consistent postseason team, always seems to fluctuate between places 4 and 6 in the table.
Led by one of the few coaches in the USL Championship who, while a little older, belongs to the same generation of ’80s and early ’90s soccer players as the Hounds’ Bob Lilley, Legion FC coach Tom Soehn has been a fixture in the U.S. soccer world for nearly four decades.
This season has been no exception to Legion FC’s status in the Eastern Conference. They are good but can still overtake Louisville, Tampa Bay and Charleston and are currently in fifth place after suffering a tough 1-0 loss at home to Detroit City FC last week.
After this defeat, Soehn did not sugarcoat anything and said immediately afterwards that this was his club’s worst performance this season and that a tough video session and a week of training would follow.
As Legion FC looks to turn things around and get back on track, Soehn has liked the response he’s seen at training over the past few days, but he’s now urging his players to maintain the same motivation when the lights are on and the home crowd is watching.
“You can see they’ve become more combative, but that should have been clear last Friday,” Soehn said. “As a team, we’re still looking for answers, but we can’t turn back, we can’t look forward and not do that again by correcting the mistakes we made. It’s time to get going and make sure we’re ready for Pittsburgh.”
There are many familiar faces on the Hounds’ roster. Stéfano Pinho leads Birmingham with six goals, while veteran playmaker Enzo Martinez and former Hounds winger Tyler Pasher have each scored four goals this season and have both caused the Hounds problems over the years. As you may recall, Pasher began his career in Pittsburgh’s 2015 USL Championship, as part of one of the Hounds’ all-time highest-scoring teams.
And still in goal is the venerable Matt Van Oekel,
This is how Birmingham played against Detroit last week (0-1 defeat)
Duels to watch and expected Hounds team
The Hounds have finally started scoring goals again, but defensive errors in the final stages let them down in a 2-2 draw with Colorado Springs last week.
The Hounds started the last game in Birmingham in a 4-2-3-1 formation, which at times evolved into a 5-3-1-1 (or 5-3-2). Their main focus on Birmingham’s large pitch was to keep the ball, use the width and limit Birmingham’s potentially explosive attack.
With two games left against Birmingham, it should be another close and hard-fought game and most likely it could be very physical, as has been the case with meetings between these clubs in recent years.
The concern with the Hounds is that they are a team that has spent most of the season trying to catch up. They have often played desperately, expending a ton of energy in every game to stay ahead, and have been vulnerable to costly defensive lapses a few times. That happened against Colorado Springs. That also happened in their last loss to Monterey Bay FC in early July.
Lilley and the players know they can’t afford to make any more mistakes going forward. With the season so far advanced, with nine games still to play, there are unlikely to be any surprises in the team’s line-up.
They will also face an equally desperate club hoping to make a comeback, so things are likely to get heated on the pitch as these two teams have plenty of experienced players.
Expected starting eleven
- GK – Eric Dick
- Winger/OB (L) – Junior Etou
- CB – Luke Biasi
- CB – Sean Suber
- CB – Pat Hogan
- Winger/OB (R) – Langston Blackstock
- CMF – Jackson Walti
- CMF – Danny Griffin
- AMF – Robbie Mertz
- F – Edward Kizza
- F – Emmanuel Johnson
Banking options:
- GK – Gabe Perrotta, Jacob Randolph
- D – Illal Osumanu, Jake Kent-Loop, Pierre Cayet, Dani Rovira
- MF – Kenardo Forbes, Aiden O’Toole, Bradley Sample, Nate Dragasich
- F – Babacar Diene, Enoch Mushagalusa, Kazaiah Sterling
Game information
Riverhounds (6-9-10) vs Birmingham Legion FC (10-9-5)
Date: Saturday, August 24
Time: 19:30
Location: Protective Stadium, Birmingham, Alabama.
Odds: Hounds +175 / Draw +220 / Birmingham +145
TV: KDKA+
Streaming: ESPN+
Live statistics: USL Championship Game Center
Live updates: @RiverhoundsSC on Twitter
Match hashtags: #BHMvPIT and #HOUNDTAHN
