March 9, 2023 – United Soccer League Championship (USL) – Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC News Release
The 2023 USL Championship season is only days away, and in the weeks leading up to the present, this year’s Riverhounds roster has gone from a solid starting core to a fully formed squad ready to push for a spot near the top of the Eastern Conference.
The sixth season under head coach Bob Lilley and assistant coach Dan Visser will feature a team that, like most years, has an even balance of new blood and familiar faces. While questions loom each year about offseason departures, it’s worth noting that this year’s team returns 10 players from a season ago. That is only one player fewer than the 11 who returned to the 2022 team, which was the highest retention rate in Lilley’s tenure.
Entering this week, the team had 21 players announced under contract, which does leave a little room for a final two or three pieces to be added. With that in mind, we scan through this year’s lineup as it stands and take a closer look at this year’s Hounds.
Jahmali Waite returns for a second year after getting 21 starts in league play in 2022.
Goalkeepers
For just the second time in Lilley’s time in Pittsburgh, the Hounds have an incumbent starter in second-year pro and newly capped Jamaican international Jahmali Waite. Waite made his first big splash last year with some acrobatics in the team’s extra-time cup loss at FC Cincinnati, and as the season rolled on, he gradually assumed the No. 1 role.
His 9-6-6 record with seven clean sheets and 1.00 goals-against average in 21 USL matches were strong numbers. If one statistic lagged, it was a save percentage of just .618, but Waite has a chance to make a leap forward as a shot stopper with another year of experience and the advice of new goalkeepers coach Jon Busch, a former MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, to lean upon.
Busch has a young goalkeeper room to work with, as Waite is joined by two rookies, Christian Garner and Jonathan Gomes.
Garner started in two of the NCAA’s toughest conferences in a career that took him to Boston College and Northwestern, while Gomes was dominant in his final year at the Division II level with Mercyhurst. As no season under Lilley has seen fewer than five starts go to the No. 2 goalkeeper, history says there will be opportunities for one or both to shine.
Arturo Ordóñez prepares to defend a set piece against Louisville in preseason.
Defenders
The deepest position in terms of returning players is the back…