WHO: Pittsburgh Riverhounds, 0-2-1, 2 points, 14th place Eastern Conference
WHAT: A regular season USL Championship match
WHEN: Saturday, April 6, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Louisville Slugger Field, 401 E. Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202
WATCH: At the match! It’s gonna be a nice night! But if you can’t, watch it on TV on WBKI-58, listen on 790 KRD, or stream it on ESPN+.
MARCH:
PRE-MATCH TAILGATE
Join us and the Lou City Tailgaters for all your pre-match festivity needs! Tailgating typically starts around four (4) hours prior to kickoff but you may find a few die-hards out there earlier. The tailgate is supporter run and supporter funded. We recommend BYOB and food contributions. If you do partake we ask that you contribute to the general fund. The main tailgate is located at the corner of N Preston St and E Witherspoon St in the Riverside Parking Cobalt Lot. The Coopers are joined here by several other SGs, so come say hello to everyone!PRE-MATCH MARCH
About 30-40 minutes prior to kickoff we’ll start the March to the Match. Join us as we march around the tailgate lot, up Preston St, and into the east entrance. Flags will be waving, smoke will be popping, and we’ll be chanting and singing the whole way!
POST-MATCH CELEBRATION
After the match concludes, we have beers at Against the Grain which is conveniently located right outside the Slugger Field gate. Make sure you ask for a pint of the Coopers rotating charity tap! $0.50 from every pour (on home match days) goes to Shirley’s Way, a most excellent local charity helping families of those afflicted with cancer.
WHO, AGAIN? The Hounds might be the only other team in the East whose season has started out even further below expectations than LouCity’s. Despite adding some more former Rhinos in Duba Dos Santos and Christian Volesky, Bob Lilley’s charges have only managed two points through three games. To be fair, it’s not because they aren’t scoring, putting in multiple goals their last two games. The problem has been their uncharacteristically porous defense, allowing two goals per game so far.
Porous is probably a bit unfair. The Hounds are an excellent tackling team, 76%. They win 63% of their balls in the air.
But offensively, they’re still definitely a Lilley team. 42% of their passes go forward, which a) is a lot, and b) is the sign of a standard Hounds Route One attack. They don’t possess the ball all that much. They don’t try to serve the ball in from wide areas. It seems like the idea is to try and get Duba Dos Santos the ball steaming toward goal and hoping for the best.
But it’s not working all that great. Duba’s only got four shots all season. Defender Joe Greenspan leads the team in shots with just six through four games.
They’re still dangerous, of course. Kenardo Forbes is still a top-notch central midfielder. Neco Brett is crafty. Duba is a Mack truck. And Pittsburgh’s defensive, counter-attacking style is basically tailor made for scoring goals on Louisville City, who have struggled more defending the counter this season than ever before.
As for City, Hackworth needs to find an answer at right back. Paolo’s absence in the middle of the park has been noticeable, too. Four games in and Morados still haven’t really established an identity in my view. Sure, it’s still very early in the season, but our boys in purple sometimes still seem to be stuck in the starting gate.
Pittsburgh games always tend to be tight affairs, and this one promises to be the same. It’ll take complete concentration and mental toughness to get three points. It’s a great opportunity to start a trend in that direction. Let’s go do it.
VAMOS MORADOS, VAMOS A GANAR
