After a first half with plenty of back-and-forth action, Pittsburgh Riverhounds fans didn’t have a whole lot to get excited about in the second period of play. Watching a ball sent out of Highmark Stadium and into the Monongahela River was the loudest and most enthused the crowd got Saturday night.
The Riverhounds had a chance to snap a five-game winless skid and move up in the USL Eastern Conference Standings with a rematch against the Tampa Bay Rowdies, but they laid an egg defensively, falling 5-2 for their first loss at home this season and just their second loss after scoring the first goal.
“It’s clear we made a lot of fundamental mistakes on the goals that we gave up,” Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley said. “A lot of basic stuff and multiple errors on some of those that obviously we’ve been doing more frequently, and today it seemed like an avalanche of mistakes on the defensive side of the ball.”
At the very least, those in attendance got to see Tampa Bay’s Leo Fernandes put on a show. Playing with a 3-1 lead in the 58th minute, Fernandes took a long pass up the field, chipped it over a Riverhounds defender and laced a shot between two opponents, off of the right goalpost and into the net for his second goal of the night. The solo effort could easily find itself on SportsCenter’s Top 10 this week, and it effectively sucked all hope of a comeback out of the Hounds.
Pittsburgh did, however, come away with the first goal of the night early in the 13th minute after Arturo Ordoñez finished a beautiful cross from Russell Cicerone, the first professional goal of his career. Scoring first was an important note for Lilley, who wanted to see his team more aggressive on the attacking end this week.
“Hopefully that turns into more consistent goal scoring, but there’s no doubt we got to get it right on both ends,” Lilley said. “And tonight, we were woefully short, especially on the defensive side of things.”
The Rowdies answered just two minutes after the opening score, as Kyle Greig snuck in behind the Pittsburgh defense, softly lofting a shot past goalkeeper Kevin Silva. Tampa Bay had its way in Pittsburgh’s backline most of the night, especially with high passes deep in scoring range.
Fernandes’ first goal of the evening came in the 20th minute, making it a 2-1 lead as Silva fell down and was beaten to his left side. Tampa Bay scored once more late in the first half thanks to Jake LaCava and twice in the second half, on Fernandes’ highlight and Lucky Mkosana’s first goal of the year.
Pittsburgh’s Russell Cicerone scored in the 76th minute for his fifth goal of the season, but it was too little, too late.
The Riverhounds, now winless in six games, head back on the road next weekend. Lilley did find at least a couple of positives in Saturday’s showing, saying his team played better than it had been.
“We came out to try to win the game. We clearly had intention at the start of the game, which we hadn’t had for the last couple. I’m not being dismissive of the challenges in front of us. … But I saw some confidence to go after Tampa right at the start of the game.
“Even giving up three goals and being down 3-1, I saw [us] start the second half with urgency, and I felt like we created some really good moments in those first 10-15 minutes of the second half before they scored.”
Max Ralph: mralph@post-gazette.com.
First Published: June 26, 2022, 1:09 a.m.
Updated: June 26, 2022, 2:50 a.m.
