June 17, 2024 – United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC News Release
PITTSBURGH – The Hounds and Highmark Stadium will be in the national spotlight Wednesday night, but the team couldn’t have drawn a tougher opponent with USL Championship-leading Louisville City FC coming to town.
The match will be shown live on CBS Sports Network, making this the Hounds’ first national TV home game in four years. It will be the first with the crowd rocking at Highmark Stadium rocking in even longer, as that 2020 match against Indy Eleven was played in a nearly empty stadium due to that season’s pandemic restrictions.
But to get a winning result in front of the eyes of the nation will take better finishing than the Hounds have shown of late with just one goal in the past four matches. Saturday’s loss at Hartford saw Kazaiah Sterling and Emmanuel Johnson hit the post on each side of halftime, as the Hounds continue to rank in the top half of the league in expected goals (xG) but have been snakebitten on the final touch.
The Hounds have been better at home, going 2-1-2 in their past five league matches. Even the one loss in that stretch – falling 2-1 to Indy Eleven on June 1 in their most recent home outing – was a match in which the Hounds had the better of possession and set a season high in shots and shots on goal, but they were punished by two defensive lapses.
Louisville, meanwhile, was flying high with eight matches unbeaten until Saturday, when the Tampa Bay Rowdies handed them only their second defeat of the season, 3-2.
Despite the loss, Louisville remains three points clear of Charleston atop the league, and they’re doing so with a +24 goal difference fueled by an attack on record-setting pace with 39 goals in only 14 matches. Wilson Harris leads Louisville with 10 goals on the season, and Ray Serrano sits behind him with five, but what’s most remarkable is the team’s balance, as they have 10 players with multiple goals so far this season.
Another Kenardo Forbes milestone is likely to occur Wednesday, as the Hounds’ veteran is poised to equal the USL Championship record for most career appearances. Forbes’ next regular-season match will be his 277th in the league, matching the total set by former Harrisburg, Charlotte and Tampa Bay midfielder Yann Ekra.
Heat will be a factor in the game, with both teams on short rest and temperatures expected to be in the low 90s at kickoff time. How that affects each team’s lineup selection will be…