A scoreless tie to end a series of three games in eight days, like the one the Pittsburgh Riverhounds had at Highmark Stadium on Saturday night, may seem like an acceptable result under most circumstances.
Mainly because they were the stronger team statistically. But facing a San Antonio FC team that had only one away win all year was a missed opportunity not to win, even if it did extend the Hounds’ winning streak to six games.
Close calls and those that elude them have been a constant theme for the Hounds in 2024, and with ten games to go they still have no chance of making the playoffs.
The Hounds (6-9-9) are in 10th place and three points behind Loudoun, which holds the final playoff spot in the USL Championship Eastern Conference.
Overall, Hounds coach Bob Lilley was pleased with his team’s performance during the short break, but once again his team was unable to score. It is the 13th game this season in which the Hounds failed to score.
“I’m proud of our guys, but we need to step it up a gear,” said Hounds coach Bob Lilley. “We came out full steam ahead, got them behind us, put pressure on them and created a lot of chances. We didn’t score a goal, but we had to keep that up for the rest of the half and into the second half. We lost the last 15 to 20 minutes of the first half and the game was tied.”
“In the second half we played more in their half and there were positive aspects to our game, but we had no urgency until the last 15 minutes. There was a 50-minute gap in the middle of the game where we needed to be more productive.”
Saturday’s result was the sixth time this season that the Hounds have played a game that ended in a goalless draw, having not conceded a single goal in three games in eight days.
The Hounds spent most of the second half trying to bring down San Antonio, which played with 10 players behind the ball most of the time.
In the last five minutes before injury time, Edward Kizza’s header went wide and Junior Etou shot just over the bar from 20 meters.
“I was a little shocked that (San Antonio) didn’t come out and try in the second half, but I thought we passed the ball back and forth well and got them moving a little bit,” Hounds defender Pat Hogan said. “We just couldn’t find a clear chance to finish or get a man free in the box. We had one or two runners and they had five or six in the box. It’s a numbers game. You have to have more people in the box if you want to have a better chance of scoring.”
San Antonio’s Jake LaCava suffered a serious leg injury in a physical play in the first minute of the second half. LaCava was carried off the field on a stretcher.
The delay resulted in eight minutes of stoppage time at the end of the game. The Hounds managed several corners in stoppage time but didn’t have many good scoring opportunities. Their best chance came when Kenardo Forbes put a header over the bar.
The tie prevented Lilley from achieving his 400th win as a professional coach, and the Hounds will look to give him that win again next Saturday when they host Colorado Springs.
