About an hour ago
It was another close game, but for the second time this season the Riverhounds dropped a close match to Indy Eleven on Saturday, courtesy of a Tyler Pasher goal.
It was a game where the Riverhounds controlled the possession and won the shot battle, but failed to convert a penalty kick and take advantage of playing a man-up for 40 minutes. It resulted in their third loss of the season and a salty taste in their mouth heading into another busy week.
The Riverhounds (4-3) will travel to Leesburg, Va. on Tuesday to get ready for their first matchup of the season with Group F opponent Loudoun United (1-3-1). They’ll then return home Saturday to face off with St. Louis FC (4-3-1) for their third game in a week.
Pittsburgh coach Bob Lilley met with the media Monday via Zoom to discuss the loss in Indianapolis, the week ahead, and the return of a few players who could help the Riverhounds down the stretch.
Loss at Lucas Oil
In the 13th minute of their contest Saturday, Pasher received a pass down the right wing behind Pittsburgh’s defense. The Canadian forward took a touch around Pittsburgh keeper Tomas Gomez and finished the sequence for his eighth goal of the season.
Despite the early goal, the Riverhounds couldn’t quite take advantage of the time they had remaining in the game and Lilley believed they could have been more creative in their attack to get around the Indy defense and capitalize on an opportunity.
“If you’re down a goal, I don’t think you wait till the second half, or till you get a penalty or a red card; to me we were down early enough that we needed to be more aggressive as a team,” Lilley said. “Indy is not easy to breakdown, they are a good defensive team similar to ourselves, but that decisiveness, that energy to go forward, we get ourselves in trouble when we don’t bring that to the table.”
After seven games, the Hounds are almost at the midway point of the season. They are six points ahead of New York Red Bulls II for second place in Group F, which would mean a playoff appearance. They also still have three matchups with first-place Hartford Athletic ahead of them. Because of the situation, Lilley says this week will be important.
“We’re in OK position but obviously we want to try and win our division,” Lilley said. “Hartford is not making it easy; they are continuing to get results. Fortunately, we have some games coming up against them so we can have some say in the matter. But we have to take care of the other games as well to stay in the hunt in our division.”
Keeping fresh legs
At this point in the season, during a busy week, the Riverhounds will face challenges outside of their opponent. Fatigue and stamina are two of them. For players such as Robbie Mertz, Kenardo Forbes, Ryan James and Jordan Dover, who have played more than 600 minutes this season at a position that requires constant movement, that can be difficult.
Heading into a week where they play two more games, Lilley touched on exactly how difficult that can be given the importance of the two games ahead of them.
“They are so critical that if they are healthy, they are going to play a lot of minutes through this stretch,” Lilley said. “But it’s important because not all of our players are comfortable playing three games in a really tight window. I think those guys have the fitness base and they are important to the group to have them on the field in moments.”
Getting an opportunity
Given the stretch of three games in seven days, Lilley touched on the possibility of players being given an opportunity against Loudoun later this week.
“Having some new players introduced against Loudoun, I think that’s important,” Lilley said. “They’ll bring energy. There are guys that are chomping at the bit, waiting for their opportunities that maybe haven’t started a lot of games and now they’ll get a chance. It will be important for those guys to step up and do their part.”
Throughout the season, players such as Lukas Fernandes, Anthony Velarde, Mark Forrest and Dani Rovira have earned spot starts. In their first matchup with Indy, Rovira shut down Pasher for most of the game, but didn’t get off the bench Saturday against Indy.
As the Riverhounds get set for their matchup with Loudoun, which has mustered only four points this season, a spark from the bench could prove fruitful to Pittsburgh’s season.
Increasing the depth
Since the restart to the season, the Riverhounds have been waiting for the arrival of Patrick Bunk-Andersen and Albert Dikwa.
Both players were dealing with immigration issues up until this past week, and Lilley said their problems have been resolved. The longtime coach said Bunk-Andersen arrived in Pittsburgh on Sunday and Dikwa is set to receive his passport later this week and should arrive in Pittsburgh in the coming weeks.
Dikwa, a forward from Cameroon, and Bunk-Andersen, a defender from Denmark, will give the Riverhounds more depth on both ends of the field once they are able to get in shape and go through all of the testing required.
The Riverhounds also had Mark Lindstrom play about 17 minutes Saturday as he took the field for the first time this season after suffering an injury during preseason of the restart.
Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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